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Panda Cloud Antivirus now compatible with Windows 7
Panda Security’s industry acclaimed free antivirus service, Panda Cloud Antivirus, has received Microsoft’s ‘Compatible with Windows 7′ certification after passing the company’s quality checks for both 32-bit and 64-bit systems.
Since the launch of Panda Cloud Antivirus on November 10, 2009, millions of users have enjoyed the simplest, most effective and easy-to-use protection on the market.
Panda Cloud Antivirus is the world’s first free antivirus service that provides real-time protection against the newest and most dangerous viruses. This level of protection is made possible because Panda gathers malware information from its global community of users in the cloud to automatically process malware strains in minutes, versus hours or even days compared to other products. Panda’s approach combines local detection technologies with real-time cloud scanning to maximize protection while significantly minimizing the impact on PC performance.
Panda Cloud Antivirus has recently won the PCMag.com Editor’s Choice Award for Best Free Antivirus, as well as top honors in PCWorld’s comparative review of free antivirus software. Panda Cloud Antivirus is available for download free of charge at www.cloudantivirus.com.
Source: Panda Security
eScholar launches Version 7 of eScholar Uniq-ID for Students
New Capabilities Enhance Interstate Management of Student IDs
eScholar LLC, the leader in education data management software, has announced the release of Version 7 of the eScholar Uniq-ID® for Students. eScholar Uniq-ID® for Students is the nation’s most widely used product for assigning, maintaining, and managing lifelong unique student identifiers across time, location, and source.
“Even though our application is proven in the marketplace, we are always striving to improve the identifier assignment and management process so that the eScholar unique identifier can help improve longitudinal data analysis and can be used in new ways as business needs change,” said Andrea Hartman, Senior Product Manager at eScholar. “The new version of eScholar Uniq-ID® for Students does this by focusing on the capability to link all identifiers a student may have, including identifiers from other states, to one eScholar unique identifier. Providing a crosswalk of these identifiers assists the data integration process and builds upon our foundation that assigns identifiers uniquely across states to provide the only interstate capability available today.”
The key new features of eScholar Uniq-ID® for Students Version 7, which is available immediately, provide the following new capabilities:
– Ability to track all alternate student identifiers allows eScholar Uniq-ID® for Students system to retain a record of all local identifiers and/or alternate identifiers submitted to the system in one table.
– Ability to authorize data updates by source system to enable record-level updates based upon a system-wide source system reliability score. Administrators configure and define reliability scores for source systems that are authorized to upload data.
– Ability for administrators to configure automatic notifications which sends an email to the appropriate contacts when unresolved near matches exist for the specific location. This allows districts and states can more easily monitor pending near matches on an ongoing basis.
– Ability to identify potential false drop-outs, missing students and/or already existing identifiers.
“It is our expectation that the capabilities of Version 7, in particular the enhanced Batch Search component will enable us to significantly improve the way that we administer our student IDs,” said Kathy Gosa of the Kansas Department of Education. “The ability to quickly and easily match the IDS of students from other sources and other systems, such as Direct Certification for Free Lunch and students who have enrolled in postsecondary, will be a significant timesaver and will result in higher quality data.”
“eScholar Uniq-ID® for Students and eScholar Uniq-ID® for Staff are critical components of our long term vision to provide the most comprehensive longitudinal data systems solutions,” said Shawn Bay, eScholar’s founder and CEO. “Having the ability to maintain lifelong identities for every individual throughout their education spanning early childhood, preschool, pre-kindergarten, kindergarten, elementary, secondary, postsecondary, adult education, and the work force levels is essential. This dramatically enhances the ability of local, state and federal education agencies to understand the impact of educational programs and services on individuals throughout their lives.”
Organizations can learn more about Version 7 of the eScholar Uniq-ID® for Students by visiting www.escholar.com.
2010 Computer Threat Trends, PandaLabs forecast
Fake antivirus, bots and banker Trojans will continue to increase
Cyber-criminals will keep fine-tuning their social engineering skills to trick victims
More malware will be created for Windows 7 and Mac operating systems
The term ‘cyber war’ will become more familiar as politically-motivated attacks across the Internet increase
PandaLabs, Panda Security’s malware analysis and detection laboratory, has released its forecast of computer threat trends for 2010. PandaLabs predicts that in 2010, the amount of malware in circulation will continue to grow exponentially as it has in 2009. As anti-malware technologies are able to respond closer to real-time through cloud-based innovations such as Panda’s Collective Intelligence, malware creators will respond by generating even more diverse threats to evade detection and elimination. Once again malware will be designed almost exclusively for financial gain, and we can expect to see many new fake antivirus strains (rogueware), bots and banker Trojans.
