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Protect Your Computer...With Nail Polish?


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Protect Your Computer…With Nail Polish?
2014-01-03 02:16

KMM поделился ссылкой

Protect Your Computer…With Nail Polish?

painted nails

Anti-Malware security is complex.  Threats are constantly evolving and changing, and for those who create solutions, ensuring optimal protection can be an endless game of cat and mouse.

Good anti-malware software is that which hides this underlying reality from its end user.  Good anti-malware software is like a silent but vigilant sentinel, who simplifies the protection process and more or less just hums in the background.  Good anti-malware software is ultimately good because it operates unobtrusively, and because you the user don’t even really know it’s there.

…But what about the flashier side of anti-malware?

What about accessorizing your computer with nail polish, to keep it up to date with the latest trends and the most recent malware threats?

Making a Fashion Statement to Hackers

It may seem a bit ridiculous, so we’ll say it again.  Nail polish.  Like the kind you put on nails.  It can keep your computer safe, AND it can keep it looking good.

About 2 weeks ago, Wired.com released an interesting article on preventing malware infection and identity theft while traveling abroad.  Their suggestion was a layer or two of sparkly nail polish, applied to the underside of your shy and homely computer.

The idea behind this seemingly bizarre new approach to computer security is that it can help detect physical breaches in hardware.  One of the biggest computer security threats travelers currently face when visiting foreign countries on business is physical hardware tampering.  The problem is that even the best anti-malware software still cannot prevent a determined data thief with a screw driver from opening your computer and stealing your hard drive; and, in countries like China or Russia, the incentive to steal hard drives or other pieces of hardware is high.

European or American business travelers and their laptops stand out in these countries like sore (unpainted) thumbs.  Most of them are carrying machines that contain sensitive financial information, and none of them can guard their laptop for 24 hours a day.  What’s worse, is that even those who try to remain vigilant can fall prey at border checkpoints, where corrupt law enforcement officers have been known to confiscate computers for “security purposes,” and then do what they want with them before giving them back.  “What they want” usually translates to hardware theft or malware infection.

Astronomers call it Blink Comparison

To analyze changes in the night sky, astronomers take photographs of a single space over time and then monitor that space for variations.  Placing two images that should be identical side by side on a computer monitor makes spotting differences quite easy.

The idea with glittery nail polish, then, is to apply a layer of it over the physical entry points of your computer to create a tamper evident seal.  The reason for choosing glittery nail polish is that no two coats of it are the same.  The specks of glitter distribute randomly, and even if the computer were to be tampered with, and the thief somehow found a matching polish, they wouldn’t be able to replicate the glitter pattern of the original seal.

Once the nail polish is applied, computer owners cansimply take a photograph of the original seal.  Later on if they suspect a data breach has occurred, they can either identify the breach by eye or take a photograph of what might be a new layer of polish and then compare it to the original image.

Calling the Fashion Police

Wired’s novel approach to computer security is quite ingenious.  It’s cheap, effective, and like any good anti-malware solution, completely unobtrusive – that is unless you get carried away and decide to paint your entire laptop pink.

The only problem with the nail polish method is that it only works to alert victims  after the fact.  A good anti-malware solution is one that prevents theft in the first place.  Noticing that someone has tampered with your glittery seal will let you know that something malicious has occurred, and it will perhaps allow you to alert the police of the crime, but at the end of the day your data will still have been stolen.

The real challenge, then, is to create an equivalent solution that enables prevention.

Probably the best method, if you can afford it, is simply to buy a cheap laptop for single usage when traveling abroad.  For a couple hundred dollars, a brand new machine with no sensitive data on it could save you a life time of financial duress.  An added perk of buying a new and cheap machine is that even if it breaks during travel it won’t be a big deal.  On top of this, there’s also the fact that if you can’t afford a cheap, disposable machine,  you’re probably not worth hacking in the first place — at least from the hacker’s perspective.

In the end, what Wired’s approach to computer security represents is a mindset focused on awareness.  Combined with a reliable anti-malware software, like Emsisoft Anti-Malware, a computer owned by a knowledgeable and aware computer user is pretty much impenetrable.

…And even if nail polish won’t necessarily prevent physical intrusion, it will at least give your computer some much needed flair.



