Just days after patching a critical flaw in its Internet Explorer browser, Microsoft is now warning users of a serious bug in its SQL Server database software
Microsoft issued a security advisory saying that the bug could be exploited to run unauthorized software on systems running versions of Microsoft SQL Server2000 and SQL Server 2005.
Attack code that exploits the bug has been published, but Microsoft said that it has not yet seen this code used in online attacks. Database servers could be attacked using this flaw if the criminals somehow found a way to log onto the system, and Web applications that suffered from relatively common SQL injection bugs could be used as stepping stones to attack the back-end database, Microsoft said.
Software bugs have become one of the major threats in today's world. Software bugs may attempt to exploit known vulnerabilities in a system. The reason I choose this artice is that it emphasis on a software bug creeping in after a recent fixation by the Microsoft in its Internet Explorer browser. This shows how the software bugs can creep up at any point of time and how vulnerable that makes our computer information. It also helps analyze how the software bug can effect a large number of people.
Cyber terrorism is the premeditated use of disruptive activities, or the threat thereof, against computers and/or networks, with the intention to cause harm or further social, ideological, religious, political or similar objectives, or to intimidate any person in furtherance of such objectives.
Despite significant investment in technology and infrastructure, cyber terrorism represents one of the greatest challenges in combating terrorism. Every day the Internet and coutless other computer systems are under attack.The intention of a cyber terrorism attack could range from economic disruption through the interruption of financial networks and systems or used in support of a physical attack to cause futher confusion and possible delays in proper response.
The article I choose is " The Cyber Attack of Russia on Geogia "
This article throws light on how cyber attacks have caused billions of dollars in damage and affected the lives of millions.This helps analyze that cyber attacks will likely become an increasingly common element of future warfare.This emphasizes on how these cyber attacks can lead to Loss of sales during disruption, Loss of intellectual property, Costs of forensics for recovery and litigation, Loss of critical communications in time of emergency and Loss of confidence and credibility in our financial systems. The type of attack used was Denial of Service attack. In the Attack Taxonomy this article comes under the DoS/DDos Attacks.
Security experts are warning users and administrators of a new crop of Facebook malware.
F-Secure said in a recent blog posting that the company has tracked down a number of pages on the social networking site which attempt to infect users by promising free videos. New attacks spread via networking site.
The reason I choose this article is that it emphasizes on what a large scale malware infection can be spread. Facebook being a very popular networking site, this marlware attack had an impact on millions of users. The economic impact of malware events increases as organizational size increases.
Today, with lot of sensitive data like date of birth, phone number and social security number being posted online, the risk of the data being compromised is very high. It is highly necessary to protect our information from being tampered.
Then how can we identify?
Never open a file from an unknown source. Although it’s probably over kill, I suggest that you mark all recently downloaded or installed items on your computer without your prior knowledge to be malware.
Update your OS. If possible, download and install all security fixes. No matter how much you have Windows it’s always good practice to patch up your OS to prevent others from exploiting it’s holes.
Install security software like AVs and ASs.
Activate the Guest account.If multiple people are using your PC, restrict their access by using a guest account or equivalent. Sure, you may end up editing the Policies so they can save and edit files but at least they won’t be able to install malware behind your back, unintentionally or otherwise.
Stop look and read thatURL.
Keep changing the passwords.
Use common sense. The spread of most malware relies on carelessness on the part of the victim. If a sudden message pops in your IM that looks as if it’s screaming “Hey click me I’m a spam site”, do yourself a favor and close the window.
This article helps extend our knowledge on how malware can have adverse effects on our day to day life. So it is better to be cautious and careful when accessing the internet.
A live CD is a CD containing a bootable computer operating system.
How is it Unique?
Live CDs are unique in that they have the ability to run a complete, modern operating system on a computer lacking mutable secondary storage, such as a hard disk drive. Live USB flash drives are similar to live CDs, but often have the added functionality of automatically and transparently writing changes back to their bootable medium.
