IT giant IBM has been selected to provide internet security software plus other threat solutions for Rive Gauche, a Russian chain of perfume and cosmetic stores.

The IBM package, which includes internet security software, is called Security Solutions by US based IBM. Rive Gauche has decided to overhaul its IT system to try to stay ahead of the internet threats that are looking to become more and more dangerous to businesses in the future. At their headquarters and branches in St Petersburg, Rive Gauche will be introducing the IBM Security Solutions software to help with keeping their business safe.

Alexey Smolin, head of Information Security Department at Rive Gauche, said: “As we’ve expanded our network of retail stores, a key concern for Rive Gauche has been to safeguard our customers’ personal identifiable information data and protect the IT systems in our headquarters, local offices, stores and warehouses from all manner of threats. With IBM, we found a proactive approach that helps us not only remediate based on specific attacks, but gives us a clear view into suspicious activity well before it becomes a problem.”

With the IBM software, Rive Gauche can block and detect any illegal and dangerous threats made towards the company, either through its servers, desktops or gateways, and allow them to see all that is happening in a single control network.

IBM also has the capabilities to make vitally important emails be delivered with urgency if there is a serious problem, or to make other, less dangerous events, de-emphasised. Rive Gauche has reported an improvement in the detection and management of security issues that have come their way.

The general manager of IBM Security Solutions agrees that this internet security software will be more than just for simple viruses and malware: “Rive Gauche is tapping IBM Security Solutions for more than just viruses and attacks- it’s building a system that is secure by design. At its core, Rive Gauche is setting a proactive security policy with IBM solutions to better safeguard its clients and corporate information.”

Guest Article by Neil Camp

Attempts at maintaining software internet security took a further blow when news of a Firefox 4 crack which spreads Trojans started doing the rounds.

Software internet security is precarious at the best of times, so news of ‘free’ versions of the Firefox 4 browser have been greeted with a groan all around. ‘Cracked’ versions of the software are in fact being used to spread malicious malware, and tricks unknowing users into downloading a free crack of Firefox 4 browser.

Upon download, users are suddenly infected with trojans and their computer often becomes riddled with these dangerous pieces of malware. Unfortunately, this is another case of the word ‘free’ being used to lure internet users into using websites and downloading things that should not be touched with a barge pole.

It is not unusual for cracked versions of well known software to contain malware such as trojans; this unpleasant discovery is often a side-effect to downloading such versions.

If the use of the word ‘free’ that may have intrigued you into visiting sites that offered this cracked version of Firefox 4 browser, then this is when the trap seems to get quite bizarre. Mozilla, on their main website, are already providing free downloads of the beta of Firefox 4. This new version of the browser is not only free of trojans that these cracked versions are often infested with, but it also free to download from a reputable website. This makes downloading the virus ridden version entirely pointless.

The exact danger of these versions have been highlighted by researchers at Sunbelt, who tested these dodgy Firefox 4 downloads and found that (at least) five different pieces of malware could be in the download. This is guaranteed to be unhealthy for a user’s computer, and all for a download that is freely available from its true creator’s source.
Maintaining software internet security starts with providing your computer with antivirus programs, but it also seems that not falling into traps of ‘free’ downloads of cracked versions of software is up there with some of the top ways to keep your computer clean and healthy.

Guest Article by Neil Camp

The phrase download internet security takes on a new meaning every month when Patch Tuesday comes around and people can see how alert Microsoft is when it comes to combating the latest virus threats.

And the latest Patch Tuesday, which allows computer users to download internet security patches in order to correct bugs, has proved a particularly big one. In this set, 14 alerts have been issued, with eight being rated ‘critical’ and the other six as ‘important’.

The most significant of these alerts that have been announced, affect Word, .NET, SMB Server, , MPEG Codecs and XML Core Services. As usual, the latest release also includes the most recent number of fixes that have been issued for Internet Explorer. Also included in this latest bulletin was a fix to solve the vulnerability with .lnk files, that has been causing a number of problems.

Coinciding with the release of the entry, Microsoft also wrote a blog entry describing and covering each of the most important fixes that were issued.

Adobe has also released some fixes; out of the three that were released, two were rated as ‘critical’ and one as ‘important’. This release – which had been timed to arrive at the same time as Patch Tuesday – was vital for fixing risky problems with Flash Player and Flash Media Server. As well as this, they release an important HotFix for ColdFusion.

Reader, a piece of software from Adobe, will have an emergency update released for it next week. Users will have to wait until this is issued before the vulnerabilities can be dealt with. In the mean time, any user who wishes to chose the alternative for viewing PDFs – Foxit Software – will have to update for a vulnerability that has affected a number of Apple iPhone users. The vulnerability is not, however, extended to Adobe users.

Users that download internet security patches are doing so to ensure that their computers remain safe from the host of vulnerabilities and dangers that are being created and released constantly.

