Peer-to-Peer
Peer-to-Peer
A peer-to-peer (or P2P) computer network is a network that relies on the computing power and bandwidth of the participants in the network rather than concentrating it in a relatively low number of servers. P2P networks are typically used for connecting nodes via largely ad hoc connections. Such networks are useful for many purposes. Sharing content files (see file sharing) containing audio, video, data or anything in digital format is very common, and realtime data, such as telephony traffic, is also passed using P2P technology.
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Peer-to-Peer Related Products
Websense Web Security (formerly Websense Web Security Suite) protects against spyware, malicious mobile code, phishing attacks, bots, and other threats. Unlike many solutions, it also blocks spyware and keylogger backchannel communications from reaching host servers. Websense Web Security includes Websense Web Protection Services, to provide phishing protection to help guard Web sites, brands, and Web servers.
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VPN-1 UTM consolidates proven security functions including firewall, intrusion prevention, antivirus, antispyware, Web application firewall, and both IPSec and SSL VPN, within a single integrated solution.
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Peer-to-Peer Related Industry News
2003 is becoming a virus writers playground warns Sophos Far more infections than last year... Virus writing and high-profile infections have been on the rise this year, with significant activity over the past couple of months in particular.
Figures from Sophos reveal the first six months of 2003 have seen a 17.5 per cent increase in virus activity over the same period last year - and this shows no sign of abating.
Bugbear and Klez have done much to boost the figures, but Sobig variants......
[more] Is the Superworm a Mere Myth? Terrorists are not using superworms and other network attacks because they don't reach their target that way," Mikko Hyppönen, director of antivirus research at Finland-based F-Secure, told TechNewsWorld. "Terrorists want to cause fear and panic. You still cause more fear and panic by killing people than by taking down Web sites If one thing is definite about Internet security and worm attacks, say experts, it is that cyber attacks are on the rise in 2004.
Conside......
[more] New viruses feed on MyDoom infections Two worms that take advantage of computers whose security has already been compromised started spreading on Monday, antivirus software companies warned The two opportunistic programs--dubbed Doomjuice and Deadhat--threatened only those users still infected with a version of the MyDoom virus, and didn't pose a major problem for businesses, which had previously cleaned systems infected with the virus, the companies said.
"There are only about 50,000 or 75......
[more] New version of MyDoom appears Internet security companies said Monday that they discovered a new version of the MyDoom e-mail worm circulating on the Internet The new version, MyDoom.C, is a modified copy of the virus that ravaged the Internet in January. Unlike its predecessor, however, the new variant does not use e-mail or the Kazaa peer-to-peer network to spread and is not expected to make much of an impact on the Internet, said managed security services provider LURHQ Corp.
MyDoom.C bot......
[more] Is the Superworm a Mere Myth? If one thing is definite about Internet security and worm attacks, say experts, it is that cyber attacks are on the rise in 2004.
Consider the worldwide effect of highly publicized worms like last year's SoBig series and the recent Sinit Trojan and MyDoom outbreaks. Given the potency of some of these worms, security experts are bracing for what some say is an inevitable attack aimed at certain geographically based IP blocks, like those associated with the United......
[more] Second NetSky worm on the loose The second version of a two-day-old virus, NetSky, has started spreading more successfully than its parent, antivirus researchers said on Wednesday The new variant, NetSky.b, uses e-mail to sends copies of itself to potential victims--people with computers running the Microsoft Windows operating system. It also stores copies of itself in shared directories, apparently to facilitate its propagation via file-sharing networks.
"The author, it seems, has done some......
[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] March Comes in Like a Worm New versions of Bagle, Netsky viruses are spreading rapidly. Conventional wisdom claims March comes in like a lion and goes out like a lamb. But with new versions of the Bagle e-mail worm and a virulent new form of Netsky virus, March's arrival is looking more like a worm.
Five new versions of Bagle appeared over the weekend, as did a new version of Netsky that is spreading rapidly on the Internet and generating a huge volume of virus-infected e-mail messages.......
[more] Virus top 10: A Sobering return Social engineering and home users give virus writers a hand MyDoom, the virus that took down SCO's website and had a pop at Microsoft and the RIAA into the bargain, has lost its place at the top of the chart for most reported virus in February.
February's malware figures from antivirus firm Sophos show that young upstart MyDoom.A has lost out to old hand Sober.C, with 35.3 per cent of all virus reports in February, compared to 25.3 for MyDoom.A.
The Sober......
[more] Virus writers exchange coded insults The authors of the MyDoom, Bagle and Netsky worms have been insulting each other by inserting lines of text into their malware - while keeping one step ahead of antivirus companies Security researchers have discovered that the authors of MyDoom and Bagle are exchanging insults with the author of Netsky using text that is hidden inside the virus's code.
Since Friday, more than 10 variants of the Netsky, Bagle and MyDoom worms have been discovered. Mutants s......
[more] Worms nibble away at ISP profits Worms are proving to be both a financial and managerial headache for Internet service providers. Dealing with worms that travel over their networks could cost North American ISPs as much as $245 million in 2004, according to a study released Wednesday by peer-to-peer management company Sandvine. For service providers worldwide, the overall expense could reach $370 million. The totals include the cost of tactical response teams, swamped customer support resources,......
[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] Blaster effects still felt The Blaster worm that wreaked havoc across the Internet last year may be old news by now, but its effects are still being felt. In the second half of 2003, one of every three systems that perpetrated Internet attacks targeted the vulnerability exploited by the Blaster worm and its successors, amid a backdrop of mounting disclosures of vulnerabilities in core Microsoft Windows services.
Meanwhile, older worms were still around and attacking firewalls and informatio......
[more] Phatbot primed to steal your credit card details Trojan horse-type computer virus called Phatbot can steal credit card numbers and launch denial of service attacks on Web sites. The new virus made its debut on the Internet on Friday (18 March), clogging bandwidth, stealing personal data and initiating denial of service attacks.
Phatbot is a variant of a Agobot, a big family of IRC bots. It can steal personal information such as email addresses, credit card numbers, PayPay details and softwar......
[more] SurfControl Helps Companies Strategically Manage Spam and E-Mail Threats Through New Online Tool ROI Calculator for Anti-Spam Tools Helps IT Managers Quantify and Communicate the Costs and Benefits of E-mail Filtering Solutions SurfControl, the world's number one Web and e-mail filtering company, today announced the availability of a free online resource to help corporate IT managers quantify the cost of spam and assess the business value of e-mail filtering solutions.
According to a recent stu......
[more] New Netsky Variant Blames Users Worm prepares attack on peer-to-peer nets, contains boast and warning message. A new version of the Netsky e-mail worm is programmed to attack peer-to-peer networks. It bears messages blaming users for spreading viruses and claiming its authors are crusading against hacking, antivirus software companies warn.
Netsky.Q first appeared on Monday and is spreading on the Internet. It is the 17th variant of the worm to be released since Netsky first appeared in Fe......
[more] XP fix previews impact of a more secure Windows When Microsoft released the first public beta for Windows XP Service Pack 2 a few weeks ago, it knew the built-in security enhancements could cripple some corporate applications.
Companies testing XP SP2 say they are seeing some of that, but note a more significant development: Corporate users will have to change the way they develop applications and build networks to compensate for the security changes Microsoft is making to its desktop and s......
[more] EarthLink keeps tabs on spyware EarthLink is starting to keep score in its fight against spyware. The Internet service provider on Thursday said it found an average of nearly 28 spyware items on each PC it scanned during the first quarter. The company, in conjunction with Webroot Software, conducted a total of 1.06 million scans through its Spy Audit service. The majority of the items found were relatively harmless, EarthLink said, but some represented serious problems.
