Understanding Computer Risk, Hackers, and Cyber-Terrorism

In today's environment, millions of people rely on computers to do business, homework, and to dispatch information to others. It is therefore very important to secure the information that we have on our computers. If you are using a computer exclusively, it is your duty to do all you can to reduce computer risks, prevent data loss, and to reduce computer abuse. In the business world, data protection is paramount because a company's data is fast becoming one of the most value asset that any company owns. Keeping your electronic data secure from hackers is therefore most important.A computer security risk is any action, deliberate or otherwise that could cause lost of information, damage to critical software, or data corruption. Computer security risks also extend to program incompatibilities,...

Spyware Removal Tool - Paid or Free?

Spyware and malware can shut down your computer life. It can destroy your desktop and cause you no end of stress and damage. The simpler forms of adware can irritate you at most, the simple forms of spyware can collect data about you, what sites you visit, what programs you use, etc. Malicious spyware can trace the keystrokes of your keyboard and steal information right off of your desktop. Spyware has been known to ruin businesses, facilitate identity theft and the ensuing theft of money in your online bank accounts, PayPal, etc. There is not much you can do when you have been the victim of cyber crime, but there is a lot you can do to make sure it does not happen again. Protect your computer and do not be the next victim of spyware, adware, and malicious software.There are a variety...

How to Protect Your Computer

It is very obvious that more people are using computers these days and more people are on the web on daily basis. For this reason most computer users are now increasingly concerned with web safety. Computer safety tips are sought after more and more. The predominant availability of personal computers and connections to the internet provides most people with around the clock access to information, financial services, and shopping. The World Wide Web is also an amazing tool for educators and students to communicate and learn. However, this frequent use of computer brings out more and more hackers and con artists and requires that web users observe some essential tips on how to protect their computer.It is so unfortunate that certain individuals take advantage of the Internet to perpetrate...

Cybercriminals Attempt to Extract Sensitive Data through Fake Outlook Notifications

Security researchers have alerted Microsoft Outlook users on a fake notification scam. The new phishing scam first identified by security experts at Internet Security firm Sophos attempts to gain access to e-mail accounts. Users receive an e-mail that asks users to download an attachment to reconfigure their Microsoft Outlook. Users, who download and open the attachment, receive a fake form, which appears strikingly similar to a genuine form of Outlook. The form seeks username, password and outgoing server details. Outlook users, who provide the requested information, inadvertently provide opportunity for remote scammers to compromise their e-mail accounts. Cybercriminals may use the information to impersonate as the legitimate user and send arbitrary mails, propagate spam and steal personal...

Cyber Hackers Can Mess With Google - Are You Afraid For Your Business?

If you have been reading the news lately and picking up on all the commotion around hack attacks on some of the big guns like Google, Yahoo and Adobe you may be experiencing a twinge of anxiety over the security for your own business. You may have believed your network was invincible so this news could leave you feeling shaky. You have good reason to feel this way - according to an article in the Sydney Morning Herald the number of hackers tampering with private financial information belonging to Australian business is on the rise. Obviously using the internet and intranet for business has become a viable solution to accomplishing company objectives, but on the downside the criminal faction sees just as much opportunity.Australia is a Frequent Target for Cyber Crime Symantec, a data security...

Data Center Design Specialist Opens New Bangalore Office

International building services consultancy hurleypalmerflatt (http://www.hurleypalmerflatt.com/) continues to expand across the globe with the opening of its new Bangalore office. hurleypalmerflatt's seventh base outside of the UK will be led by Regional Director Rod Buchanan and will support the company's drive for new business in India. For a number of years low carbon building expert hurleypalmerflatt has provided its clients in India with a wide range of specialist building engineering services. The new office in Bangalore will further strengthen the firm's presence in the region.David Young, CEO of the data center design specialist, stated: "India's economy is booming and we're seeing a strong demand for British-trained engineering specialists to support growth across the continent....

