POSTS TAGGED: cybersecurity
Sean Leach | Feb 28, 2013
As businesses continue to move critical operations online, distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks are increasing in frequency, sophistication and range of targets. In a 2011 Verisign study, 63% of respondents reported experiencing at least one attack that year, while 51% reported revenue loss as a result of downtime from the attack. Those numbers are undoubtedly higher today as the size, frequency and complexity of DDoS attacks continue to grow. Mitigation against these types of attacks is challenging and generally requires layered solutions across data centers and the cloud management. The success of these attacks and their ability to damage a company’s infrastructure, revenue and reputation is indicative that many IT managers still haven’t found the right protection formula to proactively mitigate them.
A DDoS attack occurs when a “botnet” (a group of compromised computers) is used to send an overwhelming amount of "bad traffic" to an intended target, such as a company’s website. Computers can become “bots” when they're infected with a virus or other malware through a compromised website or malicious email. This usually happens completely behind the scenes with the user having no idea their PC is part of a botnet. The botnet is directed by a botnet command and control that tells all of the bots who/what/when/where and how to attack. The target of the attack usually spends so much time trying to handle the bad traffic that legitimate visitors, or customers, are crowded out and unable to get to the site.
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Danny McPherson | Dec 07, 2012
The capabilities IPv6 provides will enhance online security, but the shift to the new Internet address scheme may also present risks if not properly managed. Previously, Internet security was largely an after-thought for the early Internet, as its primary purpose was to facilitate open, end-to-end, any-to-any communications and information exchange for bridging and accelerating research efforts. Today, we have a much more complex online ecosystem that spans billions of users across the globe and serves not only as an engine for e-commerce, but as an engine for all commerce.
The Internet protocol suite has become the de facto standard for global Internet services and consumers, but it also serves as a near ubiquitous substrate for running critical network infrastructure and business critical applications. Transportation, financial systems, emergency services, utilities, and government applications are just a few examples of services that need absolute availability and robust security. But having robust security is only one part of the solution.
At the micro level, the migration of personally identifiable information and proprietary intellectual property online has influenced IPv6 protocol architects to bake additional security into the stack. For example, IPSec is mandatory to implement in IPv6 compliant protocol stacks, while secure neighbour discovery capabilities, privacy addresses, and unique local addresses (ULA) all provide additional security enhancements.
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Blog Moderator | Nov 19, 2012
The holiday shopping season is now in full swing and if you are one of the 52% of holiday gift-givers that the National Retail Federation says will be shopping online, we found some good tips from the Mtn. Grove News-Journal that you should consider to help ensure your online shopping stays as safe as possible. Below are our five favorites from the list, but you can read all eight of their tips here:
- Update your software – Before you start shopping, make sure your virus protection, anti-malware and firewall software are all up to date, active, and set to update automatically. Check your browser to ensure it’s the most up-to-date version and if there are any security patches you should download.
- Be a wary buyer – If an online deal looks too good to be true, it usually is. It’s unlikely you’re really going to get a brand new iPad for just $10, so treat inflated offers with a healthy dose of skepticism. Scammers will often offer these “deals” as a way to entice you to provide personal and financial information that they can then use to steal your identity or your money, or to click on links that enable them to install malware on your device.
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Blog Moderator | Oct 16, 2012
Keeping the Internet available and secure is at the heart of what Verisign does. As part of our participation in National Cyber Security Awareness Month, we developed an infographic that highlights and explains some of the growing cyber threat trends prevalent in the Internet security landscape today. Follow through below the jump to take a look.
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Sean Leach | Oct 06, 2012
As a website owner, the last thing you want is for your site to be used to compromise your visitors' computers and mobile devices, but unfortunately, it happens all the time.
There are more than 3,500 new pieces of malware that infect more than 30,000 websites every day. Enterprises spend thousands of dollars per year on cybersecurity and web monitoring solutions to help make sure that their web sites are up and fast, but often have no monitoring in place for Web malware. The reality is that serving Web malware is far worse for your brand reputation than your site being down because it actually causes harm to your most beloved asset - your customer base.
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