Japanese cybercrime at record levels
by FinjanFinjan Inc. says that 2008 cybercrime figures from Japan - details of which have just been published and show a 15.5 per cent year-on-year annual growth - do not bode well for e-crime in Western nations. "Anecdotal evidence suggests that the volume and value of cybercrime has soared again in 2008 and, with the current economic recession, we fully expect the number of Internet scams, hacks and malware-driven infections to increase ...
Cybercriminals Make The Most Of The Recession
by Alan HartenThe safest country in the world as far as computer virus infections are concerned is Australia, according to the February Intelligence report from Symantec’s MessageLabs. Only 1 in 573.8 emails contained a virus in the land down under, compared to the UK’s 1 in 213.3, Canada’s 1 in 217.1, 1 in 203.6 in Germany, 1 in 424.5 for the USA, and 1 in 450.8 in Japan. India is the most virus prevalent ...
February 26, 2009
33% increase in card fraud forecast for 2009
by Fortify SoftwareBased on its observations in the e-crime marketplace - and reports in recent months from a wide number of third-party organisations - Fortify Software is predicting that one in three adults in the UK will be affected by card fraud in the coming year – last year the card fraud affected 1 in 4. This prediction, says Richard Kirk, the software security assurance experts' VP of EMEA, is based on the ...
February 24, 2009
Outbound connections should be as secure as inbound
by David MastersCompanies should make outbound internet connections as secure as inbound connections, according to security services firm Network Box. Information leaving networks should be as securely managed as inbound information, the company said. This will have little or not impact on end users, but will significantly increase the strength of security, said Network Box. In recent months, Network Box has seen a large increase in requests for help blocking applications such as Skype or ...
Popular passwords include ‘1234′ and ‘password’
by David MastersWhen 28,000 log-in details stolen from a well-known website were posted online recently, security firms discovered that a sizable minority of internet users are incredibly naive at setting their own password. Security analysts Cyber-Ark found that 14% of users choose sequential combinations such as 1234, QWERTY, or ABCD whilst 16% use their first name as a password. Four percent of users, meanwhile, opted for 'password' or a similar derivative as their password, ...
February 18, 2009
Executive Management take control of IT Governance
by ISACAResearch by the non-profit, independent IT Governance Institute (ITGI) of more than 250 executives in 22 countries has found that in 71% of enterprises it is the senior executive who is now ultimately accountable for IT Governance. The research strongly supports the need for the recent IT governance standard released by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and marks the global recognition of the importance of IT governance. The ...
70% of companies to boost cloud computing security
by Infosecurity EuropeA survey by Infosecurity Europe of 470 organisations, has found that 75% of them intend to reallocate or increase their budgets to secure cloud computing and software as a service, within the next 12 months. Further, interviews conducted by Infosecurity Europe with a panel of 20 Chief Information Security Officers (CISOs) of large enterprises which covered the topic, revealed that they are concerned about availability and security aspects of ...
February 17, 2009
Report reveals real cost of fraud to companies
by FinjanFinjan Inc says that a newly issued report from CyberSource - which clams to show that one in eight online UK firms are losing more than five per cent of their revenues to fraud - illustrates the phenomenal cost that card fraud is costing UK organisations. "We at Finjan believe that a pound spent on effective IT security in a business is rewarded with cost savings in many other areas several ...
ISPA Parliamentary Advisory Forum on E-Crime
by Infosecurity EuropeNext Monday (23rd of February) sees the Annual Parliamentary Advisory Forum on E-Crime taking place, with speakers including Alun Michael, the Parliamentary Under-Secretary of State for the Home Office and Detective Superintendent Charlie McMurdie of the newly-formed Police Central e-Crime Unit lined up to speak. The organisers of the Infosecurity Europe Show say that they are expecting good things from the ISPA-sponsored forum. "This event will effectively be the launch pad for ...
Neptuny extends Caplan capabilities
by NeptunyAt the next VM World Europe in Cannes, 24th-26th February 2009, Neptuny will present new capabilities of its flagship product Caplan, which enables customers to safely consolidate and rationalize their data centers while coping with heterogeneous environments, business constraints and IT processes. Caplan is the business-aware Capacity Planning solution for large data centers and networks that can associate capacity needs to measurable business data. It enables a structured and automated ...
