Top Security Trends for 2006

Here are the security trends to watch for in 2006:
* Phishing Frenzy
* Business Worm’s Rise
* Insider Threat
* Increasing Network Control
* Wireless Security Focus
* Increased Security Legislation
* Voice Spam Begins
* Selling to SMBs

>> Link

Most visited sites in November 2005

1. Yahoo! - 103,882,000 unique visitors
2. Microsoft - 96,130,000 unique visitors
3. MSN - 91,348,000 unique visitors
4. Google - 85,526,000 unique visitors
5. AOL - 74,321,000 unique visitors
6. eBay - 56,332,000 unique visitors
7. Amazon - 42,496,000 unique visitors
8. MapQuest - 35,076,000 unique visitors
9. Real - 34,355,000 unique visitors
10. Apple - 30,845,000 unique visitor
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Phishing trends in October

For October 2005
• Phishing mail campaigns: 15820
• Phishing sites: 4367
• Number of brands phished: 96
• Number of brands phished in top 80% : 6
• Country hosting the most phishsites: United States
• Average time online for site: 5.5 days
• Longest time online for site: 31 days
Anti-Phishing Working Group report: >> Link

John O'Neil pleads guilty to corporate espionage

John O'Neil, former CEO of Business Engine Software, pleaded guilty to conspiracy to download and steal the trade secrets of software competitor Niku (now CA). He faces a maximum sentence of 10 years in jail and a $250,000 fine. From October 2001 until July 2002, Business Engine used the illegally obtained passwords to gain unauthorized access to Niku's systems more than 6,000 times and downloaded over 1,000 confidential documents containing trade secrets. >> Link

Fake McAfee patch

WebSense reports on an email scam disguised as a patch for McAfee products. Users receive a spoofed email message instructing them to click on a link to immediately download and install a patch from McAfee. The patch hosted on this page is actually a Trojan downloader. >> Link

Intel's anti-rootkit solution

One of the limitations of security software running on the CPU (central processing unit) is that as soon as an attacker gains root-level privileges, such as via rootkit, then that level of privilege gives them the ability to compromise any software running on that system. What Intel can provide is platform hardware and firmware that is much more difficult to compromise, because it is separated from the primary OS (operating system) and CPU. One of the things we've designed this technology to do--to detect problems that we don't know about yet, what we call in the industry day-zero worms and viruses. Those worms and viruses that come out, and we don't know what they look like. This technology is simply looking for changes to protected programs. It could be any kind of change--any kind of worm payload or virus payload or rootkit. As long as it changes one of those protected programs or stops one of the security agents that we're monitoring, we can detect it, regardless of what the actual signature is.
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China is #1

After almost a decade of explosive growth in its electronics sector, China has overtaken the United States as the world's biggest supplier of information technology goods. China's exports of information and communication technology--including laptop computers, mobile phones and digital cameras--increased by more than 46 percent to $180 billion in 2004 from a year earlier, easily outstripping for the first time United States exports of $149 billion, which grew 12 percent from 2003.
>> Link

Firefox 1.5 introduced... with exploits.

The browser's average share in November went to 8.8%, up from 8.6% in October, "What's interesting is that in the last week of November, Firefox hit as high as 9.09 percent market share, which is indicative of its potential to hit a critical mass of 10 percent," said Vizzaccaro in a statement. According to polls, Best 2 new features: Improved software update (35%) and Faster navigation (21%). Microsoft's Internet Explorer still commands an overwhelming market share, even though it continued to dip during November. By NetApplications' count, IE fell from 86.5 percent of all browsers used in October to 86.1 percent in November. Twelve months ago, IE owned 90.3 percent of the browser business, Firefox 4.6 percent, and Safari 1.6 percent. >> Link

In other news: First exploit for FireFox 1.5 made public >> Link

Get Firefox 1.5 here http://download.mozilla.org/?product=firefox-1.5&os=win&lang=en-US

Most home PC users lack security

A survey of home PC users found 81 percent lacked at least one of three critical types of security... Of this group, 56 percent had no antivirus software or had not updated it within a week, while 44 percent did not have a firewall properly configured, according to the report. Meanwhile, 38 percent of survey respondents lacked spyware protection. >> Link

F-Secure 2005 Antivirus review

In a nutshell: We're seeing less widespread outbreaks. This is the result of smaller targetted attacks launched by professional criminals - instead of the large outbreaks inititated by hobbyists. So while the situation seems to be getting better, it's actually getting worse. >> Link

Phishing IQ

Only 4 percent of users can spot a phished e-mail 100 percent of the time...
The average score in 2005, according to MailFrontier, is 75 percent, which is up from 61 percent in 2004. MailFrontier forecast that phishing e-mail will be up by 25 percent from 750 million last year to 1 billion this year. >> Link

>> Take the Phishing IQ test

Most visited sites in October 2005

1. Yahoo! - 101,790,000 unique visitors
2. Microsoft - 95,879,000 unique visitors
3. MSN - 89,769,000 unique visitors
4. Google - 83,350,000 unique visitors
5. AOL - 75,355,000 unique visitors
6. eBay - 53,206,000 unique visitors
7. Amazon - 39,020,000 unique visitors
8. MapQuest - 37,578,000 unique visitors
9. Real - 34,575,000 unique visitors
10. Weather Channel - 31,062,000 unique visitors
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Spyware news: Claria, 180solutions

Don't Call It Spyware : Back in 2002, Gator was one of the most reviled companies on the Net. Today Gator, now called Claria, is a rising star - selling virtually the same product. >> Link

Zone Labs sued by 180Solutions:
The lawsuit, alleges that Zone Labs has caused "thousands of 180's customers to remove or otherwise uninstall Zango and/or 180SA. 180 has been damaged by the wrongful removal of its applications caused by ZoneLab's tortious conduct."
>> Link