Instant Messaging
Instant Messaging
Instant messaging requires the use of a client program that hooks up an instant messaging service and differs from e-mail in that conversations are then able to happen in realtime. Most services offer a presence information feature, indicating whether people on one's list of contacts are currently online and available to chat. This may be called a 'Buddy List'.
In early instant messaging programs, each letter appeared as it was typed, and when letters were deleted to correct typos this was also seen in real time. This made it more like a telephone conversation than exchanging letters. In modern instant messaging programs, the other party in the conversation generally only sees each line of text right after a new line is started. Most instant messaging applications also include the ability to set a status message, roughly analogous to the message on a telephone answering machine.
Popular instant messaging services on the public Internet include Qnext, MSN Messenger, AOL Instant Messenger, Yahoo! Messenger, Skype, Google Talk, .NET Messenger Service, Jabber, QQ, iChat and ICQ. These services owe many ideas to an older (and still popular) online chat medium known as Internet Relay Chat (IRC).
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Instant Messaging Related Product Families
Instant Messaging Related Industry News
Global weapon to fight child net porn Police forces around the globe will soon be using software developed in Britain as part of the worldwide fight against child pornography.
It is part of an initiative from the Foreign and Commonwealth Office to tackle pornography in Eastern Europe and South East Asia, where much of the indecent imagery of children comes from.
SurfControl, based in Cheshire, originally developed its filtering software to aid UK police in the investigation of online chi......
[more] EU anti-spam laws are OK It's just over a month since new anti-spam legislation was introduced into the UK with almost universal condemnation that the new laws would have a limited effect in the fight against junk email. The Ł5,000 fine for offenders has been branded by some experts as an "inadequate deterrent". And even those who've welcomed the new legislation - which is part of an EU-wide directive - doubt it will have any real impact on combating spam.
For although there is one EU anti-s......
[more] Adware ploy dupes IMers with bin Laden 'news' Beware of instant messages bearing news of Osama bin Laden's capture Several victims told CNET News.com on Wednesday that a new Trojan horse advertising program, called BuddyLinks, masquerades as a news Web site with a story on the al-Qaida leader's capture in an attempt to fool users of America Online's instant-messaging program into downloading software and receiving advertising.
Although the software has some of the properties of an Internet w......
[more] Will IM be the next security culprit? Might instant messaging become the next preferred propagation method for computer worms and viruses? It's not such a remote prospect. The past year has witnessed the rise of several high-impact worms and viruses that shared three common transmission media: e-mail, network scanning or file sharing. While good patch policies and strong security postures minimized massive infections, a few attacks invariably slipped through the cracks and caused network havoc.......
[more] Bizex worm attacks ICQ A new instant messaging worm dubbed "Bizex" is making the rounds, targeting ICQ users with invitations to visit a site that can install malicious code on the target computer. Russian anti-virus company Kaspersky Labs Ltd. issued a warning about the virus Thursday, terming it an "epidemic" and estimating that 50,000 PCs worldwide have been affected. But a Symantec Corp. security researcher said his company has seen only a handful of Bizex infections and ranks the virus's t......
[more] Top Three Security Problems Remain Despite Increased Spending Companies turn to managed Service providers for help; desktops dominate security budgets as patches average $234 per machine. Expect security spending to get a boost at many companies, says The Yankee Group after surveying surveyed 404 "decision makers" at medium-to-large companies.
Half of respondents see security budgets increasing over the next three years; only eight percent see it decreasing. Also, half of all respondents sh......
[more] Red alert over worst internet virus Computer users are facing the worst virus outbreak yet. Experts have warned that a stream of new bugs could bring the internet to a standstill within days.
Mailboxes across the country are already reaching bursting point, with some users receiving thousands of infected emails.
"It's going to be mad March and could get a lot worse," one expert warned.
Hundred of British businesses have already found their email servers clogged up.
In the last......
[more] Illegal file-sharing still 'widespread' on UK corporate networks UK firms are still allowing widespread illegal peer-to-peer (P2P) file-sharing on their corporate networks despite the threat of legal action from record companies and the security risk it poses.
The findings are revealed in a survey of 500 UK IT managers and HR officers by web and email filtering software company SurfControl.
Two-thirds of those surveyed claim their organisation takes P2P file-sharing seriously. But when......
[more] Spam being rapidly outpaced by 'spim' While the torrent of unsolicited spam emails continues to rise, it is being far outpaced by the surge in unwanted messages sent to the users of instant messaging programs, analysts have warned.
The volume of so-called "spim" is set triple in 2004, according to a new report from the Radicati Group, a technology market research firm in Palo Alto, California.
The company projects that 1.2 billion spims will be sent, 70 per cent of which are porn-related.......
[more] IM spam to triple in 2004 Spam sent via instant messaging (IM) is set to become a major nuisance in 2004, with the number of IM spam messages tripling from 400 million to 1.2 billion, according to research firm the Radicati Group.
The increase in IM spam, also referred to as "spim", will come about due to much greater use of IM among businesses and a rapid increase in published IM names in corporate and public directories, Radicati said in a report.
The overall business IM market will gro......
[more] National Cyber Security Day is a well-kept secret U.S. residents adjusting to the daylight savings time change will have to be forgiven for sleeping through much of National Cyber Security Day on Sunday. The semi-annual event passed with nary a mention, even as antivirus software companies warned customers of yet another virulent e-mail worm.
A spokesman for the National Cyber Security Alliance, a government-industry group that sponsors the event said the group is doing a good job of commun......
[more] IM spam piling up, researchers say Spam sent via instant messaging is set to become a major nuisance this year, with the number of such messages tripling from 400 million to 1.2 billion, according to research firm The Radicati Group.
The increase in IM spam, also called spim, will come about because of greater use of IM among businesses and a rapid increase in published IM names in corporate and public directories, a Radicati report says.
The number of business IM users more than double......
[more] UK firms must monitor staff IMs UK firms could be falling foul of corporate accountability regulations by failing to track and archive instant messaging (IM) conversations among workers.
Only 22 per cent of medium-to-large UK organisations monitor IM and just nine per cent say they archive IM data, according to a survey of European IT directors commissioned by storage vendor Hitachi Data Systems.
IM was originally intended as a consumer tool but it has also caught on big time in the workp......
[more] ITU to hold spam summit Telcos and ISPs invited to tackle growing menace of junk email The world's leading telcos and internet service providers will gather in Geneva next month to discuss the development of an anti-spam framework.
The International Telecommunication Union (ITU) will serve as a forum for governments, regulators and consumer groups.
Because spam is a potential threat to digital services and a "significant and growing problem for users, networks and the internet as a whole......
[more] IM Worms Could Spread In Seconds Enterprises whose workers use one of the free public instant messaging networks -- the likes of America Online's, Yahoo's, or Microsoft's -- risk malicious attacks that could make the quick-spreading Sasser worm look like a worn-out snail, said a security analyst Friday. "In instant messaging, we have a lot of the same security issues as in e-mail and networks," said Eric Chien, a senior researcher with Symantec's security response team. "Attacks can come in as......
[more] Instant-messaging virus costs a man his job A virus can transmit previous IM conversations to a user's buddy list without his or her consent - and with disastrous consequences Virus attacks are not yet frequent on instant-messaging applications, but the latest threat is likely to send a shiver down the spine of all IM users. A businessman whose computer had been infected by a virus found that his entire buddy list had been sent a record of all his IM conversations, said Derek O'Carroll, managing......
[more] Messaging pact to can the spam Spam free instant messaging for business is a step closer after Microsoft, America Online and Yahoo agreed to make their systems compatible. 'In much the same way that email significantly changed today's business landscape, instant messaging is becoming just as ubiquitous in organisations,' said Anoop Gupta, a Microsoft vice president.
Instant messaging across the different platforms will become available using Microsoft's Live Communications Server 2005, whi......
[more] Hunt for XP SP2 flaws in full swing While users are testing Service Pack 2 (SP2) for Windows XP to prevent compatibility problems, hackers are picking apart the security-focused software update looking for vulnerabilities, security experts said.
"We will see new vulnerabilities discovered in SP2 over the next few weeks. Give it a month or two and we will also see worms that affect SP2," said Thor Larholm, senior security researcher at PivX Solutions, a security services company.
Service Pac......
[more] Yahoo Plugs PNG Security Hole Yahoo Inc. has issued a security update to its popular instant messaging service to fix broader vulnerabilities in an advanced graphics format.
Late on Tuesday, Yahoo posted a security update for its Windows version of Yahoo Messenger to fix a series of vulnerabilities in the PNG (portable network graphics) library, or libpng. The library provides a set of graphics routines for PNG files; PNG is an alternative graphics format to GIF.
The PNG library holes, as pre......
[more] New Download.Ject Attack Hits IM Networks The Download.Ject malware attack has resurfaced, using the popular AIM and ICQ instant messaging networks to spread itself.
According to an alert from PivX Labs, the worm targets several known flaws in Microsoft's Internet Explorer (IE) browser to redirect compromised machines to Web sites displaying adult advertisement and referral links.
PivX Labs described the latest attack as a variant of the Download.Ject attack, which hijacked a large number of......
[more] Instant messaging cements popularity IM use has spread strongly into the workplace, according to statistics from America Online The use of instant messaging in the workplace and from mobile devices continues to grow, according to an America Online survey released on Tuesday. Nearly 27 percent of all IM users surveyed said they use instant messaging at work. This represents an increase of 71 percent over last year, AOL said.Seventy percent of those who use IM at work do so to communicate with col......
[more] Security concerns put MSN Messenger beta on hold Microsoft has suspended the beta testing of the next version of its MSN Messenger client because of a potential security problem, a company spokeswoman said Wednesday. Testers discovered a potential security issue in the early version of MSN Messenger 7 shortly after Microsoft made the instant messaging client available to a select group of testers over the weekend, according to postings on MSN Messenger enthusiast Web site Mess.be.
The problem l......
[more] Find the Web's Worst Security Flaws The SANS Institute identifies the top 20 Internet vulnerabilities of the year. IT security and research organization The SANS Institute is releasing its annual Top 20 list of Internet security vulnerabilities this week, with the intention of offering organizations at least a starting point for addressing critical issues.