Social Engineering Continues to Rise
Cyber-criminals will again be focusing on social engineering techniques to infect computers, particularly those targeting search engines (BlackHat SEO) and social networks, along with ‘drive-by-download’ infections from Web pages.
As the football World Cup takes place in South Africa, we can also expect to see significant amounts of malware related to this event: false ticket offers, junk mail, etc. It is always a good idea to be suspicious of any messages related with current affairs and large events such as this.
In the case of social networks, there have already been many examples of worms and Trojans targeting Twitter and Facebook. Malware creators will continue to be drawn to these types of platforms that are used by millions of people.
Watch Out Windows 7
Windows 7 will have a major impact on malware development: where Windows Vista hardly caused a ripple, Windows 7 will make waves. One of the main reasons is the widespread market acceptance of this new operating system, and since practically every new computer comes loaded with Windows 7 64-bit, criminals will be busy adapting malware to the new environment. It may take time, but we expect to see a major shift towards this platform over the next two years.
Mobile Phone Attacks – Not Yet!
Several security companies have been warning for some time that malware is soon to affect cell phones in much the same way as it affects PCs. Well, we hate to rain on their parade, but 2010 will not be the year of malware for cell phones.
The PC is a homogenous platform, with 90 percent of the world’s computers running Windows on Intel, meaning that any new Trojan, or worm has a potential victim pool of 90 percent of the world’s computers. The mobile phone environment is much more heterogeneous, with numerous vendors using different hardware and different operating systems.
Applications continue to be incompatible from one operating system to another. Therefore it is unlikely that 2010 will see widespread targeting of cell phones by malware. In any event, this year will witness many changes in the world of mobile telephony with more smartphones offering practically the same features as a PC; the emergence of Google Phone — the first phone sold directly by Google without tying users to specific operators; the increasing popularity of Android; and of course the iPhone. If in the next couple of years there are only two or three popular platforms, and if people make significantly more financial transactions from their phones, then the potential breeding ground for cyber-crime will be significant enough to be concerned.
Mac Becoming Increasingly Attractive to Cyber-Criminals
Mac’s market share has increased in recent years. Although the number of users has yet to reach the critical mass required to make it as profitable as PCs for cyber-criminals, it is nevertheless becoming more attractive. Mac is used just as PCs are to access social networks, email, and the Internet: the main malware distribution systems used by cyber-criminals. Consequently, Mac is no longer a safe haven against malware. These criminals can easily distinguish whether a system is Mac, and they are creating malware designed especially to target this OS. In 2009, we have already seen some attacks, and predict there are more to come in 2010.
Cyber war
Throughout 2009, governments around the world including the United States, the UK and Spain, have expressed concern about the potential for cyber-attacks to affect economies or critical infrastructure. We also saw this year how several Web pages in the United States and South Korea were the subject of attacks, with suspicion — as yet unapproved — pointing at North Korea. In 2010, we can expect to see similar politically-motivated attacks.
Securing the Cloud
Cloud-based services will continue to grow in popularity among consumers and business users alike. As this happens, the security industry must be acutely aware of cybercriminals’ moves to take advantage of this new platform.
Cloud Antivirus Technology on the Rise
2010 will be the year in which all anti-malware companies will innovate to remain competitive as cloud-based security becomes the most effective way to fight today’s malware. In 2007, Panda Security launched its first product which took advantage of the cloud. Now in 2009, all the company’s products use it and we have launched the first 100 percent cloud-based free antivirus: Panda Cloud Antivirus (www.cloudantivirus.com), and Panda has noticed that the rest of the marketplace is beginning to follow suit.
Source: Panda Security
Trend Micro 2010 Future Threat Report
Virtualization, Cloud-Computing and a Shifting Internet Infrastructure Will Widen the Scope of Cybercrime
Using news headlines and the latest technological trends, cybercriminals are brilliantly agile at exploiting whatever is trendy for cash and profit. Now, the growing popularity of cloud computing and virtualization among companies is likely to catch the attention of criminals scheming for the next hot cyber-swindle.
