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Windows 8: Malware-free?

We always loved Microsoft’s operating systems as most of them are adopted very well in the whole world and security has been improving since years. The new incarnation of Windows 8 is somewhat different to the former ones as the interface underwent some notably big changes.

Windows 8 offers the same interface on many devices: Xbox, via desktop to tablet PCs and smart phones. Microsoft tries to make a user experience that is almost universal. Nevertheless, it appears that the app functionalities under Windows RT (the one for ARM tablets) and the program of the desktop version are not always the same.

You might think that having a very similar interface on the different devices enables you to do the same things on different hardware, but that doesn’t seem to be true in all the cases. Sometimes, the decision to change the user experience and the usability is a matter of security, and that is to be welcomed, but all in all, it creates confusion for the user.
A good example is Skype, from Microsoft. You can use it on any Windows device, but it is impossible to send over files under Windows RT – most possibly because of the security restrictions, due to the sandboxing approach. That is an ambiguous feature, from a user’s point of view. And that’s not the only critical view we have.

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Dec 12, 2012 | Categories: Blog | Tags: , , , , | Comments Off on Windows 8: Malware-free?

The AVAR conference 2012 in Hangzhou, China

IT security specialists discuss and shape their industry’s future

This week, the AVAR Conference is taking place in Hangzhou, China. G Data is attending the conference to participate in many of the organized events. Several pre-meetings, like the AVPD (Anti-Virus Product Developer) and the WildList meeting, already took place. All discussions and efforts will finally result in improvements for future products, for security tests and overall better security for the users.)

 

This year’s AVAR Conference is covering a lot of trending topics ranging from mobile malware to botnets. Seji Murakami, Chairman of AVAR, traditionally opened the conference with a warm welcome speech. This year, the keynote speeches were focused on Android security product testing (AV-Test), preventive actions concerning malware in China (CERT China) and malware trends (Microsoft).

IT security specialists now gathered for the 15th edition of the conference and it always tried to highlight the specific problems related to Asian malware. One of the main topics over here is “working all together against cybercrime” which is, unfortunately, not always an easy thing to do.

If you are interested in the agenda and information about the other topics discussed, you can find a lot of information on the AVAR Conference 2012 website. Furthermore, more info about the next conference’s venue and future topics will also follow on the official AVAR homepage.

This article can be found also on the G Data Blog.

Dec 10, 2012 | Categories: Blog | Tags: , , , | Comments Off on The AVAR conference 2012 in Hangzhou, China

The lack of basic security and good consultancy in a world dominated by an economical crisis

Why basic antivirus is not failing.

 A lot has been written and said about antivirus products seemingly failing these days to protect users against advanced persistent threats or specific targeted attacks. The anti-virus industry seems not to be able to detect threats like Stuxnet, Duqu, Flame or even recently Dorifel in time. Media and press called some of those attacks acts of cyberwarfare. Richard A. Clarke, an internationally-recognized expert on security, defines cyberwarfare as “actions by a nation-state to penetrate another nation’s computers or networks for the purposes of causing damage or disruption.” But there are loads of other definitions. However, it is clear that cyberwarfare consists of many different threats ranging from sabotage to espionage and national security breaches to attacks related to the critical infrastructure of a region or country. The malware used is most likely developed at least by an organization with a lot of money and is related to the first signs of what could be called cyberwarfare.

So, several companies and the general public were claiming that we all were too late in stopping these threats. Looking at the case of Flame the AV industry found out that we already had some samples of it when the news became public, but we were not aware of it. The samples have never been verified as being malicious before. Also Stuxnet went undetected for over a year after it was found.

So, the question might be the following: Is the anti-virus industry ready for the next battle? Can we all, with our tight consumer antivirus industry related budgets, be up against targeted malware or APT’s created by organizations with a lot of money?

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Oct 04, 2012 | Categories: Blog | Tags: , , , , , | Comments Off on The lack of basic security and good consultancy in a world dominated by an economical crisis

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