Back in the 1950s, when the Cold War was raging, governments and
individuals took the threat of nuclear war so seriously, they started
building and stocking bomb shelters should the threat of nuclear war
ever rear its ugly head.
Fast-forward 60 years and a new threat has appeared that is every bit
as serious and potentially as disastrous to good people worldwide. Yet
this threat has not yet galvanized the nation the way the threat of
nuclear holocaust did back in the ’50s.
What I’m talking about is the impending threat of cyber attack.
When your head hits the pillow at night, do you fall asleep feeling
that your online data, your identity and your financials are safe and
secure?
Do you feel invulnerable behind your Windows firewall and Norton
Antivirus? Are you in the habit of downloading freeware on your laptop
and free apps on your Smartphone? Do you use public Wi-Fi at coffee
shops, restaurants, hotels and airports?
If your answer to any of the above was “Yes” then I have news for
you, Bunky. It isn’t a matter of if you are going to be hacked, cracked
or cyber attacked. It’s just a matter of when.
The habits evinced above are tantamount to an invitation for hackers
and cyber criminals to gain access to your most sensitive information,
hijack your computer and Smartphone and, in short, turn your life into a
living hell where your identity, your financial data and your
intellectual property can be bought and sold like a commodity.
Does this scenario sound far fetched?
Let me provide you with a news flash. During the past several months,
a shocking number of financial institutions, government agencies and
the world’s largest domain registration service have all been hacked or
denied service in one form or another. Worse yet, all of these mammoth
edifices have layer upon layer of protection that was designed to thwart
even the most concerted attack. Yet their security proved unable to
stop hackers from entering and controlling their systems.
An organized cybercrime group is in the process of recruiting the
operators of illegal botnets to participate in a coordinated attack on
30 American banks, according to security vendor RSA.
The attack, which is apparently planned for an undisclosed date this
fall, would likely be the largest coordinated cyber attack in history,
involving as many as 100 botmasters and their respective botnets.
According to RSA, the group will leverage a proprietary Gozi-like
Trojan, which RSA calls “Gozi Prinimalka.” The word “Prinimalka,” which
is derived from the Russian word meaning “to receive,” appears as a
folder name in every URL path to the gang’s servers.
Apparently this was the same group that, in 2008, stole more than $5
million from bank accounts in the U.S. Botnets are networks of robotized
computers owned by businesses or individuals that have been hacked and
turned to cybercrime by remote control. Many times, the hacker tool of
choice is not to spend hours or days trying to guess passwords, but
simply to piggyback a piece of malware onto a freeware package that most
people are all too eager to download. Some exploit known back doors to
operating systems and public networks.
Once inside a laptop, PC, tablet or Smartphone, the malware or
spyware can gain access to and, in some cases, take control of infected
machines. Unless this malicious software is detected and eliminated,
then the person or persons who designed the malware can rifle through
your files, detect and extract credit card information and, if desired,
use your machine to abet their nefarious activities.
We Have Met the Enemy and They are Us
Sad to say, but the biggest threat to cyber security to individuals and businesses comes from poor online discipline.
Former White House CIO and cyber security expert Theresa Payton
pointed out in a recent televised interview that: “In one instance we
had a client that was convinced they were being bugged by a competitor.
We quickly determined that their employees were checking in on
Foursquare everywhere they went. Even worse, they revealed online who
they were with, and what they were doing. So I told management that
nobody needed to bug their offices. All the competition had to do was
follow them around on Foursquare.”
This problem is not relegated to the U.S.
Andy Prow, New Zealand managing director of Aura Information Security
sums it up: “There is a growing need for privacy. More people are
putting more information about themselves online – Facebook and other
profiles – but on the flip side we are becoming far more conscious that
we only want our personal information given out if we give it, and we do
not want it stolen.”
Is Your Smartphone Smarter Than You?
Unlike PCs and laptops, most Smartphones have little in the way of
security. According to a recent survey, 70 percent of users don’t
password protect their Smartphones. Many Smartphone users have little or
no antivirus software or malware eradication software installed on
their phones. And unlike PCs and laptops, it’s all too easy to misplace
or lose a Smartphone that, if left unsecured, has a 90 percent
likelihood of being rifled through before being returned.
While no one, not even the government and large corporations are
immune from cyber attacks, the most pressing need is for individuals to
take the matter seriously and to take appropriate countermeasures to
defend themselves.
Below are the top five things you need to do to protect yourself:
1. One layer of cyber security is not sufficient to detect malicious
software. You need to have at least three layers of security to harden
your system. As well as using a primary antivirus package such as
TrendMicro, Norton, or McAfee, you should also add a secondary layer of
malware detection such as IOBit’s Advanced system Care 9, and/or
Malwarebytes Anti Malware.
2. Install password and antivirus protection on your Smartphone. AVG
antivirus, Lookout Security, Dr Web Antivirus and other security and
anti-malware programs are available for iPhone and Android.
3. Online you should always look a gift horse in the mouth. Never
plug in a flash drive or install a free software program with which you
are unfamiliar. If you are looking for software that you can rely on as
being malware-free, check out the ratings on CNet or Tucows. Paying for a
program in most cases eliminates the adware that often come with the
free programs. Buying that app you like can help protect your
Smartphone.
4. Do not respond to online come-ons or e-mail addresses to which you
are unfamiliar. Phishing is all too common to be ignored and it is much
more insidious than you think. I had to explain to a colleague the
other day that the reason she was getting tons of e-mails but no follow
up calls from a Craigslist ad she recently ran was due to the high
probability that her ads were being responded to by people phishing for
active e-mail addresses that can be sold to spammers. She has since
insisted that interested parties phone her for more information.
5. Use common sense when posting on social networks like Facebook,
LinkedIn, FourSquare and Flickr. Remember while it may only take you a
few moments to post online, your words and images will be available for
years to come. Therefore, it is likely that employers, officials,
spammers, stalkers, and identity thieves could call up your posts.
While the age of information warfare is not as daunting a threat as
thermonuclear annihilation, it can be crippling to a business or
governments, as Irani officials found out to their chagrin after having
their computers compromised by the Stuxnet virus in 2011. They found out
the hard way that online security is not something you can take
lightly.
Carl Weiss Post from: SiteProNews: