In this third and final part of our article series about risk factors, we will examine Human attack factors and Physical factors.
The previous article discussed different procedures and systems that could be invoked in order to mitigate risk. In subsequent parts we will examine areas at risk, starting with Electronic factors.
The aim of this type of initial risk analysis is to identify potentially vulnerable points that may be exploited if they are not sufficiently secured.
The ease involved in creating QR codes that links to web pages implies that this will be a popular way to facilitate the propagation of malware for mobile devices.
Computers do what they are told. This may result in consequences that are funny as well as dangerous.
You should exercise extreme caution if you are allowing access to your social network account from any application.
Since the cybercriminals seem to shift from randomly directed mass attacks to more focused attacks, the total volume of spam will decrease.
It is almost impossible to protect completely against a targeted cyberattack against an organization.
Even organizations, which presumably are more security conscious than most, have vulnerabilities that may be exploited by an attacker who has sufficient resources and determination at her disposal.
The web site (usually an infected site) that displays the message checks the browser visiting the site, and displays a warning message similar to the browser's real warning.
Recent weeks have shown that images are used as a malware spreading technique; particularly images that appear after performing a Google image search.
Do not rely on any file attachment or file on any device to be safe based on its file name.
Users of the operating system Mac OS X have so far been quite safe from malware infections compared to those who have chosen Windows as the operating system platform.
Blocked access to important information - particularly if adequate backup routines are not in place - may be disastrous for the person who becomes the victim of ransomware.
In previous security articles, we discussed the fact that cybercriminals use big events to spread malware. Not surprisingly - nevertheless disgusting - the recent events in Japan have inspired shameless exploitations by cybercriminals.
In our security article last week, we discussed cybercriminals who targeted financial institutions in an indirect way. However, the major bulk of malware aimed at the finance sector puts the finance sector's customers at peril. One obvious reason is that the average end user's system presumably is less secure than the systems used by the financial sector.
During the last weekend, The Wall Street Journal published information that intruders had penetrated computer systems controlled by the company that runs the U.S. Nasdaq Stock Market. Nasdaq handles around 19% if all stock trading in the U.S. The trading system itself should not have been compromised.
Advertisements (ads) on the web have become part of a multi-billion industry. These days it is almost impossible to read news on the web without being overwhelmed by a plethora of ads for everything from cars to diapers. However, it is presumably not optimal to display the car ads to children. Nor are most teenagers particularly interested in diapers.
Sony's PlayStation 3 (PS3) has been viewed as one of the most secure gaming devices. Applications and games from other sources than Sony could not be installed and run on PS3, and a firmware update early in 2010 disallowed using other operating systems than the one set up by Sony. All this is now changed.
Major events, happenings and in general all kind of things that create much notice, also leave in their wake a stream of malicious software.
According to a posting 15 November on the blog belonging to the UK based organization Get Safe Online, one in four UK web users have been targeted by so-called cold calls.
In recent months there have been lots of rumors about the upcoming email system closely integrated with Facebook. More detaileds about this have recently been disclosed by Facebook, and we will examine some aspects of the new offerings.
This is the third article in a series about privacy and security in social networks.
This is the second article in a series about privacy and security in social networks.
This is the first article in a series, which will focus on security and privacy issues involved in participating in social networks.
The term Man-in-the-middle in a security context refers to an attack where someone/-thing is inserted between two endpoints and intercepts the communication between those. The intent is usually to obtain information and use this for illegitimate purposes. Recently the term Man-in-the-mobile, abbreviated as Mitmo, emerged.
This article will not go in depth with regard to how the different botnets function technically. We shall rather examine some of the ways botnets may be used, study one successful method used for fighting this threat, and finally discuss the idea of botnets used for benign purposes.
Fake antimalware software has become an increasing problem for end users and corporations. The creators of these rogue applications are able to earn easy money and are constantly searching for new ways to exploit their victims. A new technique has recently been seen. We shall look at this in more detail in this security article, and attempt to point to some general considerations regarding this type of software and malware in general.
In the previous article in this series about self-protection, we discussed examples of attempts to trick you to expose yourself for malicious software. Infected web sites are currently the most used technique for propagation of malware. By increasing your own awareness of the techniques the cyber criminals use, you can avoid this exposure.
There are several levels where you can set up protection mechanisms in order to minimize the risk of falling victim to malware. Different protection mechanisms are needed depending on which danger situation we are discussing.
An interesting news item has appeared in several UK-based media lately. Several end users have received phone calls from someone who present themselves as security personnel. The caller informs that the computer is infected by malware and offers to help. Varying social engineering techniques are used to persuade the recipient to allow the use of remote access software in order to "fix the problem".
In this Norman report on security issues during the first half of 2010, we will go through some incidents and tendencies. We will focus on those that Norman perceives as most important in these past six months.
