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2001: A Security Odyssey; F-Secure Recalls the Most Challenging Year Ever for Data Security.


Business/Technology Editors

SAN JOSE San Jose, city, United States
San Jose (sănəzā`, săn hōzā`), city (1990 pop. 782,248), seat of Santa Clara co., W central Calif.; founded 1777, inc. 1850.
, Calif.--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Dec. 18, 2001

Experts agree that year 2001 was the most active year for computer related crime so far. From traditional viruses to complex network worms, the year 2001 was, to paraphrase Arthur C. Clarke Sir Arthur Charles Clarke, CBE (born 16 December 1917) is a British science-fiction author and inventor, most famous for his novel , and for collaborating with director Stanley Kubrick on the . , "a security odyssey", said Mikko Hypponen, Manager of Anti-Virus Research at F-Secure Corporation.

One of the central themes of 2001 was the rapid evolution of the malicious code threat. Many of the new computer virus types seen during 2001 were using hacking techniques such as exploiting known security vulnerabilities. Worms such as Code Red are difficult to stop with traditional anti-virus solutions, because they never infect files, said Hypponen. "To combat these new types of combined hacking and virus attacks, the data security industry needs to combine functionality from traditional anti-virus programs and distributed firewall systems, providing protection against viruses, hacking and the combination of these threats," he explained.

A state of dread among savvy and novice computer users alike, first perceived in the year 2000, was amplified in 2001. Viruses continued to appear at the rate of five per day, according to according to
prep.
1. As stated or indicated by; on the authority of: according to historians.

2. In keeping with: according to instructions.

3.
 Hypponen, and by year-end had accumulated to 59,000.

Nimda worm

Perhaps most notorious for its damage and for what it portends was the mass-mailing Nimda worm, the first Internet malware that actually took over websites in order to proliferate. Spread by four different methods, Nimda infected 2.5 million computers, taking just one day to infect local area networks and individual desktops globally.

"We have no idea where Nimda came from," commented Hypponen. "There are references to China inside, but those could be faked." Wherever its origin, he continued, it's likely to have been written by a group of people. "And, to develop and test a worm like Nimda, a testing lab with networks, servers and routers is needed. The size of the investment in both time and money makes one wonder what are the motives driving the creators of viruses like Nimda."

Much of the damage done by Nimda and a later worm called BadTrans was avoidable, in that preventive measures were freely available. In addition to commercial anti-virus products, Microsoft had warned of certain vulnerabilities in its applications, and offered a free patch; but many users were lax in a false sense of security and did not update their systems.

"That's skating on very thin ice," said Hypponen, "and many fell through".

But the world of anti-virus research wasn't without its victories either; both the Dutch author of Anna Kournikova Anna Sergeyevna Kournikova (Russian: Анна Сергеевна Курникова (listen   virus and a group of Israeli teenagers behind the Goner gon·er  
n. Slang
One that is ruined or doomed.



[From gone.]

goner
Noun

Slang a person who is about to die or who is beyond help

 virus were located and apprehended by authorities.

"The only way we can win is by catching these perpetrators and showing the world that virus-writing is a crime which doesn't pay," said Hypponen.

An example of devious craft showed itself in the distribution of viruses and other malware through mailing-list servers. Most members of affinity groups, such as music fan clubs and other opt-in organizations, open the email from those servers because, either consciously or instinctively, they trust the content. In just the first month of testing protective software provided by F-Secure, L-Soft reported stopping more than 100,000 virus attacks on some 630 lists hosted by that company.

Although most of the security problems over 2001 concerned users of Microsoft operating systems The following is a list of Microsoft operating systems. For the codenames that Microsoft gave their operating systems, see Microsoft codenames. Before Windows
  • Xenix
  • MS-DOS
  • MSX-DOS
OS/2
  • MS OS/2 1.0
  • MS OS/2 1.1
  • MS OS/2 1.
, other platforms had their share as well: In January, the first widespread Linux worm, known as Ramen ra·men  
n.
1. A Japanese dish of noodles in broth, often garnished with small pieces of meat and vegetables.

2. A thin white noodle served in this dish.
, was found. In May, the Sadmind worm infected hundreds of Solaris-based Unix systems. And in June, Macintosh users had their share of e-mail mass mailing worms with the discovery of the Mac.Simpsons worm.