The term "spyware" h......
[more] Web Braces for Netsky.V's Attack Worm's latest variant exploits old vulnerabilities and spreads without an attachment. The latest variant of the hugely effective Netsky series of worms is causing trouble by spreading without the use of an attachment. Slipping past many e-mail gateways, it can launch simply by being viewed in an e-mail program.
Rather than attaching the worm's executable code to an e-mail message, Netsky.V uses two separate vulnerabilities in Microsoft software to download th......
[more] Protection busting Bagle virus strikes The latest version of the Bagle virus attempts to turn off nearly 300 antivirus processes it finds running on infected computers.
Sophos alerted users yesterday to Bagle-AA, which is also known as Bagle-AB and Bagle-Z, advising it had already received many reports. Trend Micro had issued a yellow alert for its customers.
In common with its predecessors, this latest Bagle arrives as an email with short texts in the subject and an attachment. If run, the......
[more] Securing the air The benefits of wireless LANs (WLAN) are undeniable but the risks introduced by them are increasing exponentially. According to InStat MDR More than 75 million Wi-Fi devices have been deployed worldwide and another 4 million new WLAN devices are being shipped per month.
Some organizations think their investments in firewalls and VPNs will protect them from the risks of WLANs. However, they do not realize that the WLAN signal bypasses all wired side security and opens a back......
[more] Web outage blamed on zombies Akamai has blamed a 'bot net' of zombified PCs for the Internet downtime that affected sites such as Yahoo this week The attack that blacked out Google, Yahoo and other major Web sites earlier this week involved the use of a "bot net" -- a large network of zombified home PCs -- Internet infrastructure provider Akamai Technologies said Wednesday.
The attack, which blocked nearly all access to Apple Computer, Google, Microsoft and Yahoo's Web sites for two hours on......
[more] Reducing the risk from P2P downloads How employee use of peer-to-peer sites is more than just a nuisance P2P is a concern to any organisation, but on a more critical level it is also illegal.
Downloading pirate material not only infringes on existing copyright laws but, since March this year, it is a breach of the European Union Directive on the Enforcement of Intellectual Property.
This recently created intellectual property legislation makes US digital media rights laws pale in compariso......
[more] Online Hacker Shop Shuts Down Site had been selling source code to Napster's server and client software. An online shop that was selling the source code for two computer programs has abruptly suspended its operations, citing a "redesign" of its "business model."
The Source Code Club opened its doors on Monday, using an e-mail posting to an online discussion group to advertise the availability of source code and design documents for two products: the Dragon intrusion detection system (IDS) softw......
[more] Antivirus companies warn about Bagle.AG threat Antivirus companies are warning of another virulent new version of the Bagle e-mail worm, dubbed Bagle.AG.
The new Bagle version was first detected Saturday and is very similar to earlier versions of the worm, which spread through shared file folders and in e-mail messages carrying the worm file as an attachment, according to advisories from Sophos PLC and McAfee Inc. McAfee rated the virus a "medium" threat, citing reports from several customers.......
[more] SurfControl, 'No room for friendly spam' If you thought the spam blocker was enough to shield your organisation against all sorts of harmful content, think again.
According to UK-based Web and e-mail content filtering software vendor SurfControl, your organisation could be exposed to all types of undesirable content that go beyond spam, and the penalties could be severe if these are not properly managed.
The company has a range of rich content filtering software that manages informatio......
[more] Intrusion prevention 'is key' McAfee and IoD urge SMEs to set up proper security management policies Security vendor McAfee has joined forces with the Institute of Directors (IoD) to educate SMEs on the need to switch from anti-virus to intrusion-prevention technology.
Research released by the two organisations, which questioned 1,240 SMEs in the UK, revealed that 57 per cent have suffered damage as a result of a virus, with half attributing this to misuse of technology by employees.
Viruses a......
[more] Microsoft takes down SP2 swappers Microsoft has taken steps to stop its security update for Windows being shared on file-swapping networks. The SP2 update for Windows XP was being used by file-swapping activists to show how such systems can help get large, important files to lots of users.
But legal warnings from Microsoft have forced the file-swappers to end their experiment and stop making the software available to downloaders.
Now the only place people are able to get the update is from......
[more] Porn spam increases by 350 percent Pornographic e-mails have shot up by almost 350 percent in July over June, according to security solutions provider Clearswift's latest spam index. The company's June index revealed pornographic e-mails comprised only 4.8 percent of all spam for the month. However, pornographic e-mails made up 17.2 percent of all spam in July.
"Spammers are working overtime. In what appears to be an attempt to match supply with demand, healthcare spam (most of which was Viag......
[more] Hack attacks and spam set to increase IDC warns of the growing importance of enforcing security policies Spam and malicious attacks will rise over the next three years presenting IT departments with bigger security concerns than ever before, says analyst IDC.
IT security spending is set to almost double from 2.5 per cent of overall technology spending to four per cent within the next four years, while spam is will increase from 17 billion emails today to 23 billion by 2007.
'Almost half of ema......
[more] Massed bagles launch their attack Antivirus company F-Secure has dubbed today 'Bagle day', after finding three variants of the self-sending virus Antivirus experts have declared today as 'Bagle day' after discovering three variants of the virus within a few hours.
The variants apparently modify themselves by stealing file icons stored on hard drives and attach them to the emails they spread with. The laboratory technicians at F-Secure found one of the variants (Bagle.AV) on a Web site accessed......
[more] Virus top 10: Can nothing stop Netsky? Pairs up with Zafi for double-headed virus dominance Zafi.B and Netsky.P have managed to notch up another month on top of the chart for the worst malware mischief-making.
According to infections reported to antivirus firm Sophos during October, Netksy.P - first sighted in March of this year - has taken the top spot with over 35 per cent of infections and Zafi-B - first spotted in June - follows up in second place with 28 per cent.
Both viruses have staye......
[more] IM virus hoax threatens bandwidth drain Remember those 'end of the world virus' hoaxes? Well guess what's found its way to IM... Instant messaging users are being blighted with an increasing number of threats of terrible viruses which are spreading via the popular peer-to-peer application. But just as email users were regular victims of hoaxes several years ago, so this latest scare is similarly fictitious.
One such hoax, propagated by well-meaning recipients who are urged to share the informat......
[more] Debating what is spyware Vendors and other observers say sorting out spyware from harmless programs will remain challenging, even with the use of anti-spyware software.
They suggest that users closely monitor use of peer-to-peer programs such as Grokster as potential sources. An underground spyware maker dubbed CoolWebSearch also is notorious for sneaking its software into computers via security holes, says Ben Edelman, a Harvard Law School student and Ph.D. candidate in economics, who has ap......
[more] Security experts trash Kazaa File-sharing app labelled as the net's biggest spyware threat Peer-to-peer program Kazaa is the number one spyware threat on the internet, according to Computer Associates.
According to the company's Pest Patrol research, Kazaa created a greater threat than other programs in its top five spyware list because of its widespread popularity. Kazaa claims that its sofware has been downloaded 214 million times.
CA gave Kazaa a high 'clot factor', its measure of how much......
[more] U.S. Universities Struggling with SSL-Busting Spyware Experts call Marketscore software a privacy threat. U.S. universities are struggling with a flare-up of dangerous spyware that can snoop on information encrypted using SSL (Secure Sockets Layer). Experts are warning that the stealthy software, called Marketscore, could be used to intercept a wide range of sensitive information, including passwords and health and financial data.
