Personal data including the signatures of recipients has been exposed to people using their web site to track deliveries putting Parcelforce at risk of breaching UK data protection rules.
Customer using Parcelforce Worldwide to send packages are given a reference number, which allows them to track the progress of their delivery but when this reference number was entered the ParcelForce tracking system displayed details of unrelated deliveries, including some parcels that had already been delivered.
ParcelForce have corrected the problem, which occurred after upgrade work on Wednesday night and have apologized to customers.
Friday, June 19, 2009
Security 101 - Understanding Firewalls
The purpose of a firewall is to provide protection against outside attackers by shielding your computer or your network from unnecessary or malicious traffic, usually from the Internet. In general firewalls are capable of blocking traffic from certain locations while allowing legitimate traffic through. Firewalls are especially important where a computer or network uses an “always on” connection like DSL.
Firewalls come in two forms: hardware and software. Hardware firewalls are external devices that are normally positioned between your computer or network and your Internet connection. In the case of home users, your Internet Service Provider may have provided a device described as a “router” that incorporates some firewall functionality.
Hardware Based Firewalls
Hardware based firewalls are particularly good for protecting multiple computers but also offer a high degree of protection for a single computer. If you only have a single computer behind the firewall or you can be certain that all of the other computers on the network are up to date on patches and a free from malicious software you may not need the additional protection that can be provided by installing a software based firewall.
Hardware firewalls have the advantage of being separate devices running their own operating systems and as such provide an additional line of defence against attacks. The main drawback of hardware based firewalls is cost.
Software Based Firewalls
Some operating systems provide built in firewall functionality; if the operating system that you are using includes this functionality you should consider enabling it. If your operating system does not provide this functionality there are a number of free, shareware and commercial offerings available. We recommend that firewall (and other security software) is only ever installed from a CD/DVD obtained from a trusted source as this mitigates the risks associated with installing software downloaded from the Internet. If you do want to install security software from the Internet make sure it is from a reputable, secure web site.
Although, it is possible to rely on a software based firewall alone, this is not recommended as having the firewall on the same computer that you are trying to protect limits the firewall’s ability to catch malicious traffic before it enters your system.
What is the best approach?
The best possible approach is to utilize a hardware firewall between your network and the Internet and install (or enable) software based firewalls on all the computers on your network as this will mitigate the effects of attack by external parties and also provide a level of protection against viruses, worms or other malicious software spreading throughout your own network.
Configuration Options
Most commercial firewall products will have a configuration that is acceptable secure for most users but, since each firewall is different, you’ll need to read and understand the documentation that is provided with the firewall to understand whether its default settings are sufficient for your needs.
Be Vigilant
The key thing to remember is not to be lulled into a false sense of security. While firewalls can limit the possibilities for external attacks and software-based firewalls can provide a degree of protection against malicious software spreading throughout your network, firewall provide little or no protection against malicious software that spreads by email (by tricking you into to clicking on attachments) or compromises web sites. Even if you have firewalls installed you should still make sure that your anti-virus software is up to date and that you exercise caution in the websites that you visit.
Firewalls come in two forms: hardware and software. Hardware firewalls are external devices that are normally positioned between your computer or network and your Internet connection. In the case of home users, your Internet Service Provider may have provided a device described as a “router” that incorporates some firewall functionality.
Hardware Based Firewalls
Hardware based firewalls are particularly good for protecting multiple computers but also offer a high degree of protection for a single computer. If you only have a single computer behind the firewall or you can be certain that all of the other computers on the network are up to date on patches and a free from malicious software you may not need the additional protection that can be provided by installing a software based firewall.
Hardware firewalls have the advantage of being separate devices running their own operating systems and as such provide an additional line of defence against attacks. The main drawback of hardware based firewalls is cost.
Software Based Firewalls
Some operating systems provide built in firewall functionality; if the operating system that you are using includes this functionality you should consider enabling it. If your operating system does not provide this functionality there are a number of free, shareware and commercial offerings available. We recommend that firewall (and other security software) is only ever installed from a CD/DVD obtained from a trusted source as this mitigates the risks associated with installing software downloaded from the Internet. If you do want to install security software from the Internet make sure it is from a reputable, secure web site.
Although, it is possible to rely on a software based firewall alone, this is not recommended as having the firewall on the same computer that you are trying to protect limits the firewall’s ability to catch malicious traffic before it enters your system.
What is the best approach?
The best possible approach is to utilize a hardware firewall between your network and the Internet and install (or enable) software based firewalls on all the computers on your network as this will mitigate the effects of attack by external parties and also provide a level of protection against viruses, worms or other malicious software spreading throughout your own network.
Configuration Options
Most commercial firewall products will have a configuration that is acceptable secure for most users but, since each firewall is different, you’ll need to read and understand the documentation that is provided with the firewall to understand whether its default settings are sufficient for your needs.
