Hackers paid by Facebook

The social networking site Facebook has paid out a massive $40,000 in the first three weeks of testing for security bugs and rouge apps.

‘The bug bounty program’ set up by Facebook aims to encourage security researchers to help harden the social networking site against attack. The programme gives monetary rewards to those that find security bugs, the minimum amount paid for the detection of a bug is $500, and it goes up to $5,000 depending on the severity of the bug.

In 2010 Facebook set up a system which promised not to take legal action against those that find bugs.

One security researcher has already been awarded the maximum amount for discovering bugs, and received $7,000 for finding six. 

Many cyber criminals have infiltrated Facebook and have been using it as a way of gaining personal information, promoting spam, or selling counterfeit goods. 

Many other international companies, including Google and Mozilla, run similar schemes to that of Facebook’s ‘bug bounty program’ and they have proved useful in sourcing out bugs. However hackers may find that they are paid more in the underground market for the information than the organisation is willing to pay, and if that did happen, where would that leave Facebook’s security?

When the going gets tough....make sure your backed up!

With Hurricane Irene hitting the North East Coast of America business were implementing their disaster recovery plans thick and fast. Ensuring that everything was in place should she hit their businesses hard.

Seeing how very real the threat of disaster is, and how out of control those businesses owners felt, brings home the reality that anything can happen and we should be as prepared as we possibly can, for that just in case moment.

Hints and tips for planning for an emergency with your business:

• Make sure all company data is backed up off site
• Ensure off site access to your systems
• Declare an emergency early to get a head start on working out kinks that will inevitably come
• Know what's going on with your staff from a professional and personal standpoint
• Focus on systems and work-flows that pull in revenue
• Over-communicate with employees, customers and, for large corporations, stock holders about what you're doing
• Be prepared for long-term impacts even if you're not directly hit; power and communications may be out for a while.

 For more information on how to successfully back your business up click here.

How much 3G coverage are we really getting?

A survey fronted by the BBC has probed into the state of mobile Britain, the finding suggests that 3G has a way to go before it offers what is promised: ‘comprehensive coverage across the UK’.

 

Operator’s claim 90% or more 3G coverage, however there are still many blind spots, including in major towns and cities, that were not covered. 

Those that were involved in the survey revealed that they were only able to receive a 3G signal 75% of the time.

For nearly a quarter of the time they had to rely on older 2G technology, which characteristically only offers around one tenth of the speed of 3G.

Mobile coverage is a huge issue with people becoming increasingly dependent on their smartphones.

Is 4G the solution? 

The government has offered a cash injection to boost the roll-out of next-generation fixed broadband in rural areas.

Ofcom's Communications Consumer Panel last month called for a similar strategy to tackle mobile blind spots.

Sophos ranked ahead of McAfee, Symantec and Trend Micro!

Sophos Endpoint Security software came up trumps in a recent independent product review by Cascadia Labs, the results found that Sophos outperformed and outshone rivals Symantec, McAfee, and Trend Micro. 

Sophos Endpoint Security and Data Protection 9.0 was also found to be the only endpoint security software to provide integrated data loss prevention, an absolute must for serious businesses. 

Cascadia Labs, compared the four leading endpoint security software packages designed for large businesses: McAfee Total Protection for Enterprise, Sophos Endpoint Security and Data Protection 9.0, Symantec Endpoint Protection 11.0 and Trend Micro Office Scan 10. They found that Sophos outperformed in data protection, performance, and technical support categories. It matched Symantec, and beat McAfee and Trend Micro in installation and configuration as well as in policies and management. 

The independent review also timed each product on how long it took to scan files on-access, on-demand, and to open large PowerPoint files. Sophos was faster and excelled in low-memory situations. Cascadia Labs said: "Our testing demonstrated significant differences in the performance costs products impose on users, with Sophos being fastest overall."

 

Cascadia Labs then mystery shopped the software vendors and made several calls to each company to evaluate their ‘troubleshooting capabilities’. Sophos outperformed the others with much shorter hold times and being able to answer difficult questions on the spot. 

