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Spam & Malware Continue to Rise Through May – Network Box

On May 28, 2009   /   Computer Security, Security News, Virus and Spyware   /   Leave a comment

Network Box

Spam and malware continued to increase through May, with spam volumes up 27.7 per cent; and malware up 28.7 per cent, according to analysis of Internet threats by managed security service, Network Box.  The number of viruses originating from the UK has also risen over last month; the UK is now responsible for three per cent of the world’s malware (from less than two per cent last month).

The US and Korea are the source of most of the world’s Internet threats, with the US being responsible for 17.2 per cent and Korea responsible for six per cent of all viruses . Both feature in the top three sources of spam, too: the US produces 11.4 per cent of spam; Brazil comes in second at eight per cent; and Korea third at 4.2 per cent.

The proportion of phishing attacks has reduced slightly from last month, to just over 20 per cent of all viruses (down from 24.6 per cent in April).

According to Simon Heron: “The growth in Internet threats has slowed slightly from the massive 63 per cent we saw last month, but clearly in terms of volumes spam and malware are still rising significantly. We’re still seeing the same suspects responsible: namely, the US and Korea.”

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The Future of Computer Security

On May 25, 2009   /   Computer Security, Security News   /   Leave a comment

From behemoth corporations to authors to college students and to even the most occasional computer user, the future of computer security is on everyone’s mind these days.

The prevalence of spyware and hacking continues to grow faster than the technology and as a result intellectual intelligence; personal and corporate information is downloaded and transferred without the knowledge of the holder.

By the year 2010 it is estimated that the proliferation of software bugs will be equivalent of one new bug every five minutes. As the bugs increase so does the number of internet users, some with less than honorable intentions.

The field will be wide open for these bad guys to pick and choose whatever bugs they want to exploit. This anticipated malevolence is due on large part to our own neglectful ways. We increase our vulnerability in many ways; the two most common are inattention to detail and basic human naÔvetÈ.

Antivirus software and anti-spyware software along with strong personal firewall protection are effective against the majority of internet threats. The average user is reminded constantly through warnings and error messages to be on guard for new viruses and spyware and yet that same user refuses to take the necessary action.

Many users are actually using only a partial protection program, i.e., antivirus program and no firewall or anti-spyware program. The result is malicious spyware that grabs our information and is the prevailing cause of internet identity theft.

Today’s security experts offer the following tips to protect computer users from scams such as phishing:

1) Never use the same user ID’s for all logons. Each account should have a different ID and passwords for all financial accounts should be changed every ninety days.

2) Never use your e-mail password for any other accounts. This will cut down on the likelihood of unauthorized access to your e-mail.

3) Whenever possible store passwords in an encrypted file or password manager program. This will offer some protection in case an intruder or spyware application attaches itself to your password list.

4) Never click on links in e-mails, especially from financial institutions. Inputting information serves as an open invitation to hackers and phishers.

There is a litany of other well meaning and in some cases necessary tips to follow, however, the same experts say that the future of computer security is dependent upon the reaction to a worldwide digital Pearl Harbor, a cyber event so catastrophic that computer security as we know it today will be virtually non-existent.

It will take that type of global cyber event to serve as a wake up call to mandate software security, site security and authentication will become stricter. TSP and PSP software development will be in the hands of professional software engineers.

The future of computer security will be the result of reactivity to the global cyber event that will create the institution of internet security standards which might include standard vulnerability reporting, standard software patches, a single naming convention to address newly discovered viruses along with a standard and secure configuration of software.

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Engate Receives 2009 Product Innovation Award for Proactive Botnet, Phish, Virus and Email Security

On May 18, 2009   /   Computer Security, Security News, Virus and Spyware   /   Leave a comment

ENGATE

San Jose, CA – May 19, 2009 — Engate Technology Corporation, a leading supplier of proactive botnet, phish, virus and email security solutions, today announced that Network Products Guide, the industry’s leading publication on information technologies and solutions has named Engate’s Reputation Network Profiling technology a winner of the 2009 Product Innovation Award. This annually venerated award honors vendors from all over the world with innovative and ground-breaking products.

