Today’s Washington Post shows how aggressive the Chinese have been in probing US systems and interests. There have been reports in the past that the Chinese have trained North Koreans in advanced hacking techniques. South Korea and the US experienced DDoS attacks last summer that originated in North Korea. There have also been numerous reports about repeated hacks and probes into US government networks with many of them being successful in extracting sensitive information.
Attempting to even the playing field
These state run hackers are fighting on a new front to try to level the “playing field” in the event that a shooting war breaks out. The US has the most technologically advanced military in the world. The thought is that if China, North Korea or another enemy can disrupt US military networks and critical infrastructure systems then it may give them a better chance of fighting against the US.
A flurry of preparation
Last month there were reports that NASA’s IT systems lacked thorough security systems. There is a report from yesterday that the Department of Interior failed a recent cybersecurity audit. Rod Beckstrom quit the US cybersecurity post he had been in for a few months due to political infighting. Obama has yet to name a replacement even though he has promised it is a priority of his. Department of Homeland Security and the NSA are spending huge sums of money to increase their staff and datacenters.
About Mailprotector
Mailprotector provides protection from the Chinese, North Koreans and other hackers that want to access your email systems. We block spam, viruses, Trojans, phishing attacks and other email borne malware from getting to your users and disrupting their vital communications. It’s easy to get started (and affordable too).
Today marks the 26th birthday of the computer virus. On November 10th 1983 Fred Cohen, a University of Southern California graduate student, provided a proof-of-concept during a security seminar at Lehigh University. 26 years later the computer virus is still going strong.
My first virus
I recall my first computer virus experience, “Melissa“, back in 1999. I was working for another company in London at the time and we started getting lots of email with the same subject line from multiple European and far eastern affiliates. Before long, many of our users were sending loads of email out that they never initiated. Our network admin “pulled the plug” on our local Exchange server until he could resolve the issue. I called our US headquarters to give them a heads-up but they still had numerous users opening and infecting their mail systems. That was a wake up call and dealing with email-borne malware provided an experience that I’ll never forget.
My how you’ve grown!
Email malware has gotten a lot nastier since then. It presents huge problems for users and admins. Computers can be hijacked and used for nefarious purposes. Information can be stolen and bank accounts drained. The FBI has released a warning about the threat to online cyber fraud. Some figures estimate cyber fraud losses to be upwards of $100 million year-to-date.
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Mailprotector’s services have been squashing spam, viruses, Trojans, phishing attacks and other email-borne malware for nearly 10 years. It’s affordable, easy to set up and simple to use.
Security researchers recently found a Trojan that uses Facebook to communicate with its command and control server. The Trojan malware is being spread via e-mail through “documents (PDF, or MS Office formats) containing exploits for known vulnerabilities,” writes Andrea Lelli, a security analyst with Symantec Security Response. The malware works by contacting the mobile version of Facebook and using its Notes section.
Clues in the title
By analyzing the Trojan’s code, Lelli found that the Trojan will perform four different actions, depending on the notes’ titles that are found. If the title is Wells, the note will contain the timedate stamp for when a machine was infected. If it is WebServer, however, the note will contain a URL to be contacted from which the Trojan will receive commands, Lelli wrote.
“The real command and data processing is done through the remote URL that was received from the notes, and this URL may point anywhere,” Lelli blogged. “However … one could use a Facebook account as a C&C [command and control] server and this Trojan is able to successfully parse the Facebook html data, retrieve the wanted data from it, and also post new data to it (it may for example send stolen data to it in the form of a note in the same [way] as it sends a timedate stamp).”
The flipside
Social networks have been used to help control malware in the past. In August, Arbor Networks researcher Jose Nazario uncovered a botnet using Twitter to communicate with its army of compromised machines.
About Mailprotector
Mailprotector’s services prevent Trojans, viruses, spam, phishing attacks and other email borne malware from getting to your inbox and spreading havoc throughout your email infrastructure.
Senator Joe Lieberman recently announced the opening of a new Cyber Center. Homeland Security spent about $9 million for the new center. It will help better coordinate the government’s response to cyber attacks. Senator Lieberman, chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Government Affairs Committee, said legislation being drafted by his committee will require federal agencies and private companies to set up a system to share information on cyber threats.
Government lags in cyber security
The feds are playing catch up when it comes to cyber security. There have been numerous reports about coordinating efforts at various agencies to better protect the U.S. critical government and critical infrastructure. Obama has been attempting to hire a Cyber Security Czar but has been turned down by numerous executives.
About Mailprotector
Mailprotector has been providing email security for customers for nearly 10 years. It didn’t take an act of Congress to get the ball rolling either. Just an abundance of annoying junk email flooding our inboxes gave the inspiration to put a stop to that nonsense. If you’re tired of waiting on Congress, Obama and the rest of the U.S. government to get started then join us in the good fight. Mailprotector will provide protection from spam, viruses, Trojans, phishing attacks and other email borne malware from getting to your inbox.
