Malvertising - Is No April Fool

On Monday, the government launched StartUp Britain with a website designed to champion the UK's start-up businesses, unfortunately it has also inadvertently linked users to malware.

The government-backed website has been linked to a page hosting fake anti-virus programs according to security firm Sophos.  Whilst it has caused some embarrassment to the widely promoted government scheme, the link was removed shortly after launch, according to StartUp Britain.

However, the glitch has highlighted a growing problem for businesses called “malvertising”. 

In this case users were taken to a third party website, redirected to a fake anti-virus page and were given a prompt saying their computer had been infected and thus encouraged them to download a fix.  The fix, in fact contained malware.

Last month, the London Stock Exchange hosted booby-trapped adverts that asked visitors to download similar fake security software.   This week, music streaming service Spotify was forced to apologise after 'malverts' were served to some of its users.

Cyber Criminals Target Business Secrets

Last week we reported on a collaborative move by the UK and US governments to train future generations in the fightback against cyber criminals.  This week a report by McAffe supports the fear that intellectual property and business secrets are fast becoming a target for cyber thieves.

Security has always been a key component to building a successful business data platform because, as we all know, there have always been net thieves attempting to compromise PCs using viruses and trojans in a search for logins or credit card details.

However, what has been highlighted in the report, is that there is now a market ready to do business for the data they are finding. In some cases, thieves are running campaigns to get at particular companies or certain types of information.

In the wake of the report and of a series of recent calculated attacks, we urge companies to know who looks after their data as it moves into the cloud or third-party hosting centres.

For support or advice on your voice and data security systems call us now 0115 970 1471

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The Real Cost of Cyber Crime

Baroness Neville-Jones has likened cyber crime to terrorism “the more you know the more frightening it looks” she said, as figures are released, that estimate the cost of cyber crime to the UK economy.   

The Government has said that cyber crime costs the UK economy £27bn a year, but has also stated that the figures published are a mid-range estimate and the real cost could be much higher.

Martin Sutherland, chief executive of Detica, the consultancy which compiled the report with the Cabinet Office, said the perpetrators of cyber crime ranged from "state-sponsored" criminals to organised crime gangs down to "spotty teenagers sitting in their bedrooms".

The report divides the costs as follows, £21bn of costs to businesses, £2.2bn to government and £3.1bn to citizens.  Together with the Prime Minister, David Cameron and the Foreign Secretary, William Hague, Baroness Neville-Jones met with the leaders of some of Britain’s biggest businesses this week, to encourage them to take the issue more seriously. 

Whatever the size of your organisation, however real you consider the threat, are you prepared for a cyber attack?

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