"When you tell your systems people to test for thousands of vulnerabilities, your enterprise comes to a stop. What the Top 20 does is give y......
[more] Hackers can launch attacks over IM Hackers have created a 'proof-of-concept' instant messaging tool that can scan and disable networks Security experts have discovered an instant messaging tool that could change the way denial-of-service (DoS) attacks are performed.
Combining the open-source tool nmap -- a program that discovers devices on a network -- with an IM bot, hackers can infiltrate, steal information and carry out denial-of-service attacks on networks, says the director of security for......
[more] 1st lawsuit filed against instant-message spam The first known lawsuit against instant-message spam, sometimes called “spim,” was announced by America Online as part of a campaign to stem unwanted computer messages.
AOL, a unit of Time Warner and a major provider of real-time instant-messaging, said it targeted 20 “John Doe” defendants in the first lawsuits against instant-message spam. The announcement came as part of a series of lawsuits against unwanted e-mail messages, or spam, by AOL and......
[more] Why messaging needs controls Only the most ostrich-like businesses can continue to ignore instant messaging According to analyst firm Meta Group, more than half of people who use instant messaging (IM) tools at work use them for non-work reasons. Yup, Meta found that 57 percent of respondents used IM at work for social reasons, while 56 percent use it at home for business reasons.
Straightaway, I interrupted the conversation with my friends over IM to see whether they agreed. After much debate......
[more] Google Stumbles With New Desktop Tool Google wants to help you effectively access the piles of information you store in the documents, e-mail messages, Web pages, and contact lists stuffed on your PC. And who better to help you than the most popular search engine on the Net, right? Not so fast.
Though it lacks a few features, the beta version of Google Desktop Search does give the same satisfying results for your PC that Google.com provides for the Web. But as it's designed now, GDS also deliv......
[more] A guide to proactive network security Behind our daily barrage of hacker attacks, announcements of new viruses and worms, and frequent risk of downtime is an opportunity. This is your opportunity to step away from the noise, for a moment, and take steps to build a more proactive network security model for your organization.
Countermeasures like firewalls or anti-anything (antivirus, anti-spam, anti-spyware, etc.) are all reactive security tools. They are necessary countermeasures and a part of......
[more] Companies at risk from instant messaging abuse Two-thirds of organisations have no IM policies in place The majority of global businesses have still not implemented management systems to protect against the potentially serious legal, security and compliance risks associated with employee use of instant messaging (IM).
According to a newly published poll of nearly 300 companies, 60 per cent of respondents stated that they do not have any measures in place to manage employee IM use.
In addition,......
[more] MS mulls charging for anti-spyware app Microsoft is leaving its options open on charging for full versions of anti-spyware and virus disinfection tools. Speaking in London yesterday, Detlef Eckert, chief security adviser for Microsoft EMEA, revealed there will be a second beta of Microsoft Windows AntiSpyware application. However, the company remains unsure how the product will evolve from then on. "It could evolve into a consumer or enterprise product. There could be a basic and plus version,"......
[more] IM still a security weak spot, analysts warn The recent flaw plugged by Microsoft in its MSN Messenger software highlights a serious security threat to enterprise security, analysts said. Last Friday, Microsoft forced its millions of MSN Messenger users to download a new version of the software to plug a security vulnerability.
The software giant put the mandatory upgrade in place after a security company posted information that might help a would-be attacker exploit the vulnerability. Users o......
[more] Industry unites against IM spam Days after the first arrest for instant-messaging spam, an innovative software product has been launched to help counter the menace of 'spim' Back in December, instant-messaging (IM) management company IMLogic partnered with security companies McAfee and Sybari (recently acquired by Microsoft) to build IMLogic's Threat Center, which aims to protect users from peer-to-peer and IM threats, such as viruses, worms, spim and malicious code. The centre monitors honeypot......
[more] Worm Chatter Escalates on MSN Messenger Anti-virus vendors report an increased chatter of virus activity on Microsoft Corp.'s Microsoft Network messenger Sunday night through Monday. In what appears to be a concentrated attack on users of the MSN instant messaging client, security experts warn that several new worms with unique replication techniques have been launched alongside mutants of the known Bropia virus family.
"We are regularly adding detection for new Bropia worm variants," F-Secure......
[more] Possible Domain Poisoning Underway Security experts late Friday warned that a DNS cache poisoning attack may be underway and redirecting users from some of the most popular Web sites to a malicious URL where spyware and adware is invisibly installed onto their computers. According to the Internet Storm Center, which posted an alert on its Web site, it had received reports that the attack was redirecting traffic from popular domains such as google.com, ebay.com, and weather.com.
DNS cache pois......
[more] Email worm graduates to IM The Chod.B worm is now spreading over Microsoft's instant-messaging service, after first being observed spreading over email systems last week A worm that first disguised itself as an email from computer vendors now attempts to trick MSN Messenger users into executing malicious files.The Chod.B worm, which was first discovered on April Fool's day, spreads via email purportedly from Microsoft, or security vendors Symantec and Trend Micro.When using MSN Messenger as its......
[more] Worm attack forces Reuters IM offline Reuters has shut down its instant messaging system after suffering an onslaught from a new Kelvir worm, the company confirmed Thursday. The London-based international media company decided to take its Reuters Messaging system completely offline after noticing the attack on its network earlier on Thursday, a Reuters representative said.
The new variant attempted to spread by sending fake instant messages to people in contact lists on infected systems, a te......
[more] Blog at your own risk Blogs are getting popular with hackers too, so be careful whose blog you wander into Blog authors open up their lives to you on their web logs. But surf to the wrong blog, and you could be opening up your computer to a hacker.
A recent report by web security firm Websense warned that hackers are now using blog sites as gateways into computers of surfers who are tricked into clicking on a link to them.
These hacker-maintained websites contain malicious codes, such as Troja......
[more] Websense: Surfing the Web at Work May Be as Addictive as Cup of Coffee Websense, the world’s leading provider of employee internet management solutions, today announced the results of its sixth annual Web@Work study, the company’s annual survey conducted by Harris Interactive. From February 21 to February 28, 2005, 354 U.S. IT decision-makers who work for organizations with at least 100 employees were interviewed online, and from February 28 to March 21, 2005, 500 U.S. employees who have intern......
[more] UK workers in IM flirt, gossip, bitchfest The increasing use of Instant Messaging (IM) in the workplace is exposing UK companies to fresh security and legal threats, a study out Monday claims. One in six (16 per cent) of 2,000 UK consumers quizzed in a YouGov survey admitted using IM at work to send or receive sensitive company information or documents. A quarter of respondents (25 per cent) used IM to gossip about work colleagues - twice as many men than women use IM for this purpose. Four in......
[more] Nearly half of IT decision makers say employees have 'fallen for the phish' Websense maker of employee Internet management solutions, has announced the results of its Phishing Trends study, which is part of the company's annual Web@Work survey conducted by Harris Interactive. And the survey suggests phishing Web sites remain difficult to identify and many companies are not well protected against phishing attacks.
According to Websense's 2005 Phishing Trends Survey, only one-third (33 per cent)......
[more] Hack attack danger soars in 2005 Security experts have warned of a substantial rise in the number and complexity of hacking attacks during the first half of 2005.
According to research commissioned by carrier AT&T, the volume of traditional email attachment viruses has fallen, but the speed at which new variants are appearing is increasing.
Other threats like phishing and spyware are also on the increase, the study warned.
"We have seen more attacks in the past six months than we have in......
[more] Hotmail threatened by MSN flaw A cross-scripting security hole allowed malicious hackers to steal cookies from Hotmail users and get access to their accounts Microsoft took part of its MSN Web site offline over the weekend, after it learned of a flaw that could let an attacker gain access to Hotmail accounts, the company said.
The MSN Web site, http://ilovemessenger.msn.com/, contained a so-called cross-site scripting flaw, a Microsoft representative said on Monday. In its initial review of th......
[more] Yahoo rings up VoIP purchase Yahoo has acquired DialPad Communications, a six-year-old startup whose software sets up calls over the Internet for a fraction of the price of regular telephone service.
No financial terms of the deal were announced.
Yahoo said it will use DialPad to expand its product offerings in the fast-growing area of Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP).
DialPad has 40 employees and competes with several other startups that route calls from computers into the phone system......
[more] It is the employer not the employee who is the weakest link in a company's IT security SurfControl has today announced the results of a new UK survey that uncovers an alarming level of complacency by employers when it comes to combating spyware in the workplace. The poll found that 21.3 percent of all respondents' employers did not prohibit the use of Instant Messaging to contact friends, Web-based email, recreational surfing, downloading free software, personal online banking, storing personal......
[more] Male Workers Responsible for Spyware Surge Men at work are more likely to use their PCs to introduce spyware and other threats on to their company networks than female employees, according to SurfControl. A SurfControl survey of 300 men and women showed that male workers consistently made more regular use of the online facilities and PC technologies that often act as the source of malicious threats.
Office workers were asked how frequently they made use of personal Instant Messaging and Web-ba......
[more] PCs Have 50-50 Shot At Infection In Just 12 Minutes The number of new viruses, worms, and Trojans are up nearly 60 percent in the first half of 2005, a security researcher says. The number of new viruses, worms, and Trojans are up nearly 60 percent in the first half of 2005, a U.K.-based security company said Wednesday, while the length of time an unprotected PC survives on the Internet has shrunk to a measly dozen minutes.
Sophos reported that it had pinpointed 7,944 new pieces of malicious so......
[more] Security Firm Warns of IM Worm Less than a week after sounding the warning bell regarding a barrage of threats coming through public Instant Messaging (IM) clients, Akonix Security Center said it has discovered another bug.
The latest IM spyware worm, is named Chode-D, is moving rapidly over leading public IM networks, the security center said. The worm has been classified as a "medium risk."
The firm said it is using its IM malware, SPIM and protocol update system, which automatically push......
[more] Aladdin: 15 percent of spyware used to commit computer crimes Aladdin Knowledge Systems, which specializes in information security solutions, published worrying results yesterday on spyware research it had conducted indicating a high level of serious computer crimes, spying and information theft.
The spyware phenomenon grabbed numerous headlines in June after reports that many companies, including several high-profile ones, were suspected of spying on competitors. Suspected companies included......
