Tag Archive for Computer

| June 22, 2011
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Teachers Highly Susceptible To Phishing Attacks

Teachers Highly Susceptible To Phishing Attacks Internet Security Awareness Training (ISAT) firm KnowBe4 has released new cybercrime statistics that identify Education as one of the most Phish-prone™ industry sectors. Education is the second most susceptible sector to cybercrime ploys. DarkReading reports the percentage of companies in each sector that responded to the phishing emails are:

  • Travel – 25%
  • Education – 22.92%
  • Financial Services – 22.69%
  • Government Services – 21.23%
  • IT Services – 20.44%

KnowBe4 founder and CEO Stu Sjouwerman told DarkReading,  “Our cybercrime statistics should serve as a wake-up call … Not only are these businesses at risk for financial loss through a cyberheist, but their susceptibility to phishing tactics could compromise sensitive customer data such as credit card, bank account, and social security numbers.”

These findings are based on a recent phishing experiment KnowBe4 conducted among enterprises featured in the latest Inc. 500 and Inc. 5,000 listings.

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Having worked in K12 for a number of years, I saw lots of teachers and a few superintendents get caught by phishing traps, They would then complain to me why they and their organization has entered SPAM jail and then needed me to hit SORBS.net to get the mail flowing again.

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Ralph Bach has been in IT long enough to know better and has blogged from his Bach Seat about IT, careers, and anything else that catches his attention since 2005. You can follow him on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Email the Bach Seat here.

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| June 15, 2011
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Investigating Internet Liability Insurance

Investigating Internet Liability InsuranceEnterprises now face the question of determining the right kinds of cyber insurance to buy in addition to the other traditional insurance that covers the risk of doing business. Internet Evolution asks, “What would you pay to be insured against data loss or theft“? While cyber insurance of all kinds has been around for a while, more firms than ever are seriously considering it, as data breaches, Web fraud, and security breaches continue to make headlines.

chubb_logoTracey Vispoli, global financial fidelity manager for Chubb, told Internet Evolution, “Although I would still characterize business interest in cyber insurance as emerging, we saw a 40 percent growth in firms securing some form of Internet liability insurance in 2009.” Chubb provides Internet liability and other insurance coverage for businesses worldwide. “I’ve been talking with several insurance companies now about entering the cyber-insurance area,” says Paul Sop, CTO for computer security and consulting firm Prolexic Technologies Inc.

For insurers like Chubb, the Internet provides an opportunity to develop new products to meet emerging business needs. For potential business clients, Internet insurance plugs gaps in coverage that current business insurance policies don’t address. The article says the gaps include:

  • Website-related losses,
  • Website copyright infringements,
  • Cyber-attacks and
  • Unauthorized online access to customer information.

“We encourage companies to think not only about their Web-based assets but also about their entire technology base when they consider insurance,” Ms. Vispoli told Internet Evolution. This includes not only cyber-attacks that directly target the Website from the Internet but also breaches of confidential corporate data such as customer and employee records. Ms. Vispoli explained that at least 45 states require a company whose data is compromised to send out official notifications to all those affected.

Someone from the outside can hack into your employee or customer information, and then there’s the financial pressure of not only fixing the breach and taking action, but also of notifying potentially hundreds of thousands of individuals whose information has been compromised.

The article says that the cost of notification alone can be worth insuring, but there are other costs as well. As recently as five years ago, companies were not required to send out notices nor did they spend the amount of money that it takes today to bring in a forensics team to analyze a cyber breach and find the hack.

The cost of Internet liability and other e-commerce-related insurance varies, depending on the risk factors a given organization presents. Internet Evolution says one of the variables is the amount of online sales it books each year. Common types of cyber-insurance that are available today include:

  • Technology professional liability,
  • Media errors and omissions,
  • Telecommunications professional liability and
  • Computer information and data security liability.

