Provided by CommunityDNS, the information in this post consists of news items in the security-based Internet community.

New Botnet May Have Infected Half of Fortune 100

A Canadian security research firm has determined half of the Fortune 100 companies are hosting bots the help form the Mariposa botnet. The bots are infected via MSN, P2P networks and USB drives. The botnet is designed so bots within a single country may be activated or activation of the entire botnet.

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Computer hacks jump in ’09: study

Attacks of Canadian companies jumped to 11.3 attacks per organization, according to a poll of 600 Canadian IT professionals. The average cost per organization doubled to $834,000 per organization over last year. Government organizations spent approximately $1 million up from $321,000, in their battle against hackers. The cost to private firms increased to more than $800,000, up from $294,000 in the previous 12 months. Public companies, by comparison, only experienced a 6% cost increase. 36% of the 600 polled said were tied to internal security breaches.

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Examining the Relationship Between GDP and Broadband Growth

A recent study shows the comparison between broadband growth and the GDP. The data in the following story illustrates that as the current economic situation began to dive, broadband connectivity actually increased. Users, through their broadband connections, were able to take advantage of cost savings for consumers, governments and companies. Increased usage also resulted in better informed citizens. Broadband growth is expected to continue over the next 12 to 18 months.

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Organized Cyber Crime Revealed

It is well known cybercrime is highly organized. While difficult to determine who exactly is behind what, it has long been felt that such organization and funding comes from organized crime. The US attorney for Florida has filed charges against the infamous Bonanno crime family for allegedly stealing data from Lexis-Nexis. In some cases, such organizational efforts appear similar to the organizational footprint of different organized crime families.

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UK firms spend less than £1,000 a year on security

A recent study says 98% of British companies spend less than £1,000 a year on IT security. 57% of small UK-based businesses use free security software. 22% of the businesses don’t have, or don’t know if they have any security solutions in place. Cost was the main reason for companies who have not installed any security software.

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UK Internet ad spend overtakes TV for first time

Being the world leader regarding online advertising market share, Britain continues leading the way with more organizations placing their ads on the Internet than on TV, equating to £1.75 billion. Spending for ad space on the Internet accounts for 23.5% while 21.9% accounts for ads directed towards television.

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New NIST Report Sheds Some Light On Security Of The Smart Grid

A draft report has been released regarding how security is to be addressed regarding deployment of smart grid. The evolution of the smart grid will allow consumers to control their various home devices to decrease power consumption. Similarly, utility companies will be able to monitor and manage power consumption at the home level. Such efforts have raised concern over what affect cyber criminals may have on the deployment of such networks at the home level; especially when cyber warfare may be involved.

The document currently calls for power companies to adopt best-practices used for the protection of customers’ personally identifiable information. Power meters should also be set up to resist denial of service (DoS) attacks. Also, devices accessible by the public should be established on a separate subnets with the default set for allowing network traffic by exception. In other words, deny all and only permit by exception. Consumer access to smart grid meters should also be limited.

The document, expected to be finalized by March, 2010, is open for comment.

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