According to the Trend Micro 2010 Future Threat Report, cloud computing and virtualization — while offering significant benefits and cost-savings — move servers outside the traditional security perimeter and expand the playing field for cybercriminals. The industry already witnessed Danger/Sidekick’s cloud-based server failure that caused major data outages in November 2009, highlighting cloud-computing risks that cybercriminals will likely abuse. Trend Micro believes cybercriminals will either be manipulating the connection to the cloud, or attacking the data center and cloud itself.
The Internet infrastructure is changing, opening more opportunities for cybercrime
The “next-generation” protocol designed by the Internet Engineering Task Force, Internet Protocol v. 6, is still in the experimentation stages of replacing the current IPv4, now 20 years old. As users start to explore IPv6, so will cybercriminals, and we can expect to see proof-of-concept elements in IPv6 start to materialize in the upcoming new year. Possible avenues for abuse include new covert channels or C&C. But don’t expect active targeting of IPv6 address space–at least not in the very immediate future.
Domain names are becoming more internationalized and the introduction of regional top-level domains (Russian, Chinese, and Arabic characters) will create new opportunities to launch age-old attacks through look-alike domains for phishing – using Cyrillic characters in place of similar looking Latin characters. Trend Micro predicts this will lead to reputation problems and abuse that will challenge security companies.
Social media and social networks will be used by cybercriminals to enter the users’ “circle of trust”
Social engineering will continue to play a big role in the propagation of threats. But given the increasing saturation of social media with content intended to be shared via online social interactions, cybercriminals will definitely try to penetrate and compromise popular communities more than ever in 2010.
Social networks are also ripe venues for stealing personally identifiable information (PII). The quality and quantity of data posted openly by most trusting users on their profile pages, combined with interaction clues, are more than enough for cybercriminals to stage identity thefts and targeted social engineering attacks. The situation will worsen in 2010, with high-profile personalities suffering from online impersonators or stolen bank accounts.
The extinction of global outbreaks, and the growth of localized, targeted attacks
The threat landscape has shifted and we are no longer seeing global outbreaks like Slammer or CodeRed. Even the much covered Conficker incident of 2008 and early 2009 was not a global outbreak by its true definition; rather it was a carefully orchestrated and architected attack. Moving forward, localized and targeted attacks are expected to grow in their number and sophistication.
More key forecasts for 2010 and beyond:
– It’s all about money, so cybercrime will not go away.
– Windows 7 will have an impact since it is less secure than Vista in the default configuration.
– Risk mitigation is not as viable an option anymore-even with alternative Browsers /alternative operating systems.
– Malware is changing its shape – every few hours.
– Drive-by infections are the norm – one Web visit is enough to get infected.
– New attack vectors will arise for virtualized/cloud environments.
– Bots can’t be stopped anymore, and will be around forever.
– Company/Social networks will continue to be shaken by data breaches.
Source: Trend Micro Incorporated
CA report: Fake security software, search engines and social networks 2009’s Top Internet Threats
CA “State of the Internet 2009″ Report Analyzes Top Internet Threats; Researchers Predict Online Threats for 2010
The latest State of the Internet 2009 report issued today by CA, Inc. states that the most notable 2009 online threats were rogue/fake security software, major search engines, social networks and Web 2.0 threats. The report, based on data compiled by CA’s Global Security Advisor researchers, compiles trends from the first half of 2009. CA security researchers also offer predictions for the top Internet threats for 2010, including an increase in “malvertising” and the potential for another big computer worm outbreak like Conficker.
“Cybercriminals have made a business out of conducting attacks on the most popular online destinations because they promise the highest payoff,” said Don DeBolt, director of threat research for CA’s Internet Security Business Unit. “Cybercriminals keep up with trends, major events, holidays, and the like, and focus on where they’ll get the biggest returns. Search engines, like Google and Yahoo, or social networking sites, like Twitter or Facebook, have the mass appeal to attract these criminals. In addition to Internet security software, the best weapon against today’s threats is education, so that consumers know what to look for when they are conducting activities online.”
CA researchers tracked the following trends in 2009:
– Rogue or Fake Security Software: Software that poses as legitimate Internet security software but is actually malware has experienced a significant surge in popularity. In the first half of 2009, CA added detection for 1,186 new variants of Rogue security software, which is a 40% increase compared to the last half of 2008.
– Search Index Poisoning: Google is a frequent target of online threats. Attackers employ sophisticated search engine optimizations to manipulate search engine rankings and poison users’ search results, which direct them to compromised Web sites that can cause malware infections.