What lies ahead

Meanwhile, a wave of enthusiasm greeted Nokia's new smart phones and Microsoft's latest PDA (Personal Digital Assistant) A handheld computer for managing contacts, appointments and tasks. It typically includes a name and address database, calendar, to-do list and note taker, which are the functions in a personal information manager (see PIM).  platform, Pocket PC 2002. With the proliferation of mobile devices across enterprises, corporate assets ranging from e-mail to confidential financial information instantly become more vulnerable to theft or damage. Pocket PC 2002 and Nokia Communicator The Nokia Communicator is a brand name for a series of Nokia smartphones, all of which appear as normal (if large) phones on the outside yet have a keyboard and a large LCD screen inside, as well as Internet connectivity and clients for Internet and non-Internet communication  herald a whole new generation of wireless devices, many in the hands of end-users, with all the exposure and vulnerability that comes with the territory of such new products.

Anthony Gyursanszky, vice president of F-Secure's Wireless Security Solutions unit, said, "The security risks presented by these devices will multiply in January, as many professionals will bring the PDAs they have received as Christmas gifts into work, and start to place corporate data onto them. This data is then at risk of interception, loss, theft and worse, underlining un·der·lin·ing  
n.
1. The act of drawing a line under; underscoring.

2. Emphasis or stress, as in instruction or argument.
 the need for IT managers to have solutions which cover the entire IT spectrum, with strong encryption An encryption method that uses a very large number as its cryptographic key. The larger the key, the longer it takes to unlawfully break the code. Today, 256 bits is considered strong encryption. As computers become faster, the length of the key must be increased.  and content (anti-virus) security."

Unfortunately, the future looks no brighter, according to Hypponen. Human tendencies persist. And, those who get some diabolical pleasure out of attacking technology continue their destruction at an accelerating pace. In anticipation of continuing activity on this front, F-Secure increased its anti-virus signature updates to twice daily, which is believed to be the most frequent updating in the industry.

It is sensible to assume that the number of sophisticated malicious code attacks will increase; and, at the same time, the attacks are getting more and more professional. "Whether these people represent terrorist groups, organized crime, military or intelligence communities is somewhat irrelevant," said Hypponen. "The bottom line is that we are seeing the first signs of the type of fundamental vulnerability that a fully computerized society and economy will have to live with."

Appendix: Major virus cases of 2001

January: Hybris
January: Matrix (MTX)
February: Anna Kournikova
March: Magistr
May: Homepage
July: Sircam
July: Code Red
September: Nimda
November: Badtrans
December: Goner


Descriptions and screenshots of the above viruses are available from http://www.f-secure.com/v-descs/

About F-Secure Corporation

F-Secure Corporation is a leading provider of centrally managed security for today's mobile, wireless enterprise. The company offers a full range of award-winning, integrated anti-virus, file encryption, distributed firewall and VPN (Virtual Private Network) A private network that is configured within a public network (a carrier's network or the Internet) in order to take advantage of the economies of scale and management facilities of large networks.  solutions for workstations, servers, gateways and mobile devices. F-Secure products are uniquely suited for delivery of Security as a Service (TM) which provides invisible, reliable, always-on, and up-to-date security for the most widely distributed Adj. 1. widely distributed - growing or occurring in many parts of the world; "a cosmopolitan herb"; "cosmopolitan in distribution"
cosmopolitan

bionomics, environmental science, ecology - the branch of biology concerned with the relations between organisms
 user base. Whether provided by corporate IT or delivered by service providers, F-Secure solutions extend policy-based security and instant alerts to all devices where information is created, stored or accessed. Founded in 1988, F-Secure Corporation is listed on the Helsinki Stock Exchange “HEX” redirects here. For other uses, see HEX (disambiguation).
For the numeral system, Hex, see Hexadecimal

For Wikipedia's help pages, see .
 (HEX: FSC FSC

See: Foreign Sales Corporation
). The company is headquartered in Espoo, Finland with North American North American

named after North America.


North American blastomycosis
see North American blastomycosis.

North American cattle tick
see boophilusannulatus.
 head office in San Jose, California San Jose (IPA: /ˌsænhoʊˈzeɪ/) is the third-largest city in California, and the tenth-largest in the United States. It is the county seat of Santa Clara County. , as well as offices worldwide.
COPYRIGHT 2001 Business Wire
No portion of this article can be reproduced without the express written permission from the copyright holder.
Copyright 2001, Gale Group. All rights reserved. Gale Group is a Thomson Corporation Company.

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Date:Dec 18, 2001
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