[RTC List] 60 Minutes story: The Internet is Infected

[Pat Bitton]

Despite all 60 Minutes' (and Symantec's) attempts at the contrary, the sky
is not going to fall on April 1st. Anyone whose system is patched up to date
and who has updated anti-virus protection from a reputable vendor (with
heuristic detection for preference, as this will block any new iterations of
Conficker that appear) is unlikely to experience any ill-effects. 

Interestingly, the number of new virus examples appearing in labs every day
was actually under-estimated by Symantec. AVG (full disclosure: I am a
contractor for them) has between 20,000 and 30,000 new samples arriving in
their labs every day. BUT most of these never make it into the wild, so all
that updating really doesn't improve protection to any significant degree. 

The bad guys on the Internet are mostly in Russia and China. This has been
the case for several years. Anyone interested in the backstory should check
out the archives at Roger Thompson's blog,
http://tcsltesting.blogspot.com/index.html.

Pat Bitton
Partner, Euresto Partners Inc
Sales & Marketing Strategies for Technology Startups
+1 707 268 8968/+1 408 464 0829 cell
MSN IM: pbitton at hotmail.com
Skype: pat.bitton
Follow me on Twitter @PatBitton
www.eurestopartners.com
 
Looking for security advice? Check out
www.theinternetprotectors.com
 


-----Original Message-----
From: list-bounces at redwoodtech.org [mailto:list-bounces at redwoodtech.org] On
Behalf Of jankrpln at humboldt1.com
Sent: Monday, March 30, 2009 4:47 PM
To: List at redwoodtech.org
Subject: [RTC List] 60 Minutes story: The Internet is Infected

Dear All,

I am very surprised to not find anyone posting to the RTC list today,
anything about last night's "60 Minutes" story describing among other
things:

- 15,000 new viruses created every day.
- Symantics now sends their virus updates out every five minutes.
- The Russian connection to malware (young hackers and no enforcement).
- The Conficker virus, currently residing in 10 million computers focusing
on corporations (in some for months) and awaiting instructions for something
on April 1st.

This fascinating story can be found at:

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2009/03/27/60minutes/main4897053.shtml?source
=mostpop_story

When a credible source like "60 Minutes" does this sort of story something
is going on.  To me Internet malware seems like the gorilla in the room. 
It is analogous to the Presidential Daily Briefing in August right before
the tragic events of 9/11.  A top-to-bottom review should be ordered by
governments and also by technology companies.  The Internet has already been
used in association with terrorist activities and warfare (recent cyberwar
actions from both sides when Russia sent troops into Georgia in August).
Does anyone doubt that the Internet is not a target and a vehicle for great
damage done by terrorists and sociopaths?

I personally don't think anything will really happen April 1st, but I am
amazed that we are at the moment losing that battle - and that more isn't
being organized on the international level among governments similar to
international public health policies, laws, and enforcement.  Viruses and
worms are apt terms indeed.

Jan Kraepelien


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