Yesterday, we saw yet another example of how antivirus — not malicious code — can leave thousands of PCs useless.
What intended to be a routine McAfee software update to its antivirus definitions for corporate customers has likely turned into a costly nightmare for the antivirus software maker and many of its customers. Instead of updating the security software, the faulty virus definitions removed the Svchost.exe file, a critical component of the Windows operating system. ( Read More… )
Most recent comment: Tim Bolton
The Whitelist product I used did not allow changed files to run until they were approved. In my case ...
If you haven’t already come across Symantec’s new Internet Security Threat Report (ISTR), ponder this — in 2009, the world’s largest security software maker blocked an average of 100 potential attacks per second. In the article, “Cybercrime’s Financial and Geographic Growth Shows No Slowdown during the Global Economic Crisis,” last year hackers were more active than ever. According to Stephen Trilling, senior VP of Symantec’s Security Technology and Response Division, the continuing growth of more sophisticated cyber threats has become an international problem that we can no longer afford to ignore. ( Read More… )
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An RSA study released on Wednesday claims that most major U.S. corporations — including up to 88% of Fortune 500 companies — may be affected by botnet activity from computers compromised by the Zeus Trojan.
In the article, “88 percent of firms show Zeus botnet activity,” RSA’s FraudAction Anti-Trojan services analyzed data stolen by Zeus from infected computers that included IP addresses and emails that belonged to the corporations. Among the stolen data found on the sites where infected computers drop the stolen data was compromised email addresses from about 60% of the firms. ( Read More… )
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Targeted cyberattacks that use sophisticated social engineering techniques to exploit network vulnerabilities are creating advanced persistent threats (APT) to enterprise security models like never before. According to the article, “Targeted cyberattacks test enterprise security controls,” these threats pose a more immediate danger to sensitive data of U.S. commercial entities than a full-fledged cyberwar. George Kurtz, a long time colleague of mine and CTO of McAfee, expects these types of attacks to continue.
“These attacks have demonstrated that companies of all sectors are very lucrative targets. [APTs are] the equivalent of the modern drone on the battlefield. With pinpoint accuracy, they deliver their deadly payload, and once discovered — it is too late.”
One of the methods the article suggests to protect systems from targeted attacks is using a whitelist to allow specific traffic over its networks while excluding everything else. ( Read More… )
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