The UltraTech Zone

I’ve said it for a few years now, but host-based antivirus is really not working out anymore.  Not with its reliance on signatures to detect malware. Recently, several prominent antivirus vendors have experienced problems with faulty virus definitions:  Faulty McAfee update burns IT execs BitDefender update breaks 64-bit Windows ...

I’ve said it for a few years now, but host-based antivirus is really not working out anymore.  Not with its reliance on signatures to detect malware. Recently, several prominent antivirus vendors have experienced problems with faulty virus definitions: ...(read more)

It has been a busy month or so for information security.  Apple has patched a vulnerability that was showcased in a recent hacking contest, Microsoft has released a major set of fixes in its most recently Patch Tuesday, and and Oracle (which now owns Sun) has not yet committed to patching a Java vulnerability on Windows that has been ...

Yes, you heard me correctly… We still think about personal and corporate security only as an afterthought. Despite all the regulatory and industry compliance that has been created and updated in the past 15 years, as we close out this decade, we are hardly any closer to proactively applying security guidelines in our personal or professional ...

Yes, you heard me correctly… We still think about personal and corporate security only as an afterthought. Despite all the regulatory and industry compliance that has been created and updated in the past 15 years, as we close out this decade, we are hardly...(read more)

There are several major challenges to the successful implementation of good information security in many organizations today.  It is not because business owners do not think that security is important.  No, the issues exist because they do not grasp the complexities that embody the Information Security profession, and thus make decisions ...

There are several major challenges to the successful implementation of good information security in many organizations today.  It is not because business owners do not think that security is important.  No, the issues exist because they do not...(read more)

The Conficker worm continues to make headlines, not only because it has been so elusive over the past 5 or so months, but because it is configured to do something special on April 1, 2009.  For a disturbingly large number of individuals and organizations, it could prove to be a not-so-happy day. You can read up on the anticipated April 1 ...

The Conficker worm continues to make headlines , not only because it has been so elusive over the past 5 or so months, but because it is configured to do something special on April 1, 2009.  For a disturbingly large number of individuals and organizations,...(read more)

Quite frankly, it’s even more important than it has been in the past.   This morning, I was reading some articles on information security, including news about the Conficker worm.  You know, we haven’t had a really good worm in 3 or 4 years, so it seems that people have forgotten about how dangerous those things can be, and how ...

Quite frankly, it’s even more important than it has been in the past.   This morning, I was reading some articles on information security, including news about the Conficker worm .  You know, we haven’t had a really good worm in 3 or 4...(read more)

On a number of fronts, April 2007 is turning out to be a very interesting month for me.  For this particular post, we'll just touch on Information Security again. A recent report from MessageLabs indicates very clearly that targeted security attacks are on the rise, and that email is still a common threat vector.  This morning, I ...

It's pretty much official now (in case you didn't believe it before):  We have exited the Worm era, and jumped head first into the era of specialized and targeted attacks... According to a recent article by ComputerWorld, SANS security organization sees upsurge in zero-day Web-based attacks. The following excerpt from the ...

According to some reports, spyware is getting harder and harder to control.  The sophistication of the malware makers is growing at a much faster pace than that of the security industry, even to the point of proof-of-concept adware code being developed for MacOS X. And with all this new malware comes a tremendous increase in SPAM over ...

The Microsoft AntiMalware team has recently published a paper discussing some of the data collected by their monthly AntiMalware tool. A summary of the article is available on the SANS website, and the full article is available from Microsoft at the following link: Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool: Progress Made, Trends ...