Week 3- New ‘Dexter’ malware strikes point-of-sale systems

Many of us use our credit and debit cards to make purchases at many stores to include hotels and we do so sometimes not really thinking about the risk associated with doing so.  We assume that point-of-sale systems are secure and safe and we don’t think about the fact that these systems can be attacked like any other system.  Why?  Because they contain credit and debit card data of every card that has been swiped for purchases.   According to an article titled “New ‘Dexter’ malware strikes point-of-sale systems” written by Charlie Osborne hundreds of POS systems have been affected with malware.  The malware called “Dexter” has affected systems in over 40 countries with 30% of the infections taken place in the US.  Dexter is designed to steal credit card numbers and data.  Dexter is designed to target POS systems by injecting itself into the iexplore.exe in Windows Server.  It then takes credit card data from the server and sends it back remotely.  At this point the hackers can produce fake credit cards using the credit card numbers retrieved from the server.  Majority of the operating systems infected have been Microsoft products with Windows XP being the most targeted.  So far the names of the business affected have not been released.  The article can be found at:  http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-57559171-83/new-dexter-malware-strikes-point-of-sale-systems/

Week 2- Credible Sources

Not all web sites on the Internet are a credible source of information when it comes to threats, vulnerabilities, updates, and security news.  You can’t believe everything you read, watch, or hear on the Internet.  When there is a conflict within a source the best way to check it is to weight it against known reliable sources.  If the sources list vulnerabilities within specific software, the best way to check the source is to visit the venders’ web page.  This is true for patches as well.  In order to stay on the safe side I would recommend using governmental, libraries, known organizations, and universities as sources for information.  Vender sites are usually very helpful at providing credible information about securities issues associated with their products.  The following is a list of sites that consider to be credible sources because they are from professional organizations or have proven over the years to be credible sources for information.

·         Security Week  http://www.securityweek.com/virus-threats

·         CNET  http://news.cnet.com/security/

·         SC Magazine  http://www.scmagazine.com/

·         NIST  http://www.nist.org/news.php

·         NBC News  http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/3033077/ns/technology_and_science-security

·         SANS  http://www.sans.org/

·         Bit Defender  http://www.bitdefender.com/security/

The sites listed above are just a few of the many sites that I think are credible sources.  If you stick to sites such as the ones listed above the information you receive should be reliable.  If you are unsure about a source you can also do some research on the author and check any references that he/she may have used in their article or document. 

Week 1 - Managing Threats in the Digital Age

The digital age has opened the door to more threats due to increased Internet usage.  We use the Internet to conduct business, work, education, travel plans, entertainment, and personal use.  The devices used to access the Internet have increased as well.  Not only do we connect to the Internet via desktops but we can also use our cellphones, iPods, iPads, notebooks, PDAs, and other mobile devices.  The use of these devices along with the increased use of the Internet has created many security challenges.  These challenges can be categorized into three categories and they are external threat, internal threats, and compliance requirements.   These challenges make managing threats a big priority especially for governmental and major organizations like financial institutes and hospitals.  They all collect and store a lot of sensitive, classified, or personal information that could cost them billions of dollars in losses.  These loses can range from ruined reputation, legal fees and penalties, and revenue due to system downtime.  I found this article titled “Managing threats in the digital age” that covers a lot of important information about managing threats.  The article talks about how you need to be proactive when it comes to security.  In other words when it comes to security organizations should implement real-time monitoring for identifying, tracking, and addressing threats.  This would include real-time audits and monitoring of employee usage.  I must say that I agree with the article.  Many security threats are usually detected after the fact and not during.  Most of the breaches are usually detected days or months after the breach.  It’s the same for monitoring employee actions.  It usually takes a few months or days before they discover that and employee was copying files.  It would be nice to be able to monitor employees for system misuse. 
The article can be found at: http://public.dhe.ibm.com/common/ssi/ecm/en/gbe03423usen/GBE03423USEN.PDF