GSS called in by Navies to stamp out Somali Pirates
by GSSA European navy has recently deployed a Maritime Boarding system which has been developed by Systematic of Denmark with UK based IT security consultancy firm - Global Secure Systems (GSS), and Rajant Corporation of the USA to stamp out the threat of Somali Pirates. This comes at a time when the International Maritime Bureau recently released its annual piracy report confirming the increase in piracy around the world, and particularly ...
February 16, 2009
92.241.160.25 on mass spam run
by Brian TurnerThe blog spam is really out in force at the moment, with a massive wave of blog and forum spam coming out of Russia and China at present. The IP address 92.241.160.25 is currently running wild on the blogp spam, with a comment that quotes the domain name, along with short inanae comment, followed by the word "ad" and a link to one of a large number of Russian websites. IP's from ...
February 13, 2009
Cyber-Ark Posts Record 2008
by Cyber - ArkCyber-Ark Software added more than 130 new global customers in 2008, including Kaiser Permanente, which marked the company’s 500th customer win. Cyber-Ark’s expanded partnerships, growing customer base and proven information security products fuelled the company’s record 40 percent year over year revenue growth. “With insider threat and data breaches at an all time high, and auditors enforcing an increasingly controlled environment, companies cannot afford to take security ...
February 12, 2009
Open Security Foundation in partnership with Credant
by CREDANT TechnologiesCredant Technologies, the market leader in data protection solutions, today announced it has entered a partnership agreement with the Open Security Foundation, a non-profit organization dedicated to tracking and reporting security vulnerabilities and breaches of personal information The Open Security Foundation's DataLossDB, a research project that documents known and reported data loss incidents worldwide, recently announced the inclusion of the Primary Sources Archive. The Primary Sources Archive is a collection of ...
Companies remain concerned over latest Web 2.0 security
by CREDANT TechnologiesA report released today by Forrester Research, and commissioned by Adobe, has highlighted the fact that knowledge workers working in companies remain more than a little worried about the security of Web 2.0-based collaborative working systems. "The Forrester research confirms the findings of research announced at the SchmooCon 2009 conference in Washington this week, which found that security on social networking sites is significantly wanting, despite the take-up of the technology ...
Security concerns keep shoppers offline
by David MastersHalf of UK consumers still do not shop online, with most citing fear of credit card fraud as their reason for sticking with high street stores. In a survey by internet security firm CyberSource, forty one percent of those who don't shop online confessed that security fears are what keeps them away from Internet retail. Two thirds (66%) of the 1,000 people polled - including those who do buy from websites - ...
February 10, 2009
Finjan Announces New Secure Web Gateway
by FinjanFinjan Inc., a leader in secure web gateway products, announced today the launch of its unified Secure Web Gateway (SWG) version 9.2. It combines multi-layered web security, productivity, compliance, liability and bandwidth control on one dedicated appliance. Finjan’s unified Secure Web Gateway is the first of its kind to provide enterprises with a cost effective web security solution with low administration cost. Instead of using multiple point solutions running ...
February 5, 2009
Conservative Party misguided on open source software?
by Fortify SoftwareFortify Software says that the Conservative party is misguided in its criticism of the UK government over its lack of support for open source software. "The Conservatives have accused the Government of failing to capitalise on open source software, despite reports from government agencies that have recommended its usage," said Richard Kirk, Fortify’s VP and GM of Europe. "Our own research, however, has concluded that open source software exposes users to significant ...
February 4, 2009
Google Saturday outage not uncommon
by Fortify SoftwareFortify Software says that Google's `55 minutes of madness' on Saturday - when the search engine mistakenly classed the world of the Internet as potentially malware- laden - is not that uncommon an occurrence in major enterprises. "Google's problems were down to human error, with an operator flagging all the sites listed in Stopbadware.org database as potentially harmful, regardless of their status," said Rob Rachwald, Fortify's director of product marketing. "Internal organisational ...
Yasni research highlights case for encryption
by CREDANT TechnologiesResearch just released, which shows that 83 per cent of people use their date of birth, maiden or pet name as a security password for e-banking or email accounts, strengthens the case for the use of encryption on company data of all types, says Credant Technologies. "The research from our colleagues at Yasni.co.uk highlights the fact that, despite all the issues surrounding cybercrime and the theft of personal data, human nature ...