THREAT AND ANTIVIRUSES

VINEET JOSHI
JOURNAL COLLECTION
Journal 1: The real reverberations from ID
fraud: case study

The case deals in how a simple non following of

protocol and drill and carelessness of one lower
employee can cause a loss of nearly 25 million
records for the company. The case talks about
how compact discs containing data was lost in
the mailing system but according to the
procedure the discs were not supposed to be sent
by mailing service. The case gives another
example when a laptop was taken out of the
office premises against the procedures and was
stolen from the employee leading to a loss of
around 26 million records.

The case tells us the importance of abiding by

the security related regulations and protocol by
employees to safeguard the data for the
company.

Journal 2: IDs sell for much more than credit

card numbers in underground

Ids which is nothing but name, address, date of

birth and mother’s maiden name bank account
number and account password. 5 such complete
ids are more expensive than 2000 Credit Card
details which include the name , credit card
number, CCV code and the expiration date.
These Ids are sold freely over some of the
underground websites. The journal also talks
about how every website wants to identify its
users and thus require them to make a id and
password making it difficult for the users to
remember it thus users duplicate the passwords
to many websites which helps the hackers as
they use the same name and password
combination and try it out on many websites and
thus help them hack easily.
Journal 3: Computer forensics challenges in
responding to incidents in real-life settings

Event is an adverse event which risks the

security in the computer system Newer Intrusion
Detection Systems pinpoint the exact file or the
area which is under intrusion at a given instance
or is currently under intrusion attack. Over the
years attacks have changed from virus and
worms which affect the remote computer system
to virus and worms that affect the network. The
article tells about how the compromised system
gives enough relevant information for forensic
studies. It also gives the draw backs that have
been seen over the past years in detecting the
intrusion system as the hackers at times use
spoof Internet protocol address and also about
the reliability of the intrusion information as
many times the attacker changes his IP and other
details.
Journal 4: US Financial regulator warns
banks to get in
Shipshape

The case is the various different authentication

processes that the Banks in USA are prescribed
to use for securing the Internet banking
customers. It also tells of how the banks need to
protect its customers by helping them deal with
phishing websites attacks. These methods will
surly help protect customers and will provide as a
safer method for authentication.

Journal 5: Hackers turn on security systems

In this journal it talks about how hackers are

targeting the security systems rather than the
O.S (operating System. It shows the most
vulnerable list of utilities over the internet and
how they are easily prone to be hacked in by the
attackers. Windows services top the list closely
followed by internet explorer.

Journal 6: CRYPTOGRAPHY
This article focuses on how digital certificates
and cryptography are being used in today`s
modern technology implementations. The use of
these variables are mainly for transacting
processes online in a secure way which may be a
bank statement or E-Shopping. The problem
which this article confesses is that the site
certificate remains unchecked for its authenticity
before confidential information such as credit
card details are sent through the web. This
problem takes place due to the poor design or
development by the designer or sometimes due
to the lack of knowledge by the users. There fact
is that most of the users do not understand the
benefits and need of cryptography. But surveys in
2005 suggest that almost 74% of the
respondents are using cryptography. The risks
may be reduced by making the users aware
about the facts and also through education.
Moreover it is an essential duty of the corporate
to train their employees such as security training.
These things will help the users to know more
about the importance of certificates.

Journal 7: SECURITY OUTSOURCING ISSUES

This article is about the security outsourcing
issues. It focuses on some of the basic questions
like the need for the organizations to outsource
their security functions, benefits and drawbacks,
what security functions should or should not be
outsourced etc.,

Journal 8: TWO FACTOR AUTHENTICATION

This article is about the introduction of two
factor authentication by the Bank of Ireland in
the year 2006. It is to provide security token
system to all of its online banking customers. By
this system, each customer will get a number
after each of their transactions. Already the bank
had issued more than 4000 tokens to their
corporate customers.

Journal 9: TRUSTED COMPUTING

This article focuses on Trusted Computing (TC),
its benefits and the controversies that took place
due to this. TC is a new technology and it is
designed such that it acts as a security. The
benefits such as the protection of input and
output, curtained memory (secured running of
programs) and attestations along with the
controversies such as the controversy due to the
name “trust” were discussed in this article.

