DDOS attack on Spamhaus: biggest network security attack in history slows down internet access across the world

The internet around the world was slowed down last week in what network security experts are describing as the biggest cyber-attack of its kind in history. As network security attacks go, they can’t have come much bigger than this one. The slow-down was caused because of an escalating row between the spam-fighting group, Spamhaus, and a hosting firm, Cyberbunker. This led to a series of retaliation attacks which eventually affected the wider internet. Experts are now expressing concerns that this row has the potential to escalate even further and could eventually affecting global banking and email systems. The threat of the retaliation attacks was so overwhelming that five national cyber-police forces are now running investigations.

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Cyber threats and the Cloud: Check Point’s new solution

You may never have heard of Gil Shwed, yet there’s every likelihood that your home or business is using internet security software that has been designed, or influenced, by the company he founded, Check Point. Shwed is an Israeli programmer and entrepreneur who is rightly regarded as one of the founding fathers of modern Internet security.

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Government to launch a consultation on effective cyber risk management

The UK’s national cyber security strategy, published in November 2011, set out the government’s intentions to encourage industry-led standards and guidance for organisations to manage the risk to their information. However there is still confusion around which standards are best followed. As a consequence the government has announced that it plans to select and endorse a preferred organisational standard that best meets the requirements for effective cyber risk management.

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Facebook and Apple are the latest companies to fall victim to cyber-attack

Facebook and Apple have become the latest companies to reveal they had been the target of a “sophisticated cyber-attack” by hackers last month. Although security was breached both companies confirmed that they had found no evidence any user data had been compromised.

In a blog post on its website Facebook explained what it knew of the cyber-attack:

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Deception Point 23rd April 2013 – Manchester

* BOOKING NOW CLOSED FOR THIS EVENT * Find out how professional hackers are deceiving your network defences You are invited to attend a FREE seminar on how traditional network defences are being routinely breached by attackers. The presentations will include a web application hacking demonstration, discussions on Advanced Evasion Techniques (AETs), the increasing threat …

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Deception Point 16th April 2013 – London

* BOOKING NOW CLOSED FOR THIS EVENT * Find out how professional hackers are deceiving your network defences You are invited to attend a FREE seminar on how traditional network defences are being routinely breached by attackers. The presentations will include a web application hacking demonstration, discussions on Advanced Evasion Techniques (AETs), the increasing threat …

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Better Backups Webinar

You wouldn’t use videotape to watch a movie. So why use tape to backup your data? Find out how to back up your data using a cost effective, state-of-the-art digtal backup solution complete with secure, automated off site replication. You are invited to attend our FREE webinar on 26th Mar 11am, which will discuss and …

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Bamital botnet shut down by Microsoft and Symantec anti-virus specialists

A botnet that was believed to have illegally infected somewhere between 300,000 and 8 million machines and was raking in an estimated $1 million a year has been shut down by security experts. The Bamital botnet was shut down when teams working with Microsoft and Symantec anti-virus specialists raided several data centres in the US. Microsoft and Symantec claim that the computers infected by the Bamital botnet were being used illegally for identity theft. Thousands of affected users have been offered free tools to help to clean up infected machines.

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The UK signs up to a new multi-national cyber-resilience partnership


Last weekend the Foreign Secretary, William Hague, signed up to a new World Economic Forum set of principles on cyber-resilience on behalf of the UK government. The UK has joined 70 companies and government bodies across 25 countries and 15 sectors in demonstrating their commitment and determination to taking a responsible and collective approach to ensure secure, resilient digital global networks that are safe, yet open to all.

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Microsoft’s cyber-security report rethinks the global web landscape

Here’s a question for you. Which continent is better prepared to cope with cyber-security issues, the United States, Europe or Africa? Well, Microsoft believes that Western Europe is best equipped to deal with the problems, closely followed by the United States. Unfortunately the developing world lags far behind, and that could have security implications for all of us.

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Has Oracle’s Java 7 update patch finally removed the security vulnerabilities that have been exploited by hackers?

It’s been a torrid old time for Oracle over the last few months. Targeted by hackers, Oracle has rarely been out of the news. There were hopes that the recently-released Java 7 Update 11 would solve the problems once and for all, unfortunately the patch, which was meant to mitigate two zero-day vulnerabilities in Java that were being actively exploited by attackers, has not delivered according to cyber-security experts. They maintain that all that has happened is that the threat has been relocated, and therefore that Java is still vulnerable.

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The hunt for ‘Red October’ is finally over according to malware researchers at Kaspersky Labs

The hunt for a major cyber-attack that could have been stealing confidential documents since 2007 is finally over after the Red October malware was discovered by researchers at Russia’s Kaspersky Labs. The malware had been targeting government institutions, embassies, oil and gas institutions and nuclear research centres. Red October, named after the Russian submarine featured in the Tom Clancy novel The Hunt For Red October, was designed to steal encrypted files, and was so sophisticated that it was even able to recover files that had been deleted. Experts are hailing the discovery as ‘very significant’.

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Better Backups Webinar

You wouldn’t use videotape to watch a movie. So why use tape to backup your data? Find out how to back up your data using a cost effective, state-of-the-art digtal backup solution complete with secure, automated off site replication. You are invited to attend our FREE webinar on 31st Jan 11am, which will discuss and …

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Don’t Let Data Loss Get You Down

An effective data backup and restore solution is the cornerstone of availability management in any Information Security Management System. New Year is traditionally a time to reflect on the past and look at ways to improve how you do things in the future. So, perhaps now is the time to look at how you carry out this most basic and important of functions to protect your business data.

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