Millions of people will be using e-mail and the Internet to keep up to date with the World Cup football action. But experts fear that material sent via e-mail could be used to spread viruses and worms. E-mails about celebrities such as Anna Kournikova and Britney Spears have already been used to spread viruses. Computer experts warn that David Beckham or Michael Owen could be next. Network security vendors are advising users to update anti-virus software on a weekly basis and to delete suspicious e-mails without opening them.
“Amid the enthusiasm for the competition, it is important that users maintain a solid defense,” warned Samir Kirouani, senior engineer, Trend Micro Middle East. “There is the likelihood for increased activity in electronic identity and systems compromise surrounding the World Cup 2006. Many leading brands are running promotions on the World Cup in the region that involve prizes and lucky draws — it stands to reason that someone may try to ‘piggy back’ these brands for personal gain.”
In particular, especially around the quarter, semi and final games, e-mail and Internet users should not reply to ‘unlikely’ approaches concerning the World Cup or opportunities that look too good to be true.
“Your personal data has a value to you and, subsequently, now has a value to less scrupulous individuals who are targeting innocent internet and e-mail users on a daily basis. We have all seen a recent increase in data compromise activities in the region, be it ATM fraud or Phishing attacks,” commented Kirouani. “The World Cup presents a strong occasion for opportunist compromises; beware of any offers of imagery, links to sites promising ‘unique access’ to information, e-mails from people you don’t know and so on. Beware of SMS messages offering unrealistic winnings provided you reply to the message: Chances are the costs will be huge and the prizes may not even be real.”
McAfee Acquires Preventsys
Intrusion Prevention and Security Risk Management firm McAfee, Inc. has acquired Preventsys, Inc., a leading authority in security risk management and automated security compliance reporting. The addition of Preventsys’ award-winning security risk management and compliance solution to McAfee’s proactive enterprise security technology will further advance McAfee in its ability to help companies reduce the complexity of managing their security.
Preventsys has pioneered an advanced Security Risk Management System for large companies that need to proactively protect confidential customer and company information, ensure high availability of critical IT assets and easily communicate security compliance to executive management. Preventsys currently provides the only solution that consolidates vulnerability, configuration and threat data from multi-vendor tools into an enterprise dashboard and automates the security compliance reporting process.
“McAfee’s acquisition of Preventsys fulfills a key component of our risk management and compliance strategy, which is based on helping our customers leverage their existing security technologies,” said Patrick Hayati, regional director, Middle East, McAfee. “With Preventsys technology, we can help our customers satisfy regulatory requirements for automated compliance reporting, while leveraging existing McAfee technologies such as McAfee ePolicy Orchestrator and Foundstone.”
In its report, Worldwide Security and Vulnerability Management Software 2005-2009 Forecast and Analysis: Taking Control of the Security Environment, industry analyst firm IDC says: “Budgetary and staffing constraints will continue to drive organizations to look for better ways to cost-effectively manage their security infrastructure. Security and vulnerability management software solutions can simplify the complexity associated with managing multiple security solutions while at the same time increasing the effectiveness of protection.”
“We see an opportunity to bring automated security compliance reporting to McAfee’s enterprise customers,” said Patrick Harr, CEO, Preventsys. “It is the only solution that can consolidate multi-vendor assessment information and be easily integrated into a user’s new or existing security tools without ever having to change the security process or reports. This will decrease the time and costs associated with manual auditing and compliance reporting.”
While McAfee is working to grow its security offerings the company is also moving to expand its regional reach. Hayati announced the Emile Abou Saleh has been appointed as territory manager for Pakistan, Lebanon, Jordan, Oman and Bahrain.
ComGuard Teams Up With Kaspersky Lab
ComGuard has teamed up with Kaspersky Lab, a leading developer of secure content management solutions. The agreement will see ComGuard acting together with its business partners on a regional level as a value-added distributor for the antivirus solution from Kaspersky Lab.
The successful detection and interception of malware depends on timely research. Kaspersky Lab has one of the largest collections of virus signatures in the world with over 184,000 samples and counting. Kaspersky Lab’s antivirus databases are updated hourly, round the clock. During outbreaks, urgent updates will be issued in as little as 30 minutes after the newest threat appears. If a customer forwards a suspicious object or an object infected by a previously unknown virus to Kaspersky Lab, the company releases either an exclusive treatment module or confirmation that the object is harmless within 24 hours.
Kaspersky Lab’s products enjoy popularity across all industries. Many large international government and commercial organizations such as La Poste (France), Airbus Industries (EU), Central Bank of Russia, Foreign Ministry of Italy, BBC Worldwide (UK), Telecom Italia, France Telecom, Lukoil and Gazprom are using solutions provided by Kaspersky Lab.