“We are seeing an aggressive trend in businesses subscribing to cyber-insurance, especially in industry sectors like healthcare, financial services, retail, services companies like hotel chains and media,” Ms. Vispoli said in the article. “Depending on the size of the organization, we might be contacted for coverage information by a Chief Security Officer, or possibly by a CFO or CIO.” All of them see growing exposures from e-theft, e-fraud, compromise of critical data, loss of goodwill, e-threats, and vandalism, denial of service, copyright infringement, and regulatory compliance issues.

What do you think?

Does your organization have cyber insurance?

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Ralph Bach has been in IT long enough to know better and has blogged from his Bach Seat about IT, careers, and anything else that catches his attention since 2005. You can follow him on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Email the Bach Seat here.

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| May 23, 2011
Comments Off on 40 Years of Malware – Part 1

40 Years of Malware – Part 1

40 Years of Malware - Part 1Twenty-five years ago, two brothers in Pakistan came up with one of the greatest annoyances in the modern world. Basit and Amjad Farooq Alvi developed the first major personal computer malware “Brain” in 1986 at their Lahore, Pakistan computer shop. Brain spread eventually spread across the world,  one infected floppy disk at a time.

– See Part 1 Here – See Part 2 Here – See Part 3 Here – See Part 4 Here

Floppy diskBrain was the first of what became known as “stealth viruses.” Because most 1980s computers only had tiny internal hard drives or none at all, everything had to be run from floppy disks. Brain would bury itself in the part of the disk necessary for running programs and infect any computer it ran into. It would then sit in the computer’s memory and infect new disks inserted into that machine as well. While Brain was relatively harmless, it was the mother of all viruses, which spawned a host of malicious malware.

Robert Slade, a senior instructor at the International Information System Security Certification Consortium (ISC2) told News.Com, Australia:

… the virus itself spreads far and wide without any reference to the original media and programs they were selling … Because this was a boot sector infector, it just spread on to any floppy disk that had been put into an infected machine.

There has been a great deal of speculation about why the brothers created the virus. So on the 25th anniversary, F-Secure (FSC1V) researcher Mikko Hypponen, who was among the first to analyze Brain, decided to track down the Farooq brothers and ask them about their groundbreaking work. Mr. Hypponen originally reverse-engineered the virus and discovered a short block of text with the phone number and address of the place where it was created buried within Brain’s code.  Amazingly enough, the brothers are still working at their company, Brain Telecommunications, which is still headquartered at the same Pakistan address near Lahore Railway Station listed in the virus code.

During the interview, the brothers explained how and why they created Brain, adding that they wrote the code primarily as an experiment to see how far it could spread via floppy disk. The brothers, who are now successful businessmen in Lahore, were quick to point out that Brain wasn’t destructive, and explicitly distanced themselves from the more malicious viruses that have sprung up in the past quarter of a century. To the Farooqs, today’s malware is rooted in pure criminality — something they denounce, but don’t feel entirely responsible for spawning. As they pointed out, if they hadn’t created the world’s first PC virus, someone else surely would have.

 

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Ralph Bach has been in IT long enough to know better and has blogged from his Bach Seat about IT, careers, and anything else that catches his attention since 2005. You can follow him on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Email the Bach Seat here.

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| May 21, 2011
Comments Off on 2/3 K-12 Networks Breached Multiple Times

2/3 K-12 Networks Breached Multiple Times

2 of 3 K-12 Networks Breached Multiple Times a YearPanda Security, a provider of cloud-based security software, recently released a report that says 63 percent of K-12 schools experience malware outbreaks or unauthorized user access at least twice a year.  The report, Kindergarten-12 Education IT Security Report (PDF), had some other interesting infobits.

Personal devices on K-12 networks

The survey reports that eighty-two percent of schools allow students and staff to connect personal computers and laptops to the school network. Panda says schools recognize outside devices introduce external risks, but they struggle to fully integrate security policies for multiple devices. Only 74 percent of districts are monitoring the use of external devices. Fifteen percent fail to take any extra security measures, leaving those school systems more vulnerable to infection.Pamda Laptop chart Most schools have implemented IT security best practices, there is still room for improvement reports Panda. The report says ninety percent of schools install anti-virus and/or anti-malware on computers, but nearly 25 percent fail to use firewalls, block high-risk websites, or employ user authentication. 86% prevented the use of very risky websites; while 89% mandated users install security software on their systems. Further, 15% of respondents acknowledged that there weren’t any extra security measures in their districts if they wanted to use laptops.Panda Best Pratices

Social media threats

Social media is a top concern for schools, but the stringency of school policy varies greatly. Ninety-five percent of schools have a social media policy in place, citing the mitigation of malware-related risks as the main reason for implementation. Twenty-nine percent of schools allow students unlimited access to social media sites, while 32 percent deny students access altogether.

