Sunbelt Security News featured an article on how the malware hunters do their job at Vipre. It is a very interesting article and like the Facebook movie, I think there is a movie in this!!
Check out the article and archived issues of Sunbelt Security News at:
You may have heard that used hard drives purchased on eBay have been used to extract personal financial data. This should be a concern for you if you are recycling your old computer on which you have stored financial or other sensitive personal information.
Some recyclers strip down your machine to reuse usable components one of which is the hard drive. These recyclers don't always adequately erase data from these drives before reselling them.
How to safeguard your data when recycling your machine:
You can remove the hard drive, open it up and destroy the magnetic disks that comprise the hard drive. You can reformat your hard drive yourself, though this is not always sufficient to erase all the files, or you can have the hard drive erased to Department of Defense standards by a third party vendor.
Or you can "shred" the data using a free downloadable program from CBL called the CBL Data Shredder. This program is designed to be burned onto a CD to be used on the machine you wish to erase at boot up.
Be sure not to run it on a machine that you are using and be sure you have backed up the data you need to keep before "shredding" your hard drive.
Disclaimer: CrexTechs has not used this program and so can not offer a recommendation.
CrexTechs recycles components through a certified recycler that shreds all hard drives. http://crextechs.com/blog/2010/02/recycle-your-old-computer/
Check out this link for information on the CBL Data Shredder:
http://www.cbldatarecovery.com/data-shredder/?from=newsletter_Oct2010
October is National Cyber Security Awareness Month (NCSAM) was instituted in 2004 as a way to help create awareness of the necessity to make cyber security an everyday practice for all users.
Learn more about National Cyber Security Awareness Month at:
http://www.sunbeltsecuritynews.com/NK7DJ1/101006-Cyber-Security-Month
Warning: Not for the faint of Heart! There is some scary stuff here that will not affect your computer directly but has international implications. Stop reading now if you want to have peace-of-mind for the rest of the day.
The shadowy world of spy vs spy has been transplanted to cyber space. Not only are we, the average computer users, being targeted with every manner of malware (generic term for all that bad stuff that is out there) but this is happening, (and has been for a long while it seems) on an international level targeting huge systems that run our world.
The most dastardly bit of malware discovered to date, called Stuxnet by those who cracked it, has been described as "groundbreaking." The worm is transmitted through USB flashdrives and exploites no less than four vulnerabilities to make its way to the target machines. It was designed to operate quietly and slowly to ensure it speads to the targets. The development of Stuxnet was, according to those who cracked it, probably sponsored by a government (based on the expense of development and the perceived target). Because of where it struck hardest, it is believed to have been targeted specifically at Iran (possibly at utility companies there)--makes one wonder who commissioned this worm.
Malware is not signed and not claimed, unlike some of the malicious acts perpetrated by extremest groups again their targets. Who developed Stuxnet and what their ultimate goal is is not known or not being disclosed as at this time.
Read about Stuxnet at:
http://www.sunbeltsecuritynews.com/NK7DJ1/100922-stuxnet
Why blog about this piece of scary news? Not to scare our readers certainly, but to make us aware of how interconnected we all are by this cyber web that has come to control our lives, so that we think about what might happened if and when it goes down in a big way. This will be like a natural disaster and may require that we all shift into the same "survival mode" that we would if we got hit by something like Katrina or a devastating earthquake.
Do we have our emergency preparedness plans in place, for this or any other natural disaster, as individuals and as communities? If not, times-a-wasting.