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 Posted by SecExtra on April 18th, 2008

They really are starting to watch you everywhere. You don’t have to be in front of a CCTV camera to be under the watchful eye of the establishment. The announcement by Greater Manchester Police (GMP) about using Facebook as means of gathering intelligence illustrates the increasing adoption of social networking sites by organisations. As always there is a spin that tries to make us feel like we are going to be protected and benefit from the new police tactics. …

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 Posted by SecExtra on March 19th, 2008

A potentially major security breach has resulted in around 4.2 million credit and debit cardholders details being revealed in the US, with 1,800 fraud cases resulting so far.”The case is interesting, as it appears that the card numbers were stolen during the card authorization process,” said Calum Macleod, European director of Cyber-Ark.”The security breach is reported to have affected more than 270 stores in the Hannaford chain across the US, as well as a number of independent stores that sell Hannaford products,” he added.According to Macleod, the …

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 Posted by SecExtra on March 04th, 2008

For many UK businesses, physically securing computers is preferable to encryption or password protection. This is borne out by the DTI Information Security Breaches Survey 2006 managed by PricewaterhouseCoopers, which reports that “while 24% of large UK businesses encrypt or password protect their computers’ hard discs, 28% of them actually physically secure their desktop PCs and laptops”. Also, it reports that “the bigger the organisation, the more likely it is to have computer equipment stolen”.
However, although it reports that 82% of very large businesses …

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 Posted by SecExtra on February 28th, 2008

Counter terrorism police are today investigating the discovery of a Home Office laptop and encrypted data disc - apparently bought on eBay. The confidential disc was discovered when the laptop was brought in for servicing. We have a great viewpoint from Brian Spector, an IT content protection expert.
“With the statistics showing that nearly 500 government devices have gone missing since 2001, it was only a matter of time before a confidential disc inadvertently ended up on Ebay. Luckily, the public sector finally seems to be learning from repeated mistakes, as the …

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 Posted by SecExtra on February 21st, 2008

Hackers are intensifying their attacks on legitimate Web sites. It debunks the adage to “not visit questionable sites” – just because a user visits a gambling or adult-content site doesn’t necessarily mean Web threats are lurking in the shadows; the site with the latest sports news or links in a search engine result, however, could potentially infect visitors with malware.

An underground malware industry has carved itself a thriving market by exploiting the trust and confidence of Web users. The Russian Business Network, for example, was notorious all year for hosting illegal businesses including child …