Posts tagged hackers
5 reasons why SOPA has to die
Jan 22nd
If you are wondering what SOPA is then you probably didn’t Wikipedia last week when it shutdown in protest. SOPA is a bill which the UScongress wanted to pass and it stands for Stop Online Piracy Act (SOPA).
It sounds harmless enough, after all we all want to stop piracy…don’t we! While we are against piracy we certainly aren’t against FREE SPEECH and SOPA takes it too far suggesting a China like authoritarian rule where record labels and cable companies have the power to shut down website because of alleged piracy acts, no matter how small the piracy act is….it may be as simple as you uploading a video of you and your family at a family bar-b-que with Lady Gaga playing in the background. You may be in violation and your website may be shut down.
Still not convinced, here are 5 reasons why SOPA needs to die…
3 awesome security tips for 2012
Jan 3rd
by Claudiu Popa
Everything I’m reading these days indicates that hacking and malware infections are going to increase in 2012. I don’t need to provide references here because everything you’re reading does too. Yet all the software you need to secure computers, both corporate and personal, is available for free. There’s everything from scanning and blocking to diagnosing and disinfecting the computing devices you depend on.
Claudiu Popa
So how come we’re poised for continued growth in data theft and general cyber-mischief?
In short, you’re the weakest link. If it weren’t for you, your computer would have a much higher chance of leading an infection-free existence, gracefully growing old and slowly descending into obsolescence. Instead, you may hear yourself thinking out loud: “it was fast at the beginning, but now it’s so slow I’m thinking of getting a new one”. This platform-independent mantra is no doubt very depressing for laptops and smartphones to overhear and even the shiny new tablets, smug in their reliance on a firmware-based operating system, aren’t too far behind.
What are your options? Panic? Trade in your new tablet for a stone tablet? Pester the one social recluse in your family with open-ended questions?
The latter is always a good idea (although you can’t go wrong with the first two either). Make sure you corner him (it’s always a ‘he’) at the family party this holiday season and don’t let him take another sip of the eggnog until he makes an effort to put his answers into plain English. Pull up a chair, make him feel special, for once!
Stone Tablet
In the failing case, here are three (because no one can really retain more than that anyway) tips for you to better understand computing security in general, and in particular over the next few months, as the reliance on technical attacks on all platforms (not just on mobile devices, PCs, or ‘in the cloud’) gives way to plain old abuses of trust). At the very least, you’ll sound smarter about this stuff, so here’s some sage advice:
1. Sometimes things that increase convenience may increase your security risk
Just one example: URL shorteners. These handy little tools (aside from the fact that they build clickthrough statistics) may send you to malicious destinations and may contribute to the security problems that plague social networking sites. So click wisely.
2. Sometimes it’s better to focus on the things that go out of your computer
We’re on the Internet for a reason: to explore and access information. Each click is a request, an a consensual invitation, an implied permission and an open door to receiving information. So when that response happens to be malicious, it’s difficult to see exactly what it’s doing inside your computer, but it’s relatively easy to block unauthorized software from ‘calling home’ and initiating outbound connections of its own. So look for personal firewalls with egress filtering and be cautious about approving connection requests.
3. Sometimes things that protect your privacy may decrease your security
You know that little ‘lock’ icon everyone tells you to look for when completing online purchases? And the ‘secure tunnel’ your IT guy tells you about when installing your remote access VPN into the office (so you can be ‘productive‘ from home, naturally)? Those are great things. They protect the confidentiality of the data that you exchange with the big bad Internet, and also serve to protect your privacy. But they also make it next to impossible for security tools to inspect data traffic, see malicious code and the details of hacking attacks as they come and go. So use with caution, and appreciate that once encrypted, both good and bad data is protected from prying eyes (and be sure to have a memory resident scanner to detect the latter just before or immediately after scrambling).
Enjoy 2012 and if you know someone who could use the information, don’t hesitate to suggest this blog.
Hardening LinkedIn for privacy protection:
Nov 15th
The 12 settings that could impact your professional image
by Claudiu Popa
With the introduction of LinkedIn’s new settings page this year, the company also took the opportunity to make some changes to its Privacy Policy.
Since the expansive document’s 29 pages would put even the most troubled insomniac into a deep slumber, the company conveniently provided a summary which hints at the different ways it seeks to monetize its service and in some ways emulate Facebook’s much maligned model.
