If past is prologue, 2011 is sure to be another big year for both users
and cybercriminals as we continue to battle our way toward a safer and
more secure Internet.
Last year showed that government, industry, and security experts
worldwide are making a serious attempt to create a unified front against
cybercriminals. But we also need to defend ourselves as users and as
businesses, and there we still have a long way to go.
On Jan 9th, the Sydney Morning Herald ran a very interesting story about millions of Vodafone customers having their data leaked.
The article is slightly misleading, albeit probably unintentionally,
because on first reading it looks like _all_ four million Vodafone
customers had their data leaked, but after reading it, and some related
articles, it seems more likely that anyone's data _could_ have been
stolen, but it's by no means clear whether we're talking 100s or 1000s
of accounts.
It's still important, however, because criminal gangs are buying the
leaked account details, which include credit cards and drivers' license
numbers.
The nub of the matter is that Vodaphone employees _and_ Vodafone
dealers are given user ids and passwords that allow them to access the
main user database.
... Read more »
Last week I went to Israel. I
had a meeting with a government official to discuss internet safety
education programs in the country. I also met with several key members
of the technical media for interviews. As many questions as I answered, I
probably asked more of them. There was so much to learn! As high tech
and connected a country as Israel is, they are very much in the early
stages of educating their public about keeping safe on the internet.
Very Young Children Have Cell Phones
To begin with, the way kids are handled seems a bit different. It’s
quite normal for children, young children, to take public transportation
to school. As a result, parents cope by giving children cell phones at
much younger ages than would be normal in the US. It’s also a way of
easing the nerves of parents when the possibility of terrorist attacks
are added to the normal parenta
... Read more »
Today we’re sharing the exciting update that we’re taking Norton DNS
for PC users out of beta. As you may recall, Norton DNS was launched in
May as part of our Norton Everywhere
announcement, which aims to take our consumer business beyond the PC.
Since that launch, Norton DNS has gained more than 250,000 beta users
from 112 different countries. These users have enjoyed a safer internet
experience from the more than 1.4 million malware block pages per month
that have been displayed when users encountered harmful websites.
Many people don’t know that they can change their DNS settings or
what benefits such a change could provide so, we’ve made it really easy.
Norton DNS provides a faster, safer and more reliable Internet
experience that integrates basic Web security protection services like
antiphishing, antimalware and anti-spyware via
... Read more »
Symantec Maximum Repair (SMR) is a brand new security engine that drives our new Norton Power Eraser
recovery tool. It combines aggressive heuristics and advanced removal
capabilities to combat the newest and toughest threats. I thought I
would share with you some of the background on why we developed this new
engine.
Why the need?
The threat landscape has radically changed over the last few years
and that has driven the need for new approaches to protection. Most
notable are the following trends:
A new micro distribution model for malicious threats.
A couple of years ago, the norm was to see relatively few threat
variants distributed to millions of users. Today, hackers have moved to
a micro-distribution model where million
... Read more »
In 2009, Symantec ran a full-page advertisement in PC Magazine
explaining to readers that because Norton has the most virus definition
updates (222 per day) they also have the best detection score of 97.9%
compared to all others. We at AVAST liked the ad for a better reason:
we had only 1 update per day and were second best after Norton in
detection. Look at the advert snap shot.
The first time I performed a somehow deep research on the black
market was back in 2007. At that time, most of it was about
selling-buying Trojans, infection kits, and of course stolen data, such
as bank and credit card details stolen from users around the world.
A few years later I thought it was time to find out how this market
had evolved, and today we have released a report with all our findings.
Credit card details can be purchased for as little as $2 per card,
but this level does not provide additional information or verification
of the account balance available. If the buyer wants a guarantee for the
available credit line or bank balance, the price increases to $80 for
smaller bank balances and upwards of
... Read more »
SAN FRANCISCO
– ICSA Labs has certified ESET NOD32 Antivirus Business Edition for use
with the Mac Operating System. This is the first anti-malware product
to receive Mac certification from ICSA Labs, an independent division of
Verizon Business.
ICSA Labs awarded this designation –
announced today at Macworld 2011 – to ESET for anti-virus detection
under ICSA Labs' desktop/server anti-virus criteria, which is aimed at
protecting end users from emerging and existing threats.
"The
threat of spreading malware in a heterogeneous or mixed computing
environment comprised of Mac OS X and Microsoft Windows PCs is a real
security threat today," said Andrew Hayter, anti-malcode program manager
of ICSA Labs. "That's why ICSA Labs is now offering certifica
... Read more »
SAN DIEGO, CA, January 21, 2011
– ESET, the leader in proactive threat protection, announced today that
it will begin phasing out server products based on the ESET NOD32
Antivirus 2.7 engine on February 1, 2011. The server software will be
removed from the ESET website and will no longer be sold beginning
February 1, 2011. Customers with server products based on NOD32
Antivirus 2.7 will continue to be protected with signature updates until
February 1, 2012. ESET customers should update to the current ESET software release to ensure that they continue to be safeguarded by the most effective proactive threat protection available.
Skype is growing its team globally, and this is very exciting news as
we continue to ramp our innovation of new products across many
different platforms for consumers and businesses. Among the 350 jobs
we’re adding, many of the roles will be in our Palo Alto office, where
our focus is to add superstar engineers to our already super-talented
team of engineers who are based all over the globe.
We have cool new digs that we just moved into, and a smart,
passionate, fun team. We created this video to show you what we’re all
about, and to show you why Skype is the place to work
in Silicon Valley. So if you want to work on the next great Skype idea
and have the opportunity to be at a company that is transforming
communications and bringing people closer
... Read more »
