N E W S N O T E S BEWARE JAILBREAKING
& CRIMEWARE ON THE RISE U.S. TOPS SPAM LIST
Fortinet’s September 2010 Threat Land- scape report shows a new vulnerability that is leveraging PDF files to exploit Jail- broken Apple iPhones. Jailbreaking is typ- ically done to circumvent digital rights management in order to make the phone open to a greater number of applications. “Once an iPhone, or any device, has been ‘broken,’ the door is open. The device may then execute code or function in a way it was not designed to do,” explains Derek Manky, Fortinet’s project manager, cyber security and threat research.
SMALL BUSINESSES NEED TO DO MORE
CA Technologies recently released its State of the Internet2010 report in which researchers identify more than 400 new families of threats, led by rogue security software, downloaders and backdoors. Trojans were found to be the most preva- lent category of new threats, accounting for 73 per cent of total threat infections re- ported around the world. Furthermore, 96 per cent of trojans found were compo- nents of an emerging underground trend towards organized cybercrime or “Crime- ware-as-a-Service.”
SECURITY CZAR APPOINTED
The Munk School of Global Affairs has ap- pointed Ron Deibert as the director of the Canada Centre for Security Studies. In his new role, Deibert will lead initiatives fo- cusing on cybersecurity, Arctic security and regional (Asia/Europe/Americas) ini- tiatives on global security.
CONCERNS OVER DATA BREACHES
Sophos has published its latest report on the Dirty Dozen spam-relaying countries, cov- ering the third quarter of 2010. Since the second quarter of this year, the spam output from the United States has increased sig- nificantly from 15.2 per to 18.6 per cent of global spam, making the country respon- sible for nearly one in five junk e-mails. The U.S. contributes nearly 2-1/2 times more spam than the next worse offender, India. Canada did not crack the top 12.
HACKER SENTENCED TO PRISON A former IT executive in Virginia was re- cently sentenced to more than two years in prison for hacking into his former em- ployer’s web site and deleting approxi- mately 1,000 files. Upset about being fired, the man used his computer and ad- ministrator credentials to access the com- pany’s server hosting its web site.
HELPING VICTIMS OF IDENTITY THEFT A new grassroots organization, called the Identity Theft Council, has opened in San Francisco, Ca., to help victims of identity theft in the Bay Area. The group trains vol- unteers at banks, credit unions, schools, law enforcement groups and other organizations to work with consumers who have had their identities stolen. Nearly 50 organizations, in- cluding local police, sheriff’s departments and district attorneys, are involved.
Viruses, trojans, data-stealing malware, and data leaks were rated as the biggest IT concerns among small businesses in Trend Micro’s 2010 corporate end user survey. Despite these worries, the survey found that small organizations are less likely by 23 per cent to have preventative data leak policies in place than large com- panies. “What this tells us is that data loss, either through internal data leaks or malware, is a serious issue for small busi- nesses, especially as they become more aware of their attractiveness to cyber- criminals,” says David Perry, Trend Micro’s global director of education. “It would not be surprising to see data- stealing malware and data leaks pushed up to number one and two on this list in the next few years.”
6 SECURITY MATTERS • NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2010
Mid-sized organizations have seen in- creased attacks on their networks and sys- tems since last year, according to The Security Paradoxreleased by McAfee. The study found that more than half of mid- sized companies surveyed globally have seen more security incidents in the past year, 40 per cent had data breaches and 75 per cent believe a serious data breach could put them out of business. Additional findings include: 30 per cent had to manage multiple network security inci- dents, of which 55 per cent took up to five hours to investigate and remediate; 58 per cent spend less than three hours per week working on, evaluating and researching IT security; and 60 per cent admitted to knowing less than 75 per cent of the per- tinent regulatory and compliance require- ments pertinent to their organization.
PEOPLE FEEL SAFER AT HOME
Eight-seven per cent of people polled for a new study, conducted by the National Cyber Security Alliance and Symantec, think their home PCs offer better defence against viruses, malware and hackers than do their mobile phones. Though only 24 per cent of those polled said they feel very safe using their home computers to surf the Internet, 61 per cent said they feel somewhat safe. In contrast, just 18 per cent said they feel very safe using their mobile phones to access the web, while only 28 per cent feel somewhat safe.
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