In recent weeks, information technology departments at a number......
[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] Sober virus crashes November party Old favourites still top of the virus pops The Sober-I worm has had a big impact on November's chart of most dangerous viruses and worms, according to security firm Sophos.
Although the worm was only detected on 19 November, it rapidly rose through the ranks to account for 20.4 per cent of all infections reported to Sophos. This made Sober-I the second most common virus after Netsky P.
More than one in five of all emails scanned contained some form of virus l......
[more] Top 10 "Most Unwanted" Spyware Named A security firm named the top 10 spyware threats last week week, saying that the secretly-installed software poses an "insidious" threat to consumers and corporations alike.
Webroot, which makes end-user and enterprise editions of Spy Sweeper, used its relationship with Internet service provider EarthLink to tally the most prevalent spyware, then selected the worst based on its knowledge of how each works and the damage it can cause.
"We use the P-I index,......
[more] Kazaa's spying potential revealed Witnesses in Australia's Federal Court have have said the the software 'could have been designed to spy on users' A witness in the ongoing civil trial against peer-to-peer software provider Sharman Networks has added weight to testimony last week that logs can be maintained to trace users who are exchanging unlicensed music online using the Kazaa software.
Professor Leon Sterling, chair of Software Innovation and Engineering for the Department of Computer Scien......
[more] Websense Announces Support for Microsoft Network Access Protection Technology Websense, the world’s leading provider of employee internet management solutions, today announced support for Microsoft’s new Network Access Protection (NAP) technology, a comprehensive architecture that provides IT administrators with secure management of client access to the network. Network Access Protection’s open architecture enables security technology vendors to deliver simple, comprehensive and secure manageme......
[more] Christmas worm speaks in many tongues Where's the early bird when you need it? A new worm with a Christmas message has been detected as it began spreading around the world this afternoon.
Zafi D, originally designed by Hungarian programmers, arrives with the subject line 'Happy Christmas'. However, the mutant version of the infection has become multilingual, appearing in English, Italian, Spanish, Russian, Swedish and several other languages.
Once the .pif, .cmd, .bat, .com or .zip file attach......
[more] Trojan WMVs download a dictionary of spyware Microsoft's rights management technology is already being sussed out by hackers, and the result is a pair of wmv files that instead of downloading licences to validate them, download a dictionary of spyware. PandaLabs says it has picked up copies of WmvDownloader.A and WmvDownloader.B. The files are in fact Trojan viruses and, with their .wmv file format, will trigger Windows Media Player into thinking they are the Windows Media video format.
If a u......
[more] Microsoft: No flaw in Media Player A set of video files available on peer-to-peer networks is piggybacking on Microsoft's antipiracy tools to trick viewers into downloading adware and spyware, security experts have warned. Spanish security company Panda Software warned earlier this week that several companies are apparently using Microsoft Media Player's digital rights management (DRM) tool to fool people into downloading spyware and viruses. The existence of the files was confirmed by Harvard......
[more] MyDoom mutant promises porn passwords A newly intercepted mutant of the MyDoom virus is spreading by promising access to password protected pornographic websites.
Once running the worm harvests email addresses from the infected machine and sends itself on using its own SMTP engine. It will also attempt to spread using peer-to-peer services like Kazaa.
The mutant leaves a Trojan program that will allow compromised computers to be controlled remotely by hackers.
"Like previous MyDooms, the lat......
[more] Latest Bagle mutant on the rampage Worm contains backdoor for hacker to execute arbitrary programs Security experts have today warned of a newly discovered Bagle mutant which is spreading in the wild from several countries.
Bagle.AY is similar to Bagle.AX in that it is polymorphic and arrives in emails with variable subjects and attachments. It also has peer-to-peer spreading capabilities.
Security firm F-Secure has warned that the worm also contains a backdoor that listens on TCP port 81. Thi......
[more] Movie industry gives parent’s spyware to look for MP3s The US Movie Association for America (MPAA) is sending out free Parent File Scan software that lets mom and dad in a wholesome US family sniff their kid’s computers for peer-to-peer programs.
It will also list all movie and music files the kids have on their hard drive. The software will tell you if the computer has copyrighted material and will instruct you to delete it.
The big idea is that all good parents will instantly delete the kid......
[more] Avoid the Valentine virus onslaught Lovelorn surfers need to be on their guard over the next few days as virus authors turn romantic in an attempt to infect computers.
According to anti-virus experts, Valentine's Day is a subject most often used by the creators of nasty email viruses to wreak havoc and infiltrate Inboxes.
As Valentine's Day approaches – Monday 14 - Sophos has already discovered two new viruses that bring loving greetings via email attachments and peer-to-peer networks.
The......
[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] Virus writers start new flame war Fatso.A squeezes onto hard drives with tirade at Bropia author A newly discovered worm has begun spreading in the wild, sparking what security experts warn could be another slanging match between rival virus writers.
The Fatso.A worm (also known as Crog and Sumom) spreads via MSN Messenger by sending an instant message with a URL that, when clicked, causes the PC to download the virus. It also spreads as a file on eMule peer-to-peer systems.
It contains a mess......
[more] Zombie networks implicated in ID theft According to researchers, the use of large networks of compromised machines to install spyware as well as send spam and carry out DoS attacks is increasing Botnets — otherwise known as zombie networks — collections of compromised computers controlled by a single person or group, have become more pervasive and increasingly focused on identity theft and installing spyware, according to a Honeynet Project report.
The report, released on Monday, summarises the......
[more] The Web, not email, poses the biggest security threat to systems To most companies, the perception is that the biggest threat to their users’ security continues to come from email and Spam. In today’s world, corporate communications systems are totally reliant on giving their employees Web access and email to conduct their business. Take away access to email and the Web for most employees, and they’d claim their productivity would fall. So the focus today of most IT security vendors and corpora......
[more] Do Google Ads Help Fund Spyware? A security researcher says Google's search-based ads play a part in browser toolbars that violate the company's stand against spyware and questionable download practices. Google's sponsored-link ads may have helped turn the world's best-known search engine into a financial powerhouse, but they also are coming under attack for contributing to spyware practices that undermine trust on the Web.
Anti-spyware researcher Ben Edelman this week criticized Google Inc. fo......
[more] Spyware, adware infects BitTorrent downloads BitTorrent users beware... Adware and spyware makers are using BitTorrent as a new distribution channel. According to observers of the trend, music and videos that hide applications which pop up ads on PC screens and track browsing habits are increasingly being offered for download on various BitTorrent websites.
BitTorrent has grown into one of the most widely used means of downloading files such as movies or software. Unlike peer-to-peer networks......
[more] New worm lures users with 'breaking news' The Kedebe-F e-mail worm spreads via e-mail or file-sharing networks Internet users alarmed over news of Michael Jackson's death or dark conspiracies behind the demise of Pope John Paul II should perhaps be more concerned that they received another new e-mail worm.
Researchers at security firm Sophos PLC warned today of the spread of the Kedebe-F e-mail worm, which carries a variety of subject headers and messages touting breaking news. However, users......
[more] Desktop port proliferation a security risk? Software maker Opera's decision to support BitTorrent has added to some security experts' worries that applications which require open connections through firewalls are becoming increasingly popular.
Last week, the Norwegian company revealed that its latest technical preview adds support for downloading BitTorrent files, or torrents. BitTorrent, a peer-to-peer protocol that speeds files sharing by allowing every client to serve up pieces of a large f......