[more] SurfControl's Internet Threat Database Exceeds 12 Million URLs SurfControl Adds One Million New Websites in the Past 30 Days, Driven by the Ongoing Explosion in Blended Internet Attacks SurfControl, a world leader in enterprise threat protection, today announced the Company's Internet Threat Database -- a core component of SurfControl's Adaptive Threat Intelligence(TM) Service -- has grown to more than 12 million URLs. SurfControl has added more than one million new URLs over the past 30 days.......
[more] Aladdin Study Uncovers Increase In Crime-Related Spyware Aladdin Knowledge Systems, the worldwide leader in Software Digital Rights Management (DRM) and USB-based authentication solutions, and a leading innovator in enterprise secure content management, today announced that the Aladdin eSafe Content Security Response Team (CSRT) conducted a two-month analysis of the top 2,000 known spyware threats.
The Aladdin eSafe CSRT study found that a staggering 15 percent of spyware threats actually ste......
[more] Firefox advocacy site hacked again Attackers sought to exploit a bug in the TWiki collaboration software For the second time in three months, a security breach has shut down the marketing Web site used to promote the Firefox browser. Late Monday, members of the Spread Firefox community were notified that their Spreadfirefox.com site had been hit by attackers looking to exploit a bug in the TWiki collaboration software, which had been running on the server.
The Mozilla Foundation does not belie......
[more] Businesses sending one billion IMs per day And that's just the ones your boss knows about Instant messaging is the new email for the world's businesses - it's official.
According to a new report from analyst house IDC, IM is now a standard piece of the corporate communication toolkit, with around one billion IMs sent every day between 28 million enterprise users.
Consequently, the analysts are predicting that the value of the enterprise IM market will continue to increase for at least the next......
[more] Hackers to attack VoIP in two years Hackers will attack voice over IP (VoIP) telephone conversations with spam and malicious code within two years, equipment manufacturer Nortel has claimed.
Companies using VoIP and other multimedia services, such as videoconferencing, should plan to defend against unsolicited adverts appearing mid-conversation, the company said.
Atul Bhatnager, VP of enterprise networks, said: "VoIP attacks are still at an early stage but as hackers become more savvy you'll......
[more] P2P Attacks Up; IM Hits Down IM security solutions provider Akonix Systems said its research team tracked 22 new attacks on Peer-to-Peer networks in October, a 19 percent increase over September.
The attacks on networks such as eDonkey and Kazaa came at the same time the Akonix Security Center tracked a decrease in attacks on Instant Messaging networks during the same time frame.
Don Montgomery, vice president of marketing at Akonix Systems, said October marked the first month that P2P attac......
[more] IM attacks rocket 1,500 percent The volume of security threats targeting instant messaging (IM) systems rocketed in October 2005 by more than 1,500 percent versus October 2004. The month's threat volume was also 30 percent higher than the previous month, new research has warned. According to the report from IMlogic Threat Center, as the number of threats grew, the payload carried by IM worms evolved to become more malicious. More than 60 percent of the worms identified in October delivered malw......
[more] Hackers Change Course According to the SANS 2005 Top 20 list of the most critical Internet security vulnerabilities, application programs are the thing of hackers' dreams.
In particular, the SANS report noted that backup applications are being increasingly targeted and now hold the No. 1 spot on the "Vulnerabilities in Cross-Platform Applications" listing.
Alan Paller, director of research for the SANS Institute, said that the vulnerabilities mentioned in the top 20 report are widespread an......
[more] 2006: Year of the Hacker? "I've worked with viruses for 15 years and things have been getting progressively worse," said Mikko Hypponen, Chief Research Officer at computer security firm F-Secure. "This year is going to be bad." Computer hackers sought to create havoc on the Web last week by launching two attacks targeting Microsoft Windows users -- one circulating a virus disguised as the company's instant messenger client, the other exploiting a previously unknown flaw in its operating system.......
[more] Microsoft Readies Two-Way Firewall for Vista Administrator-run firewall expected to be 'highly configurable.' For its upcoming Windows Vista operating system, Microsoft is readying a new, highly configurable firewall designed to give administrators much greater control over which applications can run on the systems they manage.
After just over a month of testing by users of Microsoft's Community Technology Preview (CTP), the firewall is "very much on track" to be in the final Vista release sche......
[more] New year brings fresh security fears Everybody knows that the pace of change in the technology world is relentless and that today's hi-tech hotshot can be tomorrow's also ran. Change also happens quickly in hi-tech crime circles. What was a popular technique or target one month may fall out of favour quickly.
In 2005 the increasing speed with which computer security firms react to new strains of viruses, spyware and other malicious programs was motivating tech-savvy criminals to find fresh wa......
[more] Akonix Named 2006 'Hot Company' by Info Security Products Guide Akonix Systems, Inc., the leading provider of enterprise-class solutions for ensuring security and compliance for employee use of instant messaging (IM), today announced it was the winner of 'Hot Companies 2006' award from Info Security Products Guide, the world's leading publication on security-related products and technologies published from Silicon Valley, USA. After evaluating more than 600 global security organizations, a team......
[more] Akonix Security Center Tracks 18 IM Network Attacks in January 2006 Akonix Systems, a provider of instant messaging (IM) security solutions, announced that its Security Center team tracked 18 attacks against IM networks in January. The company said that while this figure is a 500% increase from last January's assessment, it is however, a decrease of 45% from December 2005.
The Akonix Security Center also found 22 new threats on peer-to-peer (P2P) networks in January.
Akonix said that January......
[more] Manage & Secure Instant Messaging Akonix L7 Enterprise 4.3 Helps Companies With IM Compliance, Access Instant messaging has taken off as a popular method for people to use to “talk” in real time via the computer. From its origins as Internet Relay Chat and then the advent of ICQ and AOL Instant Messenger, instant messaging, or IM, has taken the world by storm.
It didn’t take long for users to bring their new communications tool into the workplace. Initially, it was purely for nonproductive pu......
[more] Sophos Makes First Foray into Email Appliances Anti-virus software vendor Sophos Plc is to take a first step into the appliance market with an email security device that guards against virus, spam and policy abuse. The new general-purpose ES4000 unit is said to be the first in a planned series of appliance launches, with separate versions targeted at the needs of small businesses and big business slated to follow. A combined web security and instant messaging appliance is also on the cards.
"Th......
[more] Virus attacking Apple Macintosh PCs found-experts A malicious computer worm has been found that targets Apple Computer Inc.'s Mac OS X operating system, believed to be the first such virus aimed specifically at the Mac platform.
The worm is called OSX/Leap-A, according to a posting on the Web site of antivirus software company Sophos, which said the worm is spread via instant messaging programs.
The worm attempts to spread via Apple's iChat instant messaging program, which is compatible with......
[more] AOL developing workplace version of AIM America Online is developing a version of its instant messaging (IM) service for workplace use, an attempt to give the consumer-oriented AIM the security, collaboration and IT management features businesses require, company plans to announce this week. Developed with online meeting specialist WebEx Communications, the new AIM Pro will become available in this year's second quarter. Pricing details haven't been finalized, but it will probably be offered on......
[more] Five Differences Your Company Can’t Afford to Ignore Akonix Systems announced that its Security Center team tracked 12 attacks against IM networks in the month of February, which saw the first ever IM worm spread via instant messaging on the Apple OS X platform.Akonix said attacks during February seemed to go into hibernation while researchers announced that the recent WMF exploit had been sold underground before security experts could patch the OS.Although the threats to IM networks decreased......
[more] Viruses cause most security breaches The DTI has warned businesses that viruses and spyware are an increasing threat, and recommends they deploy multi-level protection Viruses remain the biggest cyberthreat to businesses, according to a government report to be released soon which will also warn that the threat of spyware is growing, . The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) report into information security breaches found that approximately half of businesses said their worst security incident......
[more] Blue Coat enables organisations to control Skype BlueCoat ProxySG Appliances Protects Skype Users Against Information Leakage, Malware and Unauthorised Bandwidth UseCoat® Systems has announced that its ProxySGTM appliances have the ability to control Skype to protect against information leakage and unauthorised ‘back channel' communications as well as potential future malware. Using ProxySG appliances, organisations can allow or deny access to Skype in total or based on network user n......
[more] U.K. firms under fire for ignoring policy Widespread failure to implement or enforce internet acceptable usage policies (AUPs) is leaving many U.K. companies open to potentially serious IT security breaches, newly published research has claimed. The survey, conducted for network security provider SmoothWall, revealed that seven out of ten companies acknowledged that an AUP is crucial to the security of IT systems, but 38 percent went on to admit that their employees, who should be governed by su......
[more] Websense and Crossbeam Systems Combine Web Security and Unified Threat Management Websense, Inc., a global leader in web security and web filtering productivity software, today announced that they have teamed up with Crossbeam Systems®, Inc., a leader in unified threat management (UTM), to offer customers powerful web security capabilities to mitigate today's web-based threats. Websense® Web Security SuiteTM integrated with Crossbeam appliances offer organisations a comprehensive securi......
[more] Akonix Announces A-Series Instant Messaging Security Products Akonix Systems Inc. has launched its A-Series IM security appliances for enterprise and small- to medium-sized businesses. The new appliances are powered by AkOS, a hardened operating system developed by Akonix for real-time messaging environments.The company has also released version 5.1 of its Akonix L7 Enterprise IM management gateway and Akonix L7 Enforcer, a perimeter security solution that detects and blocks the unauthorized us......
[more] Survey finds that U.K. enterprises suffer costly breaches While the number of breaches has dropped, the costliness has increased The number of security breaches at large U.K. companies dropped by half over the last two years as larger budgets have been allocated to that area, according to a government-commissioned study released Tuesday. However, the incidents that do occur are taking a heavier financial toll. The survey estimated that the cost of security incidents to U.K. businesses is 50 perc......
[more] Akonix updates its instant messaging security tools New appliances from instant messaging security specialist Akonix offer improved monitoring and reporting Instant messaging (IM) security specialist Akonix has launched a major new range of hardware and software, plus a new appliance operating system designed to offer greater protection against IM-based threats and increased manageability for IT administrators.Akonix's A6000 appliance offers enterprises protection from viruses and other IM threa......