Journal 10: BIOMETRIC ID CARDS

This article deals about the UK government`s

plan of issuing Biometric ID cards to the public
which constitutes their finger prints. The
government believes that it would be the best
solution for national security. It has planned for
about 50 million cards at the initial stage. There
are lots of opinions from the public which is for
and against this issue. The main purpose of
issuing this card is to prevent terrorists and
terrorism entering into the country. But experts
suggests that this method is not cost worthy to
the public.
 Journal 11: Summary on Computer security
and fraud:
Spyware- the spy in the computer:
This article is about the spyware that is installed
without the user’s knowledge in order to gather
the user’s information from their computer.
Spyware can be a Trojan worm or a Trojan horse
that enables the hackers to steal data from the
user’s computer. Computers that are hacked this
way are called as “zombies”. This also deals with
the actions taken by the U.S govt. to curb the
menace of hacking. This article also focuses on
the protections that are used by certain
organization and their awareness regarding the
hacking activity. Some organizations also ended
up using two computers, one for the internet
purpose and the other for the office data
purpose. As a whole this focuses the internet
hacking and their consequences and the action
that is being taken for such hacking activity.
Journal 12: Transferring business and
support functions the information security
risks of outsourcing
This article mainly focuses on the outsourcing
and the security risks involved in it with
examples. This article discusses about the
increased outsourcing that is taking place in the
banking sector as well and the possible risks
associated with the outsourcing. Outsourcing
happens only when that organization thinks that
it cannot deploy staffs to do a particular job by
them. This gives a deep insight about the
security issues with the outsourcing that are
being done.
Journal 13: Qualified to help: in search of
skills to ensure security.
This article deals about the persons who
formulate the IT policies of a company. It also
discusses about the role of CISOs in every
organization. How much he can be relied upon by
the organization. This also discusses about the
practical difficulties in getting real people for the
formulation of security issues in an organization.
The qualifications, those are mandatory for such
people. This article also brings to light that
people who frame IT policies and involved in
security issues of an organization are not actually
aware of the issues that they are handling.
Journal 14: Electronic funds transfer fraud.
This article deals with the frauds that happen in
the online fund transfer. It also discusses about
the security problems that are caused to an
organization because of the unblocked ids that
their ex-employees used. It also explains the
whole concept of the fund transfer in a simple
language with a practical example. It discusses
the fraud that happened and how did they track
it down. This article projects some graphs
regarding how the normal transactions and the
fraudulent transactions occur. It also suggest
some of the security measures to prevent EFT
frauds such as supervising the contracted staffs,
blocking of ex-employee’s id, monitoring the
event logs, being vigilant during the holiday
period etc. its main focus is on the EFT and the
frauds that happen in the banks during such
transfers.
Journal 15: Applying forensic techniques to
information system risk management.
This article discusses about applying the
techniques to the information security and risk
management. It also focuses on the incident post
mortems which means projecting an incident
which has not occurred actually and reading the
consequences, if it happens in the future. This
can be achieved through the EEDI technique. This
helps the organization analyze the vulnerabilities,
nature of threats, counter measures etc. This
projected its view on the alternative approach to
the risk management through the forensic
science.
Journal 16:Website Security Leaves half of
US companies Cold
This article speaks about Jupiter Media Metrix
Analyst which concentrates on Enterprise
Security which involves managing services for
maximum coverage . There are 50% of US
companies with are concerned with the security
of online data and this survey also indicates that
29% of website managers and CIO s rate their
risk of attack as low. This article mentions about
the impact that an online security invasion has
on consumer trust and confidence rather than
financial loss. The author after discussing about
the problems finally recommends that security
service providers should provide 24- hour site for
monitoring and emergency response. Jupiter
makes a survey with 471 customers.
Journal 17:Hacking
This article is about Hacking. There are three
issues covered in this article which includes how
students can beat ATM Security and how piracy
has become popular and how XP was cracked
within hours of release.
This article includes the problems that have
increased due to Pirated Software Websites.
There are around 5400 piracy related sites on the
net. Andy Meyer tells that the Organisations
need to take some tolerance with respect to
employees visiting pirated software sites at work.
It also explains How XP was cracked immediately
after the launch. The chief Technology officer
says that crackers develop illegal installation files
which can now be downloaded from websites.
This is done by Chinese hackers. And this article
includes the students who have the defeated the
encryption system used by banks to protect ATM
Machines. This includes Crypto processors which
are designed to destroy encryption keys. This
includes the applications developed by
Application Programming Interface or Common
Cryptographic Architecture.