[more] User downloads = spyware hell Spyware is costing companies $130,000 because they do not know what applications are being downloaded onto their networks, a survey has revealed The survey, of 600 IT managers and 1000 end users, shows applications such as IM, peer-to-peer connections and Skype are sneaking onto networks and bringing with them a host of problems.
"Users feel they have the right to introduce these things without realising the implications," said Frank Cabri, VP marketing at Facetime......
[more] Filter database ups web security Internet security specialist Websense has announced that its Master Database now holds details of one million executables to help firms protect desktops against web-based threats.
The database supports Websense's two desktop security systems - Client Policy Manager (CPM) and Security Suite-Lockdown Edition - to provide advanced filtering options to help firms secure desktops. It covers more than 50 categories of applications and executables, including malicious......
[more] Vista feature exposes beta machines Windows Vista beta testers have stumbled upon a networking feature in the operating system that could pose a security risk to them--but they say they're not worried. After installing the first beta release of the upcoming Windows client, some testers noticed suspicious network traffic to their machines. Concerned about a possible attack, these people last week contacted the SANS Internet Storm Center.
"There was very curious traffic that did not match anythi......
[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] Parents and employers targeted in anti-P2P drive 'Download our seek-and-destroy software and we won't tell on you' The music and film industries are giving people who have swapped songs and other copyrighted material over the internet a new way to repent for their illicit ways.
A free program released on Thursday, called Digital File Check, will uninstall or disable file-sharing programs on people's computers. The International Federation of the Phonographic Industry (IFPI), a London-based affi......
[more] Skype could pose security problems for companies, analysts say The growing popularity of Skype Technologies SA's free Internet telephony software could soon pose the same kind of security challenges for companies that other peer-to-peer (P2P) software technologies have created in recent years, according to security experts.
The warning comes after the disclosure this week of two critical flaws in Skype's software, one of which could allow malicious hackers to take complete control of compromi......
[more] AIM worm plays nasty new trick A worm found spreading via America Online's Instant Messenger is carrying a nastier punch than usual, a security company has warned. The unnamed worm delivers a cocktail of unwanted software, including a so-called rootkit, security experts at FaceTime Communications said Friday. A rootkit is a tool designed to go undetected by the security software used to lock down control of a computer after an initial hack.
"A very nasty bundle is downloaded to your machine" w......
[more] Websense Awarded Second Patent for Flexible Web Filtering Technology Websense, the world's leading provider of employee internet management solutions, today announced that the United States Patent and Trademark Office has granted the company U.S. patent 6,947,985, entitled "Filtering Techniques for Managing Access to Internet Sites or Other Software Applications." Awarded on September 20, 2005, the company's second patent for its flexible filtering technology covers several key areas of competi......
[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] Good worms back on the agenda A researcher has reopened the subject of beneficial worms, arguing that the capabilities of self-spreading code could perform better penetration testing inside networks, turning vulnerable systems into distributed scanners.
The worms, dubbed nematodes after the parasitic worm used to kill pests in gardens, could give security administrators the ability to scan machines inside a corporate network but beyond a local subnet, David Aitel, principal researcher of secur......
[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] Gartner warning on corporate use of IM Gartner is warning enterprises to prepare carefully before they leap into the murky waters of public instant-messaging services, and should look at using new federated systems from the likes of Microsoft and IBM.
Such services show that IM networks designed for consumers are penetrating ever-deeper into the enterprise, Gartner says. While it is useless to resist the trend, companies need to be aware of the additional security risks, nuisance and expense......
[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] Spyware Trail Leads to Kazaa, Big Advertisers The StopBadware.org coalition, funded by Google, has listed the Kazaa file-sharing application at the top of a list of noxious software programs that present a threat to business and consumer users. The coalition, which counts Sun Microsystems and Lenovo among its sponsors, will recommend in its inaugural Badware Report that users stay away from Kazaa and three other programs that can be combined with Trojans and bots for use in data theft attacks.......
[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] New IM, email bot creates own p2p network Email and instant messenger users are being warned about a new bot in the wild that creates a peer-to-peer (p2p) network of infected host PCs. The "Nugache" worm is spreading as both an email attachment and on AOL an MSN instant messenger (IM) networks, according to a warning from Websense Security Labs. "The command and control channel that is used is unique, as the bot appears to connect to infected peers instead of a static list,"......
[more] Killjoy Trojan deletes warez and smut Virus writers have created a Trojan that deletes illicit files from compromised Windows PCs in addition to harvesting data from infected machines.Erazer-A is spreading (albeit modestly) across P2P networks, where it poses as useful program files, or through chat programs.If executed, the malware scours folders used for P2P apps for AVI, MP3, MPEG, WMV, GIF, ZIP and other files. It then erases any porn, warez, music or any other matching file type found in P......
[more] Microsoft finds 60% infection rate in PCs Microsoft on Monday said that it found and removed malicious programs - called "bots" - from six out of 10 Windows computers checked during a recent 15-month period.The disclosure, announced in a report at the Tech Ed conference in Boston, is the strongest proof yet that bots are contaminating wide swaths of the Internet. Bots infect PCs with software that allows them to be controlled by an attacker to spread spam, attack websites or steal ide......
[more] KaZaa users warned of p2p worm Researchers are warning peer-to-peer (p2p) application users of a new proof-of-concept virus that acts similarly to the W97M/Melissa malware. The virus, MSH/Cibyz, which is based on Windows PowerShell, was released by members of the RRLF virus group, according to an advisory from McAfee. PowerShell is a command line shell and scripting language that runs on Microsoft XP, Windows Server 2003, Vista and Longhorn operating systems. The malware is a low risk to home an......
[more] Akonix A-Series offers complex, best-of-breed IM security The Akonix A-Series IM security appliances give enterprises control of instant messaging, a runaway app that can leave a yawning network security hole, and peer-to-peer traffic, a serious bandwidth hog and malware vector plaguing corporate networks. The A6000 we tested (the A1000 is aimed at SMBs) is enterprise-class hardware, with multiple network interface cards for clustering and a redundant hard drive. The A-Series runs AkOS, a propr......
[more] Enterprise version of Skype in works In an attempt to make its software more enterprise friendly, Skype is to introduce a beta version of its software with support for enterprise management functions within weeks. The update will allow system administrators to use standard Windows management tools to set how the Skype software connects to the Internet, or to disable any of half a dozen functions, including file transfers, said Skype's vice president of telecommunications and Skype for business,......
[more] Malicious Code is More Covert, Websense Report The Websense® Security LabsTM 2006 Semi-Annual Web Security Trends Report, which summarizes findings for the first half of 2006 and presents projections for the remainder of 2006. The report shows that the volume of attacks increased and malicious code became more covert, less recognizable and more targeted toward financial gain. Not only has malicious code become more sophisticated, but the infrastructure supporting its creation and spread has......
[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] Spam Trojan Installs Own Anti-Virus Scanner Veteran malware researcher Joe Stewart was fairly sure he'd seen it all until he started poking at the SpamThru Trojan-a piece of malware designed to send spam from an infected computer.The Trojan, which uses peer-to-peer technology to send commands to hijacked computers, has been fitted with its own anti-virus scanner-a level of complexity and sophistication that rivals some commercial software."This the first time I've seen this done. [It] gets......
[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] Enterprises beware: IM attacks break record, again The prevalence of instant messenger (IM) attacks has reached record numbers for the second consecutive month, an IM security firm announced this week. San Diego-based Akonix Systems said it monitored 88 types of IM attacks in October, one month after it tracked a previous record of 64 in September.The company identified a slew of new worms, including SOHANAD, Imaut, Pepa, Yaautoit and QUATIM. SOHANAD contained six variants and Imaut had fiv......