Panda Social MediaSchools lack the funding to be secure. I have always said that schools face attacks from the inside and the outside. Insiders in a K-12 school network range from technically unsavvy to damn good malicious attackers. Despite this, the report says 72% of schools reported that budget limitations were the main obstacle, to better security and 38% reported non-availability of staff, and 29% of the schools, reported their IT staff had to attend to other more important tasks than IT security.  IT administrative staff at 38 percent of schools report removing viruses or malware from IT systems a few times a week, and 21 percent are doing this daily according to Panda.

With malware on the rise and new threats propagated through social media every day, having the right security tools in schools has never been more important. Security issues consume staff time, diverting attention from the business of education. Help Net Security quotes Rick Carlson, president of Panda Security US, who has a great grasp of the obvious, “While the Internet is an invaluable tool for education, it can cause serious interruptions to day-to-day operations if schools fail to properly address security concerns.”

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Just to prove the point, the Oakland Press is reporting that 4 students at Romeo High School in Romeo, Michigan were caught allegedly intercepting 60 staff members’ emails, including the Superintendent after “something goofy” happened to the website. While I have no first-hand knowledge, the news did say the attackers went after people who read their emails on their cellphones. So more than likely it was some kind of Bluesnarfing attack, maybe including a Cain and Able payload to get at passwords.

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Ralph Bach has been in IT long enough to know better and has blogged from his Bach Seat about IT, careers, and anything else that catches his attention since 2005. You can follow him on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Email the Bach Seat here.

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| July 25, 2010
Comments Off on More Dell Hardware Woes

More Dell Hardware Woes

– Updated 10-08-10 – Dell has settled the lawsuit which claimed the computer manufacturer hid computer defects. The New York Times reports that Dell settled the suit (09-23-2010) brought by Advanced Internet Technologies in Federal District Court in North Carolina. The terms of the tentative settlement were not disclosed.

In the NYT article, Clarence E. Briggs III, chief executive for Advanced Internet, in Fayetteville, NC, declined to comment about the settlement, as did his lawyer. David S. Frink, a spokesman for Dell, in Round Rock, TX, told the NYT “settling the matter is better and more cost-effective for the company than taking the case to trial.”

– Updated 08-15-10 – The New York Times is reporting that Advanced Internet Technologies (A.I.T) is accusing Dell of withholding evidence in their lawsuit, including e-mails among its top executives including Michael Dell, in a filing made Thursday. According to the NYT, A.I.T. filed a motion in Federal District Court in North Carolina asserting that Dell had deliberately violated a court order by failing to produce documents written by its executives, including the company’s chief executive and founder, Michael S. Dell.

In its filing, A.I.T. asserted that Dell had provided only a snippet of the communications among top executives about the faulty computer problems. The NYT says A.I.T. argued that Dell must have had more high-level communications than a “talking points” memorandum sent to Mr. Dell and Kevin Rollins, then the chief executive.

Larry E. Daniel, a digital forensics expert, has filed an affidavit in the case, stating that the handful of messages Dell provided appeared altered and incomplete according to the NYT article. Mr. Daniel suggested that Dell should provide access to the underlying e-mail files rather than cutting and pasting text.

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More Dell Hardware WoesHuman error is to blame for the latest Dell hardware gaffe. PCWorld is reporting that a sequence of errors led to Dell’s delivery of motherboards with malware.  On 7-21-10, Dell said that some replacement motherboards for PowerEdge servers may have contained the W32.Spybot worm in flash storage. The malware issue affected a limited number of replacement motherboards in four servers, the PowerEdge R310, R410, R510, and T410 models, according to an email from Forrest Norrod, vice president and general manager of server platforms at the Round Rock, Texas firm.

