Computer data of many government’s around the world are at risk from hackers who target social security and many other information for use in identity theft. Cases such as discarded computers left with functioning hard drives, lost storage hardware and many others highlight the need for strict encryption and security of such information. The UK and US have some of the most secure computer systems but when their people fail to observe proper protocol it’s there when the problems begin.
Encryption of databases allows hardware to contain information that is useless without the proper decryption system. These systems are quite expensive though but they may be necessary to save the growing amount of information being gathered and stored each and every day.
Studies are showing that big businesses are still failing to comply with security protocol that have been developed to prevent such problems. From portable hard drives to the most troublesome flash disks, malware is still getting into these big companies even with heavy investment in security software.
The most detrimental factor is the attitude of people who are the weakest links in the IT security equation. Complacency and utter disregard for security protocol such as scanning drives before you use them and scanning again when transferring from computer to computer is to blame. People bring their drives home to finish off work using an infected computer thereby transferring malware in an attack from within once they get into their office PC.
It’s all now a dream, the ability of Mac’s to laugh at the millions of malware that target pc’s running windows for even they are now subject to attacks keeping people at Apple busy. Though based on a totally different Operating systems that used to protect them, they are now seeing a measurable number of attacks specifically targeting Mac’s through the internet.
There is built-in protection from Apple but updates rarely come to keep them protected. People using Mac’s should update once they are available to prevent intrusion and the usual regimen of scans when using flash drives and other portable storage is always in order.
There are many free download edition of anti-virus in the internet to install in your computer having now your own anti-virus software that will update your computer every time you will turn it on. By just using any search engine, and typing in some keywords and with a few seconds, list of different anti-virus editions will appear on your monitor. You can now have the chance to choose or select the edition that will go well with your processor. It will be dependent on you on what brand of anti-virus you want, for as long as it is compatible with your computer, you can choose any free edition or version of your preferred anti-virus. Anti-virus gives you updates about the status of your computer in terms of the discovered viruses. Free of charge so it is practical to have one.
A firewall is like a guard that allows or prohibits intruders to the network. It has a control policy that indicates and dictates what should be denied and permitted to access the network in order to protect the network from any harm. It is a preventive measure and not completely the solution to viruses or any harmful things that can be acquired in the internet. It is designed to protect and not to heal infected data. Firewall is not able to do that. Unlike anti-virus software, it updates and scans the memory or programs when you reboot your computer. During the reboot, it can detect whether there are viruses, the location of the viruses and eventually cure it. Anti-virus software is designed for the purpose of healing and detecting harmful virus on your computer. In other words, even if the viruses had infected some parts of the data saved in your computer, it is still capable of adjusting allowing its features to cure the infected area. Compared to a firewall, it is designed only to protect and guard the network due to its control policy.
Both spyware and a computer virus are forms of unwanted or malware (malicious software) that can be harmful and give nuisance to your computer. The difference is that spyware collects information without any notice or consent. Spyware will not actually harm or corrupt the data on your computer but as stated earlier, it can give nuisance because it takes control or your computer. Anti-virus programs or software cannot remove spyware, so there is still further study of some anti-virus developer to create an antivirus that also features anti-spyware. There is a lot of ways on how Spyware can be installed on your computer. One is via virus and another is by being secretly attached to the software that you want to install or download. Furthermore, spyware is a specific type of malware that collects information about you and your computer, without you knowing it. Meanwhile, virus is just a specific way of having spyware get into your computer and be secretly distributed via e-mail or instant messaging.
The famed micro-blogging site was again targeted by an attack that re-directed users to sites that took the usual form of malware laden sites, telling users to install software that in fact did nothing but loaded their system with exploits that is reserved for later by hackers. The detected problems had computer systems made ready for drive-by attacks that would get hold of their user data and log in’s for the many other social sites or those they find saved on the computer’s memory for their use in identity attacks. Much more dangerous that the previous attack which was more the result of a bored teen who wanted to become famous, responsible for the Mikey attack that victimized and spread much like malware, using the saved names in the database sending out copies of itself as it goes out to propagate. That time, there was a mere nuisance message that kept popping up everywhere but this time round, security analysts have found links to organized criminal groups that have been poised to take advantage of the security flaws should it have not been detected. (more…)
Symantec has long been recognized as one of the security software industry’s biggest players yet even these blokes are prone to make errors. Some while back as their developers were out to test some features of their virus scanners and other security software, they unknowingly released a test file without attaching a valid and proper security certificate, and what do you know, they tried to make it disappear. As it turns out, the file was supposed to be a valid test program and in fact it was, yet the lack of the security signature had it recognized as such and as an attempt to infiltrate the computer systems of their clients. On the client side, their firewalls set out and performed what they were designed to do, and that was to block the attempt to allow entry to their protected systems. System administrators and personal users alike got so worried that they flooded the support site for information due to fear of a large-scale hacking attack that may be trying to get into their system. (more…)
Continued from the previous post…………
There is also a facility that allows people to report attack sites that have either been pre-loaded with malware or exploits that can later be used for hacking attacks for whatsoever reason. The way Google searches also tends to expose the power of their bots that also gather data on the overall site statistics and other facts about a particular page where it finds the said information thus becoming a sort of data store for hackers to use. These hackers somehow managed to circumvent security measures in place, intercepting the data the bots gather and stores them in some remote area or hidden site on the web where hackers check regularly for the easiest sites to get into. (more…)
In security that is and the stuff of fiction has become reality when hackers developed a bit that uses it’s immense search capabilities to do their dirty work for them. Everybody knows that when it comes to searching for information on the internet, nobody can come close to Google’s never ending banks of data center servers and storage racks. (more…)
