Towerwall's InfoSec Blog

Beware any emails which claim to come from privacy@microsoft.com - it could be that you're being targeted in an attack designed to steal your AOL, Gmail, Yahoo or Windows Live password. At first glance, if you don't look too carefully, the emails entitled "Microsoft Windows Update" may appear harmless enough. But the grammatical errors and occasional odd language should raise alarms bells that the emails may not really be from Microsoft. Dear Windows User, It has come to our attention thatfalse

As the BYOD trend gains momentum, not all employees are comfortable having their personal phones locked down and controlled as tightly as a corporate-issued device. To get around this issue some organizations are turning to separation techniques to securely manage corporate email, apps, and docs on employee devices while keeping personal data out of sight and out of mind.

It’s becoming more and more common for workers to store work-related documents on their smartphones, tablet computers and other devices they bring to and from work each day. While this can be convenient -- employees can access important documents at home or on the road --it also creates greater security risks for businesses.

Microsoft has published evidence of an extraordinary conspiracy in which potent botnet malware was apparently installed and hidden on PCs during their manufacture in China. This is a big deal, the team at Towerwall has been aware that this level of threat and exploitation existed, but none the less surprised. Read the rest of the article: Microsoft discovers Chinese malware pre-installed on new PCs

In recent years, the work place has become more mobile than ever, and the mobile worker revolution is, in large part, the reason for the rise in Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) policies. The big idea is that through the use of cloud computing-based collaboration platforms, enterprise-class companies can save a great deal of money in IT, security and overall operational costs. While this would seem like a no-brainer, more companies are learning that the opposite is true. Both executives andfalse

To cap off a summer of devastating corporate data breaches, hackers yesterday posted online what might be the crown jewel of 2012 data dumps: 1 million identification numbers for Apple iPhones, iPads and iPod Touch's, all purportedly stolen from the FBI. There may also be an additional 11 million Apple device IDs yet to be released, many with users' full names, addresses and telephone numbers attached.

Security firm Symantec released malware signature updates for it antivirus software that caused some Windows XP machines to crash into a Blue Screen Of Death — BSOD. The update was sent out to users of Symantec’s security products over about an eight hour period between July 11th and 12th. “The root cause of the issue,” writes Symantec’s Orla Cox, “was an incompatibility due to a three way interaction between some third party software that implements a file system driver using kernel stackfalse

For those on our Security Alert and Update list we just emailed this great article by Graham Cluley on the worst possible passwords you could ever choose. Many of you know this is something we preach to our clients on a regular basis and is part of our comprehensive 4E Program. Too many internet users are making poor decisions when choosing their passwords. We've spoken time and time again about the importance of choosing hard-to-crack, unguessable, unique passwords that (provided the websitefalse

TrendMicro has uncovered certain Android apps (detected as ANDROIDOS_BOTPANDA.A) containing a malicious library file, which when executed, renders the infected device as a zombie device that connects to specific command and control (C&C) servers. What is also noteworthy about this file is that it hides its routines in the dynamic library, making it difficult to analyze. The malicious library libvadgo contained in ANDROIDOS_BOTPANDA.A was developed via NDK and loaded using Java Native Interface.false

There was a recent article in the Wall Street Journal in which the top cyber cop Shawn Henry, spoke how we are loosing the battle with the hackers. At times the hackers can keep up us all night worrying about our networks, employee actions whether intentional or not, we need to remain vigilant and on the offensive to prevent attacks. Government regulations are not going to control hackers in fact they probably will make companies less secure. Vigilance on the part of organizations will helpfalse