No More Hacking

In theory at least, the Wild West days of the Internet are over. Based upon the inventions articulated in his five-patent suite, inventor, Harry Emerson III, has mapped out a union between our secure and venerable telephone system - AKA POTS (Plain Old Telephone Service) - and the hyper-evolving, media-rich Internet which is so famously not one bit secure. As it evolves, he believes this next generation telecommunications system, dubbed IronPipe(TM), will have huge implications for national security as well as tremendous new revenue opportunities for the carriers and supply chains which serve them. Conceived in response to what he views as the seriously flawed paradigm which is currently developing as telecommunications migrate to the Internet, Mr. Emerson says he designed IronPipe(TM)...

Your Money and Your Life - Gone in Sixty Seconds Flat!

Cybercrime is on the rise. Your Money and Your Life: Gone in Sixty Seconds Flat! "How?", you ask. OK, let me elaborate on a few of the many ways cybercriminals steal your money, and, literally, your life and they can do so in seconds, not minutes, or hours.You may not be the only one using your computer. Cybercriminals known as hackers may be using your computers and you may not even know it. Would you ever know if your computer were taken over and being used by a hacker? Not likely. When a hacker hijacks a computer, the victim rarely knows. A computer that has been hijacked is one that is completely taken over by a hacker, or a group of hackers, to be used for their own purposes. The idea is that the real owner of the computer never knows their system has been hijacked, so the hackers...

IP Changer For Enhanced Online Shopping Security

By using an IP Changer you can make your online shopping more secure. Online shopping has grown rapidly and is finally being accepted as a major retail channel for all kinds of products. It is a multibillion dollar industry and growing so fast that it may not be too long before it becomes a measure means of day to day shopping. The concerns about secure transactions and safety of personal information that consumers need to provide have gradually been alleviated with secure sites and 128 bit or higher data encryption and transfer. Although rapid strides have been made in online shopping security there remained areas of vulnerability that have been plugged by a new technique using IP Changer.As the security of online transactions increased so did online shopping. The important benefits from...

Dark Elements of the Web

There's no doubt how much of our lives now depend on your computers. We use these machines to communicate with our friends, learn more about our assigned topic for schoolwork, create beautiful graphics, create office reports and many other things which may just not have happened if not for this technology called the Internet.Indeed, we can almost live in it because it practically has most of the things we need. However, Internet experts who don't have very good intentions just may abuse this convenience that we're enjoying. For example, its very convenient for us to buy something just by going to a certain website, picking some options and typing our credit card information. The problem is, the comfort we enjoy in taking advantage of this technology is the same comfort cyber criminals...

Cloud Security Alliance Working Toward Cloud-Specific Certifications

The Cloud Security Alliance (CSA) is working with other key players in cloud security and auditing to determine which organizations should provide the certification, as well as what such a certification should include. Certification is likely to be managed by multiple bodies.[The CSA�s] research identifies the vulnerabilities that threaten to hinder cloud service offerings from reaching their full potential. For example, companies must be aware of �abuse and nefarious use of cloud computing,� which includes exploits such as the Zeus botnet and InfoStealing trojan horses, malicious software that has proven especially effective in compromising sensitive private resources in cloud environments. However, not all of the threats in this category are rooted in malicious intent. As the social Web...

SysTrust Certification

SysTrust certification was developed jointly by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA) and the Canadian Institute of Chartered Accountants (CICA).A SysTrust engagement is performed by a licensed CPA to evaluate a system�s reliability as measured against the SysTrust principles and criteria. The CPA performs tests to determine whether the system was available for operation and use at times set forth in service level statements or agreements. If the system meets the requirements of the Trust Services Principles and Criteria, an unqualified attestation report is issued.Source: https://www-935.ibm.com/services/us/index.wss/summary/iss/a1029093Trust Services are defined as:A set of professional assurance and advisory services based on a common framework (i.e., a core set...

SAS 70 and Cloud Computing

Increasingly, vendors point to SAS 70 and ISO 27001 certifications as evidence of their security credentials.Vendor Security Credentials� Google �Asked to flash its cloud security credentials at an industry forum, Google pointed to its SAS 70 certification, giving more support to that set of standards as a measure of how well cloud providers lock down customer data. �We need to prove we are secure,� says Rajen Sheth, the product manager at Google who came up with Google Apps, speaking at a panel on cloud services at the Enterprise 2.0 conference in Boston.*�� Microsoft Microsoft announced that it recently gained SAS 70 Type I and Type II attestations and ISO/IEC 27001:2005 certification.� Amazon Amazon Web Services (AWS) has successfully completed SAS 70 Type II Audit from independent auditors,...

