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Malware study shows people still falling for old tricks, but there's hope
Yahoo Finance Too many of us still fall for the old “click this attachment” email trick, and get our computers infected with malware or viruses. The result: our data is increasingly … |
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The past five years have witnessed a seemingly unending series of high-profile account take-overs. A growing consensus has emerged among security practitioners: even long, randomly generated passwords aren’t sufficient for locking down e-mail and other types of online assets. According to the consensus, these assets need to be augmented with a second factor of authentication.
Now, a two-year study of more than 50,000 Google employees concludes that cryptographically based Security Keys beat out smartphones and most other forms of two-factor verification.
The Security Keys are based on Universal Second Factor, an open standard that’s easy for end users to use and straightforward for engineers to stitch into hardware and websites. When plugged into a standard USB port, the keys provide a “cryptographic assertion” that’s just about impossible for attackers to guess or phish. Accounts can require that cryptographic key in addition to a normal user password when users log in. Google, Dropbox, GitHub, and other sites have already implemented the standard into their platforms.
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Now when ransomware tries to take over your computer, there’s something you can be sides pay up: stop it, buy more time to deal with it or mitigate the damage it might do.
These options include both hardware and software approaches IT pros can take to defeat the malware, a group at this weekend’s Security BSides Boston conference was told.
By looking at how several variants of ransomware work – CryptoLocker, CryptoWall, Locky, SamSam – researcher Weston Hecker found characteristics of their behavior that could be turned against them.
One method goes after the droppers that first infect target machines in preparation for downloading the main malware payloads. Their purpose is to examine the machines for indications that it might be an inhospitable host and to eliminate the roadblocks if possible.
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It’s good if the FBI has found a way to crack into the iPhone used by the San Bernardino terrorist for two reasons.
First, the FBI can find out what’s on it. Maybe it’s important to the investigation of the shootings and maybe it’s not, but cracking the phone is the only way to find out.
And second, it’s giving Apple (and the tech industry in general), the FBI (and law enforcement in general), and Congress the breathing room to sort out the issues rationally.
The latter is the more important of the two. Yes, it’s important to wring every bit of evidence out of the terrorism investigation, but it’s one incident. The course being set by the lawsuit between the FBI and Apple could have legal implications far beyond the one case.
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