Cyber Terror

News like above is enough to send shivers down anyone's spine, be it an

enterprise, individual, or the govt. But alas, it's all true. Increasingly, the

news headlines everywhere are getting filled with security incidents that are

more focused and malicious. It's no longer about a script-kiddie breaking into

an organization's server just for kicks or to hack a website just to leave a

funny message there. Security incidents the world over are being committed with

a very clear and malicious objective, which could be financial gain, plan for a

terrorist attack, or propaganda. In other words, security threats have really

changed and taken a much more gruesome shape than you could ever imagine. It

will only get worse in the future, so you have to be ready for it.



Today, terror is everywhere, and there's a dire need to combat it at all levels.
This special story from PCQuest will focus on various aspects of security,

strategies to adopt, and tools to combat it. We'll focus on different kinds of

security threats for different types of audience, along with the strategies and

tools to combat them. We'll look at cyber-terrorism, what it means for different

people, and how to combat it.

Just how vulnerable you are



Security incidents are different for different parts of the society, so measures
taken to safeguard against them also have to be different. For enterprises,

security could mean protecting critical information from getting stolen or

preventing a virus from causing significant downtime. For an individual,

security could mean preventing loss of personal information like credit card or

bank account details. For the govt, security could mean ensuring that national

secrets are well-guarded, senior leaders are protected, and citizens are safe.

But before you can do that, you have to first understand the nature of security

threats that you're most vulnerable to.

Enterprise security trends



If you feel your IT infrastructure is safe from any kind of security breaches,
well think again. That's because there's no such thing as a boundary for your

organization's network anymore, thanks to the growing number of mobile users and

Internet based applications. Your users will need access to your network from

everywhere, be it a hotel, cyber café, airport, or railway station. They will

access it from all sorts of networks, putting far more stress on your network

than ever before.

There are many more entries to watch in the organization, many more end

points to secure, and a lot more sensitivity towards protecting information

theft.

The other key trend is that security threats are no longer being carried out

by college pass-outs wanting to bring down a website or portal just for kicks.

Security attacks have now become more serious, and they're being conducted by

people with a criminal bent of mind for information theft, financial gain, or

other malicious reasons.

There is of course, more malware than ever before. In fact, the amount of

malware created last year was more than the combination of all malware ever

created till date. This clearly indicates that with increasing penetration of

the Internet, both the good as well as bad guys have better connectivity and

reach.

Last key trend in enterprise security is that today the focus of security

threats is not just on the infrastructure. It's also on stealing information. So

organizations must go beyond setting up firewalls, anti-virus, and anti-spam

software.

Consumer security trends



If you think you're safe from prying eyes on the Internet, think again. Today,
there are more bank accounts, credit cards and personal information available

for purchase on the Internet than ever before, and you'll be shocked at the

prices they sell them for (see table on previous page). Each record could be

available for less than a dollar if purchased in bulk. Premium accounts, with

higher bank balance or credit limit sell at higher prices.

Credit card details can be stolen during online or offline transactions.

Online, you might land up on a fake site, which cons you into shelving out the

details. Or there could be an information stealing Trojan sitting on your

machine. Offline, your credit card could get cloned at a restaurant or any other

place. For instance, there are tiny credit card reading machines available,

which a person could simply swipe your card on before swiping it on the actual

terminal. And you thought that giving your credit card to the waiter in your

favorite restaurant was safe!

Web 2.0 has been a boon for everyone, but it could become a bane if you're

not careful. Just as you have access to so much information on the web, and so

many social networking sites to interact on, so do the bad guys. So we all

obviously know what that means! They can coordinate better and react more

quickly to vulnerabilities.So while you're busy watching that YouTube video, a

Trojan might be quietly be installing itself in your system, and bringing along

its other friends like keyloggers, bots, etc. Rest as they say, is history.

We all know the story of phishing emails pointing you to a fake website to

extract your personal information. But now, things are taking a different turn.

To take an example, suppose you receive an email pointing you to an

'interesting' website from where you could download some 'hot' pictures of a

known celeb. But along with the picture, you end up downloading certain file

infectors. These can then use your precious bandwidth to launch a deadly Denial

of Service attack on other websites. So guess who'll get caught for doing this

attack? You of course!

Incidentally, what that means is that it's not just bank sites that are bieng

faked. Any site that's not been hardened against vulnerabilities could get

infected, causing you to download Trojans.

Anil Chopra, Anindya Roy, Swapnil Arora, Isha Gakhar