CyberSecurity Institute – Page 416 – Security News Curated from across the world

Comdex Panel Debates Security Needs

Posted on November 19, 2003December 30, 2021 by admini

Today, about 40 percent of organizations are well secured, 20 percent are beginning to increase their security expenditures, but a good 40 percent still don’t really get it. “Overall security expenditures have increased by about 10 percent in each of the past three years, and security spending now comprises about 4 percent to 10 percent of a company’s budget,” Byrnes said.

“Companies that were merely secure about five years ago are now looking to do things more efficiently, by remaining secure while cutting costs.”

Ron Moritz, head of eTrust security products for Computer Associates, said one way companies might do this is by looking for security solutions that cover entire networks and can be centrally managed.

But all the panelists agree that such a system requires an organization to have a sound security policy. “If you don’t know what’s going on in your network, you can’t respond.

More info: [url=http://www.internetweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=16101239]http://www.internetweek.com/story/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=16101239[/url]

Symantec CEO: Take new tack against Net attacks

Posted on November 19, 2003December 30, 2021 by admini

The focus on security needs to shift from cleaning up after a problem to anticipating potential problems, he said, with automated patch management and better coordination of software and hardware.

“Security needs to move beyond its niche focus,” he said. Otherwise, it will be impossible to keep up, Thompson claimed.

“More than 100 new viruses are identified every week–and 60 new software (problems) every week,” he said. “We saw a 19 percent increase in attack activity in the first half” of 2003.

In the relatively near future, the world will likely see the debut of damaging threats the industry is calling “Warhol” attacks, as they are likely to achieve fame by spreading across the Internet in 15 minutes. “Day Zero” threats, which exploit previously unknown vulnerabilities, will hit without warning, the Symantec CEO added.

Corporations are also taking action to stem attacks, such as creating more homogeneous computing environments or taking part in initiatives such as the Network Admissions Control program to ban insecure mobile devices from corporate networks, announced Tuesday by Cisco Systems.

Thompson stated that a shift to Linux from Microsoft wouldn’t be a sure way to avoid the kind of recent suffering caused by viruses that exploited holes in Microsoft code.

More info: [url=http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1105_2-5109531.html]http://zdnet.com.com/2100-1105_2-5109531.html[/url]

Worms of the future

Posted on November 19, 2003December 30, 2021 by admini

In the end, what is left and what could be done as an emergency measure? I’m afraid there’s not much that can be done to approach 100% efficiency.

Probably one of the most promising security measures would be traffic shaping IDSes and communication between different ones. They still need a lot of improvement to prevent false positives, because false positives tend to bore administrators who then end up not listening to alerts anymore.

Full disclosure of vulnerabilities is surely a way of facilitating the task of exploit writing. On the other hand, imposing a total blackout on vulnerability discovery and disclosing it only to the vendor (or publisher) of a piece of software is surely a way of; 1- not inciting hackers to discover holes, and 2-having some hackers keep them for their group of friends to carry out their own exploits.

Good old solution: patch, patch, patch
Last word: patching a system as soon as a solution has been found to a security vulnerability has always been the best solution to avoid security problems.

More info: http[url=http://www.net-security.org/dl/articles/wf.pdf]://www.net-security.org/dl/articles/wf.pdf[/url]

ISS Ships First Proventia G Intrusion Detection Device

Posted on November 19, 2003December 30, 2021 by admini

The appliances, which are priced starting at $11,995, can detect and block both known and unknown attacks, said Internet Security Systems (ISS) executives, including denial-of-service (DoS) attacks, worms, and Trojan horses.

A third simulation mode lets IT managers report what it would have blocked had it been enabled, giving security staff a chance to test the accuracy of the appliance before putting it inline.

More info: [url=http://www.crn.com/sections/BreakingNews/dailyarchives.asp?ArticleID=46116]http://www.crn.com/sections/BreakingNews/dailyarchives.asp?ArticleID=46116[/url]

Bush pushes for cybercrime treaty

Posted on November 19, 2003December 30, 2021 by admini

In a letter to the Senate on Monday, Bush called the Council of Europe’s controversial treaty “an effective tool in the global effort to combat computer-related crime” and “the only multilateral treaty to address the problems of computer-related crime and electronic evidence gathering.”

Even though the United States is a nonvoting member of the Council of Europe, it has pressed hard for the cybercrime treaty as a way to establish international criminal standards related to copyright infringement, online fraud, child pornography and network intrusions.

The U.S. Department of Justice says the treaty will eliminate “procedural and jurisdictional obstacles that can delay or endanger international investigations.”

Civil libertarians have objected to the treaty ever since it became public in early 2000, arguing that it would endanger privacy rights and grant too much power to government investigators.

“It would require nations that participate in the treaty to adopt all sorts of intrusive surveillance measures and cooperate with other nations, even when the act that’s being investigated is not a crime in their home country.”

So far, according to the Council of Europe, only three countries–Albania, Croatia and Estonia–have ratified the treaty.

The treaty requires each participating nation to ban the distribution of software that is designed for the “purpose of committing” certain computer crimes, requires Internet providers to ensure “expeditious preservation of traffic data” upon request, and permits real-time wiretapping of Internet service providers.

An addition to the Council of Europe’s cybercrime treaty would ban “hate speech” from the Internet, a common prohibition in European nations that violates the U.S. Constitution’s First Amendment.

The Justice Department said last year that it does not support the optional addition but still endorses the underlying treaty.

More info: [url=http://news.com.com/2100-1028_3-5108854.html?tag=nefd_top]http://news.com.com/2100-1028_3-5108854.html?tag=nefd_top[/url]

Check Point shifts security strategy

Posted on November 19, 2003December 30, 2021 by admini

While the Redwood City, Calif., company didn’t detail any specific product plans, it said Wednesday that it intends to add features such as identity management and application security to its Web security products and internal firewalls.

It will also add the ability to audit systems for regulatory compliance to its internal security products.

The strategy, outlined at Check Point’s annual industry analyst conference, is the latest move by a security company to offer a more integrated and easily managed approach to securing corporate information systems. Check Point’s announcement confirms that integrating security is a trend that companies will be forced to follow, said Jeff Wilson, an industry analyst with technology watcher Infonetics Research.

Check Point’s Kraynak said that the company hasn’t decided on whether to release Check Point-branded hardware devices as it ventures into Web security and internal security.

More info: [url=http://rss.com.com/2100-7355_3-5109589.html?part=rss&tag=feed&subj=news]http://rss.com.com/2100-7355_3-5109589.html?part=rss&tag=feed&subj=news[/url]