[more] Spammers gear up for pre-Christmas blitz Security report reveals sophisticated online tricks A sudden increase in spam has been identified in the latest security report issued today, as cyber-criminals gear up for a pre-Christmas blitz.Spammers are using new weapons to evade detection by conventional security software and increase their success rate, according to the October 2006 Intelligence report from security firm MessageLabs. One of these is a 'dropper' variant of the Warezov virus, w......
[more] Worm uses Real Media files to infect McAfee is warning of a new worm that modifies Real Media files and launches a malicious website without a user prompt. Once the page is open, the worm can spread over network drives and shared files to "download whatever the (malware) author wants to download," Craig Schmugar, threat researcher with McAfee Avert Labs, told SCMagazine.com on Wednesday.The worm initially infects a user's PC when he or she is duped into downloading an executable that s......
[more] Sophos protects Microsoft Windows Vista Integrated protection delivers security and control on Vista platform Sophos, a world leader in IT security, today announced a new version of Sophos Anti-Virus which fully supports the Microsoft Windows Vista operating system. Sophos's proactive protection delivers businesses with a complete defense against viruses, spyware, adware and potentially unwanted applications (PUAs).Sophos Anti-Virus for Windows 2000/XP/2003/Vista, version 6.5 includes:Protection......
[more] Akonix: IM attacks dip in November The number of new instant messenger (IM) attacks tracked by Akonix Systems in November dipped to 41, one month after eclipsing a record. The San Diego-based IM security firm monitored 88 attacks in October, which broke the previous record of 64 a month before.The November attacks - worms identified as SOHANAD, Geezo, Mandei, NotYou, Tellsky and Popwin - brought this year's total to 369, or a little more than one new attack per day, the firm reported in a news r......
[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] Half of pirated Vista is malware About half of the downloads claiming to be free versions of Microsoft's Vista operating system are actually malicious Trojan horse software, warned security vendor DriveSentry. With Vista's consumer launch just days away, hackers have been bombarding discussion boards with offers of "cracked" versions of Windows Vista, which are being distributed on peer-to-peer networks, said John Lynch, vice president of sales and marketing for DriveSentry. These pos......
[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] 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] Storm worm variant ignites e-mail virus deluge Thursday likely marked the largest proliferation of e-mail virus attacks in more than a year, according to security company Postini. Postini said that two variations of the Storm worm virus, which originally spread across the Internet in January, have quickly driven global virus levels 60 times higher than their daily average. E-mail users should be on alert for messages with "love"-related subject lines and an executable attachment that......
[more] Worst week for viruses in a year? The largest proliferation of email virus attacks in more than a year is likely to have occurred last Thursday, according to security company Postini.Postini said two variations of the Storm Worm virus, which originally spread across the internet in January, have quickly driven global virus levels 60 times higher than their daily average. Email users should be on alert for messages with "love"-related subject lines and an executable attachment that wou......
[more] Taking botnets down For many years, malware authors have been using the web to assemble infected computers into botnets (networks of malware compromised machines), and security professionals and law enforcement systematically work to take these botnets down. Malware authors have clear objectives: stealing personal information, sending spam, conducting distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks and other such criminal activity for profit. Increasing success in disabling botnets by security pro......
[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] 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] Rival malware gangs wage turf war Security researchers have uncovered evidence of a turf war between rival criminal enterprises connected to two of the most sophisticated malware toolkits in current use.Like competing gangs in the Mafia - for those who followed the HBO series The Sopranos, think the New York-based Lupertazzi crime family and its sometimes enemy the DiMeo crime family, which Tony Soprano ran from New Jersey - the malware groups are fighting for turf and control.But rather than c......
[more] Policeman sacked after P2P data leak A Japanese policeman has been sacked after the personal information of thousands of people relating to criminal investigations was leaked on to the internet from his computer. The officer, who worked for the Metropolitan Police Department in Tokyo, accidentally revealed the details via peer-to-peer (P2P) file-sharing software on his PC.He had allegedly installed the Winny file-sharing software on to his machine and was unaware that sensitive data was being ma......
[more] Net criminals shun virus attacks Hi-tech criminals have found novel ways to carry out web-based attacks that are much harder to spot and stop, warn security experts. Some cyber criminals have exploited file-sharing networks and popular webpages to attack targets. The malicious hackers have turned to these methods instead of going to the trouble of hijacking home PCs. Using these methods the hi-tech criminals have staged some of the biggest attacks security experts have ever seen. Attack pa......
[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] DOT Looks to Avoid Further P2P Leaks The U.S. Department of Transportation is taking several steps to prevent further exposure of internal information, after more than 90 agency documents were exposed on a peer-to-peer network. The documents were inadvertently exposed on a file-sharing network after the teenage daughter of a telecommuting DOT worker installed a P2P client on an agency PC containing the information. Daniel Mintz, the department's CIO, said the incident prompted the agency to qui......
[more] Fake e-cards signal massive DDoS attack Security researchers are reporting a sharp increase in the number of machines infected by the Storm Worm, prompting speculation that its authors, who so far have limited their activities to spam, intend to use it for more destructive purposes, such as launching massive denial of service attacks.In June and July, internet security provider SecureWorks counted 1.7m unique hosts carrying the Storm Worm, compared with just 2,817 from January to May, according......
[more] Did Patch Tuesday really kill Skype? Some are doubting Skype's claim that Microsoft's Patch Tuesday knocked its service offline for millions of users last week. Analysts and rivals said they were dubious of Skype's explanation that the voice-over-IP service's 48-hour outage was triggered by restarts after Microsoft's monthly security updates were delivered. "Why this particular Tuesday?" asked Doug Williams, an analyst with JupiterResearch. "That doesn't really fly." Skype's......
[more] Staff blamed for SME security breaches But is it a matter of policy? IT managers in small and medium sized businesses (SMEs) blame their fellow workers for online security breaches - despite the fact many SMEs still don't enforce web usage policies.More than a quarter of European SME IT managers said they believe company employees are responsible for security problems, according to research commissioned by security software company Websense.The most frustrating problem for IT managers is employe......
[more] IT managers: Staff to blame for security breaches IT managers within small and medium sized businesses (SMEs) blame employees for internet security breaches, despite many companies failing to implement online usage policies, new figures show. The study, which was commissioned by internet security firm Websense, found that more than a quarter of European SME IT managers believe their staff are ultimately responsible for online security breaches.However, less than half (47 per cent) of the IT mana......
[more] Don’t use Skype in your business says Microsoft Call quality is fine but your business information might go missing… Gurdeep Singh Pall, corporate vice president of Microsoft's Unified Communications Group told visitors to this week's VoiceCon conference in San Francisco not to use Skype, owned by eBay, in their enterprise. The call quality is fine, but a salesman who has built up customer contacts using his Skype ID could take that ID with him when he left for a competitor, Pall said. Commenti......
[more] SME surfers under threat Employees within SMEs freely surf the web for an average of two and a half hours a week, however less than half of SME IT managers admit to using web filtering software and security.According to research from vendor Websense, 66 per cent of SME employees trust their company has the correct security measures in place, without inquiring about them. Thirty one per cent of employees have used online credit card details, at work without having questioned the IT managers abou......
[more] Pfizer PCs used to relay Viagra spam Spammers have hijacked computers at drug manufacturer Pfizer, causing them to send junk emails advertising the company's product Viagra. At least 138 of Pfizer's IP addresses are being used to send the spam after being loaded with Trojan software, it emerged this week. Aside from Viagra, the spam advertises penis-enlargement drugs, fake Rolexes and shares, according to botnet-tracking company Support Intelligence, which said that those IP addresses have now b......
