WatchGuard announces Top Threats to education

November 4, 2009 · Filed Under Software News · Comment 

Education-related Threats Expected to Rise – According to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, 25 percent of all cyber-security breaches involve schools, and although a majority of educators believe that their campus networks are more secure now than last year, WatchGuard predicts that significant breaches, vulnerabilities and threats will continue to plague schools and universities. WatchGuard deems the following to be the leading network, application and data threats to education:

– Malware & Spyware - As students and faculty utilize the Web for education as well as entertainment purposes, many unwittingly expose themselves to drive-by downloads, or corrupted websites, which injects malicious forms of software on their computers. Once infected, they risk becoming victims of identity theft or loss of personal information via spyware and keyloggers.
– Viruses – Today, e-mail remains to be one of the primary vectors for delivering viruses. Unfortunately, a recent survey showed that 27 percent of users fail to keep their antivirus signatures up to date.  With viruses taking on innovative polymorphic properties, antivirus signatures alone may not be enough to stop the next wave of new viruses to come.
– Botnets – It has been estimated that 15 to 20 percent of all school and university computers connected to the Internet may be part of a botnet. As part of a botnet, school and university systems may be used in a variety of unknown exploits, including spam delivery, denial of service attacks, click-fraud, identity theft and more.
– Phishing – Phishing scams continue to get more sophisticated and selective, with students being specifically targeted. A recent report states that phishing attacks via social networks achieve a success rate of over 70 percent, which indicates that a majority of students are vulnerable to phishing scams.
– Hacking - In a recent survey of education IT professionals, 23 percent ranked student hackers as one of their greatest threats to their network security. Whether the hacks are designed to alter grades or for more sinister purposes, student hackers continue to push the envelope for network and data protection.
– Access Control – Usage of mobile devices and wireless access continues to plague network administrators. Concerns of thwarting unauthorized user access to education IT resources is top of mind with many administrators. As use of mobile devices escalates, schools will face
increasing challenges in managing authorized network access.
– Social Networks – The number one threat to school and university networks is social networks, such as Facebook and MySpace.  Unfortunately, social networks act as an ideal platform to launch a myriad of attacks against students and faculty, including spam, viruses, malware, phishing and more. Adding to this, socially engineered attacks are often extremely successful due to the “trusted” environment that social networks create.

– Because of the sensitive nature of student and faculty information, such as social security numbers, credit card information, and other personal identifying data at risk, WatchGuard recommends that schools and universities review their security controls and IT policies regularly to ensure they have the most effective, up-to-date security solutions in place.

Source: WatchGuard Technologies

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PandaLabs uncovers online Facebook password hacking service

September 19, 2009 · Filed Under Security Software, Software News · Comment 

According to its Ukraine-based creators, hacking an account costs $100, payable through Western Union

PandaLabs, Panda Security’s malware analysis and detection laboratory, today announced the discovery of an online service that promises to hack into any Facebook account for $100. The creators claim, “Any Facebook account can be hacked,” promising to provide clients with the login and password credentials to access any account on the popular social networking site.

According to Luis Corrons, Technical Director of PandaLabs, “The service’s real purpose may be hacking Facebook accounts as they say, or profiting from those that want to try the service. In any case, the Web page is very well designed. It is easy to contract the service and become either the victim of an online fraud, or a cyber-criminal and accomplice in identity theft. Once an intruder hacks into a Facebook account, all personal data published on the site can be stolen. Similarly, those accounts can also be used to send malware, spam or other threats to the victim’s contacts. In the case of celebrities of other well-known entities, they can be used to defame the account holder, spread information in their name, etc. In any event, this is criminal activity.”

In addition to extorting money and obtaining access to clients’ bank account information, the service also has characteristics in line with hacker affiliate programs. Common among cybercriminals, hacker affiliate programs offer other cybercriminals money to spread malware. This strategy is now being used with everyday Internet users through this Facebook hacking site, by offering extra dollar-credits to spend on the service when users hack more accounts. They can become affiliates to help hackers reach a broader audience, receiving 20 percent of what they sell in credits for hacking more accounts.

It is likely that the cybercriminals behind this operation are members of an Eastern European Internet mafia because payments are conducted online through Western Union wire transfers to a payee in Ukraine. The domain that hosts the service is registered in Moscow, providing further evidence of this theory.

The company claims to have been offering this service for four years with only one percent of accounts hack-proof. In these cases, they offer clients a money-back guarantee. However, the domain is just a few days old.

A series of images illustrating the sales flow can be found on the PandaLabs blog: http://www.pandalabs.com/.

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Is the Economic Slowdown Affecting Hacking Behaviour?

May 27, 2009 · Filed Under Internet Software, Security Software, Software News · Comment 

VASCO aXsGUARD(TM) Gatekeeper survey reveals major Internet threats in the first quarter of 2009

VASCO Data Security International, Inc., a leading software security company specializing in authentication products, announces the results of its aXsGUARD(TM) Gatekeeper Internet Threat Survey. VASCO surveyed 700 small and medium sized enterprises with 5 to 250 internet users, revealing malicious activity during the first quarter of 2009. aXsGUARD Gatekeeper is an authentication and internet security appliance, making use of VASCO’s core authentication technology.

