Do you trust the security products installed on your computer? Are they enough powerful and effective to resist malware?

A comprehensive Verizon report released by ICSA Labs in the beginning of this week, summarizes 20 years of testing anti-virus and firewall products and their ability to detect and remove malware. The report concludes that more than 80 per cent of security products fail to perform certification as intended on the initial attempt under a widely-used industry kite-mark scheme. Only 4 percent of products tested at ICSA attain certification in the first testing cycle. Not to mention, the certification could be lost if periodic re-testing reveals the products are not able to keep up.

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Suppose there is a serious cyberattack against the U.S. that takes down a portion of the internet… What should we do then?

It would almost be impossible to perceive a major cyber attack becoming a reality but in fact, it could happen according to security vendor McAfee.

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Apple’s iPhone users in Australia are being seriously warned about the first ever iPhone worm.

This particular worm changes the wallpaper of the device to expose an image of 80’s pop singer Rick Astley and shows the message ‘ikee is never going to give you up’. The hacker told he created the worm to make users familiar with the risk of not to change the default password for their phone.

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Right after MMS became available for the iPhone, cybercriminals poison “iPhone MMS” search results with malicious links.

So you have an iPhone and you are happy that MMS is now available for the ridiculous price that you may already be paying for service. You perform an internet search on “iPhone MMS” to find out if everyone is just as happy as you with MMS on the iPhone and the search result that you click on redirects you to a malicious site that downloads malware onto your system. If this has not happened to you then consider yourself lucky.

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In a recent effort by Twitter to control the spread of malware, they have decided to suspend accounts of users that have infected computers.

The micro-blogging platform, Twitter, has had a big impact on online communication and social networking. With the such a massive impact comes the unfortunate attacks from hackers spreading malware such as Koobface. Koobface has been a computer parasite that has plagued Twitter and it’s users for months.

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Is it possible for hackers to over-take legitimate web-search results for the “swine flu” term?

While the Swine Flu continues to spread, security researchers from Websense Security Labs Threat Seeker Network have noticed thousands of new websites related to the swine flu. Details of this new discovery indicate that most of the new swine-flu-related sites are used for advertising, spamming, selling products and spreading malware.

What is the purpose of these malicious sites?

Security researchers believe that these sites were setup to hijack search results when a computer user searches for the term “swine flu”. When using Google to search for “swine flu”, some of these malicious sites are returned as high as the fifth result on the search results.

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Thousands of files, related to the newest Joint Strike Fighter Plane F-35 Lightning II, were stolen by hackers from computers of Pentagon contractors.

In today’s world everyone must guard their personal information including contractors for the Pentagon who are in charge of design on the U.S. military’s newest and most technologically advanced fighter aircraft, the F-35 Lightning II.

Hackers seek out to find vulnerable systems that they can gain access too. In this case of hackers stealing data from the systems used by contractors of the Pentagon, it could be the situation where the operators may have not proven that they were using the proper level of computer security. Companies that contract with the Department of Defense now have to prove that they are implementing certain security measures even before they are authorized to work on a project. This policy was put into place last year because of the increase of cyber intrusions.

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National security is always something that can be improved upon not only to make everyone feel safer but actually make it safer for everyone

With Cyber security being on the forefront of national security concerns from the DOD banning removable storage devices to the installation of security tools that monitor network activity. All aspects of cyber security need to be address and may need an overhaul according to the Center for Strategic and International Studies (CSIS).

The CSIS has conducted studies for cyber security in results of recent attacks to federal agencies such as the Department of Defense, NASA and Homeland Security. I suggestion to put certain recommendations in place by the new administration could help avoid future cyber attacks which may be a threat to our national security in America.

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