A sequence of human errors

Dell logoThe company confirmed on 7-21-10  it is in the process of overhauling its testing procedures to resolve issues before sending hardware to customers. “There was a sequence of human errors that led to the issue, That being said, we have identified and implemented 16 additional process steps to make sure this doesn’t happen again,” said Dell spokesperson Jim Hahn.

Hahn did not provide more details to PCWorld on the steps being added to track and resolve such issues. But he said that all affected motherboards had been removed from the service supply chain. Dell is quick to point out that current anti-virus software with updated signatures would flag the malware’s presence and users would have to be running an unpatched version of Windows 2008 or an earlier version of the OS to be vulnerable.

PCWorld cites a Dell quality management specialist who wrote in an e-mail that the code was accidentally introduced during the manufacturing process of the server motherboards. “This flash is the one that holds your BIOS and it can be updated online. If proper security precautions are not in place, the flash chip is every bit as capable of containing a piece of malware as is the hard-disk drive,” according to Jim Handy, director at Objective Analysis, a semiconductor research company in PCWorld.

Simha Sethumadhavan, assistant professor of computer science at Columbia University told PCWorld that this incident shows how hardware, either flash or a processor if hacked, can be used as a way to transmit malware. “All software runs on the hardware. If the processor is hacked then it can subvert all software countermeasures. Since hardware is the root of trust, attacks on hardware are potentially more dangerous.”

Other Recent Dell issues include:

  • According to the New York Times, Dell is being sued for shipping at least 11.8 million OptiPlex computers from May 2003 to July 2005 that were at risk of failing because of the faulty capacitors. A study by Dell found that OptiPlex computers affected by the bad capacitors were expected to cause problems up to 97 percent of the time over a three-year period, according to the lawsuit.  Making problems worse, Dell replaced faulty motherboards with other faulty motherboards. The NYT points out that Dell employees went out of their way to hide these problems. In one e-mail exchange, a Dell worker states, “We need to avoid all language indicating the boards were bad or had ‘issues’ per our discussion this morning.” In other documents, Dell salespeople were told, “Don’t bring this to customer’s attention proactively” and “Emphasize uncertainty.”
  • 2010 Dell announced it was setting aside a $100 million reserve for the first quarter of fiscal 2011, related to a potential settlement with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission. The SEC began investigating Dell in 2005 over accusations of misleading auditors and fabricating financial information, which allowed the company to exaggerate its performance. Dell has already restated some of its financial results reported before 2007. it is reported that founder and CEO Michael Dell faces a separate fine totaling $4 million. “Accuracy and completeness are the touchstones of public company disclosure under the federal securities laws,” said SEC enforcement director Robert Khuzami. “Michael Dell and other senior Dell executives fell short of that standard repeatedly over many years, and today they are held accountable.”
  • 2010 Dell announced that the company and chairman and CEO, Michael Dell, have proposed settlements to the staff of the US Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) over claims of illegal accounting practices. It is reported that the original case and investigation dates back to 2006 when Dell employees misled auditors and manipulated results to meet performance targets.
  • 2010 A federal appeals court reinstated a class-action lawsuit accusing Dell of selling defective notebook computers. The lawsuit alleges that Dell Inspiron notebooks bought between July 2004 and January 2005 had inadequate cooling systems, power supplies, and motherboards which caused the notebooks to shut down without warning, fail to boot up or deteriorate too quickly. (Reuters)
  • 2009 The New York Times and IDC confirmed that Acer overtook Dell as the Number 2 PC maker during the third quarter of 2009.
  • In 2008 A New York judge concluded that Dell engaged in repeated false and deceptive advertising of its promotional credit financing and warranties according to the New York Times.

 

Ralph Bach has been in IT long enough to know better and has blogged from his Bach Seat about IT, careers, and anything else that catches his attention since 2005. You can follow him on LinkedIn, Facebook, and Twitter. Email the Bach Seat here.

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