Q&A: Luis Corrons on taking down cyber criminals

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You mentioned you were talking with people about the best approach for tackling cyber crime. Who have you been in touch with?

I can’t give any names because it’s like a private place where we talk, but I’m talking about info sec people, including law enforcement.

It is not just security people from security companies or public institutions, but from law enforcement as well from all around the world.

Some recent Panda Security research found a quarter of infections are down to USB devices. Why is this such a big area for cyber criminals now?

It’s a great resource to spread new infections. A very weak point is companies own users. What we have seen during this year and even earlier, is that they [the cyber criminals] are adding to the current worms they have, they are adding this USB spread mechanism.

Are companies taking the USB threat seriously enough?

They are not. I know a few companies [who take the issue seriously] but I could count them on one hand. These companies have by default disabled USBs, for example, and in all the computers.

In the company where my wife is working they have thousands of computers and they have the USB disabled in special cases. But that’s just one case and it is a big company.

I know big companies and of course small companies who never do anything about USBs.

They don’t see it as a real threat, even if it is becoming more and more prevalent nowadays. They are more worried about email or the network and not about the USB devices.

When they think about USB devices, the main worry they have is “I am worried about USB devices because my workers could take information from the company.” They are not thinking about malware at all.

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