[more] IT security more imporant to most U.K. businesses Three-quarters of U.K. businesses rate security as a high or very high priority for their senior management or board of directors, according to the latest government-sponsored survey of breaches in the U.K. released at Infosec London. The study, conducted by a consortium led by PricewaterhouseCoopers, found that British companies are spending more on information security controls than ever: on average four to five percent of their IT bu......
[more] Viruses no longer top security threat Trojans and spyware taking over Early reports of malware distribution in April show that viruses are swiftly declining as a threat in comparison with other malicious software.Separate research from Fortinet and Sophos shows that the top viruses were mainly old timers, and that Trojans and spyware are coming to the fore in their place.Fortinet in particular reported that Adware/BetterInternet was its top threat last month, accounting for nearly one in eight a......
[more] VoIP may be next for archiving regulations IT chiefs were have been warned to prepare for the possibility of new corporate governance rules that would require them to keep records of voice-over-IP (VoIP) conversations alongside email, instant messaging and other forms of communication.Speaking at the Symantec user event in San Francisco last week, Jeremy Burton, a senior vice-president at the security specialist, said, "Financial institutions in the US already need to keep v......
[more] Akonix: Highest Number of Spim and Malware Filter Updates Issued This Year Akonix Systems, the provider of the most deployed instant messaging (IM) security and compliance products in the world, today announced its Security Center team tracked 31 attacks against IM networks in May, the largest number of threats this year. New worms identified in May include Browaf, Kassbot, Nugache and Propmsn. The most common attack was Tilebot, which had five variants of the original virus. Overall, Akonix se......
[more] Phishing scam aimed at MySpace.com A 'phishing' site that harvested the login and credentials of MySpace.com users was removed today from a California server, a security vendor has reported. A phishing attack involves tricking users into visiting a lookalike web page that asks for personal information, which is then sent to a hacker. The rich trove of personal information stored on MySpace user pages is making the social networking site an increasingly attractive target for identity theft, said......
[more] IM attacks on the rise in May The number of Instant Messaging (IM) attacks increased by 500 percent in May, Postini reported this week. The integrated message management firm also stated that it registered a 138 percent increase in corporate IM traffic, a statistic that testifies to the growing use of IM in the business world. "The fact that IM messages more than doubled in just one month shows the rate companies are adopting IM as a mainstream business communications tool," said Andre......
[more] Akonix Attains Gold Certified Partner Status In Microsoft Partner Program Akonix Systems, Inc., the premier provider of instant messaging (IM) management, development and security products, today announced it has attained Gold Certified status in the Microsoft Partner Program with a competency in both Networking Infrastructure Solutions and Security Solutions, recognizing Akonix's expertise and total impact in the technology marketplace. As a Gold Certified Partner, Akonix has demonstrated expe......
[more] Worm appears as Microsoft antipiracy program Security analysts have detected a new piece of malware that appears to run as a Microsoft program used to detect unlicensed versions of its operating system. The malware has been classified as a worm and spreads through AOL's Instant Messenger program, said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant for Sophos, a security vendor. Sophos is calling it W32.Cuebot-K, a new variation in the Cuebot family of malware. The worm has a range of mal......
[more] Hong Kong drafts first anti-spam law Hong Kong is readying its first anti-spam laws, promising fines and long prison terms for serious offenders.The Chinese territory currently has no laws specifically outlawing junk email, and recent surveys looking at the sources of spam have included Hong Kong and China among the worst in the world. The proposed new law appears to threaten companies which knowingly use spammers to market their products if they are based in, or do business in, Hong Kong.......
[more] Microsoft, Yahoo link their online instant messaging systems Yahoo and Microsoft released software that built a bridge between their previously exclusive online instant messaging (IM) systems. The move fulfilled a promise the US Internet titans made late last year and marked the first time rival global messaging service providers arranged to co-mingle members.It also signaled a continued erosion of the walls dividing users of IM and mobile telephone text messaging services, according to lead an......
[more] AOL produces instant messaging for business AOL has launched a new instant messaging application for business users. AIM Pro integrates with Microsoft Outlook, encrypts and scans messages and links to conferencing services from WebEx Communications. Around 14 million people already use AIM as a daily business tool, AOL said, but there have been increasing security concerns about using a consumer tool for confidential business interactions. AIM Pro Professional Edition (PE) hopes to meet these c......
[more] Aladdin eSafe Increases Security Through New IM File Transfer Blocking Aladdin eSafe now offers enhanced AppliFilter technology that blocks potentially harmful file transfers while still allowing legitimate IM messaging. Aladdin Knowledge Systems, the leader in Software DRM, identity management, and content security solutions, today announced its Aladdin eSafe gateway-based content security solution now offers enhanced AppliFilter features that allow organizations to block file sharing in Instan......
[more] Employees Using Instant Messaging Put Companies at Risk According to a recent survey by Akonix Systems Inc., a provider of instant messaging (IM) security solutions, employees are unknowingly putting companies at risk for major security, legal and compliance issues by using instant messaging (IM) as a medium to share corporate information and communicate with external parties including customers and suppliers.The company said that nearly 60% of respondents to a July 2006 poll stated they use IM......
[more] Akonix: Most send business messages via IM According to new survey results released by Akonix Systems today, more than half of business people today are using instant messaging (IM) as a supplement to email communications. The messaging security company said that an informal poll of several hundred business people found that 60 percent of respondents use IM to communicate and share data with colleagues, partners and customers. According to Don Montgomery, vice president of marketing for the......
[more] Akonix A-Series Appliances Offer Native API Support for Jabber XCP 5.1 Akonix Systems, Inc., provider of the most deployed instant messaging (IM) security and compliance products in the world, today announced that version 5.1 of L7 Enterprise on its A-Series IM Security Appliances is the first product to integrate with Jabber, Inc.'s Jabber Extensible Communications Platform (Jabber XCP) 5.1 at the application programming interface (API) level. The combination of Akonix L7 Enterprise and Akonix......
[more] Instant Messaging Attacks Jump 160 Percent in July Postini,a global leader in Integrated Message Management, announced last week that its Monthly Message Security & Management Update for July confirms a 160 percent increase over June in instant messaging (IM) attacks against corporate networks. In July, Postini detected and prevented new IM threats including Prokeylogger, which logs the keystrokes typed by the user, captures passwords and screenshots, and sends them to identity thieves.Post......
[more] IM News & Trends Watch This past week Google has updated its IM product, Google Talk with several new features. The file transfer feature, one of the most requested features by users, allows you to send unlimited files and folders through Google Talk. Google has placed no restriction on the file type or size. As you would expect the dismal feature allows you to leave a voicemail message when your Google Talk buddy isn't available. When users receive voicemail they are informed via an e-mail......
[more] Yahoo adds sign-in security features to fight phishing Yahoo has added additional security features to keep its users from being tricked by fraudsters. The Sunnyvale, Calif., web giant has introduced a "sign-in seal" designed to make users aware if they are on an authentic Yahoo site, not one they've been linked to by a phishing email. Yahoo allows home users to specialize their safety measures by letting them choose a text seal with a short secret message assigned to a PC, or a specif......
[more] IM boom brings security concerns By 2007, it will be considered strange if a company is not using some form of instant messaging (IM) technology. That's a far cry from a few years back, when IM was still somewhat mysterious and many enterprises did not allow its use for fear of plummeting productivity and information leaks. But as 2006 marks the year IM breaks into the workplace, network managers have new security concerns, such as worms, viruses and leaks of sensitive information. Many product......
[more] Akonix expands instant messaging compliance offering Akonix Systems Inc., a provider of instant messaging (IM) security and compliance products, has launched Akonix L7 Enterprise v5.3 to help companies meet industry and government compliance regulations.Akonix found that many companies are not aware that they are required to control who certain employees may communicate with, both internally and externally. Most companies must also log and archive all IM traffic and review messages sent and rec......
[more] Akonix Records Highest Number of IM Attacks in 2006 Akonix Systems, the provider of the most deployed instant messaging (IM) security and compliance products in the world, today announced its Security Center (www.imsecuritycenter.com) researchers tracked 64 attacks against IM networks during the month of September, the most IM threats recorded in 2006. IM networks have experienced a total of 237 attacks this year. New worms identified include Licat, Sohanat, Yautoit, AutoIt, IMNames and Xrobots......
[more] Akonix Offers Skype Traffic Management Though VoIP company Skype has promised a more enterprise-friendly, manageable version of its popular service, Akonix Systems has announced an appliance designed to monitor and manage users of the consumer version behind the corporate firewall.The company today announced L7 Skype Manager, an appliance that brings management features similar to those offered by other appliances in its L7 line, which is primarily aimed at instant messaging security and compli......
[more] Increasing Security Needs of Enterprises to Fuel Growth in the World Content Filtering Market The content filtering landscape is witnessing several changes. Traditionally, the Web, e-mail and instant messaging (IM) filtering markets have evolved separately. The uptake of solutions, especially in the e-mail filtering market, has been successful. As a result, the content filtering market is maturing and existing vendors are expanding and diversifying their product and service portfolios.Although......
[more] Anti-virus technique adds muscle to PC lock-down Sophos has developed an innovative anti-virus-based approach to locking down PCs To identify malware, anti-virus products use a signature file that acts as a fingerprint of the virus or worm. Sophos has now applied the same principle to legitimate applications, giving IT directors a simple way to lock down desktop PCs.The company's anti-virus and application control product lets system administrators selectively block unauthorised VoIP, peer-......
[more] Sophos extends application control to block distributed computing programs Desktop software that hunts for aliens and investigates climate change unpopular among sysadmins, Sophos survey reveals Sophos, a world leader in IT security, has given companies the ability to control employees' use of distributed computing applications on corporate networks, following concerns that these programs can affect network performance. Such programs include SETI@Home and the BBC Climate Change Experiment. A sur......
[more] Block that Skype! Akonix Systems recently released a new appliance that lets IT departments impose some basic controls on the use of Skype. Akonix L7 Skype Manager is an offshoot of the company's L7 Enterprise instant messaging management system and its L7 Enforcer appliance for enforcing enterprise communications policies. According to Akonix vice president of marketing, Don Montgomery, the Skype manager answers a need articulated by company customers concerned about two widely separate issues......
