Among all of the New Year's normal ebb and flow, predictions for the upcoming year are ubiquitous. More than a couple of these predictions proclaim that 2010 will be “The Year of the Sandbox”.
Basic Security tips part 3 – update your software
It has become more and more difficult to identify malicious links and content on the Internet. URL shortners, ads on legitimate websites , virus downloads posing as anti-virus software and of course fake e-cards all make it harder to know where you should and should not click Having a strong network security product in place will of course prevent the installation of malicious code on our computer even if you click on one of these links
Having your computer compromised could cost more than your personal information
At this point most people who use the web understand what can happen if their computer is infected by a virus, spyware or other malicious content.
Apples can be infected too!
One of the Apple's marketing lines for Macs has been that they do not suffer from the same virus infections that PCs have. This clearly has nothing to do with Macs being more stable than PCs, it is because fewer people own Macs than own PCs. Cyber-criminals are looking to infect as many machines as possible because this is how they create profit
The Public Cloud
I listen to NPR basically every time I'm in the car. Normally this gives me an ok sense as to what the rest of the world is thinking about. One show I am able to listen to regularly is “On Point”.
Prevolence of Botnets and Their Zombies Encourages Spam
Dark Reading published an article titled ” Booming Underground Economy Makes Spam A Hot Commodity, Expert Says ” regarding the ease of using botnets for spam activity and how this makes spamming profitable. Some of the more startling statistics show that “For about $10, [a spammer] can send a million emails”. Even if 2 people order a product that they are selling for $10, that's a 100% profit over the cost of the use of the botnet.
How to protect your network from cyber-attacks
There are three measures network administrators can take to avoid the types of network attacks that plagued US and South Korean websites including www.whitehouse.gov, NASDAQ, NYSE, Yahoo!'s financial page and the Washington Post. The three areas to focus on are network based mitigation, host based mitigation and proactive measures. Network based mitigation: Install IDS/IPS with the ability to track floods (such as SYN, ICMP etc.) Install a firewall that has the ability to drop packets rather than have them reach the internal server.
Google Chrome OS and Some Words On Hype
THE HYPE With the announcement of the upcoming Google Chrome OS, Google is adding some hype to the mix. Google is boldly stating that they are “going back to the basics and completely redesigning the underlying security architecture of the OS so that users don't have to deal with viruses, malware and security updates.