The results of the first quarter 2009 are weighed against the first quarter of 2008 and the major trends reveal to be:

  • Viruses, viruses and more viruses, including a steady increase in “money hunting” fraud tools such as Trojans and phishing
  • Amount of spam is stable however more advanced techniques are in place to block spam
  • More employees are surfing, however more surfing behaviour policies are in place

During the first quarter of 2009 we see more active viruses than in the first quarter of 2008. The number of active viruses has more than tripled. When we look at different types of viruses we see that these have almost tripled. We see a steady increase in phishing and Banking Trojans, whereas more standard type viruses like Netsky and Bagle remain constant. We could conclude that hackers are immune against the current economic slowdown and are even more focused on password theft and account hacking to steal money from innocent computer users.

Spam is still on the rise; however it is more accurately blocked through the use of new spam blocking techniques being used by aXsGUARD. We see that through the use of grey listing in the new aXsGUARD software, the total amount of spam e-mails drop with 40 million spam e-mails per month. The use of blacklisted e-mail addressed and IP-addresses of known spammers results in a drop of another 10%. And finally of the remaining e-mail, another 50% is stopped through the use of content scanning in Q1 2009, compared to 28 % in Q1 2008. The use of combined anti-spam techniques results in over 93% of unwanted e-mail being stopped before it reaches the end-user in Q1 2008 and 89% in Q1 2009.

More and more employees are surfing. We see an increase in surfing behaviour of 32%. The number of blocked websites has almost doubled, whereas the visit to standard blacklisted websites remains stable. With the steady increase of blocked sites, we can conclude that more and more companies have policies in place. These policies regulate accepted and not accepted surfing behaviour, for instance the visit to e-commerce and social network sites during working hours.

aXsGUARD Gatekeeper is an authentication appliance which is suited for SMEs. It offers two-factor authentication and a number of optional modules providing a total security solution for network connectivity. The aXsGUARD modules consist of authentication, application firewall, firewall with DMZ and Intrusion prevention, content scanning with anti-spam and anti-virus, Trend Micro anti-virus and anti-spyware, remote connection and SSL-VPN and mail server. SME’s are typically looking for budget friendly total security solutions. aXsGUARD Gatekeeper provides an answer to the specific need of the SME by adding additional security functionality to the authentication appliance.

According to Jan Valcke, President and COO at VASCO Data Security: “Surveys such as our aXsGUARD Gatekeeper survey are necessary to demonstrate the vulnerability of companies on the Internet. Surveys as these clearly indicate that all companies, including SMEs, are vulnerable for Internet fraud. We cannot stress more the importance of being vigilant.”

Source: VASCO Data Security International, Inc.

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Studying or Hacking? Today’s Adolescents Could Be the Hackers of the Future

May 19, 2009 · Filed Under Security Software, Software News · Comment 

A Panda Security study of 4,000 adolescents reveals alarming statistics around teenage hacking rates and exploration

Panda Security, a leading provider of IT security solutions,  announced the results of a four month survey carried out by Panda Security(1) that analyzed the online behaviors, technology knowledge, and hacking activities of more than 4,000 adolescents between the ages of 15 and 18 years old. The study results indicate that more than half of adolescents use the Internet daily, spending on average 18.5 hours a week connected. The survey revealed that some 32 percent of this online activity is dedicated to studying, while the remaining 68 percent involves leisure activities, such as online gaming, watching videos, listening to music, chatting, etc.

While 63 percent of parents declared concern for the online security of their children, relating to the threats to which they are exposed (contact with strangers, access to inappropriate content, etc.), none of them expressed among their main concerns, the risk that their children could be involved in illicit activities on the Internet.

However, some 67 percent of the young people surveyed admitted to having tried, on at least one occasion, to hack into friends’ instant messaging or social network accounts, etc. Similarly, 20 percent confirmed that they had sent compromising photos of friends over the Internet or published them on the Web without prior consent.


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The survey also revealed that 17 percent of adolescent users claim to have advanced technical knowledge and are able to find hacking tools on the Internet. Of these, 30 percent claim to have used them on at least one occasion. When asked why, 86 percent said that curiosity had led them to investigate these public tools.

According to Luis Corrons, Technical Director of PandaLabs, “the advanced knowledge that many adolescents acquire through free tools and content available on the Web can often lead them to engage in illegal online activities. We have found cases of teenagers using Trojans to spy on their partners, hacking school servers to see exam papers or even stealing the identity of friends or colleagues on social networks.”

While there are many initiatives aimed at educating and promoting awareness of the many threats on the Web, there are far less that focus on detecting and addressing illegal behavior among adolescents.

“We should encourage young people to use the Internet as a channel for personal development, teaching them to use it in a healthy and responsible fashion. It is important to help them avoid the dubious activities which are driven by the anonymity of the Web, by educating them on the consequences and criminal charges,” urges Corrons. “Even though the percentage is very low, we still come across many cases of adolescent cyber-criminals, such as the recent high-profile case of the 16-year-old creator of the Twitter worms. We estimate that just 0.5 percent of such criminal acts are being detected by the authorities. Those who are drawn into hacking out of curiosity may very likely end-up discovering the financial potential of this activity, and become the next generation of cybercriminals.”

(1)Study carried out by Panda Security between January 2009 and April 2009 among users and non-users of Panda solutions.

Survey universe: adolescents between 15 and 18 years old.

Size and distribution of the survey sample: A representative sample of 4091 teenagers between 15 and 18 years old was taken. The surveys were carried out online, through prior invitation via email.

Sample error: Sampling error calculation has been based on p=q=0.5 for a confidence level of 95%.

Source: Panda Security

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