Latest Firewall News

3 ICT events announced in Nice city, NFC, e-ID & digital security
posted on 20/12/2011

Three co-located tech events, NFC World Congress, World e-ID Congress and Chip-to-Cloud Security Forum, will attract 2500 international participants around the contactless applications, the electronic identity projects and the security issues of the "networked society". This "smart week" will be taking place in the Acropolis Convention Center of Nice from September 17 to 21, 2012. A large tech gathering is announced in Nice, the "digital city" at the heart of the French Riviera. NFC World Congress, World e-ID Congress and Chip-to-Cloud Security Forum will take place the same week and in the same venue, from September 17 to 21, 2012, in the Acropolis Convention Center of Nice. These 3 complementary global events are expected to attract 1500 professional delegates from 75 countries. In collaboration with the World Bank, several emerging countries' delegations will attend, such as Kenya, Morocco, Nigeria, Philippines, Rwanda, Tanzania, Vietnam.... 2500 visitors are expected at the joint ex... [more]

Free information security awareness videos launched in 23 European languages by the ENISA
posted on 21/11/2011

The European Network and Information Security Agency, ENISA has launched a series of free videos in all 23 official EU languages. Designed to help raise awareness of information security risks and encourage secure handling of electronic data, the 13 video clips range from how to use strong passwords and protect sensitive data to locking down and securing your computer. They can now be downloaded from the Agency website and are suitable for use in information security training programmes and other awareness initiatives. The launch is part of ENISA’s on-going commitment to raise information security awareness. It is also in line with the aims and objectives of the joint EU‑US Working Group on Cybersecurity and Cybercrime, which has the objective to ensure a reliable, resilient and trustworthy digital infrastructure through collaboration. In October, the US Department of Homeland Security promoted the ENISA videos during one of the four thematic weeks of its eighth annual National Cyb... [more]

Symantec global survey shows that SMBs are attractive to hackers
posted on 18/11/2011

Hackers are attracted to SMBs : Symantec global survey of nearly 2,000 SMBs revealed that 50 percent did not consider themselves an attack target. However, looking at today’s threat landscape, this is clearly a misconception. If a site is online, regardless of its popularity, it will be targeted, says Imperva. Below is an analysis by Rob Rachwald, Director of Security Strategy at Imperva, on why an SMB is likely to be a target: Why are SMBs attractive to hackers? Hackers are going after low hanging fruits. These are the companies who are less security aware and do not have the proper defenses in place. According to the 2011 Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report, hackers are increasingly targeting smaller, softer, less reactive targets since these provide a lower-risk alternative to financial institutions. Why would someone want to hack an SMB site (an application or server)? For a variety of reasons: • Data retrieval. Nearly all data may considered of value to any hacker who... [more]

Cloud ports and firewalls are perceived vulnerable by majority of IT personnel
posted on 10/11/2011

A new study “Cloud Security: Managing Firewall Risks” conducted by the Ponemon Institute and sponsored by Dome9 Security, has been conducted to determine the challenges organizations face when managing access and securing firewalls and ports in cloud environments. The cloud security study found that 67 percent of IT security respondents report that their organization is very vulnerable or vulnerable because cloud ports and firewalls are not adequately secured. Furthermore, 54 percent of respondents said their organizations’ IT personnel are not knowledgeable or have no knowledge about the potential risk of open firewall ports in their cloud environments. Additional key findings of the study include: · 52 percent of respondents rate their organizations’ overall management of cloud server security as fair (27 percent) and poor (25 percent); 21 percent responded “no comment”. · 42 percent of respondents fear they would not know if their organizations’ applications o... [more]

Morto worm still a major threat to networks
posted on 07/10/2011

The Morto worm, which spreads via the Windows Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) has the power to consume excessive network bandwidth and carry out denial of service attacks. Organisations should take action now if they are not to face serious security breaches in the future. Although the worm does not seem to have caused widespread damage, it is still rated as a ‘severe’ threat by Microsoft, and organisations should take action to protect themselves. The Morto worm also shuts down security applications running locally, which will leave the network even more vulnerable to other kinds of attack. Consequently, NetFort recommends three main steps to prevent Morto from causing harm: 1. Every account should have a password, ideally with a minimum length of 16 characters including enforced complexity rules 2. If you have to enable RDP access to a system on your network, ensure that the firewall rule enabling this access is specific to an IP address or at worst a particular subnet. Firewall ... [more]

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