IT Security

IT Security

The Internet pervades more and more areas of life - and even dragged there a malware. Social networks and mobile devices are considered highly endangered. But will always acted only when something happens.

First came the warnings, then threats of seizure, and eventually even an arrest warrant: One or more persons were found on the Internet, the birth of Tina resentment and goods will be delivered under their own name for several thousand euros to different addresses. Because the warnings and threats to the delivery addresses were lost into the void, a seller off the collection agency that took the trouble to research where a woman actually lived with the specified name and birth date. No sooner had this information, resentment has been bombarded with requests for payment. "It sounds ridiculous, but I'm afraid to open the mailbox," said Groll, a professional editor of the weekly newspaper "Die Zeit", in an article for "time line" of the ugly experience, which in late 2009 began.

Another example: In fact, insulin pumps are a practical thing. Held several times a day even to put syringes, diabetics can wear such a pump on your belt and carry it to their body's blood sugar-lowering hormone through an implanted tube continuously; latest devices work even with body sensors that measure glucose levels and transmit to the pump. Still, that's a problem, such as diabetics and the IBM security expert Jay Radcliffe found out: his own pump, a product of the U.S. medical technology provider Medtronic, is unsafe. Malicious people can exploit a gap in the radio module in order to increase the flow of insulin to decrease or stop completely. The name of the manufacturer Radcliffe made public only in late summer, after he had tried several times unsuccessfully to move quietly to a Medtronic reaction. Now it is from there, at least the next generation of equipment should be safe.

The cases of resentment and Radcliffe are all different and yet stand for the same problem: the dangers of networking. It was enough in the past mostly to keep the programs of their own computer with current and good to use virus scanners and firewalls, home users and businesses today need to deal with a whole new set of threats. Social networks provide criminals sensitive personal data free house, ever more powerful mobile phones offer an additional avenue for hacker attacks, and the computerization of more and more products and production processes - from networked medical technology and smart meters to industrial control systems - also formerly insular devices and systems makes target of attacks from a distance.

"The threat picture has become more diverse, both in terms of type of malware as well as the nature of the gaps", says Markus Schaffrin, head of the department of e-business with the Internet Association of Eco. For home users, he still sees so-called Trojan horse - as the biggest problem - programs that perform functions hidden malware or steal data. That it is the large numbers, has been widely talked about, and also that it is not a good idea to click on attachments in e-mails from strangers. However, the cyber criminals to think long and always respond in more sophisticated ways to take control over the computers of their victims.

Most popular hunting ground for the online gangster has been developed in record time, the social network Facebook - parallel to the rise of the most visited website in the world. This June saw the service more than a billion page views of 870 million visitors, well above second-placed YouTube, which came to 100 billion page views and 790 million visitors. More than 750 million people worldwide are now active on Facebook, of which about 20 million in Germany. And according to a survey by IT security firm Sophos, almost every second of these users have already seen attempts to steal him on Facebook or access to foist malicious software.

This is also not surprising, because Facebook, according to its young founder Mark Zuckerberg is not as simple website understands, but as a platform: a type of Internet on the Internet, with its own e-mail and chat service that own programs - and a very peculiar notion of handling of personal data By default, everything betrays a member of Facebook is about, visible to every other member - including the birth date, which, like the case of an editor shows resentment may be sufficient for an identity theft already. Some information can be hidden or omitted. Name, address and gender are always retrieved and displayed. And the public display of the buddy list can be switched off though, but is still all Facebook applications - and therefore damaging - are available.

As a "beautiful story for hackers" referred Sascha Pfeiffer, a security expert at Sophos, the fast-growing social network. Facebook is replacing on the way, e-mail as the most popular medium for spreading malware. Specifically, two factors contribute to this: Facebook users trust their local friends - if they get one of which a supposedly interesting link sent, please click relatively safely out, but according to a survey does well every third user, and another 20 percent call even completely Links to third-party set. Secondly, according to Pfeiffer, was a perfectly Facebook "smooth surface", in which even experienced users can not see exactly what action is created by clicking - often the user will run back and forth across multiple servers. To illustrate the expert recommends, once the network to the Internet Explorer and connect your device sound to use: The browser is for everyone else unnoticed forwarding a brief crack of himself - "that's a very nice chatter."

Their initial attacks often take Facebook with a hacked profile of any member. Meanwhile, the attacker gain access, for example, by including in supposedly simple Facebook originating e-mails ask for it - there are still unsuspecting surfers to this trick ....

The Focus article in detail:

    Development: Social networks provide numerous opportunities for attacks
    Hacker: The insider knowledge of the scene is always in demand
    Cloud Computing: Rentable computing power can be abused as a weapon
    Company protection: a new cyber-defense center to secure industrial plants
    Interview: IT specialist Ralph Langner over Internet-based sabotage
    Smart meters: Smart meters can spy on the consumer