Network Security News

The origins of the possible security threats can be everywhere. Not just inability to follow strict security rules, lack of knowledge or carelessness of human beings. There are also complex, intertwined reasons that can lead to severe problems. SANS comments on this in The Top Cyber Security Risks.

The more a human being is implicated in a network activity, the easier is to disclose one's personal data. However, when the data is exposed when it's been guaranteed to be safe, is the obvious and critical problem. Tech Republic elaborates on that in How social networks wreck your online anonymity.

Wherever an activity may become a source of income, it is inevitably becomes abused by those craving to gain income from any possible source. Web 2.0's main feature is content delivered by users. However, in the interactive part of Internet, both in blogosphere and statusphere, most of the user-supplied content may be dangerous. CNET News tells more in Web 2.0 security risks scrutinized

Internet transformed into a replica of our unstable reality; now the cyberthreats propagated to every data flow, utilize any data format. RSS feeds were no more than a convenient data representation, useful to read many sources of information at a single place. However, malicious data can be added even to feeds - this is an unpleasant discovery. CNET News tells more in Blog feeds may carry security risk.

The modern word 'cloud' is the synonym for the distributed computing, distributed file storage, content delivery networks, all in one. The metaphor is very meaningful, one should only imagine clouds floating all above, denying any boundaries and imaginary barriers. The 'clouds' are the response to many modern challenges, including such security horrors as DDoS. However, it's very hard to update the way people think, when reality changes so quickly. Audit Advice and Resources tells about that in Obscured by clouds.

The trojan distributors, often the same people who are responsible for creating botnets and other dangerous groups of resources, always need a headquarter to control their zombie nets. In most cases, resources like IRC channels are traditionally used, yet nothing is for good, and well-known network resources can become places from where the illicit computer activity is being controlled. The Register brings a n example in Trojan taps Google Groups as command network.

Internet becomes a battleground, at times literally. Scam artists of all kinds, spammers etc are probing the defense systems, trying to find holes in security systems, enhancing their tactics and tools. The threats can't be underestimated: a single break-in into a, say, email box can cost a person many resources, including reputation. And it is important to select the optimal strategy, The Tech Herald elaborates that in Study: IT focused on the wrong network threats.

Malware is often used to serve as an intermediate threat, serving to find and load much more dangerous pieces of software - for example, those responsible for setting up botnets. The more people visits compromised resources, the better. It is not strange that large mass-media sites become targets for implanting malware into them. CS Monitor tells the story about NYTimes.com serves up malware ads with news (oops)

'Hacker' is too uncertain a term, and nowadays it's not the hackers, in their traditional sense, that compose a threat to Internet entities. In most cases, hackers is a new name for security professionals, dealing with most new and powerful threats, predicting new ones and developing the paradigms of security for the years to come. Wallet Pop tells about an important event in Hacker conference announces internet security flaw.

Internet reflects all the events of the 'real', physical world; it mirrors all the trends and implements them in fascinating ways. It has its crime, as well. The major threat are and will be the so-called botnets - the systems infected my ,malicious software, capable of acting simultaneously and destructively, all at once. DoD Buzz elaborates this in BotNets Biggest Cyber Threat.