The Complete, Unquestionable, And Total Failure of Information Security.

[ronjor]

-{ Quote: "Today we have forth and fifth generation firewalls, behavior-based anti-malware software, host and network intrusion detection systems, intrusion prevention system, one-time password tokens, automatic vulnerability scanners, personal firewalls, etc., all working to keep us secure. Is this keeping us secure? According to USA Today, 2005 was the worst year ever for security breaches of computer systems. The US Treasury Department's Office of Technical Assistance estimates cybercrime proceeds in 2004 were $105 billion, greater than those of illegal drug sales. According to the recently released 2005 FBI/CSI Computer Crime and Security Survey, nearly nine out of 10 U.S. businesses suffered from a computer virus, spyware or other online attack in 2004 or 2005 despite widespread use of security software. According to the FBI, every day 27,000 have their identities stolen. And companies like IBM are putting out warning calls about more targeted, more sophisticated and more damaging attacks in 2006." }-
Story (http://www.securityabsurdity.com/failure.php)

[Longboard]

Thanks Ron

Scary stuff:

This little link from that story caught my eye and could serve as a reminder to all; thanks to these forums evrybody here is better off than many new users, I know I am. I wouldn't have known any of this when I got my first laptop and rushed off into the www.

What happened at the shop when your new box was set-up?

Surviving the first day:
http://www.sans.org/rr/whitepapers/windows/1298.php

[Upasaka]

-{ Quote: "Thanks Ron

Scary stuff:

This little link from that story caught my eye and could serve as a reminder to all; thanks to these forums evrybody here is better off than many new users, I know I am. I wouldn't have known any of this when I got my first laptop and rushed off into the www.

What happened at the shop when your new box was set-up?

Surviving the first day:
http://www.sans.org/rr/whitepapers/windows/1298.php" }-


Another frightening story!
The link from Sans .org should be compulsory reading for all 1st time be PC users.

My first PC was bought as a refurbished second user unit,I had never used a PC ever..........the "expert" behind the counter did his best to impress with endless techno talk and assured me that everything needed for internet use was already in place.
NO you don't need anything else,this is a modem plug it in and off you go:blink:

Well it wasn't too long before things were not ,shall we say "right">:(

NO security of any kind,no AV, no firewall, nothing.

Funny how fast you can learn things when you need to.:-X

[ronjor]

The best thing to do is spread the word to fellow computer users. The Internet has changed from the early days. It's a battle now.

[Longboard]

Heh

-{ Quote: "The Internet has changed from the early days.
" }-
.. ..we're not that old are we? :lurking:

The pace of change has been staggering.

Lbd

[Paranoid2000]

The "failures" occur mostly with users not taking adequate precautions so can hardly be used as an indictment of security products generally (except for those in Windows itself).

[herbalist]

That article doesn't say much for some of the "IT experts" that work in many businesses. At a previous job, I watched their senior IT guy fight for a week to get a virus out of their system. Server was down all week. Security software is no better than the guy that configures/maintains it.
Rick

[Rasheed187]

It´s a nice article but I still think that with all these tools available nowadays people (IT pro´s) should be doing a better job. I mean of course protecting a corporate network is a lot more complex than protecting a home PC but I still think a lot of damage is being done because of mistakes made by humans, with that I mean: not patching on time, configuring software wrongly, no good overall security strategy.