“The best way to defeat potential botnets like Conficker/Downadup is by the security and domain name system communities working together,” said Greg Rattray, ICANN chief Internet security adviser, in a statement released Thursday. “ICANN represents a community that’s all about coordinating those kinds of efforts to keep the Internet globally secure and stable.”

Conficker, also known as the Downadup worm, takes advantage of a critical bug in Microsoft’s Windows operating system, which was patched last October. Since late December the worm has emerged as one of the worst computer threats in years, infecting more than 10 million computer systems worldwide, including PCs within the British and French militaries.

If Conficker’s author lives in a part of the world that’s known to be soft on cybercrime — Russia, the Ukraine or Romania, for example — it may be hard to get a conviction, said the editor of the Hostexploit.com cybercrime research site, who goes by the pseudonym Jart Armin.

What is the Conficker Work?
Microsoft released an update in October to resolve a critical security hole in the Windows “Server” service. Since people aren’t as diligent about patching as they should be, hackers created a new worm that spread like wildfire, leaving systems completely under their control. Security researchers have determined that the virus is expected to go “live” on April 1st, 2009, causing your computer to do bad things—but since the worm uses a P2P protocol it’s nearly impossible to identify the source.
 

How Does It Spread?
The worm originally started spreading using a network attack against the file sharing services in Windows, but since it can automatically update itself, it adapted to spread through the autoplay feature on removable media like USB thumb drives, by adding a new option to open where you see “publisher not specified”. This allows the worm to spread to systems already patched against the original vulnerability, so using anti-virus software is even more important, because once it’s on your computer it can spread further.

How Do You Stay Safe?
Best way is to make sure you have the right tools. Click Here for recommendations.

Should parents be worried about kids who keep blogs and profiles on social networking sites? If so, what are the legitimate things to think about?

In most cases, kids are perfectly safe maintaining a profile on a social network. Parents shouldn’t worry so much as take the time to talk with kids about how they’re using their profile on these social networks. Ideally, parents should review kids’ profiles for inappropriate information or material.

Does material a child posts to a blog or social network stay on the Internet forever? If so, what can parents do about it?

Anything that’s posted online can be copied, stored, forwarded, saved and in some cases, revealed by search engines even if it has been deleted. There is even a Web site called Archive.org whose “Waybackmachine” stores old Web pages. The bottom line is that once something goes online, it’s out there to be copied and forwarded, and in some cases, it might be impossible to take back.

What are signals parents should watch out for?

Parents should be alert to kids who are very secretive about their Internet use or who tend to be obsessive about late nights online. Also, socially withdrawn kids, without many friends, can tend to be vulnerable if parents find they’re retreating into the Internet, rather than using it as a tool to make outside friends.

I recommend that families hook up the computer in a common area of the house, so that Internet use becomes a public activity.

When should parents consider software-filtering tools to block unsavory Web sites?

Parents with young children may want to consider using filtering tools so that kids don’t run into suggestive material online. But filtering tools could cause kids older than 14 years old to rebel or look for Internet freedoms elsewhere. If you try to repress expression, then you will drive it underground.

What are the upsides to social networks?

Using the Internet and social networks can have an enormous positive impact on self-esteem for kids. The activity can help kids express themselves through creativity, and help them hone social skills or professional skills for the future. Social networks will help foster more lifelong friendships, given that kids from grade and high school can keep in touch more easily via instant chat and other technologies.

A great resource for getting your child involved in online networking is a website called Scallyroo.com . This innovative site is geared for Teens and Tweens and allows parents to monitor their actions on the site, while also providing parents the tools to better communicate with them in an online world.

Many schools and institutions are beginning to adopt the Scallyroo platform as learning tool, both inside and outside of the classroom. This is a great parenting tool, and gives parents the control over their child’s site experience.

Definitely check the site out to learn more about how you can keep your child safe online.

To learn more about Internet Safety and the basics behind Scallyroo, please click here

I came across an interesting Q&A with an FBI agent who played a pivotal role in busting a transnational cybercrime outfit. Agent J. Keith Mularski spent two years infiltrating an underground Internet forum used to facilitate the buying and selling of stolen credit card data for identity fraud, which led to 60 arrests around the world. 

While the article was interesting enough purely in terms of how the investigation took place, I feel that the interview really crystallizes the notion that SMBs need to be more proactive than ever in terms of how they approach IT security. 

A couple of thoughts struck me upon reading the article. 

Exploits and botnets are more sophisticated than ever 

Mularski noted how security attacks are more sophisticated than ever. A case in point: The majority of botnets in the past were coordinated from IRC channels, which is considered to be fairly simple, if not downright primitive. I think any fairly savvy administrator would be able to find and eliminate any such infected machines on the network relatively quickly. 

