Scary internet stuff – Phishing the video!

Phishing continues to evolve.  Much as with spam, the bad guys and scammers continue to reinvent themselves and their tricks. They have become more brazen and sophisticated in their methods and as ever, their ultimate recourse is that of just sheer perseverance in flooding the ‘net with phishing messages.

To help contain phishing and as a precursor to ultimately managing and defeating it, requires effort and activity on many fronts. We have seen the popular browsers being updated to have ‘anti-phishing’ capabilities built into them. Many of the internet security suites also build in additional levels of anti-phishing protection. This is all necessary and effective. However, what is still vitally important  is to continue to educate people about phishing. We need to keep it front of mind, provide practical information to help combat it and to provide reassurance that the ‘phishers’ do not,  and will not, have it all their own way.

If you follow this link you will see an new and updated educational piece we have created on ‘Phishing’. I hope you like it and importantly find it useful. If you do like it, please help do your bit to push back against ‘phishing’, share it with friends, family and colleagues.

September 24, 2008 | Filed Under Identity theft, Security | Leave a Comment 

Norton 2009: Standing on the shoulders of giants

This week has seen the launch of the Norton Antivirus and Norton Internet Security 2009. I have had the great pleasure of helping in the formal Press launch of these exciting new products, in Madrid, Spain. How good are they? Well, what would you expect me to say! But, let me offer you this one vignette.

I have been in IT for nearly 20 years now, and throughout that time I have had the opportunity to help and participate in the launch of the many new products. Invariably, this involved the ‘live’ demo of the product. As soon, as the mention of this comes up from the marketing folk, you see the product people, starting to wince and recoil. Excuses are proffered, as to why this might not be necessary (read for that advisable).  The IT press have had the pleasure of experiencing, a veritable treasure trove of failed ‘live demos’. It is the stuff of legend in our industry.

We are making some very big claims with Norton 2009. We have a game changing product and it challenges many of the preconceptions and realities about security software.  So, I decided to proactively tell the PR and marketing folk that we needed to ‘walk the talk’. It was game-on for  the full live demo in front of some one hundred IT journalist from across Europe.

So, I did a full live demo of an install of the product in one minute. Norton Pulse updates streamed onto the machine every few minutes. The Press saw Norton Insight, our new real-time Whitelisting technology, determine that it need only scan 7% of the files running on the system.  They were able to see for themselves, the minimal impact that NIS 2009 was having on CPU cycles and memory and our new idle time scheduler purring away in the background.

So, I left the stage with a spring in my step. NIS 2009 had simply done what it was built to do and that which we are telling people it will do. But in doing so, it made a positive impact on those in the room.  I left the stage, safe in the knowledge, that Norton 2009, would not be joining the ‘hall of shame’ of live demos.

NAV and NIS 2009 are superb products. Many people have come up to me in the past days, to tell me how impressed they are. I stand there and take the plaudits. But my thanks and admiration are for the team, who worked long and hard, with passion, innovation and tenacity to bring to market NAV and NIS 2009. Give yourself a treat, go and download a trial of them.

September 20, 2008 | Filed Under Announcements, Events, Security, Technology | Leave a Comment 

The state of Spam – September update

Symantec has released its latest ‘State of Spam’ report for September. As ever, it is a useful and insightful read. The overall percentage of email that we define as spam remains at over 80%. This has been consistent, if not annoying, for some time now.  What we have seen increase this month, is the percentage of spam emails that contained links to malware, designed to infect computers with viruses and trojans, rather than simply promoting a spam product.

The spammers plumbed new depths this month. There were emails sent to parents, declaring that they had kidnapped their children and that a ransom must be paid. As proof, they offered an attachment with a photograph of the child. Suffice to say, the attachment is bogus and contains malware. They were hoping that in the panic of getting such an email, a parent would not think and immediately click on the attachment.  It is depressing and outrageous in equal measure.

The spammers are also picking on and using the challenging economic and employment climate to peddle their wares. Given the credit crunch and the rising cost of living, many people find themselves considering an additional part-time job to help make ends meet. We detected bogus recruitment ads this past month. The messages purported to come from an employer offering a part-time position, where its compensation included many enticing benefits. To apply for the position, you had to click on a link, which had an executable attached to it, wherein the malware resided.

If you have the time, take a look at the report. It will amaze you as to the audacity of the spammers and reinforce the scepticism you need when reading through your email.

September 9, 2008 | Filed Under Security, Spam | Leave a Comment 

Norton Labs

I want to introduce you to Norton labs. This is a new venture for us. Norton labs will preview some experimental projects that Symantec engineers are currently working on. It will provide a unique and useful insight into some of the things we are thinking about.  It comes with the usual riders with respect to the software still being in development, or, there may also be times when we do not decide to take a piece of software forward into a product. That being said, I hope and expect that there will always be something useful and interesting for you. We launch with two interesting bit’s of software for you to ‘road test’.

The ‘User Account Control tool’ has been designed to replace the Vista UAC, to simultaneously make your system more secure while significantly improving user-friendliness. The ‘Norton Safe Web’ tool makes it easier for you to differentiate safe sites from malicious ones by providing ratings within everyday search results from top search sites like Google, Yahoo! And Live Search.  Additionally, due to the nature of security threats on the Web, Norton Safe Web will also warn you before you visit a site that contains malicious content.

September 8, 2008 | Filed Under Announcements, Technology | Leave a Comment 

A new browser enters the fray: Google Chrome

Word of a new open-source based browser leaked from Google yesterday. It will be officially introduced today. Google, by their own admission, hit the ‘send button’ a bit too early and details of Chrome appeared yesterday. Creatively, they outline the ideas behind and techniques used in Chrome using the metaphor of a comic-book.

When FireFox 3 launched in June, I wrote that it was good to see competition in the browser space as it would spur innovation and choice. Well, with Google now getting into this space it is going to get plenty interesting. The timing is of note. Microsoft are continuing to push the BETA development of IE8. Now with the arrival of Chrome it will be interesting to see what this does for the development and launch of IE8.

Now, not  every ‘ball’ that Google ‘swipes at’, do they hit out the ‘ground’, to use a baseball metaphor. OpenSocial and Android, whilst met with a lot of excitement and interest are still very much still just making their way.

September 2, 2008 | Filed Under Announcements, Miscellaneous, Technology | Leave a Comment