Managed Portable Security
Ever lost your USB? If you haven’t yet, trust me, that terrible day is coming when you will forget that tiny storage device somewhere. The only thing worse than losing a USB, is discovering that someone has accessed the information on your memory stick and is posting it on the Internet or sharing it with your competitors.
Free USB devices are ubiquitous these days, but they really aren’t acceptable for storage of sensitive documents, images or presentations. MXI Security (www.mxisecurity.com) has introduced a new 8GB Stealth MXP and Stealth MXP Passport, which makes it possible to carry an entire Operating System and work environment as a portable desktop on a small-size portable security device.
Stealth MXP is suited for organizations/users that require strong 2-factor or 3-factor authentication (biometric, password or both). It can satisfy the need for secure portable storage and digital identities. The Stealth MXP Passport is more suited for organizations/users that prefer a password based secure encrypted USB Flash Drive with digital identities.
Many people have purchased what they think are “secure” USB storage devices, but it turns out that these aren’t secure at all. For information on the inadequacies of these devices see: http://www.heise-online.co.uk/security/Secure-USB-sticks-cracked--/featu....
Google and Security
To help families make sure that kids get the most out of the Internet and use it in a safe, smart way, Common Sense Media and Google have teamed up to produce a short video that gives parents easy-to-implement suggestions for making web surfing safer. The video, “A Common Sense Approach to Internet Safety,” is featured in Google’s new “Tips for Online Safety Web page,” which launched recently at www.google.com/intl/en/landing/familysafety/.
While it’s great that Google is working on Internet safety, the company clearly has a problem in defending its brand from online scammers targeting the region. Middle Eastern e-mail inboxes have been deluged with mails demanding that individuals and businesses update their Google AdWords billing information. In a statement to Arab News, Google wrote:
“A number of AdWords advertisers have received a fake ‘spoofing’ or ‘phishing’ e-mail, asking them to update their billing information. These e-mails are altered to appear to be sent out by Google AdWords but in fact they are not. The e-mail is intended to lead you to a deceptive site to gather sensitive information about your AdWords account. Google, like many other reputable billing authorities would never send an e-mail to customers asking for billing information. We have alerted affected customers to the phishing attempt and are working to eradicate it. Any AdWords customer who has received this e-mail should erase it without clicking any of the links it contains. If an advertiser has followed any of the links in the e-mail and entered any information on the spoofing site, then they should contact their AdWords support team immediately.”
As mentioned, Google claims to be working to eradicate the problem, but the number of these fraudulent AdWords e-mails continues to grow exponentially daily. Do not get curious and click on any of the links in these mails! If such an e-mail makes it through your mail filter — just press delete.
Advanced Lie Detector
If you watch a lot of TV legal dramas you’d know that the results of polygraph’s or lie detector tests aren’t admissible in a court of law. Now a company has introduced a new technology which it is offering to the public as an improved form of “truth verification.” If a company is trying to discover if an employee has broken into an online system or sold proprietary information, or a spouse wants to know if her husband is cheating, Cephos has made available a functional MRI-based lie detection/truth verification service. This requires the individual being examined to put his head inside an MRI scanner and answer some yes/no questions.
According to Cephos, the use of functional MRI technology (fMRI) for lie detection has been widely acknowledged both in the field of science and by the general media. To date, 19 published peer reviewed articles on the topic have appeared in numerous scientific journals and over 10,000 articles using fMRI have appeared in other journals.
Unlike the more widely used polygraph test, MRI lie detection doesn’t measure stress-based responses, nor are the results susceptible to human subjectivity. Simply stated, the brain works harder to tell a lie than to tell the truth. FMRI scanning with Cephos’ proprietary software documents the increased stimulation in the brain regions when a lie is being told. While a person can control their stress responses while lying in a polygraph test, it is unlikely a person can trigger their brain to “work” when telling the truth.
Sounds like science fiction, but it’s not. Check it out at www.cephoscorp.com.
Trend in Home Security
GE Security’s new SmartCommand advanced residential home automation control center has won the Security Industry Association’s New Product Showcase Home Technologies award at ISC West in Las Vegas. SmartCommand can seamlessly integrate existing and future home systems including audio entertainment, HVAC, lighting, security and more, into an easy-to-use, wall mounted color touchscreen control panel.
The Security Industry Association’s (SIA) New Product Showcase (NPS) awards program is an industry-recognized barometer of security trends. Showcase award winners are recognized as products and technologies with the potential to change the security industry. GE Security’s SmartCommand was one of more than 100 products competing for top honors at the annual awards program.