Be Vigilant
The key thing to remember is not to be lulled into a false sense of security. While firewalls can limit the possibilities for external attacks and software-based firewalls can provide a degree of protection against malicious software spreading throughout your network, firewall provide little or no protection against malicious software that spreads by email (by tricking you into to clicking on attachments) or compromises web sites. Even if you have firewalls installed you should still make sure that your anti-virus software is up to date and that you exercise caution in the websites that you visit.
Thursday, June 18, 2009
Windows 7 Security Hole Still Open
A security hole in Windows 7 identified by a blogger in January is still open and Microsoft do not appear to be that interested in closing it. The problem is with the User Account Control (UAC) functionality.
The purpose of UAC is to guard against malware - it warns the user when applications try to make changes to the computer but "proof of concept" code has been created that can remotely disable UAC without informing the user that this happened. Microsoft have so far started that this is a feature that has been included by design and, therefore, will not be fixed.
The purpose of UAC is to guard against malware - it warns the user when applications try to make changes to the computer but "proof of concept" code has been created that can remotely disable UAC without informing the user that this happened. Microsoft have so far started that this is a feature that has been included by design and, therefore, will not be fixed.
Microsoft Optical Desktop 1000 and 2000 keyboard vulnerabilities
Users of the Microsoft Optical Desktop 1000 and 2000 wireless keyboards should consider replacing them as it has now become a practical possibility to sniff out their keystrokes. Dreamlab have published the required software and instructions for building the sniffing device based on the Texas Instruments TRF7900A 27 Mhz receiver.
Currently only Microsoft's wireless keyboards transmitting on the 27 Mhz band are vulnerable; Bluetooth keyboards are not at risk.
The vulnerabilities in Microsoft keyoboards have been known about since December 2007 but as yet there are no indications that Microsoft has taken steps to mitigate the them.
If you want to use a wireless keyboard the answer, for now at least is to use a Bluetooth device otherwise use a wired keyboard.
Currently only Microsoft's wireless keyboards transmitting on the 27 Mhz band are vulnerable; Bluetooth keyboards are not at risk.
The vulnerabilities in Microsoft keyoboards have been known about since December 2007 but as yet there are no indications that Microsoft has taken steps to mitigate the them.
If you want to use a wireless keyboard the answer, for now at least is to use a Bluetooth device otherwise use a wired keyboard.
Your Computer Might be Traded Online - Without Your Knowledge
Security provider Finjan has released analysing a botnet trading platform. The "Golden Cash" platform allows criminals to buy and sell botnets with prices varying between $5 and $100 per 1000 computers. The platform also allows criminal to place "orders" for botnets of particular sizes and wait for offers.
Golden Cash also provides an exploit tool kit for infecting PCs and manipulating websites. Finjan's report suggests that this platform represents a highly lucrative system. See Finjan's report here for more details.
Golden Cash also provides an exploit tool kit for infecting PCs and manipulating websites. Finjan's report suggests that this platform represents a highly lucrative system. See Finjan's report here for more details.
New web server attack
Security specialist Robert Hansen (aka RSnake) has released a tool that can disable even large web servers using a standard PC. The tool, called "Slowloris" does not exploit security vulnerabilities but instead works by using a feature in the HTTP protocol known as partial HTTP requests.
The HTTP protocol allows clients to split the data from a GET or POST request over a number of HTTP queries; depending on the server configuration, the first such request can cause the server to allocate a large amount of resources for the response while waiting for the rest of the request. The web servers that are vulerable to this type of attack are those that implement strategies to avoid system overloads by, for example, limiting the number of simulataneous HTTP queries. These include Apache HTTP server, DHTTPD, GoAhead Web Server and Squid, but not Microsoft IIS or Light HTTPd. The basic concept behind this new attack is similar to the half-open TCP connections attacks that have been seen in the past, except that this attack generally only affects the HTTP component of the server and other services are largely unaffected.
There are a number of ways to defend against this attack; web servers could be protected using load balancers and web application firewalls that only forward complete HTTP requests to the server or the reducing the time out for HTTP requests.
The HTTP protocol allows clients to split the data from a GET or POST request over a number of HTTP queries; depending on the server configuration, the first such request can cause the server to allocate a large amount of resources for the response while waiting for the rest of the request. The web servers that are vulerable to this type of attack are those that implement strategies to avoid system overloads by, for example, limiting the number of simulataneous HTTP queries. These include Apache HTTP server, DHTTPD, GoAhead Web Server and Squid, but not Microsoft IIS or Light HTTPd. The basic concept behind this new attack is similar to the half-open TCP connections attacks that have been seen in the past, except that this attack generally only affects the HTTP component of the server and other services are largely unaffected.
There are a number of ways to defend against this attack; web servers could be protected using load balancers and web application firewalls that only forward complete HTTP requests to the server or the reducing the time out for HTTP requests.
Apple release iPhone OS 3.0
Apple has released iPhone OS3.0. This addresses multiple vulnerabilities across many packages, exploitation of these vulnerabilities may allow an attacker to execute arbitrary code, cause a denial of service, obtain personal information, bypass security restrictions or conduct cross site scripting attacks. Users should review Apple article HT3639 and upgrade to iPhone OS 3.0 to assist in the mitigation of these risks..
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)