March’s top five security threats

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The existence of a worldwide electronic spying network was possibly the biggest IT security story so far this year, while Conficker will just not go away.

1) GhostNet

Canadian researchers revealed the existence of a huge electronic spying network, where at least 1,295 computers in 103 countries had been breached in the space of two years.

Embassies, foreign ministries, government offices and the Dalai Lama’s Tibetan exile centres in India, Brussels, London and New York were among the places infiltrated.

In a special feature, IT PRO looked at whether the evidence really pointed towards Chinese state involvement in the spy network, and whether businesses had anything to worry about from the technology involved.

2) Conficker

Although the April 1 date for when Conficker switched its functionality doesn’t look to have resulted in computer meltdown, it’s still a big threat to networks – as the House of Commons has recently found out.

As experts have pointed out, business IT needs to keep up to date with the Conficker problem during April, as it still has the potential to release a malicious payload.

3) Internet browser hacking

Safari was hacked within a few seconds, while Internet Explorer 8 and Firefox were hacked in the same day.

A hacking competition in Canada pitted researchers against browser technology, resulting in havoc for three of the most popular browsers, with Google Chrome the only one to survive.

4) Psybot

Researchers warned about a new botnet worm called psyb0t, which targeted Linux modems and routers.

An estimated 100,000 devices were thought to have been infected by the botnet – the first of its kind.

5) The BBC

The BBC allowed journalists from one of its technology programmes to purchase a botnet from an online chatroom, which then proceeded to hijack 22,000 computers.

Although it was doing it for a good reason, security vendors were up in arms about it, while a technology lawyer claimed that what they did was illegal.

The BBC said that it didn’t intend to break the law, but there was powerful public interest in demonstrating how malware could be obtained and used.

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