– Social Networks/Web 2.0: Popular online communities, blogs and social media sites, such as YouTube, MySpace, Facebook and Twitter, are highly targeted. Financially motivated organized groups are among the aggressive attackers, creating hundreds of bogus profiles to perform various tasks, including distributing malware, spamming and stealing users’ online identities to perpetrate further cybercrime. Win32/Koobface is an example of a worm propagating through social networking sites. It uses the affected user’s login credentials to send messages to the user’s list of connected friends and family. In 2009, CA ISBU discovered more than 100 components and mutated strains belonging to the Win32/Koobface family.
– Identity Theft: Attacks targeting online credentials allowed attackers to distribute further cybercriminal activities, such as email address harvesting for Spam bots, sweeping FTP accounts for web infection and attributing to social network worm propagation, like Win32/Koobface. Stealing Trojans accounted for 23% of the most prevalent malware infections in 2009.
– Cybersquatting and typosquatting: Malicious Web sites that masquerade as legitimate, reputable sites deceive users into undertaking transactions or activities in which they divulge sensitive data.
– Mac OS X Threats: Security threats have come to the Mac. In 2009, CA ISBU has added 15 intelligent signatures detecting Mac OS X threats. The most prevalent being OSX/Jahlav.
“Malware doubled in 2009 and the ability to purchase bots and other malicious programs online is becoming more prevalent,” DeBolt continued. “It is a cat and mouse game. Cybercriminals are evolving along with the malware community and are constantly looking for new vulnerabilities to exploit, from online banking to search index poisoning.”
While spam and phishing scams are still on the rise, the breakdown for how malware was distributed in 2009 was dominated by the Internet at 78 percent, followed by email (via attachments or phishing) at 17 percent, and finally removable media (such as USB drives, digital photo frames, etc.) with 5 percent.
CA forward looking online security predictions for 2010:
1. Search engine optimization exploits and malicious advertising (Malvertising) will increase as a means to distribute Malware.
2. Another big computer worm like Conficker is likely. The increasing popularity of web-based applications and discovery of critical zero-day vulnerabilities, especially for new operating systems such as Windows 7 and Google Chrome, present good opportunities for a new worm outbreak.
3. Threats to Web 2.0 technologies such as social networks will continue to grow.
4. Denial-of-Service attacks will increase in popularity as a means to make a political statement. Popular websites like Twitter and Facebook are likely to fall victim once again.
5. Banking Trojans: These Trojans manifest as banking-related threats orchestrated to steal users’ identities for financial gain.
6. Malware actors will focus on the 64 bit and Apple platform.
The CA 2009 State of Internet Security report is intended to inform consumers and businesses of the newest and most dangerous Internet threats, forecast trends and provide practical advice for protection. The analysis provided is based on incident information from the CA Global Security Advisor team, submitted by CA customers and consumers from January to June 2009, as well as publicly available information. For the full CA 2009 State of Internet Security report, please visit www.ca.com/securityadvisor.
The CA Global Security Advisor Team delivers the around-the-clock, dependable security expertise, offering trusted security advice to the world for more than 16 years. Providing a complete threat management resource, CA’s Security Advisor Team is staffed by industry-leading researchers and skilled support professionals. CA Global Security Advisor is available at www.ca.com/securityadvisor. It offers free security alerts, RSS feeds, PC scans and a regular blog updated by the worldwide team of researchers. CA’s entire portfolio of threat-related products for home, small and medium businesses, and enterprises are updated and protected by the CA Global Security Advisor team.
Source: CA
AXIGEN releases Version 7.3 with increased security and manageability
AXIGEN, the professional messaging solution vendor, announced today the commercial release of AXIGEN Mail Server 7.3, designed to be a perfect fit for the Service Provider segment and one more step towards hosted messaging. Only two months after the launch of the desktop-like Ajax Webmail interface, this new version comes to further emphasize the user-centric trend of the product, by focusing on effortless manageability and a higher level of security, through the introduction of a brand new Identity Confirmation system.
Placing strong focus on anti-spam protection, AXIGEN Mail Server 7.3 delivers, among other user-oriented functionalities, an extra layer of security, via a Challenge/Response – based Identity Confirmation method, to offer a highly reliable and customizable email platform.
