Download - Security holds back cloud adoption
6 NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2009
News Security holds back cloud adoptionA report from Forrester Research claims to show that concerns over the security of cloud computing are preventing many companies from considering the adoption of the technology. The worries are sufficient to hold back companies from the pay-per-use hosting model of virtual servers, the IT research firm said.
The report – Forrester’s Q3 Enterprise And SMB Hardware Survey, North America And
Europe – found that 49% of survey respondents from enterprises and 51% from small
and medium-size businesses (SMBs) cited security and privacy concerns as their top
reason for not using cloud computing.
The survey of more than 2200 IT executives and technology decision-makers in Canada,
France, Germany, the UK, and the US concluded that cloud computing adoption is lagging.
Fake virus, worm and malware alerts target online shoppersOnline shopping is soaring as we get closer to Christmas, and criminal malware authors are
now targeting e-shopping in earnest with a variety of attacks, according to IT security vendor
Webroot.
One of the latest types of attack methodologies involves fake virus and worm alerts,
which malware authors have been refining since they first appeared in a basic form
earlier in the year, Webroot said. According to Andrew Brandt, a security researcher with
the IT security vendor, the malware authors behind this fraud have been honing their
skills and working to push their malicious web pages higher in the search rankings for
some time.
“Victims experience a computer that appears to be out of control, seemingly unable
to do anything but download whatever application the fake alert forces upon them”, said
Brandt in a security blog posting.
The good news, he said, is that it is not hard to avoid these fake alert sites, but users have
to be on constant alert and carefully scrutinise the results of any security scan warnings that
appear on their computer screens before they click on a link.
Because of these issues, Brandt advises users to “sweep before you shop” and always
scan your computer with a fully updated anti-virus and anti-spyware application before you
even get to the order form on your favourite shopping site.
“When in doubt, kill your browser: If you do happen to find yourself sucked into a
fakealert vortex, don’t click anywhere in the browser window. If you know how to use the
task manager to terminate the browser application, you can do it that way”, he adviced.
McKinnon may get judicial review of caseUK Home Secretary Alan Johnson has revealed he is considering granting UFO hacker Gary
McKinnon extra time to apply for a judicial review of his case.
The hopes of McKinnon – who has Asperger’s syndrome – were dashed in November
when the Home Secretary said that the extradition would probably go ahead within the
next week or so, causing his solicitor, Karen Todner, to announce plans to appeal to the
European court of human rights. It now transpires that the Home Secretary – who had
originally decided the government will not intervene in the case of McKinnon last week – is
reconsidering his position.
He told the House of Commons he is now considering a request from McKinnon’s legal
team to extend the seven-day period they have to apply for a judicial review until 17 December.
Infosecurity noted that, for the first time, the Home Secretary conceded there are
legitimate concerns over McKinnon’s mental health, but he said this did not prevent the
hacker from being extradited to the US to face the charges.
IN BRIEF
Bit.ly secures URLsBit.ly is phasing in three security features. The
first is VeriSign’s iDefense IP reputation, which
blacklists domains known to contain exploits,
malware and other internet security problems.
The second is the Websense Threatseeker
Cloud, which analyses the content being
routed to by a Bit.ly URL and, using real-time
analysis blocks any suspicious activity.
Sophos provides the third service, which
provides a behavioural analysis facility looking
at users’ activities on the Bit.ly service and
pro-actively looks for malware and spam.
IBM scoops up Israel’s GuardiumIBM is reported to be acquiring Guardium,
the enterprise database security specialist,
for $225 million. Guardium, a subsidiary
of Log-On Software, supplies database
applications protection.
IBM said it plans to integrate Guardium
within its information management software
portfolio.
Employees happy to steal dataA survey of office workers in London and
New York has concluded that around one in
three would cheerfully steal their employers’
computer data to help a friend find a job.
The survey – which took in responses from
around 600 office workers in the two cities
– also revealed that 41% of workers had
already taken sensitive computer data from
their former employers to their new job.
Furthermore, it found that 57% of
respondents said that it has become a lot
easier to take sensitive computer information
from under their bosses’ noses this year – up
from 29% last year. 32% of people surveyed
revealed that they would do their utmost to
take a peek at an office redundancy list to
find out if their name was on the schedule.