“We congratulate Engate as this award underscores their success in helping OEM partners, service providers and enterprises around the world to secure their networks, or their customer’s networks, from dangerous messaging abuse,” says Rake Narang, editor-in-chief of Network Products Guide. “Organizations are faced with a deluge of botnet-based attacks used by criminals to propagate malicious threats, spam, phish, viruses and fraud scams. This recognition is a testament to Engate‘s innovation in stopping known and unknown threats before they launch.”

“Network Products Guide’s recognition of Engate further validates our security solutions as excellence-in-class and ahead of the curve,” said Wil Cochran, CEO, Engate Technology. “Product innovation is key to our continued commitment in meeting our customer’s needs and helping them proactively protect their privacy and IT assets from today‘s dangerous and rapidly evolving botnet threats.”

Proactive Security Solutions for Enterprises and Service Providers:
Engate’s security appliances and hosted security service proactively protect organizations from botnet threats, phish, viruses, spam and blended web/email attacks. Engate leverages its proprietary reputation network profiling technology to assess entire networks including all illicit and legitimate hosts in the subnet. Using this in-depth analysis, Engate preemptively stops illicit hosts that are distributing threats. Moreover, Engate detects clean/new hosts that are compromised and proactively stops these threats at the connection level, before it reaches the gateway and has a chance to damage IT resources, steal intellectual property, propagate threats, and disrupt business productivity.

Next Generation Reputation Network Profiling Technology for OEM Partners With more than six years of operational experience collecting and analyzing data on global networks, Engate’s reputation network profiling technology empowers strategic OEM partners to take advantage of the permanent reputation of over 400 million ‘good and bad’ IP’s in Engate’s 16,000 rules database – known as GlobalRules™. By profiling entire networks beyond infected hosts, Engate has built a repository of intelligence on potential and unknown hosts that may become infected.

This unique intelligence on unknown threats is a critical component to enhancing an OEM partner’s security portfolio today — as well as in the future – particularly as unknown threats continue to rise due to the growth of botnets. When compared to reactive, first generation reputation products that track only 4-5 million ‘bad’ IPs that constantly change their reputations, Engate gives OEM partners an advantage over competitors that do not offer a proactive approach on unknown senders.

About Network Products Guide Awards:
Network Products Guide is a media sponsor of Interop and Technosium Executive Alliance Forums engaging Chief Information Officers (CIOs) and Chief Information Security Officers (CISOs). As industry’s leading technology research and advisory publication, it plays a vital role in keeping decision makers and end-users informed of the choices they can make in all areas of information technology. You will discover a wealth of information and tools in this guide including the best products and services, roadmaps, industry directions, technology advancements and independent product evaluations that facilitate in making the most pertinent technology decisions impacting business and personal goals. The guide follows conscientious research methodologies developed and enhanced by industry experts. To learn more, visit www.networkproductsguide.com.

About Engate Technology:
Engate Technology Corporation is a leading provider of proactive botnet, phish, virus and email security solutions for enterprises, businesses and service providers. The company also provides reputation network profiling technology for OEM deployment models, including hardware appliance, hosted services and software, which can be licensed to security software, appliance, router, firewall, secure web gateway, intrusion prevention, unified threat management and managed service providers.

EngateLabs™ — a global network threat analysis and defense center of highly skilled researchers, analysts and advanced network profiling technology – proactively protects organizations from botnet, phish, virus, spam and blended web/email threats. EngateLabs profiles all hosts and computers in an entire network and is aware of new hosts that become members of botnets. Using this reputation network profiling intelligence, Engate stops the distribution of threats at the connection level, before it reaches the enterprise gateway and has a chance to damage IT resources, steal intellectual property, propagate threats, and disrupt business productivity. For more information, contact Engate at info@engate.com, or visit the company’s website at www.engate.com.