Over the years new ingenious words for security issues have come up. We have seen the neologisms pharming, vishing, clickjacking and slurping, just to mention some. This week a new one was born - tabnabbing. Which turns out to be more scary than most.
Malicious programs do increasingly rely on social engineering techniques to be able to propagate and successfully execute. Gone are the days when a tempting file name in an email sufficed. In this security article we shall examine variants of one of the more successful social engineering schemes.
December is the month to look back on the year that is coming to an end, and we will attempt to sum up the situation seen from a security company's point of view. The most significant observation to make from this year's malware activity, is that different social networks became a major target for authors of malicious programs.
Major events, happenings and in general all kind of things that create much notice, also leave in their wake a stream of malicious software.
Identity theft is a term, which has become familiar during the latest years. More exotic - until recently - has been identity production with malicious intent. A new version of Koobface does exactly that - automatically.
Earlier this month multiple tens of thousand passwords to free email accounts from Microsoft (Hotmail), Google (GMail) and Yahoo were compromised.
The time has arrived when it is useful to look back on the first half of this year, and attempt to sum up the situation seen from Norman as a security company's point of view.
The short URL functionality obviously has its merits. However, there are shortcomings and security issues that make the system in itself less secure than desired.
The social network Twitter has become extremely popular in quite a short time. This time we will discuss this technological phenomenon from a sociological perspective, and use the most talked-about incident these days as a kind of case study - the swine flu.
This week started with significant media attention about a report, which showed that several computers owned by governments and international organizations were compromized. This includes several embassies world-wide and a NATO computer.
Social engineering in several forms has been discussed in numerous of our security articles. This time, we shall discuss it from a different angle - the traditional one, with a quite clever new twist.
The need to apply security patches to operating systems and applications has been discussed several times in our security articles. Recent events show that this is a caution that cannot be repeated too often.
The Internet offers a cornucopia of applications, movies, pictures, text - everything digital that can be imagined (and some not!). Navigating this is difficult and can even be hazardous in several ways.
The use of money involved in online gaming has traditionally been only as an entrance fee to buy the game itself (if it is not free). This no longer holds true.
A few weeks ago a new name started circulating in security writings - "clickjacking". Security organizations as well as web-based news agencies reported this as a major, new threat.
Slurping is not only a method for quenching your thrist. It is also used as a term for a particular kind of security issue, that is often overlooked.
A new spreading vector is becoming increasingly popular among the bad girls: Malicious web sites.
Several users of the instant message service MSN messenger have recently been attacked by so-called ”SPIM” This has led some to believe that they have been attacked by an MSN-worm or a virus, which mission is to damage their computer.
Most of those working with security, and probably greater parts of the general public are aware of the term phishing at what it means. You ...
The usual phishing attempts are targeting random individuals, while the specialized spear phishing attacks are aimed against a particular organization.
Leading financial institutions are increasingly exposed to hacker attacks, malicious code and fraud attempts. According to a recent study the number of attacked organisations grew with 78 % the last year.
"Vishing" is combined of the two terms "Voice over IP" and "Phishing", and is exactly that: Using the increasing use of Voice over IP to trick someone revealing personal information, with the intent to commit fraud.
Where in the past malware file names would have ‘interesting’ names such as “Anna Kournikova" or “Britney Spears Naked", many things happened but seeing a picture of the two aforementioned idols was not one of them.
Most security organizations hold phishing to be one of the most prevalent threats against computer security during 2006. The Gartner Group estimates that the direct phishing-related loss to US banks and credit card issuers in 2003 was $ 1.2 billion.
Phisher or ID thieves are traditionally known to attack financial institutions, but lately the target groups seem to have changed. Today phishers are hitting on all forms of organisations, even health care businesses.
It is hardly controversial to claim that the end of February and beginning of March 2004 was the worst period ever regarding the sheer number of new mailicious programs threatening the Internet community. New variants of Bagle, MyDoom and Netsky were spread daily - sometimes even more than once per day.
In September 2003 Internet users and organizations experienced the most severe attack on the Internet infrastructure since the "Morris worm" in November 1988. The outbreak of W32/Sobig.F caused major problems because of the huge amount of emails flooding the infrastructure.
Security Information Week 39, 1999 Recently a new e-mail hoax has been spreading quite aggressively. Subject of the e-mail is !!!WARNING -- DESPITE-virus!!! -FMBW. The body of the ...
Security Information Week 9, 1999The IT department in an organization often uses vast resources to be updated on security risks associated with hardware and software ...
Security Information Week 7, 1999Since January this year several users have received an e-mail apparently from Microsoft. The mail informs the receipient that the attachment ...
Security Information Week 12, 1999 On the Internet there are several sites which offer very good security information. The different sites are of two kinds: Security sites ...
Security Information Week 3, 2000The Internet is a cornucopia of information of every kind. One may find web pages dedicated to any thinkable of unthinkable ...