[more] Over two-thirds of employees use IM at work to talk to family and friends Office workers are exposing their employers to substantial risks, including legal action and regulatory breaches, by using instant messenger and web based email at work, according to a new survey. The research, conducted by Chronicle Solutions, found that unmonitored technologies such as instant messenger (IM), MSN messenger and web based email are frequently accessed and used by staff from company computers, leaving busin......
[more] Postini Ranked as Top Vendor for Securing Law Firm Communications 48 Percent of Law Firms Surveyed Use Postini's Services to Make Their Electronic Communications More Compliant, Secure, Productive and Reliable Postini, the industry's leading provider of on-demand Integrated Message Management services that make electronic communications like email, instant messaging and the web more compliant, productive, secure and reliable, announced it has again been rated the top choice for securing email c......
[more] AOL patches ICQ vulnerability TippingPoint researchers warned AOL ICQ users this week about a vulnerability that allows attackers to execute malicious code onto a vulnerable PC without user interaction. AOL fixed the instant messaging (IM) service flaw on Oct. 31, but users who haven't logged on to the ICQ network since then could still be at risk, TippingPoint warned this week. The update was immediately applied to ICQ version 5.1 users when they logged on to the network, according to a Tipping......
[more] Chinese malware targets online gaming Over half of all malware originating in China last month was designed to steal usernames and passwords, new analysis shows. The malicious code was created to give cyber criminals easier access to personal and sensitive data. The research also found that 45 per cent of Chinese malware in October - written in a simplified version of Chinese - was intended to steal online gaming login details. Moreover, 8 per cent of the malicious code aimed to give hackers the......
[more] Legal actions filed against Hotmail, MSN phishers Microsoft initiates 97 lawsuits in Europe and the Middle East Microsoft Corp. has initiated 97 lawsuits throughout Europe and the Middle East during its eight-month investigation into fraudulent Web pages, with another 32 criminal complaints filed in cooperation with local authorities, the company said Wednesday. All of the cases are against individuals who attempted to capture the log-in and password details of users by constructing fraudulent......
[more] Postini Announces Top Five 2007 Messaging Security Predictions Spam Still on Rapid Rise Representing Nearly 93 Percent of All Email; Companies Without Proper Protection Could Face Email Meltdown Postini, the global leader in on-demand communications security, compliance and productivity solutions for email, instant messaging and the web, today announced that the recent spam explosion, which Postini reported in November, continues to grow at unprecedented levels.Spam now represents nearly 93 perc......
[more] IT pros look for ways to lock down IM Because instant messaging (IM) is still a new frontier full of security risks, the organizations Brian Joyce and Jane Clifford work for have strict policies governing its use. IM is forbidden in the offices of Chattanooga, Tenn.-based accounting firm Joseph Decosimo and Co., a 250-employee firm where Joyce is IT director. At the 6,000-employee Health and Human Services System agency for the State of Nebraska (HHSS), where Clifford is customer services manag......
[more] Roundup 2006: Doing their homework For college students these days, instant messaging is as much a part of their daily routine as microwaving ramen noodles, playing Frisbee on the quad or studying on the futon "When a student comes to campus, it's the first thing they want hooked up," says Seth Shestack, acting CISO at Temple University, Philadelphia, the nation's 28th largest college with a student population of 35,000. "Our help desk will get calls faster for students who can't......
[more] Yahoo Fixes Messenger Flaw Yahoo Inc. has patched a critical vulnerability in its Windows instant messaging client and has recommended that all users download and install an updated edition. The bug, characterized as "Highly critical" by Danish vulnerability tracker Secunia, is caused by a flawed Yahoo Messenger ActiveX control that could be used by attackers to crash a chat session, bring down the Internet Explorer browser, or execute malicious code on a victimized PC.Yahoo down......
[more] Five predictions for instant messaging security in 2007 Organisations will face a number of factors in 2007 that will force them to address their instant messaging (IM) security and compliance practices, predicted messaging security firm Akonix last week. Akonix predicted five major drivers that will spur companies to quit ignoring IM management and security as the technology continues to spread in the workplace. According to a recent paper by the Radicati Group, IM use at work will grow at a 22......
[more] Weston College tightens security IT security threats including spyware, instant messaging attachments and removable media were becoming a concern Weston College has implemented new security systems to improve protection of over 800 users and control application use.The Web Security Suite from Websense offered the college flexibility and control over how the students and staff use the computing facilities without locking down everything and impeding the web as a learning resource.Mark Hill, head......
[more] Is Microsoft set to take over the VoIP space? Past experience shows that once Microsoft sets its sights on a technology, it often comes to dominate the market. Will Redmond nudge current VoIP vendors off the playing field? Deb Shinder takes a look at the software giant's plans for VoIP. When Microsoft gets into the game, other companies start to worry-and with good reason. Past experience shows that once the software giant sets its sights on a technology, it often comes to dominate the market,......
[more] Hackers will target mobile banking, study warns 2007 could be the year of smart-phone security attacks, a research group has warned. The Tower Group has predicted a sharp rise in hacker attacks on Internet-enabled phones as a number of new banking and payment services appear. The research and advisory company, which focuses on the financial services industry, believes that many emerging mobile purchasing services "lack a reasonable and justifiable focus" on security. Among the new mob......
[more] Sophos Application Control now blocks Windows games Solitaire's author blames his own game for unproductivity Sophos has announced that its Application Control software has been extended to give businesses the ability to control and block Windows computer games, including Solitaire, Minesweeper and FreeCell - some of the most popular games in the world. According to Sophos, the negative impact on company productivity caused by the games has meant that many organizations have shown significant in......
[more] Akonix Enhances Instant Messaging Security Gateway to Facilitate Corporate Risk Management Akonix Systems, Inc., provider of the most deployed instant messaging (IM) security and compliance products in the world, today introduced Akonix L7 Enterprise v6.0, a risk management platform designed to enforce corporate compliance, security and prevent liability issues associated with IM communications. Employees have quickly learned to replace email with IM correspondence to get around corporate secur......
[more] Dangerous web browsers Web-browsers. They're all around you, on every PC across the length and breadth of the planet, yet you probably don't stop to think about them too much. Why would you? They're just there, and that's all that matters, like the mouse or the keyboard - a tool you just plug in to do something else, without worrying about what they happen to be doing internally. Your gateway to the online world, we have a voracious appetite for the latest hot new browser, the Firefox killer, t......
[more] Postini Announces New Solutions for Communications Compliance and Management With Google Apps Premier Edition Postini, Inc. the global leader in on-demand communications security and compliance solutions for email, instant messaging and the web, today announced that it has joined the Google Enterprise Professional(TM) program. Postini is offering new communications management and compliance solutions that are designed to allow businesses worldwide to recover lost messages, control business poli......
[more] Business fails to keep up with IM spyware threat Instant Messaging (IM) software in the workplace is running under the radar of IT and most security measures, a new study shows. It suggests many businesses are leaving themselves open to a flood of spyware by failing to manage their employees' use of IM. Many businesses are leaving themselves open to a flood of spyware by failing to manage their employees' use of instant messaging (IM).A survey of over 200 UK organisations in the private and pub......
[more] UK firms fall prey to spyware About three-quarters of British organisations fell victim to spyware last year. However, according to research conducted by Peapod, some 19 percent of firms were unable to identify the source of the attack. Managing Director Chris Durnan said: "As the survey shows, technology is not the only answer when viewed in isolation, it is also down to the user to play a key role in ensuring that spyware doesn't get a foothold in the infrastructure." The majority o......
[more] Mobile IM keeps users connected Mobile email was the killer app for a while. And though it's convenient -- some would say critical -- to keep up with messages on the go, it isn't real-time. Mobile instant messaging (IM), on the other hand, adds a level of real-time communication to and from mobile devices. Today, mobile management vendor Sybase iAnywhere released a mobile IM and presence component to its Information Anywhere suite, an enterprise-class tool that Sybase said brings mobile IM and......
[more] Akonix Warns Corporations of Risqué Employee IM Behavior Organisations potentially face thousands of lawsuits associated with hostile workplace and sexual harassment claims stemming from inappropriate instant messaging (IM) use, according to Akonix Systems, Inc., provider of the most deployed IM security and compliance products in the world. The company's January 2007 online poll reveals that 31% of 388 respondents have been threatened or harassed by a co-worker over IM. In addition, IDC predic......
[more] AppGate sets a new standard to secure communications for mobile smart phones With AppGate the mobile smart phone becomes a real working tool with the same level of functionality and security as a PC.AppGate provides a true Mobile solution that enables users of mobile devices such as smart phones to securely access all resources inside an enterpriseÕs internal network. The ability to access the Intranet, synchronise calendars and download attachments in a secure way are among the features......
[more] Postini Awarded New Patents for Email Processing Postini, Inc., the global leader in on-demand communications security and compliance solutions for email, instant messaging and the web, today announced that the United States Patent and Trademark Office has granted Postini U.S. Patent No. 7,133,660, which covers methods of enrolling entities with a managed email service and methods for users to review their filtered emails through user-accessible message centers. The patent also covers implement......
[more] MSN Messenger is the most targeted IM platform ScanSafe, in its latest monthly Global Threat Report, reported it blocked 24 new IM threats in February, 54 percent of which affected MSN Messenger compared to 21 percent that affected Yahoo! and 17 percent that affected AOL Instant Messenger (AIM). Over the past 12 months, MSN Messenger has consistently ranked #1 as the most targeted IM platform. Fifty-three percent of all the IM-based threats blocked by ScanSafe in the past year have affected MSN......
[more] Instant messaging attacks up 200 percent in a year The growing adoption of instant messaging (IM) platforms in corporate environments has made the technology more attractive to hackers, who have, in turn, attacked IM 200 percent more often than this time last year. Researchers at Akonix's IM Security Center reported today that they've seen 31 new malicious code attacks on messaging platforms this month, including worms such as IMspam, QQpass and TrigXF. Of all IM-based malware, Maniccum and Hotm......