The term "live" derives from the fact that these CDs each contain a complete, functioning and operational operating system on the distribution medium.
While a live CD typically does not alter the operating system or files already installed on a computer's hard drive, many live CDs include mechanisms and utilities for altering the host computer's hard drive, including permanent installation. This is important for the system management aspect of live CDs, such as removing viruses, drive imaging, and system recovery.
The default option, however, is to allow the user to return the computer to its previous state when the live CD is ejected and the computer is rebooted. It is able to run without permanent installation by placing the files that typically would be stored on a hard drive into RAM, typically in a RAM disk. However, this does cut down on the RAM available to applications, reducing performance somewhat. As of 2007, certain live CDs run a graphical user interface in as little as 32MB RAM.
Why, from the security perspective, the Live CD concept is important?
Throughout the last decade, society has witnessed an explosion of network connectivity among PCs and mobile devices as well as a vast proliferation of networked applications, ranging from Web-based email to online banking. The end result of this is that network connectivity has become an almost indispensable resource for many individuals. Yet along with the convenience and flexibility of anytime, anywhere network access, society has also seen an increase in computer-related security and privacy concerns, with the most dreaded being the possibility of identity theft.
The answer is to actually use our own operating system install complete with its own applications. This can be easily accomplished by using a LiveCD, which is a CD (or DVD or USB flash drive) that is executable upon boot and contains a computer operating system, typically Linux. Files that would typically install onto the hard drive of the computer are loaded into system RAM and as such simply rebooting the computer will return it to its previous state. These traits make the use of a LiveCD a great idea for anyone needing to use a public computer terminal. Loading an operating system from the CD will allow a user to take advantage of the computers resources, including network access and access to disk drives, but will not load the OS or any applications that are installed on the computer’s hard drive. This means that any key loggers or other such tracking software that is installed upon the machine will not be loaded and the user of the terminal need not fear software being used to monitor his/her actions. While this will not protect against hardware-based key loggers or network-based monitoring such as packet sniffing, it does help to dramatically improve security and privacy, by all but eliminating software-based threats. Moreover, the fact that the LiveCD install and use data resides only on either the CD or in volatile memory such as system RAM is an added benefit. As soon as the CD is removed and the computer is rebooted, all of the information pertaining to the usage of the machine is wiped out, thereby making it virtually impossible for a future user to garner any usage information from browser histories, caches, or auto-complete features.
Moreover, Linux based LiveCDs come in a great variety with one of the first Linux LiveCDs to appear being Knoppix. Many Linux LiveCDs like Knoppix and the Fedora and Ubuntu Live distributions load versions of Linux that closely resemble desktop installs of Linux, and provide access to robust desktop environments such as KDE or Gnome and applications such as OpenOffice.org. While these types of LiveCD distributions are great if you need all of the features of a full Linux desktop, their performance can be somewhat lacking since data often needs to be read from the CD to load certain applications. Users who are simply interested in a LiveCD distribution for purposes of accessing the Web and email may instead want to consider distributions such as Puppy Linux and Damn Small Linux, as these distributions can be completely loaded into system RAM. While not as application rich as other Linux distributions, most users will find them surprisingly feature complete given their small size, and as a result of running solely off of system RAM, they will yield extremely rapid response times.
FEDORA DESKTOP
UBUNTU DESKTOP
Before you head out the door to make a trip to the airport or even the local coffee shop, remember to grab not only your keys, but also a copy of a Linux Live CD.
Software bugs have become one of the major threats in today's world. Software bugs may attempt to exploit known vulnerabilities in a system. The reason I choose this artice is that it emphasis on a software bug creeping in after a recent fixation by the Microsoft in its Internet Explorer browser. This shows how the software bugs can creep up at any point of time and how vulnerable that makes our computer information. It also helps analyze how the software bug can effect a large number of people.
