Cyber attacks leave a 58-lakh hole in Indian cos' pockets
Date of Publishing:16/8/2010
Location:Mumbai
WITH cyber criminals adopting newer ways of attacking consumers and corporates via social networking sites, security solutions need to evolve from just providing antivirus protection, software maker Symantec said on Sunday. According to a study, in 2009 Indian enterprises lost 58 lakh due to cyber attacks. This is set to increase further if companies do not take appropriate measures to protect themselves from various threats that lead to not just financial setbacks but also loss of crucial data.
Cyber criminals are using various means such as social networking and posting malicious links in instant messengers (IMs) along with spam mails. With the increasing popularity of social networking sites, Symantec expects frauds against site users to grow as well.
"Social engineering is already one of the primary attack vectors being used today and Symantec estimates that the number of attempted attacks using social engineering techniques is sure to increase in 2010. Thirdparty applications were made a target of fraud on various social networking sites and the trend is expected to continue," said Symantec vice-president (India Product Operations) Shantanu Ghosh.
In its mid-year report card, Symantec said more attackers are going directly after the end-user and attempting to trick them into downloading malware or divulging sensitive information under the pretence that they are doing something perfectly innocent.
As further validation that this trend is indeed developing, Facebook recently updated its application authorisation system in an effort to reduce the number of spams and misleading applications being propagated via their network, he added.
Now a user is informed when an application attempts to access his or her basic information or tries to post on their Facebook Wall. This becomes more serious as many enterprises allow their employees to access social networking sites such as Facebook from the work premises. According to an early study by Symantec, 82% of Indian enterprises surveyed allow employees to use Facebook at work.
"With the rise of polymorphic threats and unique malware variants in 2009, the industry is quickly realising that traditional approaches to antivirus solutions are not enough to protect against today’s threats. Instead, approaches to security that look to ways to include all software files will become key in 2010," Symantec said. Another trend that is catching up is spam. Since 2007, spam mails have increased on an average by 15%. Spam volumes will continue to fluctuate in 2010 as spammers continue to adapt to the sophistication of security software.
Pakistani hackers attack Vijay Mallya’s website MUMBAI: Industrialist Vijay Mallya's personal website has been hacked allegedly by Pakistani hackers with 'dire" threats that India's cyber space was not secured being posted on it. Mr Mallya’s spokesperson Prakash Mirpuri said that a complaint in this regard would be lodged with the city police on Monday. A PakistanI flag was also depicted on the website of Mr Mallya. "Mallya's website www.mallyainparliament.com has been hacked and the Pakistani flag has been placed with a dire message from an organisation known as the Pakistan Cyber Army," the spokesperson said. Mr Mallya said he was shocked at the defacement of his website. "This morning when I went into my site, I was utterly shocked to see the Pakistani flag and the message," he said, adding "what was more shocking to me was to see that it was done by some Pakistani outfit." — PTI
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