[more] Spam makes users turn away from email The increasing volume of spam email messages is driving users to look for alternative media such as instant messaging and low cost VoIP calls, analyst firm IDC predicts in a new study."Spam volumes are growing faster than expected due to the success of image-based spam in bypassing antispam filters and of email sender identity spoofing in getting higher response rates," said Mark Levitt, program vice president for IDC's Collaborative Computing and......
[more] Yahoo updates to patch Messenger ActiveX vulnerability Yahoo has updated its instant messaging platform to protect against a vulnerability that can allow remote attacks. Versions of Yahoo Messenger installed before March 13 contain a flaw that can allow remote code attacks, Yahoo said Monday in an security advisory.The flaw is caused by a boundary error within the AudioConf ActiveX control (yacscom.dll), according to an advisory from Secunia.The vulnerability can be exploited to cause a stack-ba......
[more] World War III spam dupes users Hackers have tried to infect users' PCs with malware by pretending World War III had broken out. A weekend spam run tried to dupe recipients into downloading the infamous "Storm Trojan" by attaching files that posed as videos of a missile strike by the US against Iran. The email arrives with provocative subject lines that include "Missle [sic] Strike: The USA kills more then [sic] 20000 Iranian citizens," "USA Declares War on Iran," a......
[more] VoIP security falling behind technological advances A new study has found that a vast majority of UK businesses are convinced that rapid upgrades in development and usage of voice and instant messaging services are causing an increased security risk.Surveying nearly 300 UK companies, Infosecurity Europe found that 93 per cent of respondents felt that instant messaging and VoIP security measures were now noticeably lagging.The research found that many businesses are now experiencing data leakage......
[more] Postini Wins Top Honor in Reader's Choice Award Postini, Inc., a global leader in on-demand communications security and compliance solutions for email, instant messaging and the web, today announced it has been awarded the highest honor in Information Security Magazine and SearchSecurity.com's 2007 Readers' Choice Awards. Postini's on demand email security solution won the Gold award in the Messaging/Email Category and was praised for its ability to safeguard enterprises from spam, viruses, phi......
[more] Network access control NAC explained Cybercrime continues to rise, with the primary aim to steal company information or anything that will make a profit for the perpetrators. To avoid the unwelcome headlines provoked by IT security failures, securing the corporate network is more important today than ever before. It's also tougher to achieve, as today's business world means giving partners instant access to the information they need while meeting external regulatory compliance standards. With m......
[more] Akonix Tracks 38 Malicious Code Attacks over IM Networks in April Akonix Systems, a provider of instant messaging (IM) security and compliance products, announced that its IM Security Center researchers tracked 38 malicious code attacks over IM networks during the month of April, an increase of 23% from March.The company said that although IM threats are substantially higher than last year's overall, this is the first time in 2007 that the number of attacks increased when compared with the prev......
[more] Skype worm jumps to ICQ, MSN A new variant of the Stration worm, which has been plaguing Windows users for the past year, has made the jump from Skype to the ICQ and MSN Messenger networks. This latest variant popped up earlier this week, according to Chris Boyd, a researcher at FaceTime Communications, who blogs under the pseudonym "Paperghost." "They're using Skype as a jump off into other more established networks," Boyd said. "The infection will go looking for......
[more] Akonix Addresses Instant Messaging Security Akonix Systems, Inc., provider of the most deployed instant messaging (IM) security and compliance products in the world, today introduced the Akonix A1000 IM Essentials Appliance, a simple-to-install and administer, all-in-one IM management solution designed specifically to address the risk management, archiving and compliance needs for IM use in small and medium-sized business (SMBs). The A1000 IM Essentials Appliance, priced at $6,995, includes 100......
[more] Postini Appoints New Chief Financial Officer Postini, a global leader in on-demand communications security and compliance solutions for email, instant messaging and the web, today announced that Murray Demo has joined the company as executive vice president and chief financial officer. Demo reports to Postini's president and chief executive officer, Quentin Gallivan.Demo joins Postini after a ten year career at Adobe Systems Inc., serving as chief financial officer for the last six years. Durin......
[more] Peer-to-peer networks co-opted for DOS attacks A flaw in the design of a popular peer-to-peer network software has given attackers the ability to create massive denial-of-service attacks that can easily overwhelm corporate websites, a security firm warned last week.Over the past three months, more than 40 companies have endured attacks emanating from hundreds of thousands of Internet Protocol addresses (IPs), with many of the attacks producing more than a gigabit of junk data every second, acco......
[more] Websense updates data leak protection Websense has announced an updated version of its information-leak prevention product that now blocks unauthorised data transfers. Websense Content Protection Suite 6.0 consists of two main components, Content Auditor for locating sensitive data in the network, and Content Enforcer, which can monitor for data leaks. "We have in-line blocking now as an option for email, HTTP, instant messaging and FTP," says Devin Redmond, director of the security p......
[more] Four deadly security sins Organisations should not rely on their staff to ensure their network is secured as employees are not infallible and one slip is all it takes for cybercriminals to launch a vicious attack. "If you are an organisation that is relying on your employees to do the right thing with respect to security, you've already made a number of mistakes," said Scott Montgomery, global vice president for product management at Secure Computing.Montgomery noted that end users are......
[more] Laptop users taking more security risks than desktop users Employees that use laptops are taking more security risks than those that use desktops, but both types are taking unnecessary risks, according to the "Trust & Risk in the Workplace Study" from SurfControl. The study, conducted by Dr. Monica Whitty of Queen's University Belfast, was based on a survey of 1,000 mobile and desktop employees in the U.S., Australia, the Netherlands, Singapore and the U.K. The study found that em......
[more] How IT departments are securing instant messaging Once considered a peripheral communication tool used primarily by only some workers, instant messaging (IM) is now feared by many as a security hazard. For many enterprises, the simple solution was to block IM and force employees to use existing email, phone and fax resources. But the evolution of communication channels is leaving that model in the dust. Business users make it clear that IM security can no longer mean simply "turning......
[more] Consumer-tech use threatens corporate security The use of consumer-based technology such as web email, instant messaging, smartphones and games consoles by employees is one of the most significant threats to corporate IT security. Analyst companies Forrester and Gartner have both warned this week that the entrance of consumer technologies into the enterprise is impossible to eliminate and challenges traditional security models.Consumer-based communications tools such as Hotmail, instant messagin......
[more] iPhone, Gmail and blogs - a corporate security nightmare The use of consumer-based technology such as web email, instant messaging, smart phones and games consoles by employees is one of the most significant threats to corporate IT security.Analyst companies Forrester and Gartner have both warned this week that the entrance of consumer technologies into the enterprise is impossible to eliminate and challenges traditional security models.Consumer-based communications tools such as Hotmail, insta......
[more] Gartner: Businesses must address IM security Businesses must address the security issues around instant messaging (IM) as it becomes the preferred method of real-time communication, Gartner said today. The IT analysts predict that by the end of 2011, IM will be the "de facto" tool for voice, video and text chat with 95 per cent of workers using it as their preferred method for real-time communications by 2013. IM systems are increasingly becoming an integral part of a company's collabo......
[more] Akonix: 80% Increase in Harmful IM Activity Akonix Systems, Inc., provider of the most deployed instant messaging (IM) security and compliance products in the world, today announced its IM Security Center researchers tracked 36 malicious code attacks over IM networks during the month of June, an 80% increase over May. This brings the total number of threats for the first half of 2007 to 206, which is 79% more than the same time period last year. New IM worms identified include Checkout, Impard,......
[more] Akonix: 80% Increase in Harmful IM Activity Akonix Systems, Inc., provider of the most deployed instant messaging (IM) security and compliance products in the world, today announced its IM Security Center researchers tracked 36 malicious code attacks over IM networks during the month of June, an 80% increase over May. This brings the total number of threats for the first half of 2007 to 206, which is 79% more than the same time period last year. New IM worms identified include Checkout, Impard,......
[more] Google bags hosted security firm Postini for $625m Google has announced a plan to acquire on-demand web security firm Postini for $625m cash. The deal, which is subject to regulatory approval, is expected to close by end of the third quarter 2007, after which Postini will become a wholly-owned subsidiary of Google. Postini's services - which include email filtering, archiving, encryption, and policy enforcement - are used to protect customers' email, instant messaging and other web-based commun......
[more] Will Postini help Google win over businesses? Google's $625m (Ł308m) acquisition of email security specialist Postini appears to be further proof that the search giant wants enterprises to buy into its vision of hosted applications. While there has been some interest in the potential of applications such as Google Mail and Docs & Spreadsheets to provide the kind of collaborative working opportunities currently unavailable in Microsoft Exchange and Office, IT professionals are still extr......
[more] Critical IM bugs hit Yahoo and Trillian Yahoo Messenger and Trillian instant messaging clients are both subject to critical security vulnerabilities, researchers say. The Yahoo Messenger bug, which was posted to the Full Disclosure mailing list by Rajesh Sethumadhavan, is a buffer overflow flaw that can be exploited with a specially crafted address book entry. Messenger immediately crashes when it encounters the malformed entry, Sethumadhavan said, but it may also be susceptible to code executi......
[more] IM attacks up nearly 80 percent, Akonix says - and P2P is worse Loose lips sink ships, and flying fingers scuttle computers Malicious code attacks over instant messaging networks are up almost 80 percent over last year, according to a new study from vendor Akonix. In July, the company, which develops IM hygiene and compliance appliances and services, said it uncovered 20 malicious code attacks over IM in July. The total number of threats for 2007 so far is 226, the company said. That number is a......
[more] McAfee warns of Yahoo Messenger Webcam bug Users of Yahoo's instant messaging platform are being warned to avoid webcam invites from unknown sources after a vulnerability in the platform was disclosed this week. The zero-day flaw was first published on Chinese security forums, but researchers at McAfee said this week that they recreated the flaw on Yahoo Messenger version 8.1.0.413.The vulnerability "seems like a classic heap overflow that can be triggered when the victim accepts a webcam i......
[more] Yahoo patches Messenger video bug It's the second update this summer to fix webcam vulnerabilities Yahoo Inc. today updated its Messenger instant messaging software to flush a bug that hackers could exploit by sending video chat invitations to unwary users. The vulnerability, which surfaced last week in a posting to a Chinese security forum, could be exploited by duping a user into accepting a malicious webcam invitation, McAfee Inc. confirmed Aug. 15. In its advisory, Yahoo said that it had act......
