We send less spam but get just as much

Jonathan Bowers, April 17th 2007, 9:55AM

It's obviously good news that the UK has fallen out of the 'dirty dozen' spam sending nations in a new report by Sophos but the main reason we have fallen out of the list seems to be because other nations are now sending more, rather than the fact that we are sending less.

The new report which compares Q1 2007 to the same time last year also notes that Europe has now overtaken Asia as the largest spamming continent. Increases across many parts of mainland Europe have been compounded by a huge surge in spam from Poland which has almost doubled in a single year.

India is one of the nations responsible for knocking the UK out of the top 12, as is Taiwan but the biggest newcomer to the Spamming 'dirty dozen' is Italy accounting for 5 per cent of the world's spam.

One last interesting factor is that China, while still in second place has reduced its spam percentile from 21.9 per cent to 7.5 per cent in a single year. In comparison, the US has only managed to reduce its contribution by 3.3 per cent.

Tags: security, spam
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Where is Internet Safety Week?

Jonathan Bowers, March 27th 2007, 2:11PM

Yesterday, the BBC along with getsafeonline.org published the results of a survey about Internet safety. There are some interesting, yet not all that surprising percentages in the stats.

The biggest eye opener is that less than half of us actually realise that the responsibility for protecting our personal data starts with us as users. One in six thought the responsibility should lie with the banks instead.

It's also interesting that five percent of people had experienced online fraud and also had their bag, wallet or mobile phone stolen, showing that online fraud is not always originated from information gathered online.

The survey is supposed to begin an Internet Safety Week, however, apart from two articles on the BBC website, there doesn't appear to be anything else online that actually delivers this agenda. It's a shame because if the survey shows anything, it's that the general public need encouragements to learn more about how to be safe online.

Tags: security
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Mobile defences

Jonathan Bowers, March 1st 2007, 10:10AM

If you are using mobile Internet devices, do you have secure network access and a company usage procedure? This may sound like overkill but mobile malware is a growing threat. According to Sophos' Security Threat Report 2007, sixty four percent of companies have admitted they do not have any protection in place on their mobile smartphones and PDAs, yet 81 percent are concerned about the possibility of mobile intrusion.

So whose responsibility is it to secure your mobile devices? John Pescatore of Gartner, a company that offers technology-related insight to its clients, believes the responsibility ultimately lies with the mobile carriers. I decided to call some of the UK’s major players to see what security provisions they had for mobile Internet.

Orange informs me that there is nothing on its mobile network that will protect my phone from malware. However, to soften this blow, the rep opined that 98 percent of all mobile viruses are caused by Bluetooth and as Orange’s Smartphones don’t use this it isn’t a problem. He suggested that I speak to phone manufacturers rather than networks if I wanted to look into it further.

Pescatore also says that in the first instance we need to make sure users are well educated about the threats and this view is echoed by T-Mobile. The contact here said he would send me some information about their mobile security policies but instead forwarded me three links to websites that informed me how to be vigilant whilst using mobile Internet devices. Valuable information but not quite what I was after.

Shane Coursen, senior technology consultant at Kaspersky Lab also believes we should be more proactive as users and download both firewall technology and anti-virus software to our mobile phones. But should manufacturers be doing this for us?

Carphone Warehouse informed me that none of the Internet enabled phones it sells have any protection as standard – further more, none of the manufacturers plan to add such a facility. It did however say that Smartphones will support downloaded software if I can find any that is suitable.

So right now, at the advent of the mobile Internet we cannot rely on either our mobile network or our phone manufacturer for the security support we need. We must look for downloadable packages and encourage safe usage policies. My research leads me to encourage you to take your mobile security as seriously as for your PCs and Laptops. Once prices come down and technology improves we could all find ourselves with another device to defend from cyber crime.

Tags: mobile_internet, security
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A serious spate of security concerns?

Jonathan Bowers, July 25th 2006, 9:46AM

The technology headlines are dominated this week by security issues. Specifically in the UK, the government has produced guidelines to educate on the issue of cyber-bullying while globally the latest Sophos report reveals that Asian spammers are more now prevalent that US spammers for the first time ever.

The anti-virus companies are of course riding high on the reports. Symantec has teamed up with Yahoo to reach more users with its Norton software and Kaspersky labs is adding heat by warning us that malware is getting more sophisticated.

I think it is great that the government sees better technology education as a step to avoiding Internet crimes but I am often dubious when reports come out that are generated by the firms gaining the most from our heightened concerns. Often with no firm statistical evidence we are asked to accept that we are in more danger than ever before.

A quick search shows that we may be moving in this direction - the US Department of Justice is currently creating an extensive Cyber Crime survey to assess the impact on US businesses. It would be nice to see the UK government taking similar steps for the 1,500,000 businesses online in this country, not to mention the millions of home users.

Tags: cybercrime, security, spam
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One for the newspapers

Jonathan Bowers, May 31st 2006, 5:24PM

It's very rare to type a phrase into Google Suggest and be told that there are only 205 results. But such is the case for "ransomware."

Even more astonishing is that ransomware was brought to my attention by the Manchester Evening News today. My daily browse of BBC Online, The Register and ZDNet.com did not bring anything to light and yet, the front page of the local paper delivered a story of International importance about cybercrime through the tale of a local woman.

The first entry Google does offer is the Wikipedia definition which is worth a read.

It's hugely important to keep informed about new emerging threats to our online security. But I have to admit I'm a little surprised by the source of the breaking news.

It shows that while the Internet has found ways to deliver the national and international news faster than ever before, it still has a little to learn when it comes to local news.

One to the MEN!

Tags: newspapers, security
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