By directing strong innovative efforts towards adapting to the extremely demanding segment of Service Providers (SPs), AXIGEN reaffirms itself as a “trail blazer”, as considered by The Radicati Group in the Market Quadrant 2009 on Messaging Platforms for Hosted Email Providers, being among those companies that “often shape the future of technology with innovations and new product designs”. Moreover, Radicati’s latest study on Email Platforms for Service Providers Market states “the company has shown huge potential in the past few years and we believe it will continue to innovate and reach new markets”, further acknowledging the product’s innovative qualities and its potential for in the cloud messaging.
“This new release proves yet again our commitment of meeting the ever increasing messaging requirements of today’s business environments. It is also a direct result of our long-term dedication and extensive efforts to present SPs with innovative solutions that they can use to build a higher-end range of Software as a Service (SaaS) offerings for corporate clients,” said Oana Bornaz, AXIGEN CEO.
One of the top nine messaging solutions for hosted email providers according to Radicati’s market studies, AXIGEN is internationally recognized as a top-grade messaging solution and has won the ServerWatch 2007 Product Excellence Award for Best Communications Server.
Source: Gecad Technologies SA
Passware software cracks BitLocker encryption open
Passware announces the release of the world’s first commercially available BitLocker decryption software.
Passware Inc., a provider of password recovery, decryption, and evidence discovery software for computer forensics, has created the first commercially available software to break Microsoft BitLocker hard drive encryption.
The new version of its flagship product – Passware Kit Forensic 9.5 – now recovers encryption keys for hard drives protected with BitLocker. The software scans a physical memory image file of the target computer and extracts all the encryption keys for a BitLocker disk.
BitLocker is an advanced, full-disk protection feature available in Windows Vista, Windows 7, and Windows Server 2008.
“Full-disk encryption was a major problem for investigators,” said Dmitry Sumin, Passware President. “We have been able to provide police, law enforcement, and private investigators with a tool that allows bypassing BitLocker encryption for seized computers.”
Passware Kit Forensic is a complete encrypted evidence discovery solution that reports all password-protected items on a computer and gains access to these items using the fastest decryption and password recovery algorithms. A portable version of the software runs from a USB drive and finds encrypted files and recovers files and website passwords without making any changes to the target computer.
Passware Kit Forensic 9.5 supports over 180 different file types and introduces recovery of passwords for PGP archives and virtual disks. The software supports Windows 7, Vista, 2003, XP, and 2008 Server.
Pricing and availability
Passware Kit Forensic is now available from Passware and resellers worldwide. Manufacturer’s suggested list price starts at $795. The software comes with 1 year of free software updates. Free trial licenses are also available.
Security Trends to Watch in 2010 – Symantec
Symantec 2010 Security Predictions
Antivirus is Not Enough – With the rise of polymorphic threats and the explosion of unique malware variants in 2009, the industry is quickly realizing that traditional approaches to antivirus, both file signatures and heuristic/behavioural capabilities, are not enough to protect against today’s threats. We have reached an inflection point where new malicious programs are actually being created at a higher rate than good programs. As such, we have also reached a point where it no longer makes sense to focus solely on analyzing malware. Instead, approaches to security that look to ways to include all software files, such as reputation-based security, will become key in 2010.
Social Engineering as the Primary Attack Vector – More and more, attackers are going directly after the end user and attempting to trick them into downloading malware or divulging sensitive information under the auspice that they are doing something perfectly innocent. Social engineering’s popularity is at least in part spurred by the fact that what operating system and Web browser rests on a user’s computer is largely irrelevant, as it is the actual user being targeted, not necessarily vulnerabilities on the machine. Social engineering is already one of the primary attack vectors being used today, and Symantec estimates that the number of attempted attacks using social engineering techniques is sure to increase in 2010.
Rogue Security Software Vendors Escalate Their Efforts – In 2010, expect to see the propagators of rogue security software scams take their efforts to the next level, even by hijacking users’ computers, rendering them useless and holding them for ransom. A less drastic next step, however, would be software that is not explicitly malicious, but dubious at best. For example, Symantec has already observed some rogue antivirus vendors selling rebranded copies of free third-party antivirus software as their own offerings. In these cases, users are technically getting the antivirus software that they pay for, but the reality is that this same software can actually be downloaded for free elsewhere.
Social Networking Third-Party Applications Will be the Target of Fraud – With the popularity of social networking sites poised for another year of unprecedented growth, expect to see fraud being leveraged against site users to grow. In the same vein, expect owners of these sites to create more proactive measures to address these threats. As this occurs, and as these sites more readily provide third-party developer access to their APIs, attackers will likely turn to vulnerabilities in third-party applications for users’ social networking accounts, just as we have seen attackers leverage browser plug-ins more as Web browsers themselves become more secure.
