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Malware On The Rise*
Interested in credit card theft? There's an
app for that. Imagine a world where you could
write your own app that could steal information from
others. Instead of you being the one that keeps
getting infected, you could be from the "Dark Side."
Well you're correct, this is now possible.
Malware as a service is a reality and it's wild on
the Internet. Since we don't condone illegal
activities, we won't publish
the names of this specialized software but will say
that this software is designed to allow non
programmers the ability to make such apps. Not
only are some of the software offering money-back
guarantee, they even have a special website that
once a program is made, it's submitted and checked
against over 20 different antivirus programs to see
if the app is detected. If it is, they make
tweaks and submit again until it's undetectable.
The
information given shows that most of these apps are
being used against the government and larger
companies, but it doesn't mean that you personally or
your company couldn't be targeted in the future. A
recent study by the University of Toronto, Canada
showed an attack that started in February with a
series of emails sent to senior officials in the US
military, the FAA and other government agencies with
the email acting as it had links to vital security
information. In reality, clicking on the links
resulting in Malware built with the use of some of
this new software, being installed on these users
machines. 81 machines were compromised, 1533
documents from the compromised machines ere
identified on a computer in Belarus.
Many users will say, "Well that won't happen to a Mac
user". Never say never as Mac usage is on the
rise in the consumer sector. Hackers will
typically only spend their time writing code that
will affect the biggest section of users.
Does your company have an Internet usage policy in
place? Is your company running under very
relaxed security because it's painful with security
in place? End users typically don't need access
rights to install software and if they do, you
should know and control what is. Unlimited
rights allow unproductive software along with the
possibility of viruses and Malware.
Security
doesn't have to be painful but without it, the
possibility of internal Malware breaches are very
plentiful. |
