We all knew it was bound to happen. As mobile devices make up more of the devices on our networks, it only makes sense that attackers would start targeting them more. A recent report from McAfee warned that 2011 could be expected to be a turning point for threats to mobile devices, with both corporate and user data facing serious risks:

http://cellphones.about.com/b/2010/12/28/mcafee-ex...11.htm

In the wake of that warning, CNET just published an article about an Android Trojan that has been labeled one of the most sophisticated cell-phone based threats to date, displaying botnet qualities and collecting personal data that it sends to remote servers.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-1009_3-20026804-83.html?...3-0-20 

Android market share continues to grow, and hit 25 percent in November. Don Reisinger predicted, in his 10 Tech Industry Predictions that will Shape 2011, that its success will continue in the coming year and it will outsell iOS, Windows Phone 7 and RIM Blackberry.

http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Mobile-and-Wireless/10-Te...55919/ 

With all those Android devices out there, many of them are going to be connecting to corporate networks, so security is a real concern. I’ve installed anti-virus software on my Samsung Galaxy Tab, but how many Android users are using their devices without any security software, in the mistaken belief that because it’s not a PC or because it’s not running Windows, protection isn’t necessary?

In response to notification by a security researcher, Mozilla discovered earlier this month that one of their databases, containing 44,000 inactive accounts that used older, MD5-based password hashes, had been mistakenly left on a public server. The users who were impacted were sent email notifications, and the risk is thought to be minimal, but just in case you have an old Mozilla account and haven’t logged on since April 9, 2009, and have changed your email address since then so that you might not get the notice, it’s something to be aware of.

Read more here:

http://blog.mozilla.com/security/2010/12/27/addons...osure/

This month, Microsoft released version 2.0 of Microsoft Security Essentials, their free anti-malware software. Improvements include performance enhancements, better integration with Windows Firewall and Internet Explorer and Network Inspection System (NIS). Small businesses (those with 10 or fewer users) can benefit from MSE, although it is primarily designed for home users.

http://news.cnet.com/8301-10805_3-20025993-75.html...3-0-20

Many surveys have shown that one of the top obstacles standing in the way of companies’ adoption of cloud computing is the worry about security. Those who don’t trust the cloud may have a good point. A report out of Amsterdam describes a data breach that affected some of Microsoft’s Business Productivity Online Suite (BPOS), wherein users were able to access data belonging to other customers. Ouch. (NOTE: BPOS is being replaced by Microsoft’s new Office 365 online service).

Find out more here:

http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9202078/Mic...curity

This week, Microsoft verified that attackers can exploit a critical vulnerability in all modern released versions of Internet Explorer in a technique that was demonstrated previously by McAfee researchers. The company is currently working on a patch but does not plan to issue one “out of band,” as there have been no indications of active attacks in the wild using the exploit. You can read more about it here:

http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9202218/Mic...curity

Smart phones and tablets are here to stay, but don’t underestimate the security threat that these devices can pose to your company’s network. In a recent survey od over 6000 users done by Juniper Networks, 81 percent of the respondents admitted that they have used their mobile devices to connect to their work networks without the employer’s permission or knowledge and more than half of them said they do so on a daily basis. That’s downright scary, especially when you consider the fact that the vast majority of smart phone and tablet owners don’t have any type of security software installed on their devices (anti-virus, anti-malware). A fourth of the U.S. respondents said they don’t password protect their devices. Find out more of the survey findings here:

http://www.juniper.net/us/en/company/press-center/...2.html

According to this report, the next batch of vPro-enabled Intel Core processors (the Sandy Bridge processors that are set to come out in 2011) will allow users to disable the processor remotely over 3G, even when the computer is turned off or unplugged from the network. It’s designed as an anti-theft measure, and you can even reverse it over 3G too – but there are definite security implications. Read more here:

http://isc.sans.edu/diary.html?storyid=10111&rss

Adobe’s Flash is notorious for security issues. In an attempt to address this, Google has added a sandbox designed to isolate the Flash player to the beta of its Chrome browser (Windows version only, at the moment). This prevents malware introduced through Flash from easily infecting other processes on the computer. If you’ve already installed the beta, you’ll get this feature through an automatic update. The sandbox was developed in a cooperative effort between Adobe and Google. Find out more here:

http://www.computerworld.com/s/article/9201419/Goo...curity

This week, the Sixth Circuit Court of Appeals rendered a decision that holds some key provisions of the Stored Communications Act to be unconstitutional. So what does that mean to you? If you work for an Internet Service Provider or you’re the customer of an ISP in the U.S. it means quite a bit. The SCA was an amendment to the Electronic Communications Privacy Act that was passed in 1986. It gave law enforcement agencies the power to force ISPs to disclose the contents of email (personal and business), documents, photos, videos and other digital data that they stored on their servers.

Now in U.S. v. Warshak, the court says obtaining such data without a warrant is unconstitutional. Cloud providers and their customers are likely to be breathing a sigh of relief. Read more here:

http://news.cnet.com/8301-31921_3-20025793-281.htm...3-0-20

A while back, I reviewed the NetWrix Change Reporter Suite, which provides some very nice tools for tracking and managing changes to your IT environment. Keeping up with changes is an important part of your overall security strategy. Now the company has released a new auditing and reporting product, NetWrix Infrastructure Change Reporter, that automatically discovers network devices such as routers, switches and firewalls,  and tracks changes to their configuration settings. It uses SNMP and so only supports SNMP enabled devices.

There is a freeware edition that you can try out without making a monetary commitment, as well as a commercial version. You can find out more and download the software here:

http://www.netwrix.com/network_infrastructure_chan...e.html