Category Archives: Site Security

Your Company Is Falling Prey To Unseen Attacks! Can't Someone Stop Them? (Page 1 of 4)

There are literally thousands of malware variants in the wild of Cyber Space and any one of them could take down your company, steal your identity or the identities of all of your customers!

We are all aware of the multitude of solutions being offered to counter these attacks, so the question arises: while CSOs and CTOs together with their teams of professional security and systems engineers defend the enterprise armed with the multitude of tools available to them, how is it that this threat continues to grow?

Those tasked with company security and charged with trying to find safe harbor for their company’s information and infrastructure have to deal with the unarguable fact that information assurance has not improved.

Two decades after the introduction of the PC and the Internet, computing prevalence has made every company a target of invisible attackers with intent to do harm.

These attackers are no longer the “script kiddies” of the past. They are organized, funded, trained, and in no mood to be deterred. While the role of CSOs will forever be entrenched in the global business economy, there are new approaches emerging which will put them back in control of their infrastructures. New technologies are now providing systemic answers to the problem of malicious software (malware), both present and future – technologies like Savant™.

Savant Protection™ has leapt ahead of traditional approaches by taking a far more encompassing view that accounts for the realities of present day chaos by introducing Savant, the first solution which eliminates the spread of any known or unknown malware without the need for inoculations, scanning, or rules. This new approach passively protects a computing system from new attacks regardless of strategy.

Gone are the days of corporate-wide outages due to previously undiscovered vulnerabilities. With Savant, the days of spread are over. Companies are now recognizing that while they concentrate on daily business, cybercrimes are being plotted by “technically sophisticated” teams driven to infiltrate and exfiltrate the enterprise.

A recent study conducted by Braun Research on behalf of IBM reflects this new reality, the results of which were drawn from 600 CIO’s located both domestically and internationally;

“The IBM survey reveals that 84 percent of IT executives of U.S. businesses believe that organized criminal groups possessing technical sophistication are replacing lone hackers in the world of cybercrime. The threat from unprotected systems in developing countries is a growing challenge, according to almost three-quarters of respondents.” 1

The problem is that these attackers know more about a company’s system flaws better than the company itself. How can this be possible? The answer is a bit unnerving in its simplicity; the invaders are consumers.

The products companies employ to build their hard and soft infrastructures are readily available for purchase or download by anyone, at any time. The hackers clearly have the advantage. They have the drive, motive, and time to create new intrusion approaches. Approaches, as of yet, unknown.

A Conundrum Called Adware! (Page 1 of 3)

We, as dedicated computer and software users, have traversed a long way from those bad days, when our computers used to get attacked by vicious sounding viruses, Trojans, spyware and malwares. We are still are under constant threat from attack by invisible viruses or spyware. As the word “spyware” became a household name, and when it started creating havoc on thousands of computer systems the world over, security experts and anti-virus software professionals started taking notice of the menace posed by these spyware modules.

Strangely, all these spywares were designed and propagated by the so called software majors! However, with the passage of time, the word “spyware” became a dirty word among computer users, which needed to be avoided at any cost! As a result, everyone started to think that spyware is a piece of software that closely monitors your activities on computers and reports them back to its maker. In fact, all software users were neatly outflanked by these smart operators, who surreptitiously planted their evil creations in the computer systems. It was a peculiar situation, when people simply abhorred the word “spyware”, and they got irritated when it was suggested to them that their computer systems were being spied upon by these spyware modules. As a result, it was so convenient to label these software items, as something that is very dirty. And, it was a good way to make sure that everyone listened to this fact!

But, the situation is entirely different today; if you notice, there are a lot of public relation exercises that keep coming at you, non-stop for twenty-four hours a day. Many software majors claim that they are not making spyware anymore, but they make highly innovative “adware”! Paradoxically, these firms also claim that adware is actually very good for your computer system! As all computer users were just sighing relief, thinking that they had decisively won the moral war against “spyware”, they were in for a real surprise! Many software majors wanted to push computer users all over the world, with a clever strategy that was devised with a novel idea in mind (maybe ulterior?).

Though, these software majors stopped creating spyware altogether, they found another smart way to outflank computer users! It was very ingenious as well! And it had to be! It is so true that someone could plant legal software right into your computer, with your own consent, to monitor your online activities and browsing habits! And the amazing thing with these software modules was that there was absolutely no need to send those vital bits of information back to the software company! The program that was installed on your computer system did everything by itself!

These smart software items were designed to perform the same thing that was performed by spyware. However, there was no need for any spying with these software modules. The creators of these software programs were intelligent enough to call them “adware” and their monster creation was promoted by floating a huge publicity campaign. All of this was done to separate out adware from spyware!

A Conundrum Called Adware! (Page 1 of 3)

We, as dedicated computer and software users, have traversed a long way from those bad days, when our computers used to get attacked by vicious sounding viruses, Trojans, spyware and malwares. We are still are under constant threat from attack by invisible viruses or spyware. As the word “spyware” became a household name, and when it started creating havoc on thousands of computer systems the world over, security experts and anti-virus software professionals started taking notice of the menace posed by these spyware modules.

Strangely, all these spywares were designed and propagated by the so called software majors! However, with the passage of time, the word “spyware” became a dirty word among computer users, which needed to be avoided at any cost! As a result, everyone started to think that spyware is a piece of software that closely monitors your activities on computers and reports them back to its maker. In fact, all software users were neatly outflanked by these smart operators, who surreptitiously planted their evil creations in the computer systems. It was a peculiar situation, when people simply abhorred the word “spyware”, and they got irritated when it was suggested to them that their computer systems were being spied upon by these spyware modules. As a result, it was so convenient to label these software items, as something that is very dirty. And, it was a good way to make sure that everyone listened to this fact!

But, the situation is entirely different today; if you notice, there are a lot of public relation exercises that keep coming at you, non-stop for twenty-four hours a day. Many software majors claim that they are not making spyware anymore, but they make highly innovative “adware”! Paradoxically, these firms also claim that adware is actually very good for your computer system! As all computer users were just sighing relief, thinking that they had decisively won the moral war against “spyware”, they were in for a real surprise! Many software majors wanted to push computer users all over the world, with a clever strategy that was devised with a novel idea in mind (maybe ulterior?).

Though, these software majors stopped creating spyware altogether, they found another smart way to outflank computer users! It was very ingenious as well! And it had to be! It is so true that someone could plant legal software right into your computer, with your own consent, to monitor your online activities and browsing habits! And the amazing thing with these software modules was that there was absolutely no need to send those vital bits of information back to the software company! The program that was installed on your computer system did everything by itself!

These smart software items were designed to perform the same thing that was performed by spyware. However, there was no need for any spying with these software modules. The creators of these software programs were intelligent enough to call them “adware” and their monster creation was promoted by floating a huge publicity campaign. All of this was done to separate out adware from spyware!