[more] OpenOffice bug hits multiple operating systems Security experts have discovered vulnerabilities in OpenOffice.org that could allow attackers to remotely execute code on Linux, Windows or Apple Mac-based computers. OpenOffice version 2.0.4 and earlier versions are vulnerable to maliciously crafted TIFF files, which can be delivered in an e-mail attachment, published on a Web site or shared using peer-to-peer software. The next version of OpenOffice (version 2.3) arrived on September 17 and is no......
[more] ABN Amro suffers p2p data breach A former employee of Citi's ABN Amro Mortgage group in the US leaked the personal information of more than 5,000 customers via a peer-to-peer (p2p) file-sharing network. The former employee reportedly compromised three spreadsheets containing more than 5,000 government issued numbers. Data-leak prevention vendor Tiversa traced the breach back to a Florida computer with BearShare software installed, according to an Associated Press report. The data was leaked from......
[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] Security expert: Storm botnet 'services' could be sold The owners of the Storm botnet, whose identities are as yet unknown, could be preparing to sell off the "services" of segments of the network, according to Joe Stewart, a researcher from managed security services company SecureWorks. Stewart claimed in a blog post on Sunday that the latest Storm variants now use a 40-byte key to encrypt their peer-to-peer traffic, meaning each node will only be able to communicate with nodes that use the sa......
[more] How many employees violate corporate IT policies? As many as 35% of workers have knowingly violated their corporate IT policies at least once, according to results of a study released this week. Between Aug. 23 and Sept. 6, MARC Research polled 301 U.S.-based workers in businesses with at least 100 employees about their corporate computer usage.The Information Systems Audit and Control Association, a Rolling Meadows, Ill.-based professional association that represents some 65,000 IT professiona......
[more] Banco Nacion of Argentina Selects Blue Coat Appliances to Control and Secure Web Communications Banco Nacion of Argentina, the country's leading bank with 643 sales points and 563,000 customers, has selected Blue Coat ProxySG appliances to provide Web security and policy control across the bank's Internet gateway to protect its internal network and enable it to comply with bank and credit card regulations. In addition, the bank aims to accelerate software applications and reduce bandwidth consum......
[more] Security policies? Workers ignore them, survey says It's one thing to have a companywide information security policy in place. But it's a whole different ballgame to get employees to actually follow the policies -- even those that are IT types. A startling number of technology professionals often knowingly ignore security policies or break them because they are unaware of them, according to a survey of more than 890 IT professionals by the Ponemon Institute LLC. "The key take-away is that......
[more] Nugache worm kicking up a botnet Storm Although the infamous Storm worm enters 2008 with a reputation as the world's most dangerous botnet, security experts say there's an up-and-comer called Nugache that could give it a run for its money. Nugache was first sighted about two years ago as a worm designed to work with chat protocols, says Paul Henry, vice president of technology evangelism at Secure Computing. As such, it did not propagate virulently. But last month, hackers believed to be ti......
[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] Sex beats romance, say security experts Romance is out and sex is in, according to security experts who said the Mega-Dik botnet has ousted the infamous Storm as the most prolific sender of spam. The Mega-D botnet, which offers discounted sexual enhancement pills to users, delivers a whopping 30 percent more spam than Storm, famous for delivering malicious Valentines cards. It is the largest botnet on record, according to security firm Marshal, and has exceeded Storm's highest spam output in Se......
[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] Hired gun blamed for business outage In the universe of denial-of-service attacks, 8,000 packets a second is not a lot. For video-content creation firm Revision3, however, that moderate flood of data was enough to overwhelm its network last weekend, preventing the firm from sending e-mail, displaying advertisements on its Web site, or serving up its shows to visitors, according to CEO and former journalist Jim Louderback. The denial-of-service attack -- of a variety known as a SYN flood -- targ......
[more] File-sharing breach at investment firm highlights dangers of P2P networks -- again Wagner Resource Corp. recently learned the hard way what Pfizer Inc. and many other companies have similarly discovered in the past: installing peer-to-peer file-sharing software on corporate computers is a bad idea. The Alexandria, Va.-based investment firm last week had to notify about 2,000 of its clients that their names, Social Security numbers and birthdates had potentially been exposed on the LimeWire P2P......
[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] Austrian official fuels Skype backdoor rumours Off the cuff remarks by Austrian government officials suggest that Skype conversations might be intercepted. Speaking at a recent meeting on lawful interception between ISPs and Austrian regulators, an unnamed "high-ranking" official at Austria's interior ministry said that listening into a conversation over Skype presented no particular problems, Heise security reports. The opinion contrasts with the view of Joerg Ziercke, president of Germany's Fe......
[more] Australia trials national net filters Is the Rudd government about to erect a Great Firewall of Australia - introducing a form of internet censorship that will infringe upon the freedom of computer users to browse the worldwide web? That is the concern of online civil liberties groups, as the Rudd government prepares plans for a field trial of internet service provider (ISP) filtering products, with a view to introducing them nationally. ISP filtering is the blocking of certain sites which the......
[more] Website-based malware hits all-time high The use of malware on websites to steal passwords and other sensitive information is rocketing, according to a new report from the Anti-Phishing Working Group. The number of URLs with hidden code for stealing passwords nearly tripled between July 2007 and July 2008, to a record high of 9,529, while the number of malicious-application variants hit a high of 442 in May, the APWG reported in its quarterly report issued this week. The increase is primarily d......
[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] Next-gen botnet armies fill spam void The demise late last year of four of the world's biggest spam botnets was good news for anyone with an email inbox, as spam levels were cut in half - almost overnight. But the vacuum has created opportunities for a new breed of bots, some of which could be much tougher to bring down, several security experts are warning. New botnets with names like Waledac and Xarvester are filling the void left by the dismantling of Storm and the impairment of Bobax, Rusto......
[more] Medical data leakage rampant on P2P network The risk of patient information disclosures on peer-to-peer (P2P) networks is much higher than if a health care worker loses a laptop or removable storage device, according to new Dartmouth College research. Dartmouth College business professor Eric Johnson has written a report called “Data Hemorrhages in the Health Care Sector” and plans to present his findings later this month at the Financial Cryptography and Data Security conference, J......
[more] Final countdown to Conficker 'activation' begins Security watchers are counting down to a change in how the infamous Conficker (Downadup) worm updates malicious code, due to kick in on Wednesday 1 April. Starting on 1 April, Windows PCs infected by the latest variant of the Conficker worm (Conficker-C) will start attempting to contact a sample of 50,000 pre-programmed potential call-home web servers from which they might receive updates, a massive increase on the 250 potential web server locale......
[more] Piracy law cuts internet traffic Internet traffic in Sweden fell by 33% as the country's new anti-piracy law came into effect, reports suggest. Sweden's new policy - the Local IPRED law - allows copyright holders to force internet service providers (ISP) to reveal details of users sharing files. According to figures released by the government statistics agency - Statistics Sweden - 8% of the entire population use peer-to-peer sharing.Popular BitTorrent sharing site, The Pirate Bay, is also base......
[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] Conficker: So what's the moral of the story? 1 April has come and gone and in the minds of many people the Conficker worm turned out to be a joke instead of the major internet security event that might have been envisioned. Was the hype good, or bad, and who is to blame? "I'm not sure what to think," said Bruce Schneier, chief security technology officer at BT. "In a sense, the whole Conficker thing just puts a name on a general problem." The problem is that there ar......