Website: http://www.engate.com/news/2009_Product_Innovation

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Gateway Email Encryption To Protect Against An Increase In Malware

On May 14, 2009   /   Computer Security, Security Solutions, Virus and Spyware   /   Leave a comment

Companies that regularly send confidential information by email should move to gateway email encryption, rather than relying on systems that require individual users to implement encryption technology, says new advice from managed security company, Network Box.

Sending SMTP emails without using encryption or authentication is the equivalent, says Network Box, of leaving a letter unsealed before putting it in the post.

Gateway encryption is simple to implement, and does not rely on individual users to manage it (as with client-side solutions such as S/MIME and PGP).

“If you do not regularly send confidential information by email, or you trust your ISP to protect that information, then you don’t need gateway encryption,” says Simon Heron, Internet Security Analyst for Network Box. “But if you do, then it is worth considering as an alternative to a client-side encryption.”

Network Box has advised its clients to consider using encrypted email for sensitive information if they don’t currently, and to configure their existing security systems to support encryption for SMTP mail, either by using ‘opportunistic encryption’ mode or by configuring security to require encryption between specified domains or servers.

For more information, contact Network Box

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Wireless Computer Security: Tips For Data Protection

On May 9, 2009   /   Computer Security, Mobile Security, Security Solutions   /   Leave a comment

Are you always paranoid about your wireless home network and wish that you had the best wireless computer security to protect your data?

It doesn’t have to be too difficult to secure your wireless computer setup and you can set your security from the time that you install the Internet into your home. But if you are the type of person who rushed through the whole setup just to have your Internet connectivity up and running, then you probably will need to do a few of the following things.

Change Your Administrator Password

In most wireless network setups, there is an access point or a router. This is what provides the hotspot that one can access to get onto the Internet and if you are not careful, people can use your Internet stream for free; which isn’t fair because you are paying for Internet usage. Now, these routers are equipment setup from the very start and manufacturers have web pages that will allow you to enter your network address and access your account information.

These web pages are protected by login information, such as usernames and passwords. But these passwords can be easily guessed so that people other than you can access your information. Make sure that you change your username or password on a regular basis. You might want to change the access information at least once a month to avoid hackers from getting into your network address details.

WPA / WEP Encryption

Wireless computer security is quite a touchy issue these days and people can steal bandwidth from open networks (or networks that require no passwords to access them). This is where WPA / WEP encryption can come in handy. All WIFI equipment comes with some kind of encryption like this.

The technology scrambles messages sent over wireless networks so that they can’t be read by regular people. There are all sorts of encryption methods and these WPA / WEP ones are the most common. They can be hacked but it will be difficult for people trying to gain access.

MAC Address Filtering

All WIFI capable hardware has physical addresses. These are known as MAC addresses and can be likened to a house address. Now, if you have a lot of hardware that you use to access your WIFI home network, you should turn on a filtering feature in your server setup. Get the MAC addresses of all your hardware and plug them into your network.

You can then set up your network so that it will only allow your specified MAC addresses and nobody else’s. This is probably the best thing to do especially if you have a network that is easily detected from the outside.
SSID Broadcast

In WIFI networking, there is something known as an SSID Broadcast. This SSID is the name of your router. Once in a while it will broadcast its presence around its immediate area to show that it is available for access. This is a feature that was designed for people who roam in and out of range of WIFI.

This is especially helpful in an office setting where people are moving from one room to the next. But at home, you do not need to have this broadcast since you are the only one using personal WIFI. Make sure to disable this feature in your home network.

These are just some of the things that you can do to protect your personal network and in effect, any personal data that can be accessed by people other than yourself. There are all sorts of ways to make it difficult for people to connect to your WIFI network.

You don’t need to spend too much money on something too sophisticated that you can’t learn it yourself. WIFI technology has many already built-in wireless computer security methods that you can take advantage of now.

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