Windows 7 Will Come into the Cross-Hairs of Attackers - Microsoft has already released the first security patches for the new operating system. As long as humans are programming computer code, flaws will be introduced, no matter how thorough pre-release testing is, and the more complex the code, the more likely that undiscovered vulnerabilities exist. Microsoft’s new operating system is no exception, and as Windows 7 hits the pavement and gains traction in 2010, attackers will undoubtedly find ways to exploit its users.
Fast Flux Botnets Increase – Fast flux is a technique used by some botnets, such as the Storm botnet, to hide phishing and malicious Web sites behind an ever-changing network of compromised hosts acting as proxies. Using a combination of peer-to-peer networking, distributed command and control, web-based load balancing and proxy redirection, it makes it difficult to trace the botnets’ original geo-location. As industry counter measures continue to reduce the effectiveness of traditional botnets, expect to see more using this technique being used to carry out attacks.
URL Shortening Services Become the Phisher’s Best Friend - Because users often have no idea where a shortened URL is actually sending them, phishers are able to disguise links that the average security conscious user might think twice about clicking on. Symantec is already seeing a trend toward using this tactic to distribute misleading applications and we expect much more to come. Also, in an attempt to evade antispam filters through obfuscation, expect spammers to leverage shortened URLs shorteners to carry out their own evil deeds.
Mac and Mobile Malware Will Increase – The number of attacks designed to exploit a certain operating system or platform is directly related to that platform’s market share, as malware authors are out to make money and always want the biggest bang for their buck. In 2009, we saw Macs and smartphones targeted more by malware authors, for example the Sexy Space botnet aimed at the Symbian mobile device operating system and the OSX. Iservice Trojan targeting Mac users. As Mac and smartphones continue to increase in popularity in 2010, more attackers will devote time to creating malware to exploit these devices.
Spammers Breaking the Rules – As the economy continues to suffer and more people seek to take advantage of the loose restrictions of the CAN SPAM Act, we’ll see more organizations selling unauthorized e-mail address lists and more less-than-legitimate marketers spamming those lists.
As Spammers Adapt, Spam Volumes Will Continue to Fluctuate – Since 2007, spam has increased on average by 15 percent. While this significant growth in spam e-mail may not be sustainable in the long term, it is clear that spammers are not yet willing to give up as long an economic motive is present. Spam volumes will continue to fluctuate in 2010 as spammers continue to adapt to the sophistication of security software, the intervention of responsible ISPs and government agencies across the globe.
Specialized Malware – Highly specialized malware was uncovered in 2009 that was aimed at exploiting certain ATMs, indicating a degree of insider knowledge about their operation and how they could be exploited. Expect this trend to continue in 2010, including the possibility of malware targeting electronic voting systems, both those used in political elections and public telephone voting, such as that connected with reality television shows and competitions.
CAPTCHA Technology Will Improve – As this happens and spammers have a more difficult time breaking CAPTCHA codes through automated processes, spammers in emerging economies will devise a means to use real people to manually generate new accounts for spamming, thereby attempting to bypass the improved technology. Symantec estimates that the individuals employed to manually create these accounts will be paid less than 10 percent of the cost to the spammers, with the account-farmers charging $30-40 per 1,000 accounts.
Instant Messaging Spam - As cybercriminals exploit new ways to bypass CAPTCHA technologies, instant messenger (IM) attacks will grow in popularity. IM threats will largely be comprised of unsolicited spam messages containing malicious links, especially attacks aimed at compromising legitimate IM accounts. By the end of 2010, Symantec predicts that one in 300 IM messages will contain a URL. Also, in 2010, Symantec predicts that overall, one in 12 hyperlinks will be linked to a domain known to be used for hosting malware. Thus, one in 12 hyperlinks appearing in IM messages will contain a domain that has been considered suspicious or malicious. In mid 2009, that level was 1 in 78 hyperlinks.
Non-English Spam Will Increase – As broadband connection penetration continues to grow across the globe, particularly in developing economies, spam in non-English speaking countries will increase. In some parts of Europe, Symantec estimates the levels of localized spam will exceed 50 percent of all spam.
Source: Symantec Corp
IBM introduces new software to accelerate workload movement to System z
IBM announced 10 new software products to help companies lower application management costs by optimizing the System z mainframe for more workloads, such as data analytics, collaborative application development, application maintenance and other key business processes.
