Archive for November, 2008

RSA just released the results of their annual wireless security survey. The survey indicates that, with wireless use up dramatically in home, business and public hot-spots, encryption is improving. 97% of corporate access points in New York City were encrypted, up from 76% last year.

The improvements are not universal across major cities, with London having 20% of wireless access points without any form of encryption. In addition, this survey (for the first time) looked at the type of wireless encryption standard used. The WEP standard is no longer adequate, so encryption is not quite as good at this level. Paris has advanced security on 72% of wireless access points, while NY and London had below 50%. The survey also looked, also for the first time, at in-home wireless security. The survey found security on home wireless networks to be superior to corporate networks.

Out of RSA also is a great blog post about the importance of the 5 Ps – Proper Planning Prevents Poor Performance. Worth a read! And to continue your reading, check out our laptop security best practices.

Image: ppdigital @morguefile

The latest report from Sophos indicates that 8x more malicious email attachments were spammed in Q3 of 2008.

The quarterly report from Sophos looks at spam trends. For the July – September 2008 time span, the report indicates that there was a rise in the proportion of spam emails sent with malicious attachments, as well as an increase in social engineering techniques in spam messages.

The report indicates that 1 in every 416 email messages contained a dangerous attachment. This was an 8 fold increase compared to Q2. Most of the increase can be attributed to several large-scale malware attacks, including one with was disguised as an iPhone arcade game with a penguin character. Most of the attacks were still for Windows-based users, and the US led the way as the top country responsible for relaying spam across the globe.

In addition to malware sent via email attachments, malicious links were designed to prey upon user curiosity. This type of social engineering included “breaking news alerts”. Other new methods were explored, including spam using Facebook and Twitter.

Here is a video from Sophos about how one large social engineering campaign worked:

Also of high importance in the news right now is a report that security researchers have found a way to crack the Wi-Fi Protected Access (WPA) encryption standard that’s used to protect data on many wireless networks. This is worrying news, which you can read about more here.

image: microsoft clipart

Network World’s Mark Gibbs has posted a great article about how to exorcise the “ghosts” of past employees that haunt your systems.

Employees, whether they work for you for a short or long period of time, leave a trail of digital information behind. Emails on your mail servers, files, information on desktops, laptops and perhaps even smartphones, customized application settings, contributions to shared spaces like blogs, and much more.

When an employee leaves a company, most (sadly, not all) companies will think to restrict their user access. To delete mail accounts, remove FTP access, restrict privileges and so on. But, what do you do with the rest? And are there issues surrounding any of that clean up (well, of course, there always are!).

“Remove their files without understanding how their work related to the bigger business picture and, for example, the design and supportability of an entire product line could be compromised. Dump their e-mail messages and your ability to be in legal compliance could be lost. There are hundreds of potential consequences to removing their data and it adds up to what we in the pundit business call “a crap shoot.”"

The solution is not just to restrict access privileges, as that doesn’t tell you what the data is used for. Or if any ex-employees have left any surprises behind. The solution that Mark Gibbs poses is not an easy one, but it’s one that improves data security overall. The solution is to rethink data handling architecture - a centralized ID system that defines roles and access from the start. This way you can spot issues, as well as manage exit cleanup.

“This is a combination of identity management and strategic, top-down planning that displaces the old “strong passwords are good enough” approach because they aren’t.”

Of a related note, make sure you read our recent post: Passwords are Not Enough. Absolute Software can also help with some user issues, including software inventory management - knowing what’s installed, tracking machines as they change hands, sending alerts if users operate outside policies, & monitoring data changes.

Also of note, Lanxoma is conducting a survey about insider threats and how companies are tackling that issue. Since that’s something we talk about often on the Absolute blog, perhaps you’d like to take the survey here. Looking forward to seeing the results!

Clipart via Microsoft / Presentation Pro

Absolute Software, as computer recovery specialist, can often spot trends in computer thefts from the number of reported threats to its Theft Recover Team. In a press release last week, Absolute notes that the number of computer thefts has increased during (or perhaps the result of) the recent economic downturn.

“We are seeing a rapid increase in the number of computer thefts reported to our Theft Recovery Team.” – John Livingston, Chairman and CEO of Absolute.

Although some of the growth in the figures can be attributed to more Absolute customers, the team believes some of this is due to the current economic situation. With theft on the rise, there is undoubtedly going to be an increase in identity theft and data breaches.

Of course, with more laptop losses being reported to Absolute, there are more great success stories to share about Absolute’s recovery efforts. As part of the press release, several mini case studies of recent stolen computers were featured.

Absolute Software helps protect thousands of computers for consumers and businesses alike. Computrace helps businesses track computers, manage software, and recover lost computers. It adds a much needed layer of data protection that should be considered in these risky times.

*For complete details on $1000 Service Guarantee, see http://www.absolute.com/Service_Agreement.pdf