Not backing-up Your Digital Life?

cloud1When was the last time that you did a back-up of your PC? It is a good question and an important one. We have recently conducted a survey to ascertain people’s views on back-up and you can follow this link to it. If you follow this link it will take you to a YouTube video we have also created on the results from this survey. We found that only one third of us carry-out a regular backup. Only one in five us backup all of our content..  There seems to be a consensus that the content we are gathering and creating on our PCs grows at circa 50% per year. That would suggest that backing up content is important. The reasons given for people not backing up are those of complexity and never seeming to have the time.  I believe that, as with a lot in our new digital life, the internet can also be the source of a solution. The ability to backup our important content to an online backup service is now here with us. It offers the ability to access your content from wherever you have access to the internet. You are no longer tied to, nor reliant upon, standalone hardware based backup.  The beauty of this approach is that the content can follow you around, not you having to go and chase it. That is why we here at Symantec have just released Norton Online Back-up, a web based backup service. It’s ambition is to make back-up convenient and simple and to provide the peace of mind that we all want and need when it comes to securing our digital life.

May 27, 2009 | Filed Under Announcements, Backup and restore, Data loss | Leave a Comment 

New end-points in need of protection?

digitalmediaThe commentators and experts are starting to turn their attention and share their opinions on the next internet revolution. What can it be? Well, there seems to be broad consensus that our favourite content is due to undergo a revolution in how it makes it way to us, as consumers.  There is an interesting piece in ‘ The Times’ on this very subject.From your favourite TV shows, to newspapers, magazines etc, we can have, anytime, anywhere, any-device access to it.

The sceptics out there will say – ‘heard it all before’.  However, I do think we are getting to a point of lift-off. The technology and devices could make this happen are starting to make real in-roads. The attention that the Amazon Kindle has gained in the past year is testament to it. In the US, the ‘Hulu’ on-demand access to TV shows and movies has proven itself very popular. Here in the UK, the BBC with the iPlayer has pushed the concept of ‘streaming’ and any-time access into the consciousness of the masses.

In prospect, what all of this means is the opening up of a potential new security considerations. At the end of the day, ‘content’ is digital and it is software, therefore it can be exploited as malware.  Time and attention is going to have to be given to the security issues attendant with this brave new world. Nobody is going to be happy if they download and pay for books, only for them to be scrubbed by a virus, or held to be subjected to ransom-ware.  I am sure this is a subject area and topic that we will all come back to (repeatedly) in the fullness of time.

May 13, 2009 | Filed Under Announcements, Security, Technology | Leave a Comment 

How much information is too much?

spy_eyeI came across this very sad and terrible story. A murderer used a social networking site to gain information on his victim and in doing so help him commit this awful crime. David Heiss, 21, from Dauborn, Germany, developed an obsession with his victim’s girlfriend, and used information the couple had posted online to plan his attack in September last year.  Matthew Pyke, 20, died of 86 stab wounds in the flat he shared with his girlfriend, Joanna Witton.

I do not want to be sensationalist, but the danger is there for people to see. I do not want to be accused of scaremongering: rather to continue to council reserve and caution about just how much information we disclose on social networking sites.  Most of the stakeholders in internet security (security vendors, ISPs, governments, businesses, NGOs) constantly put the issues of financial loss (phishing) and inconvenience (spam) in the forefront of consumer’s minds. However, we all  need to remember that security is exactly the same in the on and offline worlds. Yes, financial security is important, but there are also (fortunately less common) physical risks associated, and keeping your personal identity and information safe and secure is very important for your wellbeing. So, a little forethought and caution can and will keep you safe on-line, just as much as it would do in the real world.

May 13, 2009 | Filed Under Miscellaneous, Uncategorized | Leave a Comment 

Cloud AntiVirus forecast: Foggy, with a chance of irrelevance

cloudThe ‘cloud’ is the new buzz word for our industry. Not a day goes past, without some company or other outlining what their new cloud based strategy will be.  At, and on the back of, RSA and InfoSec,  there has been a lot of discussion about security and the ‘cloud’.  In recent days we have seen the arrival,  in BETA form,  one of the first cloud-based antivirus products.  A colleague of mine, Dave Cole, Senior Director of Product Management, for Symantec’s Consumer products, has posted an interesting, well rounded and sober examination of the prospects for cloud-based antivirus – the link to the blog is here.

May 6, 2009 | Filed Under Announcements, Security | Leave a Comment 

Torpig botnet – 70GB of stolen data in 10 days

credit-cardA research team from the University of California at Santa Barbara provide a fascinating insight into the Torpig botnet. The researchers managed to infiltrate the network and in effect grab a hold of the botnet itself and monitor just what was happening. The botnet was built using a MBR (master boot record) rootkit that executes at boot time, before the operating system is loaded. Once a machine is infected, the malware harvests and uploads data in 20-minute increments.  The stolen data includes e-mail accounts, Windows passwords, FTP credentials and POP/SMTP accounts.

Over a ten day period, the researchers were able to collect 70GB of stolen data. During this time Torpig stole more than 8300 credentials. They also managed to bag some 1660 unique credit and debit cards. Interestingly, one victim, an agent for an at-home, distributed call center, transmitted no fewer than 30 credit card numbers, presumably belonging to customers. This gives food for thought for those companies using this sort of working model -  they need to better secure these remote data collections end-points.

The full write can be found at the University of California at Santa Barbara Torpig Botnet site.

May 5, 2009 | Filed Under Security | Leave a Comment