Japanese Air Force One’s Menu List

September 10, 2014 — Leave a comment

This is embarrassing. This is potentially extremely dangerous. This is a warning. Well, choose which one of these descriptions is the most suitable one for the following. The flight schedule of the Japanese Air Force One has been hacked. You do not have to be a rocket scientist to know what it means.

How about the US Air Force One, for a change? What a nice thing for the terrorist to have. What a strong motivation for the hackers to obtain such data. When it comes to this you are free to name your price. Sky is the limit, literally. Who or what is next? How about the government’s officials?

This is disturbing, at least to say. If you recall, almost one half of the South Korea population was hacked. We mean, the personal data about the dozens of millions of people. But, that is the same thing. Nowadays, you can hack the entire country, just like that. You can offer it in the black market.

Our brave new digital world is definitely a scary place. So, we need some cyber samurais to save the day in Japan as soon as possible. Otherwise, who knows where their Air Force One may land. Maybe, in China or North Korea. There are no untouchables for hackers. This is the lesson we need to learn here.

HealthCare Hack Was Fair?

September 9, 2014 — Leave a comment

Here come our Uncle Sam and he says to us, I have a bad and a good news. Which one you want to hear the first? The bad news is that someone hacked into the HealthCare website. The good news is that no serious or obvious damage has been done. At least what we know or speculate about.

Seriously? Are we supposed to buy this? How in the first place you can hack one of the most important government sites in the country? Maybe, this was an action of some teenage or newbie hacker, who was eager to get some recognition and respect among his or her friends. Some other option?

Russian or Chinese state supported teams were practicing a little bit. Let us stop here, or else. We will get hurt even without the real damage. Or, as a comforting thing we can sing a song, how fragile we are. Now, when we are done with signing let us do some thinking. What can we do about this one?

First things first, the IT security should be among our top priorities. We mean real priorities, not only priorities on our list of wishes. Otherwise, who knows what is next. We may wake up in some other country in cyber terms one fine day. We sure hope that the lesson is being learned properly.

Small Business – Big Trouble

September 7, 2014 — Leave a comment

Why would anyone attack our website? We are a small company. Hackers go after large and important business subjects. How many times have you heard an argumentation like this from a small business owner? Unfortunately, too much and too often. Oh dear, these words can get you into trouble.

For hackers there is no such thing as a target too small to attack. Who knows what is in their minds and what kind of a scheme they have prepared for your computer or website? You do not have to spend more money than it is your business worth in the first place for the IT security measures and solutions.

However, you would be surprised how a symbolic investment in this field can have a tremendous influence on your cyber security situation. If you do not want to make a voluntary investment for the IT security purposes, then you must pay to someone to clean up your malware caused mess.

As simple as that. And yet, we keep forgetting or avoiding to apply this simple rule. Until eventually it is too late to talk about prevention, and you are left with no other option than to consider the expensive cyber treatment. Small business needs small IT security in order to avoid big troubles. Remember this one.

Heartbleed’s Heartrate

September 3, 2014 — Leave a comment

Here are some extremely disturbing Heartbleed related statistics. Nowadays, the Heartbleed hackers attack 3,47 times per second. So what, one may see? Well, the trouble with the Heartbleed curve is that this menace has become an inevitable race against the time, with the very poor odds in your favor.

Although, the time gaps and discretely opened doors are left open and undefended for a very short time period, this is more than enough for the highly skilled hackers. Before you are able to come up with the life saving update or patch, you can rest assured that your heart has already bled.

And, there is not much you can do about this one. You are doomed to race against the single second of time you have to identify and eliminate a certain security flaw. Now, you see the whole picture. Now, you realize why it is hard to deal with the Heartbleed security threat adequately.

After this amusing, but a little useless lecture, you can ask yourself what can we really do about it? Maybe, the smartest and easiest solution would be to make one of the former heartbleeders to bleed for us, for a change. Otherwise, it is highly unlikely that we win the one second race. For now.

The Heartbleed Can’t Stop Bleeding

August 31, 2014 — Leave a comment

Does it really have to be this way? Once you get a visit of a serious cyber threat, you always have to be on alert. Why can we do it this way? We have identified a new security menace. We will find a cure for it. Now, let us forget about it, and get back to our work. With no fear that a certain malware can trouble us in the future.

Unfortunately, we have to accept the bitter IT destiny. Every now and then, the notorious Heartbleed is to remind us that it is far from retiring. How much more we have to bleed, to be finally free from the Heartbleed, once and for all? It seems that we need more unpleasant reminders, such as this one.

