Web Security Review

Image source: www.blog.webreakstuff.com
This is an alarming news, everyone. We all know about Youtube, right? Well, it’s dangerous as MySpace, FaceBook, or any online community now. Given that Youtube also allows “pg 13” stuffs, but that’s not the danger we’re talking about. That’s right. Some of the pages in Youtube have links that opens malicious machines into your computer. These machines have the ability to save your computer’s keystrokes, copies data, or even control your computer for another hacking scheme. Some people can separate the real and the fraud just by looking in the URL in the status bar, but it is much safer if you just search it in youtube itself. You know why? Some hackers make their preys open these links by making them their friends first. They just did this just because this is the time of election in the US, and youtube-users provide videos about the election, or their insight.

The same group of people that initiated the contest, “PWN to Own” is at it again this year in Vancouver, as they will put Linux, Leopard and Vista to the test as to who will sustain the least damage the best.

Security researchers that will be able to hack these systems will get a cash price of $10,000 and a shiny, brand-new, titanium-cased Mac Book Pro (MBP).

According to CanSecWest organizer, Dragos Ruiu, “The fur is flying right now about which is more secure–Linux, Vista, or Leopard… Linux guys have their propaganda, Windows guys are saying this and that, Apple guys have buried their heads in the sand as usual. I guess the proof is in the pudding.”

The ninth annual CanSecWest conference will be held from March 26 to 28 2008, at the Mariott Renaissance Harbourside hotel in downtown Vancouver, British Columbia.

http://www.news.com/Vista%2C-Leopard%2C-Linux-to-compete-in-hack-contest/2100-1002_3-6229577.html?tag=cd.hed

The eight-largest spammer in the world according to Spamhouse, Robert Soloway, was sentenced to jail time of 26 years and a fine of $625,000 fine for identity theft, spamming, electronic and snail mail fraud, and not filing a tax return in 2005 after reports that he made more than $300,000 from his activities among others.

He is not new to this kind of charges since Microsoft has already sued him in 2003 for hotmail mail fiasco and in 2005 by Oklahoma ISP by arguing that he has violated federal CAN-SPAM laws.

In an interview by The Seattle Times to Soloway’s lawyer, he said, “there’s not much left to seize, saying that he’s essentially broke.”

http://arstechnica.com/news.ars/post/20080316-spam-doesnt-pay-man-faces-26-year-sentence-for-spamming.html

The society ranges from prehistoric times to the fall of Rome (476 C.E) and it includes Western and non-Western cultures and civilizations. There is sixty-nine articles that cover the wealth of relevant topics such as art, economy, government, military, religion, scandals and writing.  With an introductory survey, each well-crafted piece begins, and then views developments in Africa, the Middle East, Asia and the Pacific, Europe, and the Americas. Meticulous cross-references and further-reading lists that include accurate Web sites should be appended in the Articles. The additional highlights are the primary-source documents, sidebars with supplementary instructive material, numerous black-and-white photos and illustrations, and clear maps.

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: 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.

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.

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