Waves of Twitter attacks erode trustworthiness of Tweets
September 26, 2009
How much should you trust Tweets?
Much less so, after a swarm of tainted micro-postings inundated Twitter this past week. Popular social networks have become a major focal point for cyber scammers.
“We’re definitely seeing old email scams migrating over to Twitter and generally being adapted to all of the popular social networks,” says Matt Marshall, VP of Security at Redspin, told LastWatchdog.
Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn and other social nets have also been hit hard by corrupted …More
The world will spend $14.5 billion in 2009 on software to defend cyber threats
September 23, 2009
Despite the global recession, we are all spending more than ever to defend against cyber threats.
The worldwide security software market will total $14.5 billion in 2009, an 8 % increase from 2008, according to Gartner analyst Ruggero Contu.
That’s down from 19% growth in 2008 vs. 2007. But Contu anticipates the market will grow 13 % in 2010, with revenue topping $16 billion by the close of …More
PCI compliance often ineffective in stopping data thieves
September 23, 2009
In concept, at least, the Payment Card Industry Data Security Standards, form a useful and necessary layer of protection, well- designed for the specific task of repelling thieves from getting their mitts on credit- and debit- card account numbers and PINs.
Now comes the Ponemon Institute and tech security firm Imperva with results of a survey underscoring what cyber criminals — and merchants and banks know all too well — …More
Can ‘digital ants’ cripple worms like Conficker and Koobface?
September 22, 2009
‘Tis the season when the major antivirus vendors try new approaches. Symantec recently announced its new reputation-based protection; and AVG next week will announce new bells and whistles in the roll out of AVG 9.0, free and paid versions.
Meanwhile, McAfee says it continually adds incremental improvements, even though it does a splashy marketing message changeover this time of year, which can be misleading, as The Tech Herald’s security …More
Antivirus suites fail more often than not
September 18, 2009
Reactive, signature-based antivirus suites provide only partial protection. Everyone knows that. But just how much protection? LastWatchdog recently heard a major AV vendor claim its flagship suite repels 90% of threats.
Now comes Cyveillance with this new report showing anti-virus programs fail more often than they succeed in protecting you from bad things on the Internet.
Cyveillance, which was recently bought out by British tech firm, QinetiQ, …More
Intense ’spam bursts’ replenish botnets, target company online accounts
September 17, 2009
Sudden, intense bursts of viral spam messages keying off headlines, like the Kanye West or Serena Williams outbursts, or using trickery such as IRS warnings or FedEx or UPS shipping notices, are inundating email systems across America.
If you use an email system with strong filtering, you may be spared from most of it. But the bad guys, nonetheless, are flooding the Internet with generically addressed …More
Finally — a solid measurement of the scale and scope of cyber attacks
September 16, 2009
Metrics precisely quantifying the scale and scope of cybercrime activity have historically been hard to pin down. But now comes a milestone survey, buttressed by another report, that defines the degree to which the Web is infested with malicious code.
The SANS Institute’s report on Top Cyber Risks is by far the most comprehensive accounting of ongoing cyber attacks ever made public. SANS is the well-respected Washington D.C.-based tech security …More