[more] Conficker begins stealthy update The Conficker worm has started to update infected machines with a mystery package of data. Computer security firms watching the malicious program noticed that it sprang into life late on 8 April. The activity on its update system delivered encrypted software to compromised machines. It is not yet clear what the payload contains. The Conficker virus variants are thought to be present on millions of PCs around the world. Spam connection The......
[more] Cheat sheet: Digital Britain Digital Britain. Sounds like a rubbish tech-themed comedy show. According to some of the more acerbic industry watchers, you may well be right. However, to put it a little more literally, Digital Britain is the government's grand plan for the UK's technological future. So who's in charge of this grand plan then?That would be Lord Stephen Carter, minister for communications, technology and broadcasting and the former head of communications watchdog Ofcom. Lor......
[more] Conficker.E set to self-destruct next week The latest version of Conficker is set to self-destruct next week according to security researchers. F-Secure, Trend Micro and SecureWorks are among those that believe Conficker.E - first spotted this April and probably created by the same attackers that since last fall let loose the Conficker.A through Conficker.C variants - has been designed to simply self-detonate on 5 May. "It will simply self-destruct," said Mikko Hypponen, chief researc......
[more] InfoSec 2009 at a glance Security remains a huge issue for businesses and consumers alike. Whether it be better ways of securing data or more effective passwords, the issues may be old but every year brings new solutions. The BBC news website has been on the floor at InfoSec 2009 to find some of the innovations on offer.LOCKING DATAThe Data Locker is a portable USB hard drive which also has a built-in keyboard. Designed by Origin Storage, the device was a year in the making and promises to s......
[more] Businesses losing fight against employee apps Enterprises are struggling to control the use of consumer applications within the workplace, despite the panoply of security tools being used within corporates. According to research from security start-up Palo Alto Networks, nearly half of all bandwidth within corporate environments is being consumed by personal applications such as YouTube, peer-to-peer filesharing and various other consumer applications. Peer-to-peer is a particularly frequent pro......
[more] DoS attacks threaten mobile networks Government denies plan, vows it is offering equal rights to patients Wireless network users are being threatend by a new generation of denial of service (DoS) attacks according to a leading researcher. Krishan Sabnani, vice president of networking research at Bell Labs, said that the latest wireless data network threats were the result of inherent weaknesses in Mobile IP, a protocol that uses tunnelling and complex network triangulation to allow mobile device......
[more] Researchers build auto-destruct code for personal data Researchers at the University of Washington have developed software that will automatically delete files like emails within a pre-set time limit. The Vanish software allows the user of any web-based service to encrypt a message, but instead of the user keeping the key, it is put into a global peer-to-peer (P2P) network for a specified time before disappearing, making it impossible to decrypt the message. "Today many people pick up the......
[more] Want to keep eavesdroppers out? HP researchers think they have the answer Two researchers for HP have created a browser-based darknet, an idea that could make it easier for businesses to keep eavesdroppers from finding out confidential corporate information. Darknets are encrypted peer-to-peer networks normally used to communicate files between closed groups of people. Most darknets require a certain level of technological literacy to set up and maintain, including taking care of the necessary......
[more] This website will self-destruct... Read it quick: this article will self-destruct in eight hours. Not really, of course - but soon, permanently vanishing web correspondence could be the next step in maintaining your privacy online. Emails, Facebook messages, and Google Docs can all be set to disappear into thin air by using new software developed by the University of Washington and called, appropriately enough, Vanish. "We wanted to create a system that would allow our data to self-destruc......
[more] Trend Micro slims down anti-virus systems Security vendor Trend Micro is looking to launch an anti-virus suite designed to keep computers running smoothly while still protecting them from malware. The company said that Internet Security 2010 will reduce the footprint of anti-virus software, allowing systems to run faster and with fewer interruptions. Erik Hutslar, director of consumer product management at Trend Micro, explained that the move addresses a common complaint that anti-virus softwar......
[more] New Wi-Fi spec will support peer-to-peer networking An emerging Wi-Fi specification is promising to allow users to directly link devices. Dubbed Wi-Fi Direct, the new specification allows systems to establish peer-to-peer connections and directly connect with other devices without the need for a Wi-Fi router. According to industry group Wi-Fi Alliance, the new specification is likely to be formally certified by the middle of next year and will support connections between desktops, notebooks, pr......
[more] Vendors scrambling to fix bug in Net's security Software makers around the world are scrambling to fix a serious bug in the technology used to transfer information securely on the Internet. The flaw lies in the SSL protocol, best known as the technology used for secure browsing on Web sites beginning with HTTPS, and lets attackers intercept secure SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) communications between computers using what's known as a man-in-the-middle attack. Although the flaw can only be exploited......
[more] Five ways to lose your identity (and wallet) this holiday season The holiday season is almost here, and even in a recession, huge numbers of people will likely be shopping online for gifts this year. The rush by shoppers to the Web makes the season a great time for online retailers. It's also a great time for hackers looking to steal data and money from the unwary millions expected to search for great deals online. The growth of holiday hackers has annually prompted security analysts, identity......
[more] Innovation: 'We need to talk about Facebook' It's time for IT to sit down with the board and talk about social media as a business driver. The Big Bang of social networks like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube was widely expected to remain within the consumer community. Surely businesses wouldn’t want to embrace these applications and services? For one thing, wouldn't productivity plummet as employees spent their days chatting away to their friends and families? For another, wouldn't allowing acces......
[more] File sharing networks top target for cyber criminals Cyber criminals are set to change their ways of working, according to security company Kaspersky Lab. . Secure content management solutions developer Kaspersky Lab has outlined the threats it expects to see in 2010 as a result of cyber criminal activity. Kaspersky Lab was expecting a rise in the number of global epidemics in 2009 but this year was marked by sophisticated malicious programs with rootkit functionality. Corporates and individual......
[more] Illegal file sharing still rife Illegal file sharing levels are still not declining despite a recent crackdown by the government, according to new research from British recorded music industry body the BPI. The firm interviewed over 3,000 UK respondents aged 16-54 and 1,012 said they were downloading or filesharing music on peer-to-peer networks or from other web sources. While levels of illegal file sharing remained pretty much the same throughout 2009, the BPI warned of an increase in the use......
[more] More attacks expected on Facebook, Twitter in 2010 Social-networking sites like Facebook and Twitter can expect more attention from cybercriminals in 2010, according to a new report released Tuesday by McAfee Labs. Also at risk are users of Adobe Systems products including Acrobat Reader and Flash. And move over Microsoft; the security firm predicts that Google's Chrome OS will "create another opportunity for malware writers to prey on users." The company also anticipates smarter and more dange......
[more] Conficker infections drop overnight People have one more reason to celebrate the new year, according to the Shadowserver Foundation: Nearly a million Conficker-infected computers have oddly disappeared overnight. On Jan. 1, the number of IP addresses showing signs of infection dropped by about 820,000, to 5.3 million, according to data from the Shadowserver Foundation and the Conficker Working Group. The drop continued the botnet's waning during the latter days of December: On December 29, IP a......
[more] Almost 2,500 firms breached in ongoing hack attack Criminal hackers have penetrated the networks of almost 2,500 companies and government agencies in a coordinated campaign that began 18 months ago and continues to steal email passwords, login credentials, and other sensitive data to this day, a computer security company said. The infections by a variant of the Zeus botnet began in late 2008 and have turned more than 74,000 PCs into remote spying platforms that have siphoned highly proprietary......
