Things will change: Wishful thinking in 2010?

A satirical approach to security in 2010

1. More budget allocated for IT security spending

Even though many countries are starting to pull out of the recession, don’t think it will be a bumper year for IT security budgets. You may notice an increase in overall IT spending but come the first bump, IT security projects will be the first to get the chop.

2. Management grasps the concept of an ever-evolving security landscape

The media has been awash with security stories this year but that doesn’t mean that management will be aware of the changing security landscape. Unless they’ve been hit themselves (and hard) many in management will still think that solutions other than anti-virus and anti-spam are a waste of money. The ‘it won’t happen to me’ syndrome will strike again.

3. Employees boost productivity, forsake non-work related browsing

If only. There are too many online distractions for employees these days. Social networking sites, news, entertainment, adult material are just too much of an attraction to ignore. How else are employees supposed to pass the time at the office? If you’re looking to boost productivity, you better have the means to control what your employees are doing online!

4. Security policies are understood and adhered too without enforcement

And they will be asking for monthly updates (sic). Security policies are there to be ignored (like most laws) and employees will only huff and puff when you mention them. How dare you tell them what type of password to use or that they cannot buy stuff from eBay? Putting your trust and faith in a compliant and accepting workforce next year will only create more problems – especially when security is at stake.

5. Employees will not lose their laptops, USB sticks or hard drives

If the statistics are anything to go by, you had better make sure all your external and portable devices have decent encryption on them and you know exactly what data is being copied. Apart from those with malicious intentions, most employees are just negligent with items that are not theirs… and it is so easy to forget a laptop in the car while they pop into the convenience store. Why they would need to take a USB stick with them to the pub for a pint (and leave it there) is beyond reason… but it happens. So you are forewarned.

6. All suspicious links, emails or web activity are reported immediately

No way. Employees will continue to use IT with little regard for security. The will still click on links in emails or on websites without stopping to think how their actions could compromise security. And if something bad happens, you’ll get the standard response ‘I have no clue how that happened’. The only immediacy you’ll see is a request for help when their Internet connection is down or their email is not working. As if they’ll tell you that they have downloaded a couple of games from a warez site or something funny happened when they connected a USB stick someone gave them.

7. Employees will not fall for social engineering or phishing attacks

Hope lives eternal… but you’re in for a long wait. Too much trust and an element of scaremongering are the main factors why people fall for social engineering tricks. Unfortunately, employees tend to act and then think after they did something. If it’s any consolation even C-level individuals are known to slip up more than once. Hopefully, it won’t happen in your own backyard.

8. Huge decrease in software patches released

Now wouldn’t that make a lot of people happy? Yes, but it won’t be the case in 2010. Products and platforms are more stable nowadays but don’t bet your last dime on a year of fewer exploits and even less frequent Patch ***days (choose relevant day/s of the week).

9. Spam will fall to manageable levels

Spammers will not become an extinct breed in 2010. With spam holding its ground at around 90% of all email, it will take a miracle to drop that percentage down to anything remotely acceptable. The spamming community and their army of botnets will continue sending out spam and more spam. Be prepared for some new nasties in the New Year.

10. Your dreams will come true

Not. If you really are confident that these dreams will materialize, your optimism abounds. While all may sound doom and gloom there will always be a flickering light at the end of the tunnel. It’s just going to take a bit longer to get there and a lot more hard work.

Contributed by David Kelleher of GFI

Tags: Blog by Tony Bradley
1 Comment »

Cyber thieves are constantly adapting their techniques to get inside of users’ computers, and to ultimately get hold of private or secure information. This year has been no different. To help computer users make sense of what the past year has brought in terms of online security, Andrew Browne, team leader at Malware Labs at the online security company Lavasoft, answers questions on the state of malware in 2009, and what it means for users online security.

In general, what type of year has 2009 been in terms of online threats that users are faced with?

The number of malware samples added to Ad-Aware’s threat database in Q1/Q2 of 2009 has increased by 600 percent compared to Q1/Q2 of 2008. The bad guys have been busy.

What was the biggest challenge that the bad guys presented this past year?

The sheer volume of malware being produced has been the biggest challenge for us – many samples are repackaged versions of the same thing so we have worked hard on making efficient detection routines for ‘same but different’ malware.

Malware writers, rather than simply releasing one version of their creation into the wild, will make changes to the malware so that while the functionality of it remains the same, it looks like a different file. They then release thousands of essentially the same file into the Internet. Our new detection system in Ad-Aware, Genotype, allows us to look at core attributes of this series of malware – we then create detection routines that allow us to detect all of the files that share the same core attributes.

LN: What about what home users are seeing as they browse the Web – has Malware Labs identified any trends in 2009?

Unsuspecting users eager for more information on breaking news and current events have been more likely than ever to encounter a booby trapped website via search engine results poisoned by blackhat SEO (search engine optimization) techniques, spam e-mail or social networking sites.

In order to increase numbers of potential victims, malware distribution has, on occasion, crept onto well known legitimate sites in the form of advertising banners that contain malicious code. Criminals have audaciously impersonated advertising representatives from large companies in order to plant malicious adverts on these high profile sites. The sheer number of visitors to sites like The New York Times, which was affected by a malicious advert this year, means that it is certainly profitable for criminals to go to such unusual lengths.

LN: There’s a lot that computer users need to be aware of when it comes to their online security. What do you see as the most significant security challenge to home users this past year – and what can be done about it?

Recognizing vulnerable, unpatched applications on their PC. Ongoing efforts to raise consciousness about the importance of applying operating system patches are making ground. Conficker gained much media attention this year with many of the reports relating an unusually high level of information, highlighting the vulnerability in the Microsoft Windows Server Service (MS08-067) and advising users to apply the patch available for it from Windows Update.

Users have begun to appreciate the need for operating system patching but are probably less aware of the need to apply security updates to applications on the operating system. There is still some work to be done on the part of software publishers. Patches fixing application vulnerabilities are typically slow to appear and when they do appear, it is not always clear to the user that a patch or update is available and that action should be taken.

The latest versions of the Firefox browser will warn users if their version of the Adobe Flash Player plug-in is out-of-date and recommend updating it. Mozilla, publishers of Firefox, plan to work with other vendors to provide similar checks for their plug-ins. This is a big step forward in alerting users that it’s not only the operating system that should be kept up to date with the latest patches.

To home users, I would recommend checking out Secunia’s free Personal Software Inspector application which can help identify which applications on their machine are out of date and have patches or updates available for them.

Contributed by Erin Earley, editor of Lavasoft News, the anti-malware pioneer’s educational industry newsletter, has written extensively about computer security issues and the risks that affect computer

Tags: Blog, Protect Against Malicious Software by Tony Bradley
2 Comments »