ESET Threat Blog

In a recent survey of people in America who use their smartphone for work, less than a third said they employ the password protection on their smartphones. Although everyone will agree that not protecting your smartphone isn’t smart, it is all about memorizing. 
Everyone that has an Android-based device knows they do not have to remember … Read More…

SKYPE: Securely Keep Your Personal E-communications
From time to time people get new computer equipment and need to (re-)install all their favorite programs. Often a painful and time-consuming job, but afterwards it should ease the way of working with the new equipment. Even security gurus have to undergo this procedure at regular intervals. In November 2011 … Read More…

Computer security is not created, nor is it improved, by calling people stupid. That's the conclusion I have arrived at after more than two decades in computer security and auditing. To put it another way, we should stop dropping the "S" bomb, especially when it comes to people who don't know any better.
Consider the phenomenon … Read More…

 Here are some further thoughts arising from the ACPO National Cyber Crime Conference held recently in the UK*.

DAC Janet Williams, ACPO’s e-Crime lead, summarized the current initiatives along these lines (apologies if I’ve introduced too many of my own preconceptions):

The UK intends to tackle cybercrime and make this one of the safest places to do … Read More…

A few years ago, from time to time I used to visit the school where my wife taught IT, to talk to some of their students about IT security. In fact, we wrote a paper at that time(along with my good friend Eddy Willems), based on some research data we gathered between us in the … Read More…

Exactly how people will abuse digital technology for their own ends is difficult to predict, but organizations must plan ahead to protect data and systems. That's why we have been posting our "best guess" cybersecurity predictions on the Threat Blog this month. Today we present 9 of the most important predictions in the form of … Read More…

…not, on this occasion, the classic Blackhat "It's your fault that we've hacked your server, infected you with a virus, and broadcast your credit card details and gaming credentials to anyone one who cares to access the torrent" self-justification. (Which reminds me of a mugger saying "don't make me do this to you" while he … Read More…

Too bad it doesn’t exist. I mean really exist. Here is how an anti-phishing day that is designed to be a highly effective educational deterrent to phishing would work.
Google, Facebook, Hotmail, Yahoo, Twitter, Myspace, Banks, Online Gaming sites, such as World of WarCraft, and others would all send phishing emails to their users. Yes, phishing … Read More…

[Update: that article "IMF and the weakest link" is now up on SC Magazine's Cybercrime Corner.]
In a recent article for SC Magazine (I'll post the link here when it gets posted) on the International Monetary Fund security breach, I focused on the implications of technological versus psychosocial threats and countermeasures. Not, of course, the first time I've … Read More…

My colleagues in Hungary have released some slightly alarming statistics about malware awareness in their part of the world. Research carried out on their behalf by NRC suggests that a significant proportion of Hungarian Internet users don't even know what AV software is installed on their computer (or, presumably, if anything is installed.)
http://www.eset.hu/hirek/holgyek-tessek-vedekezni?back=%2Fhirek
Out of 1000 … Read More…