ISR News: Pandemic May Crash the Internet
Excerpts From PCWorld
As the dreaded word “pandemic” tops this week’s headlines about the swine flu virus spreading around the globe, many businesses are dusting off emergency plans for employees to work from home and schools are poised to send students home. If this turns out to be a full-fledged pandemic, not only will people fall ill, the Internet will too.
ISR News: Experts: Cybersecurity Inadequate
Excerpts From Federal Computer Weekly
Several panelists said one of the problems with U.S. cybersecurity is that defensive and offensive activities have been separated. The people in charge of defense do not fully understand attacks, and the people who understand offense should be involved with designing defensive requirements.
ISR News: Cybercrime Targets Consumers
Excerpts From Broadband Finder
One expert has advised consumers and web users to be extra vigilant as tough economic times could lead to some people committing acts of cyber crime. A spokesman for Unisys, an international company which specialises in a host of information technology solutions, said even people who you may think are not capable of such deeds could be tempted as the recession continues.
Business Continuity Guidance for Swine Flu
By Kevin M. Nixon, Information-Security-Resources.com Security Editor
“Business continuity and disaster recovery are crucial parts of sound corporate governance - for industries like the financial sector and the nation’s critical infrastructure, they are mandates. Organizations that fail to plan and prepare for events like public health emergencies, natural disasters, and man-made disruptions face loss of business, and potential corporate exposure if they fail in these obligations. It is time to get serious about earlier and better handling of risk issues.”
Hathaway Bolsters Internet Security Alliance
By Kevin M. Nixon, Information-Security-Resources.com Security Editor
Despite numerous lukewarm reviews of the 2009 RSA Security Conference by attendees and reporters, the Internet Security Alliance’s President Larry Clinton recognized that the keynote address to the collective conference body by Melissa E. Hathaway, Acting Senior Director for Cyberspace for the National Security and Homeland Security Councils, offers affirmation of the mission and principles on which the Internet Security Alliance (ISAlliance) was founded.
ISR News: IBM’s Financial New World Order
Excerpts From Finextra.com
The study predicts significant consolidation in segments wrought with over-capacity - such as investment banking, asset management, and wealth management - as firms adapt to a new lower-margin landscape where they will need to specialise around services that clients value rather than continuing to provide a full range of in-house services. Enhanced regulation and transparency will also eliminate opacity, with previously high-margin activities becoming commoditised.
ISR News: IRS Taps Troubled RBS WorldPay
Excerpts From WashingtonPost.com
The Internal Revenue Service has awarded a contract to process tax return payments for the coming filing season to RBS Worldpay, a company that recently disclosed that a hacker break-in jeopardized financial data on 1.5 million payroll card holders and at least 1.1 million Social Security numbers.
ISR News: Google Adsense, Bank Hijacked
Excerpts From WashingtonPost.com
DNS based attacks can be devastating because they undermine everything we take for granted about Web browsing. Late last year, attackers hijacked the DNS records of Checkfree.com, the largest online bill-paying service, redirecting would-be visitors to a site in Ukraine that served up malicious software.
ISR News: Cybercrime’s Clever Evolution
Excerpts From SecurityFocus.com
“This has led to the successful execution of complex attack strategies previously thought to be only theoretically possible,” the report’s authors said. “As a result, our 2008 caseload is reflective of these trends and includes more targeted, cutting edge, complex, and clever cybercrime attacks than seen in previous years.”
ISR News: 1.9M Infected by Stealth BotNet
Excerpts From PCWorld.com
The malware spreads when victims visit compromised websites. Then hackers can remotely control the malware to execute almost any command on the end-user computer as they see fit, such as: reading emails, copying files, recording keystrokes, sending spam, making screenshots, Finjan claims. “The sophistication of the malware and the staggering amount of infected computers proves that cybergangs are raising the bar.”
