The News

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The fight against rising cybercrime

It is expected that more than a third of organisations are preparing to pump up their budgets for data securtiy in 2009, despite a prevailing climate to curb IT spending.

A survey conducted amongst 200 IT and security professionals last month for secure web gateway systems supplier Finjan confirms this.

Alongside the 30% segment planning increases, another 40% of respondent sites expect their IT security budget to remain the same as last year.

An increased level of spending is necessaryto help counter rising cybercrime attacks. Organisations face an ever-increasing wave of attacks and the challenges they face are daunting.

According to a study done at Finjan's malicious Code Research Centre, cyber criminals are using new tools and techiques of spreading infections.

The last Web Security Trends Report, MCRC showed how previously considered "safe" files like PDFs and Flash Files are used to carry malicious code. A cyber cryminal can exploit a browser-vulnerability within big online ad networks to install a Trojan, the company warned.

These sort of threats and the pressure on business to comply with new regulatory requirements, will help to sustain the momentum of the enterprise information security strategy.

The IT security budget allocation was far more pronounced in the financial and goverment sectors than in others

Hacker facing extradition to Us

Gary McKinnon, the computer hacker facing extradition to the US for hacking into the Pentagon and Nasa systems, could now be prosecuted in Britain.

The Crown Prosecution Service is considering a request from McKinnon's lawyers in which they have said their client would plead guilty to an offence under the Misuse of Computers Act. If McKinnon were to be prosecuted and punished in Britain, it would make any extradition to the US unlikely. McKinnon, 42, has resisted attempts to extradite him to the US on the grounds that the offence was committed in the UK.

McKinnon's lawyer, Karen Todner, has written to the director of public prosecutions, the recently appointed Keir Starmer QC, stating that McKinnon acknowledged his guilt. With clear evidence of an offence being committed, she said, the DPP could now initiate proceedings against McKinnon in Britain. The CPS also confirmed that the matter was under consideration.

The action is the latest in the long-running attempt to halt the extradition of McKinnon, who fears for his safety and his chances of a fair trial in the US.

He is accused of hacking into the US defence and Nasa systems in 2001 and 2002 and causing an estimated $800,000 (£525,000) damage. McKinnon admits the hacking, after which he left messages, including the observation that "your security is crap", but denies the damage. Last year, he lost his appeal against extradition in the House of Lords.

Google disputes physcisit's energy usage claims

Carbon Footprint Google retorted on its official blog to claims from a Harvard physcisit, Alex Wissner-Gross, where he alleges that every two Google searches generates the same amount of carbon dioxide as boiling a kettle of water, about 15g.

According to a report published in the Times, users conduct about 200 million searches daily via Google. The author of the article claims that the waste comes in the method Googles's search engine operates. A user's search request is delivered by the server that produces the fastest answer, causing servers thousands of miles apart to compete against one another and use more energy.

Google however claims that it has the most energy-efficient data centers in the industry, which minimizes the energy used per Google search and is equivalent to only 0.2 grams of carbon dioxide.

The company also claims that during the time it takes to conduct a Google search, an individual's PC uses more energy than does Google in producing the result.

TechCrunch.com attempts to shed a bit of light on the argument in an article in The Washington Post where they state that a 500-page book has a carbon footprint of 2,500 grams, compared to the 7.5 or 0.2 grams a single Google search produces. It is also far more energy efficient to search via Google than to travel somewhere to seek out the information.

While the author admits Google can probably become more energy efficient, he believes the tone of the Times article to be alarmist

British Museum upgrades CCTV and adopts VoIP

The British Museum are busy with upgrading their CCTV with a new network and depolying voice over IP.

Pinacl Solutions was awarded a five-year contract with the museum for the supply and support of its IT system.

Quoting Graham Head, head of information systems at the museum "Our immediate requirements were for unified technology with a single point of management. We also needed a network that we could extend rapidly as required."

A whole new infrastructure was designed by Pinacl and new equipment was installed throughout the museum. This include a new computer room and a 3Com asynchronous transfer mode network was added that connects to a Cisco gigabit front of house network.

The museum is made up of many buildings and there were many installation regulations of which the main restrictions were that Pinacl was not allowed to interfere with any architectural mouldings, wood or plaster and could not drill holes over 25 mm without permission.

Pinacl helped the museum to prepare for the centralisation of its IT and administration staff to one area.

British Museum collection goes online