Guest Article by Neil Camp

Antivirus security company ESET is warning bank customers to be on their guard against a new Zeus Trojan Virus which is said to have been responsible for thefts of up to one million pounds.

It’s estimated by the antivirus security team that around 3,000 customers have become victims of the Trojan Virus. Companies such as ESET encourage UK internet users to be more responsible when banking online; far too many take a lenient approach to the security of their most personal details.

Mark James, UK technical manager for ESET, says: “This high profile cyber attack needs to be a wake-up call to UK internet users who must take more responsibility for their own internet security and safe.”

Many internet users are unaware of the dangers or how they can be addressed, and are too dismissive of the patches sent out by applications such as Microsoft and Adobe. Instead of downloading these vital upgrades, users ignore them, and their computers are left vulnerable to attacks.

Many believe that these updates are simply interfering with the workings of your computer, by slowing them down or making them less efficient and harder to run. This is a stigma antivirus software companies wish to dispel.

Antivirus software companies advise that users should continually check for updates to their antivirus software and to any application patches that are offered, and not to ignore them. Even more dangerous is to not have a piece of antivirus software at all; there are a significant number of internet users who remain unprotected in such a manner. Simply downloading the first free antivirus protection software one finds is not advisable either, with companies warning they many only provide the most basic level of security, and typically have no customer support network.

The three main things that any internet or computer user must do to maintain a healthy computer and a safe time on the internet – and thereby reducing the risk of losing vast amounts of money through things such as the banking Trojan Virus – are simple and easy to do.

First, users must ensure that they allow the updates that their antivirus security software. Second, they must check to make sure all patches for applications are downloaded. Third, and probably the most important, is that antivirus software that provides comprehensive protection against internet threats is downloaded.

Guest Article by Neil Camp

Internet security antivirus company Norton has just issued a study which discovered that one in every three top-trending search results delivered about 10% of malicious results, with the term ‘Red Hot Laugh Riot’ being one of the worse culprits.

The internet security antivirus company Norton’s study appears to have uncovered just how wide, extensive, and often bizarre this problem really is. ‘tropical dreams sweepstakes’, for example, produced what Norton reckons was a “staggering” 99 malicious links out of the first 100 indexed results.

This week the three top targets for malicious links were celebrity news gossip, gaming online, and the names of particular diseases: “constance francesa hilton” and “melorheostosis” topped the deadly list of search terms, managing to return malicious links in 45 per cent of the first 100 results. Hackers use rises in popular interest on particular subjects – whether they be international crises, song lyrics, celebrity gossip – to install malicious links into the search results.

So what has Norton done with the information garnered from this study? Norton has released the Norton Safe Web Lite, which can identify dangerous sites before you even click on them. This is a free downloadable tool that can be used with either Internet Explorer or Mozilla Firefox. This technology can be found in the Norton Internet Security and Norton 360 products, and provides a crucial barrier of defence from clicking unknowingly on risky sites.

Nearly 60 per cent of these ‘risky’ sites were discovered to contain drive-by downloads, which can infect people’s computers with ease and speed, often without them knowing.

This safety technology has been targeting one of the most popular websites of the day: Facebook. The Norton Safe Web scanner is also free, and by choosing the ‘Enable Auto-scan’ option, it can identify any dangerous links that may be posted on customer’s news feeds of Facebook ‘wall’.

Jens Meggers, vice president of engineering at Norton, says, “Cybercriminals are always looking for the next opportunity to find victims, as evidenced by the high volume of SEO poisoning. Unfortunately for consumers, simply searching for a popular topic and clicking on a poisoned link can have serious consequences. Consumers need to arm themselves with tools like Norton Safe Web Lite that are specifically designed to defend against these types of threats.”

The internet security antivirus company has been leading a number of studies to try to design and develop technology that helps users deal with this far-reaching problem.

Guest Article by Neil Camp

The hunt is on for internet security specialists and leading the charge are some of the country’s top universities and companies.

The Open University is founding sponsor of the Cyber Security Challenge UK which has just been launched in London.

It is a Challenge put together to help the most talented individuals in the UK education system that might be attracted to a career in the internet security profession.

Behind the Cyber Security Challenge are universities (including Queen’s University Belfast and Royal Holloway), government departments, trade bodies and industry companies.

The idea is to attract and harvest as many budding internet security professionals as possible.

The Challenge is in the form of a number of competitions designed by the initiative’s backers. The competitions are online and face-to-face.

All this comes at a time of increased cyber crime and a recognition of the fact that the country lacks home grown talent to cope with the threats now and those likely in the future.

Over 30 prizes are available and include advancements in cyber security careers, or education. One of the top prizes on offer is a bursary worth £3,300 from Queen’s University Belfast to study a MSc course in Electronics and Security. Other prizes include placements on private sector training courses – including a two week stint at Detica Cyber Security Academy and time at the Sans Institute.