Facebook won a victory against a notorious spammer on October 29th when a federal judge awarded them $711 million. The judge found the spammer Sanford Wallace guilty of violating the Can-Spam Act as well as a restraining order. Wallace and two others used phishing sites and other methods to take control of Facebook accounts to use in their spamming operations.
Not the first lawsuit for “Spam King”
Sanford Wallace is better known as “Spam King” and “Spamford”. He’s been sued numerous times for spam and spyware related damages. Facebook attorney Sam O’Rourke was cautious about the win:
Facebook happy with outcome
“While we don’t expect to receive the vast majority of the award, we hope that this will act as a continued deterrent against these criminals,” blogged O’Rourke, Facebook’s lead counsel for litigation and intellectual property. “Most notably, the judge referred Wallace to the U.S. Attorney’s Office with a request that Wallace be prosecuted for criminal contempt, which means that in addition to the judgment, he now faces possible jail time. This is another important victory in our fight against spam. We will continue to pursue damages against other spammers.”
About Mailprotector
Mailprotector’s services help mitigate “Spam King’s” ways by blocking spam, spyware, phishing, Trojans, viruses, and other email borne malware to your inbox.
According to a recent GAO report NASA suffered hundreds of security incidents in 2007 and 2008, including malware infections, data breaches, stolen laptops and bot nets. NASA was affected by more malware than any other federal agency and reported 1,120 security incidents during this two year span. Some of the laptops that were stolen contained unencrypted data for the prototype hypersonic jet (the X-51 scramjet) and test plans related to a space telescope and lunar orbiter. 82 agency computers became part of a Ukraine-based bot net after they were infected with rootkits.
Situation is improved, but gaps in security remain
The US Computer Emergency Readiness Team urged the space agency to implement more effective patching and to better train employees regarding cyber security. Despite the warning NASA still found a number of machines infected with the Coreflood Trojan. It can steal user credentials then communicate with a hostile command and control server. NASA has taken steps to address incident response and improve cyber security practices. The GAO still cites gaps. “”NASA remains vulnerable to similar incidents going forward,” the report finds. “Control vulnerabilities and program shortfalls make it possible for intruders, as well as government and contractor employees, to bypass or disable computer access controls and undertake a wide variety of inappropriate or malicious acts.”
Security should continue to tighten
The GAO made numerous recommendations. NASA deputy administrator Lori Garver agreed with them. “Deficiencies with IT security are often a result of systemic issues in the management of IT,” she said. “To this end, NASA continues to implement improvements in IT management, adhering to [a] previously developed strategy for providing an integrated, secure, and efficient IT environment that supports the NASA mission.”
User awareness key to any effective cyber security program
People need to understand the risks of opening spam attachments or visiting links embedded in spam. Mailprotector’s services help to mitigate these types of events. Our email security services protect users from Trojans, viruses, phishing, and other email-borne malware. Mailprotector is easy – you don’t need to be a rocket scientist to use it.
Happy National Cyber Security Awareness Month!
gaps
by Ben Hathaway on June 25, 2009
The Security Essentials Pack is Microsoft’s most recent effort to improve the security of their operating system. This is Microsoft’s replacement for the Windows Live OneCare software which was discontinued months ago. And while the OneCare software was fairly cheap, the Security Essentials Pack is free. The features will include key security tasks such as fighting viruses, rootkits and other malware. However, it will not provide any firewall or spam protection.
Lets hope the performance of the Security Essentials Pack is better than OneCare. While OneCare might have been protecting your computer, it also performed so poorly that you could definitely tell that it was there. Security software like this should be lightweight enough that you can set it up and forget that it is even there and it just does its job.
Microsoft is also doing the right thing with the Security Essentials Pack by allowing it to tap into the potential of cloud-base services. Most security software applications are stuck in the days of periodically downloading updated virus definitions. Microsoft Security Essentials will share information with the cloud-based Microsoft Dynamic Signature Service which should allow the software to always be aware of the latest threats as well as whitelist information in order to prevent false positives. They are not the first antivirus software to utilize the cloud but it is certainly a welcomed addition to any security software that relies on being up-to-date in order to be fully effective.
PandaLab’s released its free cloud-based antivirus thin-client to public beta today.
It consists of a lightweight antivirus agent that is connected in real-time to PandaLabs’ Collective Intelligence servers to protect faster against the newest malware variants while barely impacting PC performance.
This is a fresh approach to antivirus software. They built a lightweight antivirus application instead of the usual antivirus application that hogs system resources in order to protect your computer. However, the lightweight feature is not the most intriguing part of this but rather the cloud-based approach. This allows your system to always be protecting against the latest threats.
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