[more] MSN Messenger video-based exploit revealed Security experts are advising users of MSN Messenger to be wary of untrusted web cam conversations after exploit code was posted today for a zero-day vulnerability in the instant messaging (IM) application. The bug, rated "highly critical" by tracking firm Secunia, can be exploited when a victim accepts a malicious video from an attacker, prompting a heap-based buffer overflow. Results may range from a system crash to arbitrary code......
[more] Skype worm leaves Sophos users unfazed Sophos, a world leader in IT security and control, says that a recent worm outbreak on the Skype network highlights the importance of proactive virus protection. The worm, which has been seen spreading via Skype's instant messaging system, has not managed to infect Sophos users who were proactively protected against the threat without requiring an update. The W32/Pykse-C worm (also known as Ramex, Skipi or Pykspa) spreads via Skype's chat system in a varie......
[more] Lazy Tuesday for Microsoft patchers Patch Tuesday was quieter than usual for Microsoft users this month, with the company issuing just four security bulletins yesterday. Four vulnerabilities were fixed in Windows, Visual Studio and the MSN and Windows Live Messenger software, setting a 2007 record for the fewest flaws fixed in a month's scheduled updates. Only one of the four flaws was pegged critical, Microsoft's highest threat warning, while the other three were all labelled important, a notc......
[more] AIM worm attack feared AOL Instant Messenger is vulnerable to worm attack due to the way it works with Internet Explorer 7, according to security researchers. The critical flaw is in the way that the AIM displays web-based graphics, according to researchers at Core Security Technologies, which discovered the flaw. Core has been working with AOL over the past few weeks to patch the problem. AOL's servers are now filtering instant messaging traffic to intercept any attacks, but the company has ye......
[more] AOL Claims AIM is Safe Perhaps the most dangerous type of online vulnerability is the one where the user doesn't actually do anything in order to become infected. It is that type of vulnerability that security researchers claim AOL's popular instant messaging client, AIM, was at risk from. Core Security has issued an advisory noting that AIM 6.1 (and 6.2 beta), AIM Pro and AIM Lite were at risk from a vulnerability that could remotely execute code on an AIM user's computer without user interact......
[more] Keep your IM-using employees on a need-to-know basis As long as people have competed against others, whether commercially, militarily or athletically, their organizations have possessed information or practices that need to be kept secret. Naturally, competitors have always wanted to learn those secrets, and history is filled with stories of spies, patents, secret codes and inadvertent disclosure of confidential information. Everyone knows that Coca-Cola guards the secret formula for their elix......
[more] Google adds Postini to business apps Google is to add the email services it acquired when it bought Postini last month, to its business-grade online services at no extra charge. The company will add email security, compliance and recovery to Google Apps Premier edition, potentially making it more attractive to larger organisations. The services include email controls for Apps Premier administrators like configurable spam and virus filtering, setting and management of usage policies, and recover......
[more] E-mail boosts productivity; IM poses threats, survey says When it comes to communicating during the workday, a majority of enterprise users find e-mail and phone calls conducive to productivity, while unified communications technologies such as instant messaging, blogs and softphones distract them from the work at hand and pose a threat to enterprise security. IT consulting firm Dimension Data Holdings PLC surveyed some 524 IT managers and enterprise end users to learn which means of communicat......
[more] Office-based employees pose greater threat than remote workers Nearly half of companies believe office-based employees pose a greater threat to the corporate network than remote workers, a new poll reveals. The survey, conducted by Sophos, reveals that 44 per cent of businesses believe that, out of all users, their desktop-based employees are their biggest concern, despite these workers using similar devices and continually connecting to the network. Irresponsible behaviour, using peer-to-peer a......
[more] Microsoft performs U-turn on URI threat Microsoft plans to fix a Windows bug recently blamed for several critical vulnerabilities in third-party software. The flaw lies in the URI (Uniform Resource Identifier) handler technology that lets Windows users launch programs - email or instant messaging clients, for example - by clicking on web page links. In July, security researcher Thor Larholm showed how a browser could be tricked into sending malformed data to Firefox using this technology. The b......
[more] Trojan horse dupes Skype users, steals usernames and passwords Skype Ltd. again warned users of its software that malicious code targeting the voice-over-IP (VoIP) and instant messaging service was on the prowl, the second such alert in the past five weeks. A Trojan horse posing as a Skype add-on is stealing log-on credentials, the company\'s online spokesman, Villu Arak, said yesterday in a blog posting. Calling itself Skype Defender, the malware installs if users download and run the executab......
[more] Akonix: 22 IM Attacks This Month Company predicts upcoming spike in malicious activity as companies prepare unified communications rollouts Akonix Systems, Inc., a provider of policy and risk management products for real-time communications, today announced its IM Security Center researchers tracked 22 malicious code attacks over instant messaging (IM) networks and a 50% increase in threats on P2P networks during the month of October. Although the number of monthly IM threats decreased from Sept......
[more] New Trojan scans for virtual machines A Trojan appeared at the weekend that uses MSN Messenger to grow a botnet, but more worryingly the malware also tries to scan for virtual machines in order to increase the botnet’s number of connections. In an eWeek.com article, the eSafe CSRT (Content Security Response Team) at security vendor Aladdin, warned that it had detected the new threat propagating around noon EST on Sunday. At 18:00 UTC (Coordinated Universal Time), eSafe had apparently detected......
[more] Businesses are ill-prepared for the security risk introduced by temporary workers According to new research released today by Websense, Inc., temporary workers are unwittingly exposing businesses of all sizes to information security breaches. The findings indicate that organisations may be unnecessarily putting their data at risk by granting temporary staff access to confidential information at the same levels as permanent employees. The survey highlights that 87.7% of respondents were able to......
[more] Chinese Trojans steal data from organizations Finjan Inc. has recently conducted a study prompted by the increased volume of attacks coming from China. The study maps how users PCs are being infected by Trojans distributed from China that then steal data from organizations and details some of the sites that are involved in the process. Finjan's Malicious Code Research Center (MCRC) have detected malicious activity by groups that distribute their content using obfuscated code and a network of we......
[more] Consumers strongly prefer to buy from companies that have not suffered data leaks, losses or theft Consumers strongly prefer to buy from companies that have not suffered data leaks, losses or theft, according to a new survey conducted for Check Point Software Technologies Ltd. The Check Point & YouGov survey of over 2100 British consumers highlighted how consumers' trust of a company and its brand was affected by leakage or theft of personal, confidential data. It also showed how important......
[more] Busting the 10 Myths About Data Protection Whether from security breaches or careless insiders, data protection is on the mind of every CIO these days. However, many don't know that it's steeped in misconceptions. Data breaches happen all the time in industries ranging from retail to government. Protecting data is a key concern for CIOs, but there are a lot of misconceptions about data protection. Here we'll debunk some of the myths and explain best practices for protecting data without impedin......
[more] Most home routers 'vulnerable to remote take-over' Security mavens have uncovered a design flaw in most home routers that allows attackers to remotely control the devices by luring an attached computer to a booby-trapped website. The weakness could allow attackers to redirect victims to fraudulent destinations that masquerade as trusted sites belonging to banks, ecommerce companies or health care organizations. The exploit works even if a user has changed the default password of the router. And......
[more] IM attacks get nastier Attacks on instant messaging systems continued to grow more sophisticated and dangerous in January, according to Akonix, a vendor of messaging security systems. The company tracked 14 new attacks on IM systems in January, finding that while the number was relatively low, the attacks are getting better at targeting users. IM attacks are a relatively recent phenomenon, but have grown drastically in number in recent months. In July Akonix said the number of threats over the......
[more] Google intros Apps edition to bypass the IT department Google Inc. is releasing a new edition of its hosted applications suite that end users can bring into the workplace without involving their IT departments. It means that IT managers who fret about employees using unauthorized software at work will have another tool to worry about, especially in industries where information management is heavily regulated, like health care and finance.The new release, called Google Apps Team Edition, is due......
[more] Attacks pushing Web controls Significant debate has recently been given over to the topic of whether or not younger workers will eschew jobs at companies that attempt to limit their access to popular Web sites and online applications, but some companies are already responding to rising security threats by blocking their employees from using work machines to move about the Internet freely. Large financial services companies have been known to enforce strict controls over the range of sites that......
[more] Merck Brazil deploys Blue Coat ProxySG and ProxyAV to manage Web usage Blue Coat Systems, Inc. has announced that Merck Brazil, a division of the leading manufacturer of vaccines and medicines in Latin America, has deployed Blue Coat® ProxySG® and Blue Coat® ProxyAV™ appliances to manage Web usage, accelerate Internet content and applications, protect against malware and enforce policies for employee Web usage. Blue Coat appliances provide Merck with a unique combination of security, policy con......
[more] Strong prospects in software to spy on bank staff If you work for a bank, a computer may be reading your e-mails, listening to your phone calls or analysing chat conversations as you type. Even banking workers used to the idea of surveillance might balk at the thought of a computer doing the job. But there are strong prospects for the software niche, as banks try to keep a much closer eye on staff in the wake of scandals such as Jerome Kerviel's rogue trading at Societe Generale, or the aggressi......
[more] Trillian IM client at risk from attacks Security researchers today warned users of the popular Trillian instant messaging client that the software harbors three critical vulnerabilities that could be used to hijack their Windows PCs. Trillian's developer, Cerulean Studios, has updated the IM client to Version 3.0.10.0 to patch the bugs. The vulnerabilities were reported by 3Com's TippingPoint, which posted advisories for each. Danish bug tracking firm Secunia Inc., meanwhile, collectively ranke......
[more] Police bust phishing super-gang Police in the US and Romania have arrested 38 people accused of running one of the most sophisticated international phishing operations ever uncovered. The gang's alleged modus operandi was in many ways very standard, involving tricking US citizens into giving up details of their bank accounts, enabling criminals to empty accounts up to their credit limits using ATM withdrawals. What marks this case out from the usual phishing busts, however, is the way criminals......
