It's not funny Hackers 'steal more than criminals'

Hi It's "That Man" again The Mad Hatter.
Well It's not funny We must protect our selfs more and i know that it is hard to but we can start by buying quality routers like Draytek products and get them configured correctly and also getting good firewall software but just have a read and tell the Mad Hatter what you think.....

The annual analysis of data breaches by Verizon uncovered a huge rise in politically motivated attacks.

Verizon found that 58% of all the data stolen during breaches in 2011 was purloined by these groups.

Hacktivists were hard to defend against, it said, as their attack strategies were much harder to predict.

The Verizon report catalogued 855 incidents around the world in which 174 million records were stolen.
Data defences

"Hacktivism has been around for a some time but it's mainly been website defacements," said Wade Baker, director of research and intelligence at Verizon. "In 2011 it was more about going to steal a bunch of information from a company."

The hacktivist attacks were spearheaded by the Anonymous hacker group and its tech-savvy offshoots Antisec and Lulzsec. These activists scored a significant number of successes by knocking out websites and stealing large amounts of data from private companies and government agencies.

"Data theft became a mechanism for political protest," said Mr Baker. He added that it was hard to develop specific defences against these attacks because they used tactics and techniques crafted for each occasion.

He said the attacks by hacktivists were not very common but often netted huge amounts of data when they did penetrate defences.

In contrast to that stolen by hacktivists, about 35% of data pilfered from large companies was taken by organised criminal groups which wanted to sell it or use it to commit another crime.

Mr Baker said cybercriminals continued to be a huge threat to large companies, and constantly battered their internet defences looking for weaknesses. These attacks, he said, tended to be opportunistic and capitalised on any loopholes and vulnerabilities they found.

While few firms were going out of business or suffering lasting damage because of a data breach, he said, companies still had work to do to ensure they knew they were safe.

What are Sony playing at!!!!!! Playstation

Hi All, It's Vince  the Mad Hatter bring you more tech news.

Well talk about my eyes popping out of my head !!!!!!!!! with Disbelief and shock when i read this article an i thought i would share it with you all.

I am a fan of the Playstation i think it is good value for
money for the features that you get. But stopping you from using used games!!!!!

The Games are already very expensive and being able to buy used games is a must. And what do you do when you have finished a game?
I sell mine on so that a can buy the latest game.

Tell me your thoughts on this after read this and do
the poll what are Sony playing at!!!!!!

Vince (The Mad Hatter) Follow "That Man"

What if I told you that the next DVD/Blu-ray player you buy will only play newly bought discs?

And if you were to buy used, borrow your friends' discs, or rent games, your machine would not play them? Well, it has been reported that the new Sony PlayStation 4 console (or Orbis as it's said to be called) will not play PlayStation 3 games, and the console will also have anti-used-game measures built in.

That means no more playing rental games or borrowing games from your buddy, and of course you can't play pre-owned games! What has been reported is that if you do use secondhand games, you'll have to pay an extra fee. Why all this madness?!

It looks like game developers feel like used game sales are choking the industry.

To be fair, it was reported earlier this year that Microsoft is considering blocking used games on the next version of the Xbox.

I don't know about you, but to me that's just crazy! My son and I buy used games quite a bit, and it would be a huge setback for both of us if they were to go through with this. I will probably just say no to a newer console, at least until the game prices are lowered, or I'll just refuse to buy a new console and go back to PC gaming until something changes.

So what do you all think about this? Are you willing to buy a console that locks out secondhand games?

What do you think will happen to all those game outlets that sell pre-owned games or game rental services. Is their business model doomed? If companies like Sony and Microsoft go through with this, do you think it will have a negative effect on the game industry, or will it have no impact at all, because people will continue to buy new?

Surveillance Data Protection can our leaders make there mind up!!!!!!!

Hey All the cyber crime and now data protection is causing a real problem now.

Yep its the Mad Hatter again, well what can i say every one is running running scared with hacking more Surveillance what do the UK gov want to do.

First they gov want to know what the public are doing and the EU is trying to protect the public whats going off.

Have a read of this News Article and tell me what you think? Vince (The Mad Hatter)

An average of 59% of senior UK IT managers in large enterprises believe the proposed new EU data protection framework will cost their business more money, a survey has revealed.