Further prizes include access to industry resources and expertise, and memberships of trade bodies, including the Institute of Information Security Professionals, the British Computer Society (BCS) and the Information Systems Security Association (ISSA).

Kevin Streater, Executive Director of IT&Telecoms, said:
“The Cyber Security Challenge UK deals with issues spanning both education and technology. We see it as an excellent opportunity to continue our long-standing partnerships with industry to address the national challenges facing our workforce. Education institutions can only offer cutting edge skills to their students when they understand what the current challenges are, and the skills required by industry to address them. The Open University is committed to helping organisations to find innovative ways to deal with these skills gaps.”

The government Minister for Security, The Rt Hon Baroness Neville-Jones, who officially launched the Challenge said:
“Cyberspace is woven into the fabric of our society; it is integral to our economy, our communities and our security. Defending all of our interests in cyberspace is a relatively small cadre of talented and highly skilled public sector and private sector cyber security professionals. This pool of professionals must grow and the Cyber Security Challenge UK offers an innovative and exciting way of attracting talented individuals to take up rewarding careers in this field.”

Guest Article by Neil Camp

A lot of people understand the problem of internet security, but don’t always appreciate the fact that one of the most popular ways such pieces of malicious code is spread, is via spam email. And in most anti-virus reviews from the big computer security companies, the research into spam levels is exhaustive.

And one of the main pre-occupations, is identifying which are the most ‘spammed’ countries.

In a recent internet security report, a part of a larger anti-virus review, it was revealed that the country which suffers the most from spam is Hungary, which registered a whopping 94.8%.

In other words, nearly all of the emails sent in Hungary were spam.

Such emails have basically two purposes, to either spread viruses as a download, or link to a malicious website, or to elicit some action from the receiver for nefarious reasons.

So who’s next in the league of most spammed countries?

Perhaps one which would not be people’s obvious choice: it was Denmark which is said to have reached the 92.1% mark.

And close on the heels of Denmark is China with 91.2%, followed by its close neighbour Hong Kong with 91%.

After Hong Kong in this unfortunate table of shame comes Germany at 90.7% and then the Netherlands, with 90.2%, followed by giant America, with 90% of spam.

Under the 90% bar comes Australia with 88.5%, the UK at 88.2% and Canada at 88%. Dipping into still lower territory are Singapore with 86.8% and 86.6% in Japan.

These figures are released on a monthly basis and even though one month one country might have more spam than others, the worrying trend is that most countries have to cope with an inordinate amount of pointless emailing. Imagine for one moment if 90% of emails were taken out of the system? That’s nine out of every ten emails sent, or, to make a bigger comparison, for every million emails currently being sent, only 100,000 are not spam.

This is why the internet security industry is so pre-occupied with spammers and their various ways of populating the world’s networks with their pointless emails.

Guest Article by Neil Camp

Top computer security company Kaspersky has announced the release of its consumer products Kaspersky Internet Security 2010 and Kaspersky Anti-Virus 2010.

Both products boast an advanced technology which is based on a host intrusion system in the control module which recognises an unknown piece of malware code and assigns it a security rating. And both were developed to work well alongside Microsoft Windows operating system Vista.

They also feature a unique technology called ‘sandbox’, which allows a user to run a dedicated and secure runtime environment.

This is a clever strategy for running new software in effectively an isolated environment which means that should it contain hidden and malicious viruses, will protect the computer’s central operating system. Web surfing actioned within this safe environment will be shown by a green border, which tells the user they are with the protected zone.

Kaspersky also claim that they have improved their security network. When the programme is run, it is checked against a Kaspersky white list on their servers. This checks out the programmes threat level and it is assigned a rating in terms of security.

Kaspersky Chief Executive Officer Eugene Kaspersky, said:

“It’s not only the very latest innovative technologies such as the ‘sandbox’ and the Safe Run option that set the new versions of our personal products apart but also the highly intuitive and user-friendly interface.

“Now, configuring a computer security system poses no problems for novice users, while professionals have a lot more functions at their disposal that are more clearly and logically structured. Our aim is that all types of computer users enjoy a safer place on the internet.”

Guest Article by Neil Camp

Software giant Microsoft has launched a new initiative called Citizen Safety Architecture which has been designed to help Governments throughout the world respond to global security threats and security challenges in real time.

It does this by introducing Microsoft software that already exists and adapting them to provide solutions for specific scenarios. Software being used includes Global Security Solutions, Single View Platform, Eagle, FusionX and Incident Response Platform.

It is hoped that Microsoft’s Citizen Safety Architecture will enable individual Governments to speed up their response times and planning when it comes to coping with major situations.

Guest Article by Neil Camp