Unfortunately, the situation has changed dramatically. At the moment, botnets such as the Storm worm are much more sophisticated and operate via peer-to-peer networks. Throw in some protocol obfuscation or data encryption, and it is easy to see why it becomes extraordinarily hard to track down and locate infected terminals, much less identifying and eliminating the command and control servers. 

All about the money 

Remember the Web defacement attacks of yesteryear?  Well, rather than the stereotyped “18-year-old pimply faced kid” in his dorm committing cybercrimes these days, such attacks have passed into the domain of organized crime groups. And instead of petty demonstrations of hacking skills, the primary driving motivation for these crime groups is profit. 

When it comes to stealing the credit card numbers of your customers or making off with a copy of your human resource database, your small and medium-sized business is as fair game as any. In fact, I think it would arguable be easier to infiltrate an SMB than an enterprise with its dedicated security personnel and independent security audits. 

Conclusion 

SMBs need to stop thinking that all security entails is the presence of an antivirus application and corporate firewall. In truth, these are simply tools to reduce the probability of security incidences, and not the solutions per se. 

And rather than relegating the idea of implementing computer security as yet another unnecessary chore, it is time for small and medium businesses to wake up and think hard about this.

The internet is definitely a haven for getting all the information you desire. In fact, it is the best informative tool that you can give your kids. The internet can prove to be functional for all the educational requirements of you kids. Be it a project they want to work on or their homework, the internet can help them with all the things they need in order for them to come up with flying colors. However, it is the duty of the parents to make sure that they are doing enough to ensure the Internet Safety for their Children.

Even though the internet is a good place to learn all kinds of new and different things, it can also be dangerous for your kids in terms of the contents it has. There are a lot of sites on the net which are not suitable for your kid to view. These sites contain pornography or other such material which h can be harmful to your child in terms of inflicting damage to his or her psychology. It is therefore advised to take resort in a proper internet security tool. Such tools make sure that your child is restricted from viewing sites hat may be harmful to him or her.

It is also advised to resort to a free antivirus download in order to make sure that your PC is safe from all the Trojans and other kinds of viruses on loose in the cyberspace. An antivirus is basically a tool that helps in warding off malicious software that tries to harm your PC’s health my damaging it in terms of its functionality and also leaks out personal and private data from your PC into the internet. So if you want to make sure that you are safe from such anomalies of the cyber world, get an antivirus for yourself today.

With so many horror stories of terrible things that could happen to you while you are on the Internet or connected to the Internet, it can be a little scary if you’re not even sure what you’re looking for. While having a vast knowledge of every possible threat or danger you could encounter is nearly impossible, you can stay informed about basic safety practices that should help you avoid putting you or your computer is danger.

There are three basic “safety issues” that could happen from email, web-surfing, and downloads: computer viruses, spyware, and identity theft. Here is a brief description, and basically how to avoid the risk.

 Computer viruses—we will use this as a catch-all phrase for any malicious software that is destructive to your computer. This type of software is usually passed on through emails and networks. They usually get worse the longer they are on the person’s computer and can cause the computer to run slow, lose valuable system and personal files, or crash completely. Here’s what you should do to avoid viruses:
* Have a good antivirus protection program running on your computer at all times.
* The antivirus program should be scheduled to regularly scheduled to scan your computer for viruses.
* Don’t open or run files from the Internet that you do not recognize or did not initiate.
* Delete emails from people you don’t know and NEVER open an attachment you don’t recognize. Even with people you know, it might be a good idea to call or email them about the attachment to be sure they sent it.
* Make sure your antivirus or your email account (or both) have an email scanner for both incoming and outgoing emails.

Spyware—for the sake of this discussion, spyware is anything that can’t be caught be an antivirus program, including adware and other “disguised” malware. Spyware is software (or attached to software) that appears to be some helpful or necessary download, but instead collects information about you or your computer that could invade your privacy, takes over your Internet navigation or reassignes your homepage, be an annoyance, and use up your computer resources. Here’s what you should do:
* Download a spyware detector (make sure it’s legit and isn’t itself spyware) to remove existing spyware if you are suspicious of possible spyware activity.
*Don’t download any program unless you have seen several reviews from reputable websites.
* Have a good firewall enabled and downloaded on your computer.

Identity theft-this is a situation where your credit card or social security information, or any other identification information is stolen from you. This can happen easily over the Internet because it only takes seconds to transmit your personal information across the world. Here is how to avoid identity theft:
*Never submit identity information and passwords on a public computer or over a public internet connection.
*Don’t give out your personal information to a website with which you are unfamiliar, or if you must,
*Research new websites before giving out private information. Read the Terms of Service or Privacy Policy of the websites you don’t know. Sometimes your browser, antivirus, or other reputable websites can also attest to the veracity of websites.
*Never give personal identity information over email, chat, or instant messaging to a person you don’t know, regardless of how legitimate they sound.

Find out more about Internet safety on the web! Many reputable websites have published many helpful Internet safety articles and tips.