Emsisoft Connects to The Internet of Things
2014-01-18 05:04

KMM поделился ссылкой

Emsisoft Connects to The Internet of Things

fridge

There’s an interesting new term floating around the web these days, particularly within the computer security blogosphere.  It’s called “The Internet of Things,” or IoT, and it refers to where we’re headed as a society – a world of ubiquitous computing, where everything from your air conditioner to your toaster comes standard with a computer connected to the world wide web.

What is the IoT?

Right now, the Internet as we know it is mostly an Internet of human ideas.  It’s a more place of written words representing concepts than it is a hard and fast store of numerical data.  In all, our modern day Internet of human ideas is about 1,024 terabytes large, and all of it was created by people typing, clicking, and recording things they thought they should record.

The Internet of Things, on the other hand, would be an Internet created by inanimate objects for inanimate objects, based on data gathered from the physical environment.  For example, right now there are homes with ‘smart’ thermostats which can be programmed to change temperature according to your daily habits or even adjusted remotely from a smartphone.  In the future – and probably already in the homes of people like Mark Zuckerberg or Bill Gates – such thermostats will be even smarter, and they will integrate advanced sensors throughout your home that will allow your HVAC to respond to the slightest of changes.  Taken one step further, this “smarter thermostat” could store its data on a cloud based Internet of Things, allowing it to sync up with any other device that is connected.

IoT Applications

Taken to it speculative, sci-fi extreme, The Internet of Things could potentially link everything humans interact with in their physical environment.  For homeowners, this would mean an increased standard of living at a decreased cost.  Imagine an intelligent refrigerator that could keep a highly detailed inventory of everything you stored, or a microwave that knew what type food you were putting into it and knew exactly how long it should be cooked.  For restaurateurs, devices like these could completely change the industry.

For technologically advanced cities with electrical grids, waste and water treatment facilities, planes, trains, and automobiles, an Internet of Things could lead to a revolution in accuracy and efficiency –  and this is exactly why the IoT is being researched by academics and governmental agencies.

There is, however, one huge caveat surrounding this bold new idea of an Internet that knows everything.  Namely: What happens when it gets hacked?

The Matrix, Skynet, and Other IoT Considerations

During the holiday, we talked a little bit about Amazon and its announcement about drones.  We brought this up because at its core Emsisoft is a computer security company, and programmable drones would come complete with programmable and hack-able computers.  Any smart device connected to the Internet of Things would be the very same way.

Killer drones are a scary thought, but what about killer refrigerators?  They might seem innocuous enough, but as it turns out devices like these have already been hacked and the results were less than harmless.  In a Jan. 16 press release, Internet Security firm ProofPoint announced that over 750,000 IoT devices were hacked between Dec. 23, 2013 and Jan. 6, 2014 and used as bots to distribute spam and phishing emails.

This recent attack worked because as it stands right now, most smart appliances are incredibly easy to hack.  Most run on unsecured operating systems protected by default passwords most users don’t even know exist.  The real problem, however, is that IoT hacking could go far beyond juvenile phishing and spam.

Anti-Malware for the IoT

In a world where everything is sensed and connected, government and industry would be more effective than ever before.  Unfortunately, so would hackers, criminals, and terrorists.  An Internet of Things has a beaming bright future, but also a much darker side that needs to be acknowledged.  The data required to run or ruin a city are one in the same.  Smart, responsive homes will only be as life changing as they are secure.  And angry home appliances could rebel against their human masters and attack.

While we’d like to tell you that we are already working on “Emsisoft IoT”, the truth is that we aren’t quite there yet.  But that’s exactly why we’re spreading the word.  Like Amazon and its drones, the world is years away from a true IoT of ubiquitous connectivity; and, at this point, you can still pretty much protect yourself from a smart appliance hack on your own.

The best way to go about this is to investigate whether your smart appliance has a user password.  If it does, it’s probably set to something like “admin.”  Simply going in and changing this password is more than enough to deter a present day attack.  While you’re at it, you could also consider disconnecting your device from the Internet entirely, because depending on your usage you might not even need to be online.

Other than that, you could always just unplug your smart appliance when it’s not in use.   This won’t work for the fridge, but it does work wonders on maleficent televisions plotting to take over the world ;)

As for Emsisoft IoT…we’ll keep you posted.  Have a Great (Malware-Free) Day!
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