Another month goes by, and apart from
a multitude of reported hacks, the big names in the business have been beefing
up their security, to protect users and their data
Google’s War
Google has announced that its “war against
account hijackers” campaign has helped reduce account hacking by 99.7 percent
since the launch of the initiative. Scams, illegal, fraudulent or spam messages
often come from a person’s own contacts. Though only 1 percent of that spam
shows up in the inbox, spammers have off late taken to hijacking accounts.
Moreover, spammers have now become “account thieves” sneaking into databases to
steal usernames, passwords and online elements of the accounts.
Google explains how its security tools help
users protect their accounts. Every time a user signs into Google via the web
or another platform that checks for new mail every five minutes, Google’s
system conducts a complex risk analysis to determine how likely it is that the
sign-in has come from its valid users. Google uses more than 120 variables to
arrive at a decision.
I
can have access to your account!
Twitter’s ant phishing practices
Twitter announced that it is using a new
technology called Domain-based Message Authentication, Reporting and
Conformance (DMARC) in order to ward off email phishing from its social network
service. According to Twitter, DMARC technology will make it “extremely
unlikely” for anyone to send email pretending to be from a Twitter.com address.
Twitter’s ‘postmaster’ Josh Aberant
revealed that even though the DMARC protocol is young, it’s already being used
by the four major email service providers – AOL, Gmail, Outlook and Yahoo!
Mail. He added, “We hope to see it gain more coverage for our users as even
more email providers adopt it, and that it gives you more peace of mind when
you get an email from us”.
Cyberbullying rises
Cyberbullying has emerged as one of the
most discussed issues related to internet safety, especially since its victims
are mostly minors and teenagers. A study was carried out for knowthenet.org.uk
(a free web safety site) covering more than 2,000 teenagers. The study revealed
that about 85 percent of 19-year-old men were at the receiving end of some form
of online bullying. Of all the teenagers who confirmed being bullied, about 37
percent said that it happened on social networks.
High-level
cyber warfare is growing
About 87 percent said that they were
bullied on Facebook, while 19 percent on Twitter and 13 percent on BlackBerry
Messenger. Only 17 percent said their first reaction after being bullied would
be to inform their parents, while 1 percent said they would inform their
teachers.
According to Media Psychologist Arthur
Cassidy, cyberbullying may have a huge impact on older male teenagers: He said,
“Many boys feel under pressure to demonstrate their bravado, particularly on
the web, but this attitude and male deficiency in coping strategies can make
them more vulnerable and open to trolling”.
India overthrown as King of Spammers
India is now at the third position in the
list of the top spam relaying countries. The first two spots have been taken by
the U.S. and China. Interestingly, India led the list in the latter half of
2012. China has leapfrogged to the second place after a spell in the lower half
of the list.
According
to SophosLabs’ Dirty Dozen report of top spam re-layers, the U.S. is
responsible for spewing 18.3 percent global spam, while China relays 8.2
percent
According to SophosLabs’ Dirty Dozen report
of top spam re-layers, the U.S. is responsible for spewing 18.3 percent global
spam, while China relays 8.2 percent. India now has only 4.2 percent of the
global share, marginally ahead of Peru which relays 4.0 percent. The fifth spot
is shared between France, South Korea and Italy.
Breaking down the spam relay from a
continental viewpoint, Asia remains the top source for global spam. However,
SophosLabs notes a significant redistribution – note the shift from India to
the U.S. with a 12% swing from Asia to North America.
Govt. orders probe into DRDO hack
reports
Defense Minister AK Antony has ordered a
probe into reports that Chinese hackers had broken into the computers of
highly-sensitive Defense Research and Development Organization (DRDO) and gained
access to critical information.
While talking to the media, AK Antony said,
“Intelligence agencies are investigating the matter at this stage and I do not
want to say anything else”.
According to an Economic Times report, the
Union Minister had directed Defense Secretary Shashikant Sharma to conduct an
investigation and submit a report. DRDO, in the meanwhile, has rejected reports
that its computers were hacked. “As per available information, no incidence of
breach of security of DRDO’s computers has come to notice. Appropriate measures
are in place for safety and security of computer systems”, said DRDO
spokesperson Ravi Gupta.
