Web Security Review

By: MJ

Based on the corporation’s own ThreatSeeker Network, WebSense Web Security Suite is a revolutionary solution to web security threats. WebSense Web Security Suite protects organizations, companies, and corporate from known internet threat attacks as well as new ones. Some of the threats that Web Security Suite protects against are bots, phishing attacks, spyware, malicious mobile codes, and keylogger backchannel communications. The suite also offers the Web Protection Services that protects organization or corporate websites, brands, and servers.

The difference that Web Security Suite has over the others is that it blocks spyware and keylogger backchannel communications from reaching their host servers. This innovative approach has revolutionized the front of combating internet threats.

YouTube became unavailable to the whole wide web for two grueling hours last Sunday due to a Pakistani government policy. The BBC has reported that Pakistan Telecom and national ISP, PCCW were directed by the Pakistani Government to block local access to video site, youtube.com for it’s offensive content. Pakistan Telecom disabled local users to access the said site while redirecting them to another site.

One way or another, the blocking leaked from Pakistan to other ISPs around the globe, hence the unavailability of the whole world to view precious youtube videos. ISPs cannot do anything to fix this mess as they don’t have control over it (OpenDNS).

Owner of Google, YouTube’s parent company said that “Traffic to YouTube was routed according to erroneous Internet protocols, and many users around the world could not access our site,” it said. “We have determined that the source of these events was a network in Pakistan. We are investigating and working with others in the Internet community to prevent this from happening again.”

By Lisa Vaas

An attacker could exploit the flaw with a malicious MP4 file to trigger the buffer overflow.

Even as Microsoft prepared to release critical updates for flaws in multimedia frameworks and APIs, proof-of-concept exploit code came out over the weekend that shows how an attacker can target the Winamp multiformat media player, a media player from Nullsoft that runs on Windows and is second only to Windows Media Player in worldwide popularity.

Symantec on Dec. 8 produced a security advisory warning that attackers can take over systems due to a vulnerability in how Winamp processes some MP4 files. Nullsoft has since addressed the issue, which boils down to a buffer overflow problem, in Winamp 5.35. The problem affects Winamp 5.02 through 5.34.

Read more from eweek.com

If you are a Skype user and have been receiving anonymous spam messages inviting you to porn sites or whatnots, then this is the article for you. Even if these pesky bots are too irritating to deal with, fortunately for us, all we need are a few mouse clicks.

Just go to your preferences menu: Tools > Options for PC users or Cmd + , for Apple users, and go to the privacy tab. Just click on the radio button “Only people whom I have authorized” button to the “Allow instant messages from” option. And if you’re really in to it, why not click it for all the categories!

Let’s see if these spammers get past this trick! Just some note for reference, by enabling this feature, it will disable people that you haven’t added to message you. Add them up for you to be able to Skype away!

By: MJ

Just now, AT&T Corporation has just released a highly technical network based security service that provides instant Web Security via advanced Web content and instant-message filtering. The new addition to their enterprise security portfolio is now available to several US companies as well as other parts of the world. Companies are enabled to conduct filters for malware and spyware without the need for bulky hardware or other software requirements through the new service. An additional feature is that AT&T’s Web Security is specially designed to monitor and watch all the non-encrypted traffic in the Web. Companies can merge the new service with existing AT&T security solutions or choose for the service to act independently.

By: MJ

The fastest web security hardware in the industry, the IronPort S-Series combines together highly exclusive Web Reputation technology with their new breakthrough, a Dynamic Vectoring and Streaming engine that enables signature-based spyware filtering. The new scanning technology is delivered through robust management and reporting tools as consumers benefit from the ease of administration and complete awareness of all threat-related activities.

As of now, more than 80% of corporate PCs are infected with spyware since opponents and competition are more than willing to know the corporate secrets through less than friendly means. A study showed that only 10% of corporations have deployed perimeter spyware defenses.

The FBI, Federal Trade Commission (FTC) and Earthlink have jointly issued a warning on how the growing ranks of Internet crooks are using new tricks called “phishing” and “spoofing” to steal your identity.

In an FBI press release, Assistant Director of the agency’s Cyber Division, Jana Monroe says, “Bogus e-mails that try to trick customers into giving out personal information are the hottest, and most troubling, new scam on the Internet.

The FBI’s Internet Fraud Complaint Center (IFCC) has seen a steady increase in complaints that involve some form of unsolicited e-mail directing consumers to a phony “Customer Service” type of web site. Assistant Director Monroe said that the scam is contributing to a rise in identity theft, credit card fraud, and other Internet frauds.

“Spoofing,” or “phishing,” frauds attempt to make Internet users believe that they are receiving e-mail from a specific, trusted source, or that they are securely connected to a trusted web site, when that is not the case.

Continue reading from:� usgovinfo.about.com

For readers with a MySpace or Facebook account, please be vigilant and careful when accepting apps or widgets from your friends; they main contain Trojan viruses that steal information from your site and then send it all back to the one who created it. They usually do this by sending Trojans through apps or widgets that your friends sent you. According to researchers at Finjan, cyberattackers are now going to these social networking sites such to get more victims.

“Attacks will become more sophisticated by combining several services in order to heighten infection ratios and decrease the detection rate, while providing more robust and scalable attack frameworks,” Yuval Ben-Itzhak, chief technology officer, Finjan, said in a news release. “The focus will be on trojan technology as it enables maximum flexibility in terms of command and control. This adds another potentially malicious element to the “legitimate” web traffic that needs to be examined by security solutions.”

In short, before installing the app or widget that your friend sent you, confirm if it came from them. If it didn’t, kindly delete it immediately. If it did come from them, research on the app or widget from previous users.

Source

BitDefender was an excellent performer among security suites, but it’s best for experts who don’t need guidance regarding security extras and pop-up alerts and who don’t mind through interface.

BitDefender Internet Security 2008 ($40 for one PC, $50 for three PCs) pairs shining success with disappointing failure. It outperformed every other suite in crucial malware detection tests, unmasked every rootkit sample, and finished second among the eight suites evaluated for our “All-in-One Security Suites: Tried and Tested” roundup on a separate spyware and adware detection test.

But this stellar performance behind the scenes was seriously marred by an unpleasant user experience. From aggravations with the initial installation to difficulties with warning pop-ups, BitDefender’s flaws are hard to brush off.

Continue reading more from: PCWorld.com

It is apparent that support costs will continue to increase in direct proportion to the concurrent services offered still as carriers look to add more and more services to their portfolios. The number of support calls increases in proportion as the number of services increases. For the communications providers these increased problems come at a time when call centers are trying to increase service levels and first call resolution ratios. Using a web conferencing solution is one simple way to achieve these goals.  Through the use of Web Conferencing, I learned what Motorola is doing to help service providers and call centers of various sizes with the support issues.