Claudiu Popa
Instead of stringing together 7415 words however, the latter prefers to describe its privacy-related practices through a series of nested pages that branch off an initial six sections. You get the idea. Six of one, half a dozen of the other. But enough of that. I plan to send you on your way with something you can actually use. Read the rest of this entry »
3 tips to revitalize Anonymous
Aug 8th
By Robert McMillan
Has the Anonymous movement reached a midlife crisis?
Individuals appearing in public as Anonymous, wearing the Guy Fawkes masks popularized by the comic book and film V for Vendetta
There’s no question that the loosely confederated collective has gained members and attention over the past year, for computer attacks on PayPal, Sony, and government contractor HB Gary Federal, and for the erratic cyber-rampage carried out by its sister group, LulzSec. But maybe the group needs to grow up a bit in order to get its message across. Read the rest of this entry »
Cutwail botnet raising spam levels once more
May 12th
There has been a recent increase in the amount of malicious email traffic detected by MessageLabs Intelligence despite a continuous decrease in the actual number of spam mail distributed.
The decrease in spam is due in large part to the takedown of Rustock, the largest spamming botnet, in March. So what accounts for this increase in malware traffic?
Paul Wood
An investigation by MessageLabs Intelligence revealed that this increase is at least due in part to the Cutwail botnet.
Catastrophic Playstation breach: Inventory of what you may have lost
Apr 28th
By Claudiu Popa
For the past few days, we’ve been privy to tidbits of information about the recent PlayStation Network breach (heretofore known as the PSN Breach) often dismissive and always shrouded in a certain aura of non-seriousness due to its status as an entertainment industry fixture. Indeed, breaches of government records, personal health information and financial data garner a vastly more pronounced knee-jerk reaction of shock and awe.
Claudiu Popa
By now millions of people are in receipt of a carefully worded letter, written using recycled electrons and no doubt a gazillion internal revisions. By many accounts, some 77 million members of the PlayStation(R) Network have had their information compromised by Sony and Qriocity. Far be it of these companies to acknowledge the existence of organized crime on the Internet, they indicate that “an unauthorized person” has obtained the following information. In other words, “dear loyal customer, we failed to protect the data you entrusted with us and the following information of yours is in the custody of a criminal”. Read the rest of this entry »
Chinese hackers: the root of all evil, or an obvious scapegoat?
Apr 8th
By Claudiu Popa
The Chinese are apparently after our law firms now. They weren’t content to hack Google and the Pentagon. After those hacking attempts on our federal government’s Finance and Treasury Board (considered to have been two of the most secure) departments, denied any wrongdoing.
Claudiu Popa
And now they’ve set their sights on a notoriously low tech industry. But of course, their government vehemently denies it. The nerve! Read the rest of this entry »
Canadians choose WikiLeaks as tech news story of the year
Dec 21st
Julian Assange might be runner-up to Mark Zuckerberg for Time’s venerable Person of the Year, but he is top choice by Canadians as the tech story of the year, according to a new poll.
ITBusiness.ca asked members of Delvinia’s AskingCanadians panel what they thought the top tech story of the year was. We narrowed it down for them to five different choices; WikiLeaks triggers a “cyber war”, Apple releases, Governments threaten BlackBerry ban, Google’s Street View cars steal Wi-Fi data, or Dalai Lama’s computer compromised by Chinese hackers. WikiLeaks was the overwhelming top choice with 52.8 per cent selecting it as story of the year, and Apple’s iPad was the runner-up with 25.6 per cent.
Security Predictions for 2011
Dec 17th
On December 7, we released our MessageLabs Intelligence 2010 Annual Security Report which highlighted the changes in the threat landscape during 2010 and looked ahead to potential trends for 2011. This blog is a snap shot of some of the trends and predictions noted in the report.
Global Spam Trends
In 2011, spam will become more culturally and linguistically diverse. The use of English in spam will fall from approximately 95 per cent of all spam to below 90 per cent driven by economic growth and broadband adoption in emerging economies. For instance, spammers will target Brazil with more than 40 percent of spam in Portuguese. Portuguese and Spanish will become some of the most popular languages used in spam other than English.
It’s mostly tricks not treats with Halloween online ads
Oct 24th
Halloween is drawing near, so the spammers are busy laying out bait in the form of Halloween jackpots, sweepstakes, gift cards, e-cards, personalized gifts, online contests, and even print products and costumes. 
Perhaps this is one of those seasons during which people—both young and old—celebrate with full gusto.
Unfortunately, this type of popular event brings with it a whole host of malicious circumstances on the Internet that people are being enticed to fall for. For it is common knowledge that where people show some vulnerability, spammers are not far behind!