Given System z’s ability to reduce costs through server consolidation, IBM and the industry have aggressively extended the breadth of new workloads for the mainframe via 3,800 z/OS-based and 3,000 Linux-based applications. The unique ability of the mainframe to host many application services on one system has helped System z achieve one of the industry’s lowest application costs per user. Minimal application costs are important for companies which rely on multiple applications to run their business.
The new products span IBM’s software portfolio to provide a range of benefits for System z customers. The benefits include optimal application connectivity, productivity, security and data management.
The new offerings complement IBM’s recent announcement of seven integrated hardware, software and services packages — IBM System z Solution Editions — to help customers deploy new enterprise workloads, such as data warehousing, electronic payments and disaster recovery.
The new products include:
– IMS 11 provides direct SQL access to IMS data from any distributed platform. This simplifies and speeds the process of connecting applications and data, while also enabling easier data replication and change capture processes. Enhanced Java support expands the number of developers available to support IMS applications and business services.
– New products from WebSphere to enhance business process management, connectivity and integration including: WebSphere Process Server for z/OS V7, IBM WebSphere ILOG Business Rule Management Systems, WebSphere MQ for z/OS V7.0.1, WebSphere Message Broker for z/OS V7.0, and IBM Problem Determination Tools V10. These products are designed to help clients discover insights that enable innovation, maximize the value of business interactions, and optimize productivity and resources. For a full list and description of the new WebSphere products visit: www.ibm.com/smartwork/businessagility
To help clients cut application maintenance costs, IBM offers:
– IBM Rational Developer for System z version 7.6 provides a modern GUI development environment, to increase developer productivity and lower the costs associated with maintaining and building multi-platform applications. The new offering helps attract next-generation workers, consolidates multi-language development into a single environment and dramatically reduces CPU usage of up to 50 percent, minimizing budget
expenditures.
– IBM Rational Team Concert for System z version 2.0 uses a new common repository to help teams to work together, share assets, automate processes and deliver software faster. The software expedites response times and cuts costs by consolidating disparate development team infrastructures and automating software development across multiple platforms, which is important for tiered applications.
– An enhanced set of IBM Rational Compilers for C/C++, COBOL and PL/I reduce application MIP requirements, while increasing developer productivity and reducing both capital expense and overall development costs.
To help clients gain better insights about enterprise assets and lower network management costs, IBM offers:
– Tivoli Asset Discovery for z/OS removes unused and obsolete software and helps determine software usage to plan effectively for the future and to run smarter systems.
– IBM Tivoli NetView for z/OS 5.4 improves network and automation control for data centers and change management. It provides an understanding of how network availability and events impact the business, helping customers deliver smarter, more automated systems.
– IBM Tivoli zSecure provides a mainframe security solution for automated analysis and reporting of mainframe events and compliance dashboards that lower auditing costs helping companies run a smarter more cost effective system.
Telcordia, Sodifrance and HVB Unicredit are among the companies worldwide already benefiting from the long-term economics of the System z platform.
“Telcordia’s data systems are designed to provide consistently high throughput all the time. Each system averages five million transactions per day, supporting an average of 250 gigabytes of active data,” said Paul Gandolfo, a senior technical specialist in application development and performance at Telcordia. “Our customers bet their businesses on the services we provide, and we bet our service performance and reliability on IBM’s Information Management System. Downtime is not an option.”
“Building an agile development team requires a multiplatform approach and Sodifrance uses Rational Developer for System z and Rational Team Concert for System z to help application teams synchronize their efforts and improve collaboration,” said Hugh Smith, project manager of Sodifrance. “Rational on System z offers a powerful and valuable combination for any company that wants to boost its development team’s productivity.”
“Programmers that are using Rational Developer for System z have found that development is more comfortable than with our existing set of development tools,” says Almut Geiger of HVB Unicredit. “Debugging in particular is much faster. Features like syntax checking, content assist, multiple views and error identification make development easier. For example, when there were coding errors before, a developer had to find the correct line number in the code and then try to determine what was wrong with the code. Now they just click on an icon, and they are led directly to the position of the error. It takes people some time to get familiar with a new environment, but when they become familiar with Rational Developer for System z, we are seeing an estimated 15 percent increase in development efficiency and a 10 percent increase in testing efficiency.”
