Archive for May, 2009
Can Hackers Take Over the U.S. Power Grid?
There is an interesting article that I read recently entitled “Cybercriminals have penetrated U.S. electrical grid” that is quite disturbing. In the original Wall Street Journal article, it states that cybercriminals have gained access to U.S. power grid systems and are mapping the network and infecting computers with malware. Although it appears [...]
Would you like a Trojan with that pirated software?
Cyber criminals know that often times people want to get their hands on the latest and greatest software prior to its official release. As a result, these hackers have been known to modify this software and post it to the Internet for unsuspecting people to download. The modifications that they make include methods [...]
Your Data for Ransom
This isn’t the first time I have heard about this type of thing, but it does appear to be a growing threat. According to Wikileaks.org, cyber attackers breached the Virginia Department of Health Professionals’ prescription monitoring website, downloaded a ton of data and are now demanding $10 million dollars in ransom for its return. [...]
Breach Severity
From the latest Microsoft Security Intelligence Report it states “In contrast to the decrease in total disclosures, vulnerabilities rated as High severity increased 13% with respect to the second half of 2007, with roughly 48% of all vulnerabilities receiving a rating of High severity. This is still a 28% decline from the first half of [...]
Lots of Malware Out There
Article Link
250,000 malicious sites created daily
60% of these poisoned web pages are live for around 24 hours
Retail Data Breach Study Analysis
Perimeter eSecurity released a retail data breach study several months ago. There was an insightful article posted that I thought made some very good points. Be sure to read the comments at the bottom as well.
Botnet Growth Worldwide
Several organizations monitor the growth of compromised systems and botnet growth. According to McAfee “Cybercriminals have taken control of almost 12 million new IP addresses in Q1 2009, a 50 percent increase over the previous quarter. The United States is now home to the largest percentage of botnet-infected computers, hosting 18 percent of all [...]
Hospitals are infected with Conficker
There is a very interesting article discussing how Conficker spread to medical devices and systems in many hospitals in the U.S. and abroad. Many are still baffled by how some of these systems even got infected in the first place. The devices include those of MRI machines, heart monitoring systems, and more. [...]
Swine Flu Scams
Even with this first, passive wave of H1N1 swine flu diminishing, scams are on the rise. Websense reports a huge number of email scams based on news (usually false) around the H1N1 swine flu. End users being concerned about a possible pandemic are eager to learn the latest news and with sensationalized subject [...]
Security as a company culture
Nearly half of all companies cite a lack of training and an “upsupportive company culture” around security according to the ISC2 security organization. (see article)
The survey was of 700 security professional
46 percent say employees have a “weak understanding” of security policy.
48 percent say there is a lack of training and an overall unsupportive company [...]