SAS 70 (Statement on Auditing Standards No. 70): Service Organizations

The Statement on Auditing Standards No. 70, commonly known as SAS 70, is an auditing statement put forth by the Auditing Standards Board as designated by the American Institute of Certified Public Accountants (AICPA). Over the years, more than 110 �SAS� have been issued, ranging on a number of critical subjects for auditing matters.Source: http://www.sas70.us.com/what-is/history-and-overview.phpSAS 70 is part of the AU Section 324 Codification of Auditing Standards, which is used to report on controls placed in operation and the testing of the operating effectiveness of those controls. Put simply, it�s a widely used compliance audit for assessing the internal control framework on service organizations that provide critical outsourcing activities for other entities. Introduced in 1992, SAS...

ISO 27001

ISO 27001 is an Information Security Management System (ISMS) standard published in October 2005 by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) and the International Electrotechnical Commission (IEC). Its full name is ISO/IEC 27001:2005 � Information technology -- Security techniques -- Information security management systems -- Requirements but it is commonly known as �ISO 27001�. Compliance with ISO 27001 requires that management:� Systematically examine the organization�s information security risks, taking account of the threats, vulnerabilities and impacts;� Design and implement a coherent and comprehensive suite of information security controls and/or other forms of risk treatment (such as risk avoidance or risk transfer) to address those risks that are deemed unacceptable;...

Recent VM Acquisitions

VMware has made several other acquisitions in 2010:� Zimbra, a hosted e-mail service, acquired from Yahoo. The New York Times called it �the icing on the PaaS.�� Parts of EMC�s Ionix IT management business, including solutions aimed at delivering improved management and deployment of servers and applications in a virtualized data center. This deal gives VMware some tools to measure and automate the provisioning and management of virtualized machines. Since a platform can have hundreds of thousands of VMs, automation is essential. VMware is acquiring from EMC, its parent, all technology and intellectual property of FastScale, Application Discovery Manager, Server Configuration Manager, and Service Manager and will maintain engineering, marketing, sales, and support operations in the United...

Operating Systems Functionality

Proprietary systems vendors were, for a long time, considerably ahead of open systems in the level of functionality offered by their operating systems, especially in areas like the number of processors supported in SMP versions, robustness, availability, systems administration, and so forth. But over time, UNIX systems have caught up, and offer SMP, cluster support, and constantly-improving robustness and availability. This maturation of UNIX has thus significantly reduced any functionality advantage proprietary systems may now offer over UNIX (although that very process of maturation has drastically reduced the number of extant UNIX variants). In terms of functionality, we should see the same process happening between UNIX and Windows, as Windows gathers experience.(There areonline masters...

Operating System Options and Installation Methods

Normal 0 false false false EN-US X-NONE X-NONE /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-priority:99; mso-style-qformat:yes; ...

Operating System Market Share

The quantitative future estimates from analysts, which we use as the basis for our discussions, must of course�as with any predictions�be taken carefully. Our main goal is to use them to extract and illustrate significant market trends. To start with, consider Figure 3.6, from Gartner Group data from November 2003 and showing server market trends sorted by the operating system provided with the servers.The strong increase in sales for Linux and Windows is obvious. It is likely that Windows�s growth will be mostly in the midrange, as the high end is the hunting ground for proprietary systems and UNIX. Netware is expected to undergo a noticeable reduction in market.Linux�s market share is expected to grow noticeably. This OS seems to have a promising future in the domain of dedicated servers...

64-Bit Architecture

The increase in size of both the data objects being operated on and physical memory and the need to hide disk and network access times by placing ever more information in the memory-based disk or network cache lead to severe pressure on the addressing ability of 32-bit processors and operating systems, which saturates at 4 GB. Some RISC processors�Alpha and PA from HP, SGI�s, MIPS, IBM�s Power, and Sun�s SPARC) support a much larger address space of 64-bits. Alpha was designed to be 64-bits right from its inception, while the others all began as 32-bit architectures and were extended later in life to 64-bits. In practice, Intel�s IA-32 architecture is limited to 32-bit addressing, although AMD has proposed a backwards-compatible extension to 64-bits. (It should be noted that, as defined, the...