BYOD set to drive extra security on consumer mobile devices
According to research group Gartner consumers are unwilling to pay for security products on their mobile devices. But thanks to BYOD and the need to protect corporate data it believes security providers have an opportunity to get their products onto more devices.
Gartner predicts that by 2015, 30 percent of the criteria for consumer product selection will be based on requirements to secure mobile computing platforms. It urges product managers to expand their endpoint security to cover all popular mobile devices as well as traditional PC systems.
Run only trusted programs on your PC with SecureAPlus
Most antivirus tools try to keep you safe by identifying malware before it can do any harm. In principle this sounds like a good idea, but in practice it requires a lot of work to scan your files and monitor process behavior. And even then, it’ll often fail when confronted with brand new, previously undiscovered threats.
SecureAPlus takes a different approach. While it does include a basic antivirus engine, the core technology here is application whitelisting, which means only trusted programs are allowed to run automatically. If something unknown is launched then you’ll be alerted right away, and the program won’t be executed until you provide your express permission.
The Pirate Bay celebrates tenth anniversary with censorship busting PirateBrowser
Reaching double figures is a big landmark in anyone's life, and it's no different for the Pirate Bay. The website that the authorities love to hate, and ISPs are forced to block, is celebrating its tenth anniversary. Rather than munching on cake, washed down with a few sodas, the torrent site is marking the occasion by releasing its own web browser -- imaginatively named PirateBrowser.
Announced via Twitter, the browser is essentially a customized Firefox installation and it will come as little surprise that it has been tweaked to bypass restrictions that prevent people from accessing the site. The browser is currently available for Windows -- although Linux and Mac versions are in the pipeline -- and it comes complete with a bundled Tor client and proxy tools.
Linux gets hit by a trojan -- it's time to sudo apt-get scared!
When evangelists pontificate the benefits of Linux, the topic of security always comes up. A big selling point of Linux-based operating systems are that they are generally immune to viruses, trojans and malware. However, this is a falsehood -- no OS is 100 percent safe when it comes to these things. According to security company RSA, a team of Russian cyber-criminals have developed a trojan, named "Hand of Thief", which targets Linux.
The security company explains that the trojan is "designed to steal information from machines running the Linux OS. This malware is currently offered for sale in closed cybercrime communities for $2,000 USD (€1,500 EUR) with free updates. The current functionality includes form grabbers and backdoor capabilities, however, it's expected that the Trojan will have a new suite of web injections and graduate to become full-blown banking malware in the very near future. At that point, the price is expected to rise to $3,000 USD (€2,250 EUR), plus a hefty $550 per major version release".
Did Edward Snowden cause the shutdown of secure email service Lavabit?
Privacy has been a red hot topic for the past couple of months -- ever since the whole PRISM story hit the news, or shall I say slammed into the news. Nobody likely denies the government the right to attempt to keep citizens safe. In fact, we expect this from it. However the revelations made many uncomfortable thanks to the extremes that were being taken, and resulted in the conversation over whether Edward Snowden was a hero or enemy of the state.
Since the news broke, speculation about the form of communication used between Snowden and writer Glenn Greenwald of The Guardian has been running around the internet, but today those rumors came to an end when Greenwald tweeted this: "Amazing: Lavabit -- the email service used by Snowden -- shuts down rather than comply with US orders".
Google Play store flooded with scam apps
The Google Play store is being bombarded with apps designed to scam unsuspecting users, according to consumer advice platform Scambook.
The scammers aren't even bothering to write malicious code, instead relying on simple human error to install their fraudulent apps. One app in particular has no purpose other than to launch a link to an adult video website. When the user is then asked to register, an email form is generated linking to another service on another website. Users are then asked to pay a $3,200.00 yearly fee within days of receipt.
Is cyber insurance AAA for data or another back door?
A few days ago I promised "tomorrow" a column about the future of data security. Then, just as the electrons were flowing on that DefCon column, I bought on eBay a 1978 GMC Royale motorhome in Bismarck, North Dakota that Channing and I have been trying to bring home ever since. We’ve so far broken down in Fargo, North Dakota (air suspension leak) and Brookings, South Dakota (ignition failure), but are now back on the road headed for California. We met Rick, the tow truck driver who used to be a rodeo bull rider, and Wayne Westerberg, the RV mechanic who gave up his Friday night to get us back on the road. Try Googling Wayne’s name for a surreal component to this adventure, which I’m sure is far from being over.