[more] Apple updates Leopard, issues 68 fixes More than three months after it last updated Mac OS X, Apple Inc. today released 10.5.3, an upgrade for its Leopard operating system that boasts nearly 70 stability, compatibility and security improvements and fixes. Apple did not include patches for two of three iCal vulnerabilities that were made public a week ago, however. Mac OS X 10.5.3, the third upgrade to Leopard since Apple launched the current in October 2007, addresses issues in several componen......
[more] Akonix Tracks 10 New IM Attacks in May Akonix Systems Inc., a provider of unified policy management products for instant messaging (IM) and unified communications, announced that its IM Security Center researchers tracked 10 new malicious code attacks over IM networks in May, bringing the 2008 total to 73. New IM worms identified in May include Flocker, Foto-nue and Mondez. LdPinch was the most common with two variants. In addition, attacks on P2P networks, such as Kazaa and eDonkey, increased......
[more] Unified communications with ROI in mind Today's CIOs must focus on developing more effective strategies toward taking connectivity and messaging capabilities to the next level. And there's no denying that unified communications (UC) is an IT issue that all CIOs in the 21st century should carefully consider. Internet Protocol-based (IP-based) solutions operating over a converged voice-and-data network are heralding a new world of communications. Indeed, successful organizations recognize that imp......
[more] Do smart phone viruses really threaten your network? All evidence points to the fact that smart phone viruses will be a threat to your network even though they aren't at this moment. After all, the latest mobile devices are packed with more and more applications and corporate data, are enabled for real Web browsing and online collaboration, and can access corporate servers. What's more, they live outside your firewall and often make use of three wireless networks (Bluetooth, Wi-Fi and cellular).......
[more] Yahoo Fixes Critical Mail Flaw Yahoo fixed a critical vulnerability in its Messenger desktop and Mail applications that could allow hackers to steal identities to gain access to users' private information. In a worst case scenario, the flaw enabled hackers to hijack users' sessions and infiltrate their private accounts, as well as overtake operations in Yahoo Mail, if it was exploited. The cross site scripting vulnerability, which occurs between the interaction of the Yahoo Messenger desktop a......
[more] Firms 'miss' social site success Businesses are missing out on the huge potential that social networks present, a leading information technology company has warned. Researchers for Gartner found that huge opportunities for improving the management of large firms exist. "Businesses which harness how employees use these sites stand to increase savings, productivity and profits," said Gartner researcher Jeffrey Mann. He told the BBC the challenge was how to apply this to the corporate......
[more] IM security fears persist Over seventy per cent of UK firms are banning the use of public instant messaging clients in the workplace, despite three-quarters saying they understand the business benefits of the technology. According to new research released today. The survey by enterprise IM vendor ProcessOne found that over half of corporate IT managers had concerns over sensitive information leaving the organisation through this channel. Yet only 12 per cent said they had visibility into this b......
[more] Hackers gang up on Kaminsky over DNS flaw Over seventy per cent of UK firms are banning the use of public instant messaging clients in the workplace, despite three-quarters saying they understand the business benefits of the technology. According to new research released today. Kaminsky made headlines earlier this week by talking about a major flaw in the DNS software used to connect computers to each other on the Internet. In late March he grouped together 16 companies that make DNS software -......
[more] How to Approach Access Control in the Social Networking Age “Here comes trouble,” say John Yun and Jay Kelley from Juniper Networks. Trouble in this case means social networking. Like instant messaging and e-mail before it, social networking can cause worries to companies that haven’t learned to adapt - and real trouble to companies that haven’t learned how to manage it. Enterprises are beginning to adopt social networking applications. They’re doing it for the sam......
[more] Is it possible to ban chat programs on an enterprise LAN? Q: How do I ban MSN Messenger, Yahoo Messenger, Skype and other chat programs on an enterprise LAN? My network connects to the Internet through a hub, and from the hub it connects a wireless router/modem to the Internet. I've tried blocking URLs and outgoing ports, but to no avail. I can't install any blocking software because I don't have a server in between the router and the network PCs. A: As you have discovered already, imposing con......
[more] Akonix: Steady Uptick in IM/P2P Attacks Akonix Systems, Inc., the leading provider of unified policy management products for instant messaging (IM) and unified communications, today announced its IM Security Center researchers found steady growth in IM and P2P threats through the first seven months of 2008. With 40 unique threats in July on the heels of the year's peak month of 51 threats in June, the current trendline shows a projected growth of 107% for the year. New IM worms identified this......
[more] Study revives six degrees theory A US study of instant messaging suggests the theory that it takes only six steps to link everyone may be right - though seven seems more accurate. Microsoft researchers studied the addresses of 30bn instant messages sent during a single month in 2006. Any two people on average are linked by seven or fewer acquaintances, they say. The theory of six degrees of separation has long captured people's imagination - notably inspiring a popular 1993 film - but had rec......
[more] Microsoft promises 12 patches next week Microsoft Corp. today said it will deliver a dozen security updates next week to fix critical vulnerabilities in Windows, Office, Internet Explorer (IE) and the media player bundled with Vista. Of the 12 updates it sketched out in the advance notification issued this morning, Microsoft pegged seven as "critical," its highest threat rating. The remaining five were labeled "important," the second-highest ranking. "We almost have a baker's dozen,"......
[more] Olympians Connect with Fans through Blogs In a move that advocates say will bring Olympic athletes closer to fans, a Raleigh, North Carolina-based PC company is reporting the rapid spread of on-site blogging by competitors in the Beijing games. Officials at Lenovo reportedly say that more than 100 athletes are participating in their “Voices of the Olympic Games” blogging program, generating 1,374 athlete postings on the forum and reaching more than 8.5 million fans through third-par......
[more] Kaspersky granted nifty scan-speed patent Kaspersky Lab has been granted a wide-ranging patent that might be of interest to anyone who has ever complained about the time it takes for anti-virus programs to scan PC files. US patent number 7392544 gives the Russian company the intellectual rights to a technique for varying scanning speeds dynamically according to a number of parameters such as file size, format, structure, whether it has been signed, and where the file might have come from. The......
[more] Many workers in the office environment do not pay attention to security because of a false sense of confidence Cybercrime refers to criminal offences committed with the aid of communication devices, usually over the Internet. Anyone with a smattering of online knowledge should know something about some of these online dangers, even if they don’t fully understand them. The general public has been well advised not to respond to spam, not to open emails from unknown contacts, and only to shop on s......
[more] Privileged accounts create 'gaping hole' for IT security The potential abuse of privileged accounts in the current financial environment is a gaping hole in company security. Mark Fullbrook, director of the UK and Ireland at Cyber-Ark, claimed that with companies either downsizing their IT staff or asking them to accept pay cuts, this is more of a risk than ever before. Fullbrook claimed that the risk is that these accounts are, in the vast majority of cases, completely generic and staff will u......
[more] Phishers launch multi-platform IM attack Users of internet chat services such as Google Chat have been hit by a major phishing attack aimed at stealing account log-in details, security researchers have warned. The unsolicited instant messages urge users to click on a TinyURL link to watch a video, but the link takes them to a site called ViddyHo which asks them to fill in user names and passwords. The phishers can then use these details to hack into user accounts and send more malicious links.......
[more] Cheat Sheet: Unified communications "Unified comms - I've heard of it but frankly I don't know what it actually means." You're not alone. Apart from the fact it sounds unapologetically dull, unified communications (or UC for short) is an amorphous and rather abstract concept. This is not a neat, one-size-fits-all technology - UC deployments vary from company to company, depending on each particular business' needs. That's reassuringly vague. So where do you begin with UC?Let's start by taking a......
[more] Data Security: Whose Job Is It Really? Forrester has a recommendation for CISOs struggling with how to secure corporate data: Stop trying so hard. Despite years of investments in technology and processes, protecting enterprise-wide data remains a maddeningly elusive goal for chief information security officers (CISOs). Software-as-a-service (SaaS), Web 2.0 technologies, and consumerized hardware increase the number of escape routes for sensitive information. Regulations, statutes, and contractua......
[more] Ten ways to make your boss love you Worried about job security? These days, who's not? Andrew Donoghue offers some advice for tight times. No matter where you happen to be perched on the IT career tree, the branches are probably looking shaky right now. From chief information officers to IT admin staff, the days of taking continued employment for granted are over. When it comes to job performance, the recession has ratcheted up levels of scrutiny tenfold. That means managers will be measured mo......
[more] Regaining app-centric visibility, control Enterprises need a better way to control software-as-a-service, cloud computing, Web 2.0 and other applications that are hosted outside the enterprise because the traditional port-based approach has ceased to be effective. Moving beyond port-based traffic classification isn't easy, but because the "threat industry" now has application-level exploits and applications are at the heart of many data leaks, enterprises must rise to the challenge.......
[more] Trend Micro to eyeball malware from cloud Trend Micro has unveiled a major update to its flagship scanning tools that puts your virus signature database online, plus a modular security and system management suite with partner BigFix. Trend Micro's updated OfficeScan Client/Server Suite includes an interesting change to the way its flagship scanning software keeps its list of digital undesirables.The most common method nowadays is letting each individual system store its own virus and malware si......
[more] Teen hacking seen as casual activity Casual hacking is as almost as established a part of teen life as downloading music to an iPod, a new survey of the age group has claimed. According to Panda Security, we should take seriously the statistic it gathered from a survey of over 4,000 15 to 18 year-olds that nearly one in five of them have the knowledge to use ‘advanced' Internet-distributed hacking tools. Of that group, nearly a third claimed to have used them on at least one occasion. Two thir......
[more] FaceTime finds employee Web 2.0 usage in corporate networks up to 10 times more than IT managers' estimates Actual network data from FaceTime Communications reveals that employee use of Web 2.0 applications such as instant messaging, IPTV, VOIP and social networking on corporate networks exceeds IT estimates by up to 10 times. FaceTime also today announced version 2.0 of its Unified Security Gateway (USG), a secure Web gateway purpose-built for the new Internet to provide a single point of cont......
[more] New devices make hotspots a hacker's paradise Airport lounges, train stations and hotels represent three of the easiest attack vectors for hackers, according to white hat hacker, Chris Gatford. Speaking at IDC's SecurityVision conference today, Gatford said the vast majority of public hotspot users put their organisation's data at risk by connecting without a VPN to the "Linksys global wireless network" - his term for open networks set up in peoples homes that are left unsecured. Gatford, direc......
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