[more] FTC warns nearly 100 firms of P2P data leaks In what appears to be a warning shot, the Federal Trade Commission has sent out letters to about 100 companies, informing them about sensitive and confidential data from their networks being found on publicly available peer-to-peer networks. The letters stem from an FTC investigation during which the agency discovered numerous examples of health-related information, financial records, driver's license and Social Security numbers, and other data leaked......
[more] Universities protest against government wi-fi plans Libraries and universities are protesting about plans to make them police users of wireless networks. The government's Digital Economy Bill includes plans to make them responsible for what is done over free wi-fi. The plans imply that libraries, universities and cafes offering free wireless will be responsible if people use it to pirate movies and music.Bodies representing universities want the law clarified so they are not hit with big bills......
[more] Overlooked online threats There's the danger you know, and then there's the danger you don't know. Most of us are rightfully wary of downloading and running programs that have no pedigree, or of performing day-to-day operations as an administrative user. But with each passing year, new security threats march in to eclipse the old, many of them not getting their share of attention until it's too late. Threats go unappreciated for various reasons. Some seem too obscure or unlikely to be valid unt......
[more] Healthcare, financial firms no strangers to P2P A sampling of traffic at 347 global organizations shows a total of 741 applications in use, with healthcare and financial services firms as likely as any other industry to have users engaged in dangerous peer-to-peer file transfers, according to a six-month study released Tuesday. "The Application Usage and Risk Report," published by Palo Alto Networks, is an evaluation of the application usage data that's generated on the first three d......
[more] Why Employees Break Security Policy (And What You Can Do About It) It happens every day: an employee who's out of the office wants to get into his machine at work. Instead of using a more secure method, he decides to email some files to his home machine, or upload a file to Facebook, or use a popular PC file sharing tool. And the next thing you know, your organization is dealing with a major data leak. Despite years of education and training, many enterprise end users still don't understand th......
[more] Single group did 66% of world's phishing A single criminal operation was responsible for two-thirds of all phishing attacks in the second half of 2009 and is responsible for a two-fold increase in the crime, a report published this week said. The Avalanche gang is believed to have risen out of the ashes of the Rock Phish outfit, which by some estimates was responsible for half the world's phishing attacks before fizzling out in late 2008. Driving the success of both groups is their use of state......
[more] The biggest botnets: Is your PC part of one? There are hundreds of botnets, ad hoc networks of Windows PCs that are infected with one or more programs to let them do the bidding of their controllers, some are far more trouble than others. While you can't afford to ignore any botnet threat, here are some of the worst of the worst. "When it comes to botnets, size does matter," said Scott Emo, head of endpoint solutions at Check Point, a network security company. That's because "the......
[more] Palo Alto Offers 'Read Only' Facebook Access Network security vendor Palo Alto Networks announced Tuesday that its firewalls can now control which groups of users have access to specific Facebook functionality -- reading, posting, chatting, sending messages, using apps, or other plug-ins -- as well as when. Furthermore, any Facebook activity can also be scanned to ensure that data doesn't contain confidential information and to ensure it's not part of an unfolding security incident, such as a......
[more] Pirate Bay founding group disbands The Swedish anti-copyright group Piratbyran, which gave rise to the popular file-sharing website The Pirate Bay has disbanded. Marcin de Kaminski, a founder of Piratbyran, which means "piracy bureau" in English, told BBC News "we don't feel we are needed" any more. But the group also decided to close following the death of a co-founder.A spokesperson for the Swedish computer games industry said the decision showed "the discussion has moved on".Piratb......
[more] Zeus botnet thriving despite recent arrests The Zeus botnet remains a robust network that is difficult to destroy despite an international sting operation that saw dozens arrested this week for allegedly stealing money from online bank accounts. Zeus is an advanced piece of malicious software that can intercept online banking details and initiate money transfers. It can infect computers that have software with coding flaws that have not been fixed. Law enforcement officials arrested more than 10......
[more] Six enterprise security leaks you should plug now The Titanic was thought to be unsinkable, a testament to the engineering prowess of its day and the fact that luxury liners rarely collided with massive icebergs. In modern enterprises, there's a similar perception of invulnerability. Yet, for every large organization that glides through the year without any mishaps, there are many stories about perilous break-ins, Wi-Fi sniffing snafus and incidents where Bluetooth sniper rifles were used to ste......
[more] Three quarters of downloads illegal claims BPI A recent study estimates that more than three quarters of music downloads in the UK are illegal. UK music industry group BPI said that a recent study it conducted found that many users continue to obtain music files from peer-to-peer networks and other illegal music sources. The study estimated that as many as 7.7 million people in the UK obtained music illegally in 2010. The figure represents roughly 28.8 per cent of the total UK internet populatio......
[more] Waledac botnet wakes up in 2011 with new run of pharmaceutical spam A new variant of the Waledac botnet has reappeared, with pharmaceutical spam being distributed. The botnet reappeared at the end of 2010, sending out a New Year themed spam email where a URL in the email asks the recipient to download a fake Adobe Flash player, however this campaign ended on January 4. The new pharmaceutical campaign also uses redirections via compromised legitimate sites with the links not just sending the user......
[more] Security Manager's Journal: Security that doesn't get in the way I was on the road last week, attending the RSA security conference in San Francisco, which is a great place to run into colleagues. Afterwards, I visited Disneyland, which, despite being in the same state, is surprisingly far away. What do these places have in common? Security. At the RSA conference, I saw a lot of people I know, which made me realize how much the information security field has grown and matured. In years past, you......
[more] Government mulls UK net controls The government is talking to ISPs about blocking access to websites deemed to help people infringe copyright. With the help of ISPs and content makers it has set up a working party to see how such a pro-active blocking system would work. Discussions about the site blocking system emerged in a letter sent to the Open Rights Group (ORG). The ORG said site blocking was a "bad idea" that could overstep laws set up to police copyright infringement. Backdoor......
[more] EU official states ISP content filtering may be illegal A legal case against Belgian internet service provider (ISP) Scarlet has thrown up a legal opinion from an advocate general of the European Court of Justice (ECJ), saying that content filtering could be a breach of EU rights. Pedro Cruz Villalón published the opinion during a case brought against Scarlet by the Belgian Society of Authors, Composers and Publishers. The organisation is seeking a court order for the ISP to either instal......
[more] Net pirate monitoring firm hacked A firm employed by the French government to track down net pirates has been hacked. Trident Media Guard is believed to have exposed a range of data, including advice on how to avoid detection. TMG monitors peer-to-peer networks as part of France's efforts to find those guilty of copyright infringements. Eric Walter, head of the French anti-piracy unit, confirmed on Twitter that it had "temporarily suspended" links with TMG.France's so-called HADOPI law......
[more] Netflix dominates US net traffic Movie and TV streaming site Netflix is now the single biggest source of internet traffic in the US, according to research. The data, gathered by network monitoring firm Sandvine, showed that in March the site accounted for 29.7% of downstream traffic at peak times. That is more than web browsing and peer-to-peer file sharing. Experts warned that as the trend grows, internet service providers will face costly upgrades to satisfy demand.Even at off peak times Netfl......
[more] Security researchers discover 'indestructible' botnet More than four million PCs have been enrolled in a botnet security experts say is almost "indestructible". The botnet, known as TDL, targets Windows PCs and is difficult to detect and shut down. Code that hijacks a PC hides in places security software rarely looks and the botnet is controlled using custom-made encryption. Security researchers said recent botnet shutdowns had made TDL's controllers harden it against investigation.The......
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