If you’re like me, you get a steady drip of e-mail messages offering software at impossibly low prices. So far, you’ve resisted the lure of $29 Vista because you’re possessed of a pure heart, but now comes word of another, less noble, reason to keep a clean system. An article at InfoWorld says that half the “Vista” available for downloading has a significant malware load on its back.

Vista will have enough problems winning the PR wars without large numbers of people with illicit, malware-infested downloads trying to make the system work. Stick with the legitimate copies–if you can’t afford to buy Vista, figure out how to run one of the modern Linux distros or buy one of the cheap Macs. I know it might cost a few bucks, but if you’ve got a few dollars to spend on hardware you migh be ready to make the Mac plunge–see, Vista is spurring competitiont already!

Categories: Embedded, Security, Software
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Back at the beginning of the month, I wrote about the problems that security holes in Cisco software could present. Now we get word that new vulnerabilities have been found. These latest issues, detailed by US-CERT, could allow outsiders to run your routers. Trust me, if you don’t know why this is very bad, then you don’t need a router.

Cisco has issues a security alert about each of the vulnerabilities, and has made patches available. If you’re in a company with a “we never patch our router” policy, it’s well past time that you changed your policies and procedures. If you don’t have Cisco routers in your infrastructure, don’t get complacent. Cisco is a target for folks looking for vulnerabilities for the same reason Microsoft is a target: it’s where the big numbers are. That doesn’t mean that other equipment doesn’t have vulnerabilities. You should be checking for software and firmware updates to your network infrastructure on a regular basis, whether you’re supporting the network for a large company or a small family. The risks are just too great to let this one slide.

 The CNet story referenced above isn’t the only coverage of this. You might find it interesting to look at ComputerWorld’s take from the IDG News Service; a take from Light Reading; and a view from The Register that ranks the severity of the vulnerabilities.

Categories: Security, Threats
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When I read the name “Storm Worm” my thoughts run to Dune, but the news out of Europe doesn’t have a noble component. The malware writers have become more aggressive and more timely with a worm that’s hit hundreds of thousands of users in the last 24 hours.

The Storm Worm hit European users on the heels of a severe winter storm. Attached to an e-mail message with the subject “230 Dead as Storm Batters Europe”, the worm will turn an infected computer into a zombie on a botnet, or allow personal data to be storlen from the system. Time worked to the advantage of most North American computer users–many system administrators had placed the subject and payload into blocking filters by the time the Atlantic Seaboard hit office hours.

What’s the takeaway? This worm, like so many others, relied on social engineering, rather than a flaw in the operating system or application, to compromise a computer. Anti-malware software can help, but computer security begins with understanding how the bad guys will try to use a weakness in front of the keyboard to gain access to a computer. Don’t open attachments or click on links in an e-mail message if you aren’t absolutely certain about the orginator. Pick up the phone to call and verify if you need to–your computer, and those of many other users, will thank you for the effort.

Categories: Security, Threats
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So we’re about two weeks away from when everyone in the known universe switches to Vista (yeah, I know…), and the third-party software vendors are starting to line up in the starting gates to be ready for the onslaught. Security software vendors are no exception, and their products’ availability is going to be critical for the early success of the new operating system.

Remember the early days of air bags? The original idea was that these “passive restraint systems” would be so good that no one ever had to remember to buckle their seatbelts again. You know how that turned out. Vista security is similar. For the last couple of years we’ve been hearing about Vista’s new security capabilities, from least-privilege user modes to enhanced use of processor no-execute flags. Early in the development process, there was some chatter about Vista being the end of the line for software concerned with things like anti-virus and anti-trojan. More recently, there has been the frank admission that, in spite of significant improvements in the basic security structure of the Vista, you’ll still want to have a solid anti-malware suite on your system when you hit the Internet with your shiny new OS.

News.com has an article that looks at the suites that will be available on January 30. It’s a list of the usual suspects, but in a new role with the new OS. Expect lots more on this topic, especially when the first wave of adopters sees the first real exploit of consumer-side Vista.

Categories: Security
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If you’re interested in your computer’s security and you haven’t started reading Bruce Schneier, well you should. He’s one of the most lucid, readable experts on security you’ll find, and his advice is well worth taking. You might start with his latest article in Wired. He talks about the importance of choosing your passwords wisely, and doesn’t have to resort to the math of 128-bit keys to make his point.

After the Wired introduction, head over to his blog and keep reading. You’ll be glad you did.

Categories: Security
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Most of the security problems that get big press notice effect desktop computers or enterprise servers. While these issues can be serious (especially if they lead to consumer’s private information being released), they pale in possible impact to the havoc that can be wrought by exploits of network infrastructure hardware. News.com has reported on Cisco’s release of information on two vulnerabilities in the gateway hardware that enables Network Access Control (NAC). The good news is that there haven’t been any expoits reported that take advantage of the vulnerabilities. The bad news is that known vulnerabilities go unexploited for only so long, and there are hundreds of organizations that patch their infrastructure code on a long-duration cycle.

The takeaway here is to make sure your infrastructure hardware is updated with the same sort of urgency most of us save for our laptops and servers. If you have Cisco gear and want to check out the original notice, you can find it here.

Categories: Networking, Security
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