Growing evidence suggests that a rootkit infection was *one* of the culprits behind last week’s Blue Screen of Death incident that caused countless Windows PCs to lock down after installing several Microsoft security patches. While many follow-up articles have focused on the malware infection that caused the problem, including Robert Westervelt’s SearchSecurity.com article, “Windows blue screen may be result of rootkit infection,” from an endpoint security standpoint, most seem to be missing the point. And that point is even though malware may be causing this problem, rushed patching is a process that can always cause problems. ( Read More… )
Window’s crashes linked to rootkits after problems with latest patch
Most recent comment: Greg Newman
"What these recent stories point out is that malware infections on these devices only highlights the fact that existing desktop ...
Latest Microsoft patch illustrates the dilemma and dangers of fire drill patching
This week I kicked off our Planet Antivirus challenge with a blog entry highlighting the top 5 failures of antivirus. My fifth point highlighted the fact that relying on antivirus resulted in a reliance on fire drill patching as a result:
Relying on antivirus ties companies to fire drill software patching — The side effect of relying on antivirus to protect endpoints is that companies are now tied to reactive software application patching as well. Because we can’t trust our antivirus software to protect the endpoint, we also must remain constantly aware and vigilant about identifying and fixing vulnerabilities in our applications on the endpoint. The resulting combination of rushed patches and signatures is a significant drain on the human resources of an organization.
It’s rare that such a post has supporting evidence appear just days after it is published, but this week, that is exactly what happened. It was reported this week that a Windows XP security update resulted in the notorious Blue Screen of Death (BSOD), locking up many users’ Windows XP PCs. In the article, “Windows patch cripples XP with blue screen, users claim,” hundreds of Windows users expressed their frustrations on the company’s support forum throughout the week. ( Read More… )
Most recent comment: Window’s crashes linked to rootkits after problems with latest patch — CoreTrace WhiteSpace
[...] I mentioned in last week’s entry, “Latest Microsoft patch illustrates the dilemma and dangers of fire drill patching,” relying ...
The top 5 failures of antivirus
I truly believe that 2010 is a turning point in endpoint security. The old antivirus model has reached the end of its practical usefulness and the disadvantages of an approach with a foundation of blacklisting far outweigh its benefits. Operation Aurora and the attacks against major online brands perfectly illustrates the failure of our old paradigm to protect endpoints.
Later this week, we are launching a fun (and funny) awareness campaign, called Planet Antivirus, highlighting the weaknesses of antivirus and focusing on the need to completely rethink our approach to how we defend endpoints. Today I am kicking this campaign off by highlighting the top five failures of antivirus technology: ( Read More… )
Most recent comment: Latest Microsoft patch illustrates the dilemma and dangers of fire drill patching — CoreTrace WhiteSpace
[...] week I kicked off our Planet Antivirus challenge with a blog entry highlighting the top 5 failures of antivirus. ...
Top endpoint security stories for January 2010 – Operation Aurora dominates news
Looking back, I have to say that January brought some security industry setbacks, highlighted by Operation Aurora and the publicity surrounding Google’s claims of highly coordinated attacks from China. Particularly relevant to us in these attacks is the fact that application whitelisting would have stopped the attacks while anti-virus was once again helpless to prevent new and targeted attacks. As always, I appreciate your readership and hope that this blog continues to bring value and insight to what we as security professionals are up against in 2010. So without further delay, here were some of the top stories from January 2010. ( Read More… )
Please use the comment form and leave your thoughts!
Operation Aurora illustrates greater need for effective preventative endpoint security
Much has already been written about the impact of Operation Aurora on the threat landscape. The international attacks on some of the world’s leading Internet companies reminded us once again of the vulnerabilities within interconnected networks that can be accessed from virtually anywhere in the world.
These attacks also illustrate the growing need for, and strength of, application whitelisting solutions. As Aurora first gained access by attacking an endpoint within Google’s network to trick a user into installing malware, even leading antivirus software designed to detect such viruses and malicious code couldn’t stop it from running within the network. ( Read More… )
Please use the comment form and leave your thoughts!