[SecurityRatty] tag: telltale

Surveillance system helps police snare shooters

Sun, 23 Nov 2008 21:00:00 +0000

A network of electronic ears is quietly monitoring more than six square miles of high-crime Boston neighborhoods, listening for the telltale sounds of gunfire ripping, booming or crackling through the air.

12 Signs that Your Company is Already in the Cloud

Fri, 25 Apr 2008 15:14:19 +0000

What are the telltale signs that your company is already Computing in the Cloud?

Is it when the CIO makes a big announcement at the monthly IT meeting?

Is it when the IT newsletter drops a reference to pilot testing of some ‘web based’ software?

Or, is it when the secretary whips out the boss’s Corporate Credit Card and signs up to a Cloud Service?

Here are 12 indicators that your company is *already* part of the Cloud:

Your internal helpdesk reports fewer password resets.
Finance contacts you to confirm all the DVD readers are disabled - they are puzzled by the number of recurring credit card charges for Amazon (are the secretaries spreading out their orders for “Lost” DVDs again?).
You are asked to authorise a network change ticket to send all outbound network traffic via the perimeter firewall, before being routed back to the internal server room (for performance reasons).
You walk into the Data Center and it feels cooler than usual.
When the builders next door accidentally saw through the company Internet connection, people complain there must be a DoS attack going on as they can’t get to their files.
During physical inspections, you notice unexplained gaps in server cabinets.
Login failures go down, in fact login “attempts” in general go down but the company car park is full.
As you walk through the office, you notice all the “Security Awareness” posters have been replaced with pictures of Jeff Bezos (!)
You are asked to authorise a visit from the local environment group. Fearing protesters, you are surprised to learn that your company has won a prize for reducing its Carbon Footprint
Your Intrusion Prevention System is preventing the call center from uploading contracts stored as GIF files.
You detect the presence of ‘malware’ in the form of unexplained ‘Machine Images’ on IT’s desktops.
You stop finding Windows passwords under keyboards, instead you find random hex digits next to the words ‘Access Key’ and ‘Secret Key’. You sigh, but at least they are setting difficult to guess passwords now!

If you are charged with IT security in your company, you may want to start checking your web proxy logs for telltale signs that people are talking to the Cloud…or just talk to finance.

Covert Online Spies

Wed, 01 Aug 2007 15:20:00 +0000

Covert Online Spies

The Internet is a powerful tool that provides everyone online a way to be connected to each other, gather a lot of information and enjoy convenient services like online shopping and banking. However, many of us Internet users are at constant risk of adware and spyware downloads that make us extremely vulnerable to malicious acts.

We often unknowingly fall prey to adware and spyware downloads as we innocently use the Internet. These adware and spyware downloads can come bundled with some freeware programs we use and sometimes, simply browsing a site puts us at risk. The business of being infected with unwanted adware and spyware downloads can be very serious. Some adware and spyware or malware proliferate the Web to infect our computer systems which gives us no control over unsolicited pop ups as part of targeted market efforts.

On extreme criminal cases however, spyware called malware, is used to take note of keystrokes, scan our computer's hard drive and steal important passwords and financial information. The information gathered covertly is used for identity theft, which can cause us major headache and at least thousands of dollars to clear our names.

These adware and spyware are unknowingly infect our computers and most of the time, we don't even know that they there. However, you can start becoming suspicious of adware and spyware downloaded into your system when you begin to have uncontrolled pop-ups from unsolicited sources. Sometimes, even without the telltale pop up ads you may notice a suspicious slow down in your computer's processing without any apparent reason. Your system slows down because these adware and spyware parasitically use up your system's resources to be able to perform their functions.

The only way you can be sure if your computer system is infected with adware and spyware downloads is by installing an anti spyware program that will detect and flush out the unwanted programs. The proper anti spyware can also prevent future adware and spyware downloads. You need to choose an anti spyware program that does both.

Be wary of downloading anti spyware on the Net because some spyware are disguised and marketed as a free anti spyware.

One more thing you can do to protect yourself from unwittingly downloading adware and spyware programs is to read the fine print. When installing a new program into your computer, you are asked to tick off an option of whether you agree or disagree with the programs end user license agreement (EULA). Do yourself a favor and read what is written in the agreement before agreeing to proceed in the installation. Many shareware and freeware programs come bundled with spyware and adware programs and in some cases you can learn about them by reading the agreement carefully.

Because adware and spyware come bundled with your download, these programs will not run independently of the spyware it comes with. This means that if you have a good anti-spyware system installed in your computer, you won't be able to install the infected program.

Consequently, if an existing program infected with spyware is in your system, your anti spyware system will attempt to remove the infection. Since most spyware are closely bundled into certain programs, the removal of the spyware may cause the legitimate program it comes with to stop functioning as well.