For what is worth, the Chinese Heartbleed warriors are responsible for the unparalleled theft of more than 4,5 million personal patient’s data from one of the largest US hospital chains. Can you imagine that? It is almost like a small state. Now, they can do whatever they want it with no limitations.

When you hear or read something like this, it makes you wonder. What is happening with all those busy little IT security bees in large systems? Have they forgotten to do their job? Or, maybe they think that things like this happen to someone else avoiding them? We are sick and tired of the Heartbleed. How about you?

Oops, the UPS Got Hacked!

August 25, 2014 — Leave a comment

No wonder, we have a serious problem about convincing ourselves that we are supposed to feel safe. If the dinosaur system such as the UPS can be hacked, then what can we expect to happen with the other less sophisticated and considerably weaker defended systems? This one makes you wonder.

To make things, being even worse in this situation more than 50 UPS stores in 24 states had some serious issues with the IT security. As a result one percent of all users are very likely to experience some kind of troubles and inconveniences in the future, this way or another. One percent, one may say.

It is not such a big deal. Well, as a matter of fact, it is a gigantic deal. When you have hundreds of millions of users, then even one percentage can be a reason for a serious headache. The guys in the UPS headquarters have plenty of time to discuss what went wrong and eventually why.

Would that be enough? Well, when the gigantic systems fail, then we accept to evaluate our current IT security systems with the highest attention possible. Maybe, some good things will come out of this one, eventually. We sure hope we will not have to wait too long for that. Oops, my dear UPS.

Ex Workers + Current Access = Future Troubles

August 23, 2014 — Leave a comment

At the very core of every major serious cyber trouble, there is and always be a human related factor or error. Would you be so kind to write down this simple rule a couple of hundreds of times, for your own cyber well-being. Here is something to include in the field of corporate IT security.

You will be surprised to find to which extent ex-employees still have limitless access to almost all of the companies IT infrastructure. In the absolute majority of all cases the people in charge of HR or IT administration are simply lazy to do all what is necessary. Do not jump to the wrong conclusions.

We are not saying that as soon as you leave your company, you will become a vigilante hacker. Yet, who is stopping you to take an advantage of the situation. It is almost impossible to resist when you have a chance for some payback to a company, which fired you in the worst possible moment.

Just as you are required to clean your working desk, someone also has to clean your cyberspace after you. Eventually, the last thing you need is to be blamed for some hacker’s attack on your ex-company, which used your old data. Let bygones by bygones, focus on a new job and new passwords. Right?

Troubles Come In A Legit Disguise

August 18, 2014 — Leave a comment

It seems that modern hackers like to read the old books about the military strategy and the art of war. How else we are supposed to explain the sudden change of concept in the master design of the most malicious software? If you examine modern malware, you will notice an intriguing phenomena.

There is no need to attack the system, when you can skip it undetected. Why bother fighting, when you can do your job with a proper disguise. And, this is how we reached the point that top malware looks and works like a completely legitimate software. You realize that something is wrong when it is too late.

The new RAT or Remote Access Trojan for Android really does not have problems when it comes to a successful disguise in both paid and free apps. The more popular a certain app becomes, the more likely is that it carries an uninvited guest with it. So, what are we supposed to do in order to defend our Android territory?

Well, you do not have to be a general to know that new weapons on the battlefields simply call for new strategies and defense measures. If these malicious troublemakers can disguise themselves, then we can and should find a way to scan them properly before they hit the walls of our digital fortresses. Right?

Old Plugins. New Trouble.

August 17, 2014 — Leave a comment

It seems that the Microsoft’s troubles with the updates and lack of technical support for the older versions will eventually turn into an endless saga. For what is worth, Microsoft has been caught in the crossfire. Unfortunately, there is not much it can really do about it in the first place.

On the one hand, we have loyal, but extremely stubborn Windows users, who are not eager to leave their XP, Vista or Windows 7 versions behind. On the other side, there is a crumbling pressure of the ever present cyber threat. The unprotected Windows has become the hackers’ Eldorado.

Therefore, Microsoft has decided to block all old web plugins with the latest update in order to increase the level of cyber security. In addition, one very serious rumor has it that Microsoft is so desperate that it is willing to give away Windows 9 for free to XP users just to make them to leave it.

It comes without saying that this is a tricky situation for Microsoft. Which one hurts less? To lose Windows users or its flawless reputation as a cyber-threats-proof place. Oh, this is tough one, undoubtedly. They will need all rocket scientists, they can find to solve this puzzle successfully.

IMELA Software Blog

4 out of 5 dentists recommend this WordPress.com site

IT Security