Back to data security. That DefCon column was about the simple days of hacking and cracking 20 years ago -- a time when the only person really making money from data security on the consumer side was probably John McAfee. So much has changed since then. Today billions are lost and stolen through thefts of both data and financial instruments. Data theft is being viewed as a military problem and the term cyber warfare is rampant (more about that in part three of this series, which I’ll write during our next breakdown). What we know for sure is that we can’t go home again: vulnerability will be part of the game as long as we as a culture choose to interact and do business online.
SharePoint isn't why Snowden breached the NSA -- lax security is
In what can be called nothing less than a clever use of well-planted deflection, the head of the NSA, General Keith Alexander, recently let loose that the NSA relies heavily on Microsoft SharePoint for its data sharing needs. Or, more accurately, he decided to namedrop on SharePoint to allude to a mistaken notion that the inherent use of SharePoint was the reason why the NSA got breached by Edward Snowden recently.
The information was first picked up by The Register after the General was caught making the admission at a recently broadcast cyber security forum (which can be viewed on YouTube in its entirety). He described of Snowden: "This leaker was a sysadmin who was trusted with moving the information to actually make sure that the right information was on the SharePoint servers that NSA Hawaii needed".
Spybot promises better performance, smoother installation
Safer Networking has announced the release of Spybot -- Search & Destroy 2.1 SR2, a minor update to its popular malware-cleaning tool. Spybot S&D comes into two flavors -- a free-for-personal use edition that concentrates on anti-spyware protection, or various paid-for versions that come with extra anti-virus protection plus additional tools.
Version 2.1 SR2 comes with few visible changes and no new features, but it does respond to user feedback in tweaking the default Internet Protection settings to provide better performance, although what security compromises have been made to achieve this aren’t made clear.
NSS Labs unveils new threat modeling and forecasting services
Information security research specialist NSS Labs uses a workshop at the BlackHat USA conference today to announce new threat modeling and forecasting services to help clients better understand how they're at risk.
These new services use data from NSS's research and from its BaitNET real-time monitoring technology to deliver information about exploit and malware trends.
The origins of DefCon
This week we have the DefCon 20 and Black Hat computer security conferences in Las Vegas -- reasons enough for me to do 2-3 columns about computer security. These columns will be heading in a direction I don’t think you expect, but first please indulge my look back at the origin of these two conferences, which were started by the same guy, Jeff Moss, known 20 years ago as The Dark Tangent. Computer criminals and vigilantes today topple companies and governments, but 20 years ago it was just kids, or seemed to be. I should know, because I was there -- the only reporter to attend Def Con 1.
In those days there were no independent computer security research organizations. There were hackers, or more appropriately crackers, as they were known.
Bitdefender Safepay aims to make web browsing more secure
Renowned security expert Bitdefender has officially launched its free secure web browser for Windows users. Bitdefender Safepay 1.9 comes with the promise of a "secure hacker-proof browser", aimed at providing users with a secure tool for online banking and e-shopping.
Safepay also offers a free security audit for your PC, and offers users a paid-for upgrade whereby free Wi-Fi hotspot protection is offered to provide safe, encrypted connections even when using open, non-encrypted hotspots.
The root of the problem -- is there a need for elevated privileges on Android?
Playing with root-friendly apps was one of my favorite activities whilst being an Android user. There was something that I can't quite put my finger on -- be it the empowering feeling that I got or the endless possibilities that were available at my disposal -- that attracted me towards having elevated privileges on the green droid operating system.
I would run my Android smartphone with an overclocked processor (and, even GPU) -- which I enjoyed, as it made everything faster -- but, through root, also gained access to some other features, such as the ability to change color profiles, access system-level files and create and restore backups. These are all things that one can't do when running an untouched version of Android. Undeniably, as you can see, rooting has its perks.
Lock up your data ecommerce companies are warned
According to Imperva's recent Web Application Attack Report most applications have suffered attacks four or more times per month whilst some are under almost constant attack. In addition retail sites suffer twice the number of SQL injection attacks compared to other industries.
The report also finds that the US tops the list globally as the source of web-based attacks.
Kaspersky tops real world protection test
Independent testing organisation AV-Comparatives has released the results of its real world protection test for March to June 2013. The tests use each security suite on its default settings and live URLs that point to malware executables along with drive-by exploits.
Using a total of 1,972 test cases over the four month period the results show that all of the major security packages offer high levels of protection. Bitdefender and Kaspersky top the charts with 99.9 percent protection levels, F-Secure also manages 99.9 but ranks slightly lower as it relied on user interaction to block three of the threats.
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