Journal 18:Foreign police working in US

Internet Fraud Centre
This article is about the establishment of The
Internet Fraud Complaint Centre (IFCC) which is
been established by the FBI and the National
White Collar Crime Centre (NWC3). According to
the FBI, international cyber policing of the
Internet now exits. This FBI has internet Fraud
detection training seminars and technical
surveillance centre for police officers. The stated
mission of the IFCC is to address fraud committee
over the internet, this will provides a web based
reporting mechanism that alerts authorities of a
suspected criminal or violation. It also provides
law enforcement with a central repository for
complaints related to Internet Fraud, works to
quantify fraud patterns and provides timely
statistical data of current fraud trends. Now
comes the credit card frauds, Visa International
launched a Global Data Security website to assist
merchants meet tougher standards for protecting
and storing data on their own sites. The primary
purpose is to support for merchants’ efforts to
establish appropriate card holder information
security and privacy controls and measures.
Merchants can also evaluate the level of security.
This practice will mostly benefit consumers in
reduced identity theft from fewer credit card
numbers being stolen from merchant web sites.
The network has potential to do what no other
fraud prevention group is doing: prioritize
merchant concerns and identify specific solutions
for resolving the issues.
Journal 19:The Worst of Awakening
Continuity planning has evolved and
developed from the mundane ‘IT disaster
recovery plan to the more comprehensive
evaluation of business risk to minimize the
impact of disaster on a business to full Business
Continuity Management. This disaster recovery
was not deserving of a prime time television
debate. To all these technologies even the
terrorist got impressed and got attracted towards
it. They were using all important modes of
communication like e mail and mobiles. No
aspect of computer security changed more
dramatically and tangibly. It is impossible to over
estimate how the events of September 11
terrorist attack have transformed the people
sense of vulnerability and unfortunately disaster
recovery as a component of a computer security
has come to the fore front for this tragic reasons.
It is not only the corporate which suffers but
mostly all of them who are highly dependable on
networks and in turn telecommunication. Being
prepared seems somewhat of an under
statement in any uncertain climate. For many
organisations this will mean coming to grips with
the concepts and logistics of disaster recovery.
And then about ‘threat’ it is what we all protect
eourselves from. A direct threat could mean that
a company has a particular feature that could
attract potential enemies. A location threat could
ensue if a company is in an area that would
attract maximum publicity. If any company is
located near any potential terrorist targets then it
is classed as a threat from proximity. Finally a
threat from associated activity might be a
concern for a company if a staff or any voard
members are involved. Then is the E Bombs
whose attacks are becoming feasible as the days
go by and then about worms which may contain
sleep phase in which the worm will infect as
many host as possible. Another potential problem
involves routing vulnerabilities. Finally Cyber or
Physical disaster recovery plans are equally
required for any kind of threats.
Journal 20: Compsec 2001: Watching The
Threat From Without
Cyberspace is the new one which is building trust
and confidence in many of the IT sectors. This
article is all about the premier conference called
Conpsec 2001. In this conference, the most
entertaining and memorable presentations were
both given by Alan Brill on risk consultancy firm
Kroll. Brill also gave a talk on the Infosec
aftermath of the World Trade Centre disaster. He
highlighted the program associated with hiring
staff without doing rigorous background
checking. Particularly difficult to account for are
the “invisible people”. He described the events of
september11 as a catalogue failure. In the
immediate aftermath of disaster, security
budgets are likely to be bolstered. In this
conference Brill also gave a talk entitled, 2001: A
Hacking Odyssey, he made a point that the
threat is greater now than ever. He predicted that
the next great threat trend will be site denial
attacks (SDA). The main key points of this
conference is there is no need for us to be an
expert to launch a cyber attack because of the
availability of point and click hacking tools on the
internet. It says that corporate standardisation of
infrastructure increases risk. Management lack
commitment to security because they run
systems they know are flawed yet do not budget
for time to patch and do security maintenance.