Comes in as a zip file. If you are at risk, then you will need to montior for some specigfic web sites. AV vendors have started releasing signatures. Sent via BlackBerry – a service from AT&T Wireless.
IBM tells users not to install Windows XP update
In a note headlined “To patch” or not to patch” posted Friday on its corporate intranet, IBM tells its employees not to download SP2 when it becomes available because of compatibility issues.
“While this patch may be good news for other Microsoft Windows XP owners, IBM is directing XP users not to install SP2,” the note states.
Currently, some high profile, business-critical applications are also known to conflict with SP2,” IBM tells its employees in the note. Microsoft has made something of a trade-off, focusing on security at the expense of compatibility. Earlier this week the software vendor released an update for Microsoft CRM (Customer Relationship Management) 1.2 because SP2 will prevent the original application from running correctly.
Because of the broad changes, analysts have compared the XP service pack to a Windows upgrade instead of a simple update. Business users typically take much longer to install a new version of Windows than a service pack because of compatibility testing.
http://www.itworldcanada.com/Pages/Docbase/ViewArticle.aspx?id=idgml-e2660c5c-be61-46fe&s=334096
Windows XP Service Pack 2 good for AMD chips
This unique hardware and software combination is designed to keep computers protected against certain malicious viruses, computer worms and Trojan horses.
When combined with the Data Execution Prevention technology found in Windows XP SP2, it provides a multi-layered defense against many common online threats. It not only identifies certain malicious code, specifically those that execute buffer overflow attacks, but also prevents them from replicating and spreading throughout the system.
The hardware and software technology from AMD and Microsoft is designed to proactively defend computers from these far too prevalent attacks, providing critical protection from some of the fastest-growing and most damaging viruses in the world today,” said Rob Enderle, President and Principal Analyst, Enderle Group.
Every AMD Athlon64 FX-53, AMD Athlon64 mobile and desktop, and Mobile AMD Sempron processor customer will be able to use the built-in EVP capability when enabled by Windows XP SP2.
http://www.cooltechzone.com/index.php?option=content&task=view&id=457&Itemid=0
MS XP2 Service pack
Now published to corporate users. On Friday, they released the package to OEMs and manufacturers. Sent via BlackBerry – a service from AT&T Wireless.
Wireless IDSes Defend Your Airspace
A wide variety of these products stands ready to help identify and troubleshoot security and performance issues related to wireless technology. However, based on our tests of a range of these solutions, we believe companies should carefully assess their wireless security needs because their existing infrastructure devices may already fulfill them.
Wireless IDS solutions range from handheld products that are designed for on-the-spot troubleshooting at a point in time, to capabilities integrated into existing access points and managing switches, to distributed fleets of sensors that provide round-the-clock coverage.
Defensive overlay products enable a host of security and performance monitoring capabilities and have strong policy options that alert administrators to any signs of trouble. Defensive overlay network vendors are rapidly adding features that not only alert but also can be configured to isolate and block wayward connections over the wire or over the air.
Despite recent reports of vulnerabilities in the RADIUS (Remote Authentication Dial-In User Service) authentication mechanism upon which 802.11i is based, 802.11i goes a long way toward equalizing the security of known, managed devices on wireless networks and on wired ones. 802.11i does so by delivering strong standard;s-compliant encryption via AES (Advanced Encryption Standard) and port-based 802.1x authentication to WLANs (wireless LANs). [Editors note Also look to 802.1x]
However, many threats remain outside the scope of 802.11i, including access points and client nodes that are loosely maintained (or are completely outside IT’s control). Employees installing their own unsecured access points on a corporate network leave a wide-open vector for LAN attacks that bypass network firewalls and wireless security measures implemented by IT. And misconfigured and unsecured client devices also represent a significant threat. With the proliferation of WLAN hot spots and wireless devices in the home, users are leveraging their wireless connections in a multitude of locations.
In tests, eWEEK Labs has encountered interesting results from a misconfigured client bridging the internal wired network and an unknown wireless network.
http://www.eweek.com/article2/0,1759,1633282,00.asp
FBI publishes computer crime and security stats
Computer security has evolved from being purely the domain of IT resources to the point now where even the board of a company take an interest. This growing concern about security has come about as the internet has emerged to be a ubiquitous business tool.
When the CSI and FBI started performing this survey in the mid-1990s, computer security concerns largely centred on technical issues such as encryption, access controls and intrusion detection systems. By 2004, the ninth annual survey indicates that companies are becoming more concerned with the economic, financial and risk management aspects of computer security in addition to the purely technical aspects. This indicates the greater importance that is being placed on security by senior management in organisations.
Overall, the 2004 survey indicates that the frequency of successful attacks against corporate information systems is decreasing – and has been in steady decline since 2001. In fact, only 53 per cent of respondents indicated that they had experienced unauthorised use of their computational systems in the past year, which is the lowest level since 1999. Over the past year, there has been a dramatic drop in reports of system penetration, insider abuse and theft of intellectual property.
This is a substantial change from last year’s survey, when 80 per cent of respondents reported insider abuse of networks to be the most common form of attack or abuse and indicates that security implementations are having some level of success in stopping these attacks. Even though 99 per cent of organisations surveyed are using anti-virus technology, virus attacks were cited as the most common form of security incident, affecting 78 per cent of respondents.
Further, virus attacks are contributing the most in terms of financial loss stemming from security incidents owing to the emerging threat of virus attacks being combined with denial of service attacks – costing companies more than double in monetary terms than any other type of security breach reported.
The next most costly forms of attack are theft of proprietary information, insider abuse of networks and the newly emerging threats of abuse of wireless networks.
For the first time, the survey asked respondents whether or not they conduct security audits of their information networks to look for vulnerabilities in a proactive manner.
One further new area was examined in the 2004 computer crime and security survey – that of the impact of regulation, specifically Sarbanes-Oxley, on the information security activities of companies. Corporate governance has been on the lips of corporate executives for the past year, and high-profile court cases have begun to hand out strict jail terms for transgressors. But, surprisingly, only among executives from the financial services, utilities and telecommunication industries did the majority state that Sarbanes-Oxley had affected their information security activities.
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2004/08/05/fbi_security_stats/