Cascadia went on to say: "Sophos' technical support was very good—the best of any we experienced in this review. We encountered short wait times, had no problems with gatekeepers (as we did with other companies), and quickly got answers to our questions."

Data protection is not only topical at the moment but is regarded as a real top security concern for most businesses. In the review Cascadia also rated the integrated device control and data loss prevention capabilities of each. Sophos Endpoint Security and Data Protection was the only product to include data monitoring capabilities and device control. 

With such a  glowing report is begs belief as to why Sophos would not be the logical first choice for Endpoint Security and Data Protection software by every business.

For more information on how to purchase an implement Sophos today contact Rombus.

Veeam Backup and Replication software chosen by NHS Trust

Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals NHS Trust has put into effect a new backup and disaster recovery system to support its growing virtualised IT infrastructure.
 

The trust has installed Veeam Backup and Replication software, which slashes data recovery times down from hours down to minutes.

Data centre manager at Oxford Health Informatics Service, Kevin Woodley, said the technology had proved its worth within the first week of operation. He said : “One of our live production servers had hung. The time-honoured solution to this problem would be to power off and power on again. However, this time the server failed to boot up," 

"Traditionally, a situation such as this would have required a full rebuild and potentially long downtime. With Veeam installed, we were simply able to boot the DR replica and have a live system operating again within three minutes.”

Oxford Radcliffe Hospitals has three major sites, serving more than 600,000 patients. It was an early adopter of virtualisation and now has a "virtual first" policy that says any new IT infrastructure implementation has to be virtual.

At the moment, 25% of its infrastructure is judged to be "mission critical." This will increase as the trust plans on an increase in virtualisation from 50% to 75% by the end of the year.

Initially it was spending control and budgets that had driven Radcliffe’s move towards virtualisation with reduced hardware costs, pace for machines and power use.

Woodley went on to say: “However, as more than 50% of out estate became virtualised it became clear that our disaster recovery processes were not suited to the virtual environment. We needed a disaster recovery solution specifically tailored to that environment."

The chosen Veeam product allows for an expansion in the virtual infrastructure as it imposes no limit on the number of machines that can be replicated or backed up.

Oxford Radcliffe followed Gateshead Health NHS Foundation Trust, which announced an installation of Veeam Backup and Replication earlier this year.

For information on disaster recovery and business continuity solutions clickhere.

Phreaking

Phreaking or Dial-through-fraud is a type of illegal and unauthorised access into your telephone system, other wise known as phone hacking.

Unlike some phone hacking which attaches a listening device on to your system, Phreaking is the unauthorised use of your system to dial high toll numbers raking up a huge bill attached to your number and your company.

The process is frighteningly simple, Its usually originates overseas and starts with someone gaining access into your  telephone system, they then sell their hacked access to other criminals who do the same thing, to avoid detection they route calls through the systems of other Phreaking victims , usually over several countries making it ridiculously hard  to trace. 

It is then the responsibility of each company to pick up their bill from their telecommunication provider, regardless of the origin of the calls, as far as the provider is concerned the call came from the companies line, and they are therefore responsible to pay the bill. 

As the service providers get their money irrespective of where the charges came from it provides little incentive for them to investigate the charges, or to push for a crack down. This is why it is imperative to make sure your phone system is up to scratch and protected.

Phreakers usually strike after hours, at the weekend or on public holidays when detection is least likely, but your telecommunications carrier will still expect you to pay for all the illegal calls routed through your phone system.

Phone hackers can rack up a huge bill, but not only that, they have access to your voicemail and any information stored on the handset once they have gained access. If you hold any personal information concerning your staff or customers and this is stolen, you could also find your company receiving a fine from the ICO for not complying with the Data Protection Act on top of the fraudulent charges.

The UK is now one of the top five global hot spots for communication fraud with it costing  companies £1.2Billion, globally the cost to companies is an astronomical £40Billion. 

These cost’s alone indicate that it is imperative to have a strong, reliable, and safe telephone system, do you know how your telephone system would stand up against Phreakers? For more information on protecting your telephone system :click here