IT security and control firm Sophos is reminding email users to be vigilant following the discovery of a phishing campaign that seeks to capitalise on news that the UK Chancellor is expected to introduce pre-budget tax cuts.

Samples intercepted by SophosLabs claim to come from 'UK Government & Ministry of Finance' and offer to return tax to 'every man aged between 30 and 55 years'. Unsuspecting users who wish to take advantage of the offer of £450 - 650 for 'family maintenance' are directed to a webpage that asks for information, such as age, marital status and number of children, which could then be used by fraudsters to build identity profiles.

"At a time when many people will be uncertain about their finances and job security, cybercriminals have clearly been quick to take advantage of the situation," said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant at Sophos. "As the Government is expected to make announcements relating to recession-busting tax cuts, those eager for the bigger picture should monitor official channels and ignore any unsolicited emails asking for personal details. This campaign, coming in the run-up to Christmas, also takes advantage of the trend for special-offers and vouchers to be circulated via email—computer users should do their best to stay mindful of the risks."

Back to Top

Webroot recently announced the launch of “Go Green,” a global program which offers businesses free, earth-friendly recycling of legacy security hardware. In partnership with Guaranteed Recycling Xperts (GRX), one of the leading recyclers of computers and electronics in the US, and Centillion, a global e-waste recycling leader in Europe and Asia, Webroot will properly dispose of any legacy security hardware replaced by the purchase of a Webroot Security Software as a Service (SaaS) solution.

Back to Top

Reinforcing Entrust's commitment to cost-effective strong authentication, Entrust improves the Entrust IdentityGuard platform with enhanced self-service capabilities, including the Entrust eGrid, an innovative approach to delivering strong second-factor authentication without deploying a physical device.

Entrust's eGrid cards represent a new element to dynamic multifactor authentication solutions. The advanced soft-grid format enables organizations to implement strong authentication without requiring end-users to carry expensive third-party hardware tokens. Supporting a range of formats, including Adobe PDF, graphic or text, the eGrid is a highly usable and cost-effective way of delivering strong authentication. The solution also includes the ability to increase protection on PDF grids, leveraging Adobe's rights-management features, including password-based encryption, providing increased security on a highly deployable form factor.

Entrust IdentityGuard easily integrates into an organizations IT environment to protect critical assets. This includes new enhanced self-service capabilities, which provide streamlined enrollment of new users, a critical process for both enterprise and consumer-based deployments. The solution includes self-service management of existing users, providing Web-based management for activities like resetting passwords, changing question and answers, or activating a one-time-passcode token. Completely customizable through templates and Web-based configuration, the enhanced self-service features reduce both initial and ongoing management costs.

Back to Top

MicroWorld released eScan 10 (Beta Version), the AntiVirus and Content Security Solution. eScan 10 provides comprehensive protection against Viruses, Worms, Trojans, Spyware and other Security Threats and also protect from threats infecting via email, web downloads, chatting etc. by its faster and heuristic scanning ability. The inbuilt Advanced Firewall also prevents systems from network based attacks. eScan 10 is packed with a host of proactive technologies and advanced algorithms and packs a powerful combination that will help you thwart all Information Security threats.

Back to Top

BitDefender has recently announced availability of the new BitDefender Antivirus Scanner for Unices. BitDefender Antivirus Scanner for Unices is the command line antivirus scanner built for both Linux and FreeBSD systems, which now brings a graphical interface intended to help users scan their computers very easily and allows them to configure the antivirus scanning to best fit their needs. It includes the certified BitDefender Antivirus Engines and provides on-demand anti-malware scanning for both UNIX-based and Windows-based partitions.

Users wishing to test the beta version can download the product at BitDefender’s Beta Center. The new beta version of BitDefender Antivirus Scanner for Unices is an upgrade to the current product. Key benefits and features include: on-demand scanner, malware signatures and engine updates, context menu integration with the most common desktop environments (KDE and GNOME), open source plugins for three popular file managers—Konqueror (KDE), Nautilus (GNOME) and Thunar (Xfce), support for the x86 and amd64 architectures, available for gcc-4.x systems and language support for further localization.

Back to Top

Recently announced DesktopDirect solution from Array Networks, now allows people to remotely access their desktop even when the computer is turned off. By deploying Array’s DesktopDirect, enterprises can benefit from substantial energy cost savings, reduced carbon footprint and improved security since remote desktop access users don’t need to leave their computers on unnecessarily after work or when out of the office.

With the new release of DesktopDirect, the user’s PC is automatically turned on as they connect. While in the past employees that wanted to remotely access their desktop had to leave their computers powered up while they were out of the office. This meant that a remote worker’s computer will be running for long periods of time even if the computer needed to be accessed briefly.

Back to Top

Comodo Endpoint Security Manager (ESM) now enables centralized management of the award-winning Comodo Firewall Pro, trusted by millions of users around the world. Saving significant time and money on security software, installation and day to day management tasks, ESM also enables IT staff to remotely and rapidly control endpoint usage and security policy configurations. ESM’s instant set-up and management of Comodo Firewall Pro enables maximum protection against harmful threats, all from a central administrative console.

Back to Top

Quest Software has further extended its Quest One Identity Solution. Organizations can now identify and manage user and group access to critical corporate data across the enterprise with the new Quest Access Manager. Quest’s patent-pending technology provides a real-time security map that bridges the divide between Active Directory security and enterprise access. The newly available Access Manager provides a single console for identifying and managing user and group access to resources such as files, folders and shares across the enterprise. This eliminates the complexity of managing access throughout the enterprise, while increasing security, maintaining operational efficiency and ensuring continuous compliance.

Access Manager enables IT to manage the access lifecycle by providing visibility into user entitlements, and lets the organization enforce their business access policies while adhering to Microsoft best practices, ensuring that rogue users cannot tamper with these policies.

Back to Top

To keep fast pace with technology utilization for the masses Micro Technologies (India) Ltd. has come up with Micro Wi-Fi Security System (WSS). Micro WSS is downloadable software which works in the stealth mode. It allows the administrator to monitor the activity of the user and provide information about Wi-Fi access through the authorized web account. Micro WSS automatically detects the change of security settings and warns the Wi-Fi user and send the details on to the Server level Secured Web Account of the user. In an unsecured/secured WLAN, Micro WSS can detect any addition of a user and also sends alert email containing the IP & MAC address assigned to the machine and the user respectively. The user can be identified using the MAC address and relatively the administrator can identify the router details which the user has accessed. Micro WSS also maintains the track of user activities in a computer with a facility of sending regular updates like individual file and the time of access and changes made to each file to authorized individuals. Micro WSS can both monitor e-communications based on keywords and phrases.

Back to Top