System z, visit http://www.ibm.com/mainframe
System z software, visit http://www.ibm.com/software/os/systemz
Source: IBM
BitArmor launches new managed encryption software service
BitArmor offers integrated e-mail, USB and disk encryption solution delivered from the cloud
BitArmor, a leading provider of information-centric encryption software, today announced the availability of BitArmor DataControl 4.0, which includes delivery of encryption software as a managed service. The new service is the industry’s first integrated USB, e-mail and full disk encryption solution delivered from the cloud. BitArmor Managed Encryption is well suited for mid-market businesses, saving them time, money and deployment headaches while providing military-grade encryption to prevent data breaches and comply with state and federal data privacy regulations.
– Easy to afford – Saves tens of thousands of dollars
– Easy to deploy – Leverages existing infrastructure, no additional hardware required
– Easy to use – Encryption is completely transparent to users
– Easy to manage – Enterprise class security without the hassles
“A significant number of PCs and media devices carrying business-critical data aren’t properly encrypted, and this state of affairs is certain to cause disasters for enterprises,” said John Girard, VP and distinguished analyst in Gartner’s Info Security and Privacy Research Center. “Statistical odds suggest that this will happen to virtually every organization, whether small, midsize or large.”
Unlike large corporations, mid-market businesses do not always have the budget, IT resources or infrastructure in place to protect their data with enterprise-class security strategies and technologies. Through BitArmor’s SaaS (Security as a Service) delivery model, all customers can benefit from the advantage of commercial-grade, enterprise-class encryption and affordable data security.
“A.I.M. Mutual is committed to setting the standard in service excellence for our customers, which includes being on the forefront of addressing key data protection issues like the new Massachusetts’s Privacy Law,” said Ray Pata, Manager Systems and Programming of A.I.M. Mutual Insurance Companies, one of the top providers of workers compensation in Massachusetts and an “A” rated financial institution by AM Best Company. “BitArmor Managed Encryption is a great security model as it provides very strong but highly affordable encryption so A.I.M. Mutual can continue to protect our key assets in a fiscally responsible manner.”
“Our customers operating in a wide range of highly regulated industries need encryption as part of their overall defense strategy, but mid-sized companies don’t always have the resources needed to manage an enterprise deployment,” said Carl Kunzmann, Managing Partner of Wulf Consulting, an IT provider that specializes in managed solutions for mid-market businesses and is now offering BitArmor Managed Encryption to its clients. “A great example is Ursuline Senior Services, subcontractor to Pennsylvania’s Allegheny County Area Agency on Aging, which will use BitArmor Managed Encryption to provide an additional level of security and assurance that the confidential healthcare and financial data of the 5,000+ senior citizens it serves will not be compromised.”
As the inventor of patented Smart Tag(TM) technology, a revolutionary approach to data encryption that protects data wherever it goes, BitArmor is recognized for its ability to deliver strategic solutions for the industry’s most pressing data protection problems, including the industry’s only No-Breach Guarantee.
BitArmor Managed Encryption’s latest enhancements solve the unique data protection challenges of the small to medium enterprise market by providing military-grade encryption for laptops, USB devices and email attachments, in a simple-to-manage and affordable subscription-based SaaS model. This is in stark contrast to data encryption solutions offered by many vendors that are cost-prohibitive for smaller businesses because they require investments in disparate technologies, expert IT security resources, and dedicated servers.
New SaaS features with BitArmor Managed Encryption include:
Highest Grade of Encryption: Uses military-grade encryption to safeguard sensitive data;
Complete Control of Sensitive Data: Ensures customers’ sensitive data never enters the cloud by performing encryption processing functions on the client side;
Integrated Managed Encryption: Offers a single integrated managed disk, USB and e-mail encryption solution that is easy to use and completely transparent to end-users;
High Availability: Guarantees the highest level of availability with multiple redundant servers and offline capabilities that provide access to encrypted data in the event of a network outage;
Reporting for Compliance: Supports regulatory requirements with simple-to-use reporting capabilities;
Low Total Cost of Ownership: Allows administrators to easily deploy the solution within hours and securely manage users from a single console – without costly infrastructure investments or prior encryption and key management experience.
“Today’s businesses are faced with the seemingly impossible task of meeting data security requirements while managing IT costs,” said BitArmor CEO Patrick McGregor. “BitArmor continues to deliver the necessary innovations, like SaaS-based encryption, so that all companies can afford to protect their critical data without sacrificing business growth. BitArmor provides consistent value even as regulations and impending risk threats evolve.”
Source: BitArmor