Only 11% said costs would go down, while 23% expected it to stay the same and 7% were unsure, according to the SecureData EU General Data Protection Regulation UK Enterprise Inquiry.

Retail, distribution and transport sectors were the most concerned, with 72% saying it would cost them more, followed by financial services (56%), and manufacturing (44%).

Security and compliance officers need to begin assessing the risk presented to their organisations, said Etienne Greeff, managing director of SecureData.

The draft proposals require organisations to notify data protection authorities and affected data subjects within 24 hours. Nearly two-thirds of respondents said this would help improve business and security processes, and 58% said it would improve data protection.

But 40% expressed concern that it would advertise security weaknesses before an appropriate security review could be completed, 36% feared "false alarms" from pressures to notify of data breaches quickly, and 14% said it could reduce the possibility of catching data thieves.

Raise awareness of security responsibilities

SecureData recommends setting up security forums to grow awareness of IT security, the proposed EU data protection laws and associated risks; developing an incident response plan that includes notifying the relevant authorities; and building a digital forensic capability to catch data thieves and help build stronger defences.

Identify the most important processes to improve and balance this cost against the proposed fines for data breaches to build a business case

Etienne Greeff, managing director, SecureData

"Organisations should [identify] the most important processes to improve and balance this cost against the proposed fines for data breaches to build a business case," said Greeff. 

The draft proposals enable data protection authorities to fine companies that violate the EU data protection rules up to €1m or 2% of their global annual turnover.

"This should make it easier to justify investments in information security, but it should also encourage businesses to make information security a standard element of all business processes," he said.

Outsourcing security roles

The draft proposals require all businesses with more than 250 employees to appoint a data protection officer, but more than a quarter of respondents said they envisage their enterprise outsourcing this role. However, Greeff said this figure will come down as EU requirements become clearer.

The survey also found that firewall and network managers are the most likely security roles to be outsourced (35%), but only 8% in financial services would consider an outsourced chief information security officer (CISO) compared with 28% in the manufacturing sector.

SecureData said organisations should regularly evaluate what makes sense to keep in-house and what services are better outsourced to an expert third party, and consider outsourcing the CISO function to save costs.

Compliance is a growing challenge

One of the controversial proposed requirements promises internet users the "right to be forgotten", that would allow people to ask for data about them to be deleted. Organisations will have to comply unless there are "legitimate" grounds to retain the information.

Carl Shallow, head of compliance at SecureData, said the new internet economy is vital to Europe’s economic recovery and the need for increased data protection must be finely balanced with freedoms for technological and business model innovation.

Enterprises must identify exactly what is sensitive data and where it resides, because there is frequently an abundance of "lost" unstructured data siloed across IT estates, he said.

Enterprises must identify exactly what is sensitive data and where it resides, because there is frequently an abundance of "lost" unstructured data siloed across IT estates

Carl Shallow, head of compliance, SecureData

The proposed new EU data protection framework, said Shallow, is an ideal opportunity for businesses to review data governance procedures and management solutions.

Compliance with the proposed new EU data protection laws and a growing list of other regulations is becoming increasingly important for a more and more people within UK enterprises, said Greeff.

The survey revealed that 31% of respondents frequently have some responsibility for IT compliance, 41% regularly have to work on IT compliance issues, while 6% said it was the main focus of their job.

"This is a much higher proportion than just a year ago, when only around 20% said they had "regular" responsibility for IT compliance," said Greeff.

The survey highlighted that dealing with compliance issues is not the preserve of a few individuals, and that senior IT managers across organisations have to understand and deal with compliance requirements, he said.

Tell me what you think or am i going mad!!!!!! or am i going Mad 
The Mad Hatter follow "That Man"

Can you block access to porn sites from my PC?

Hi All

It's the Mad Hatter here i have had lots of people ask me this question.

As a parent of two kids, and 3 grand kids, I know I may be soon faced with a situation similar to Marti's concerns over his great grandson's computer usage, and how he can protect him from accessing adult sites. One of the things that you can do is invest in a good router like a Draytek which can give you good protection. With the use of other tech like iPhone iPads, and a stack of other gadgets we need to be on our guard.

Back when I was a kid, the Internet was non-existent in most households. The only thing my parents had to worry about when we were home was not answering the door to strangers and talking to strangers on the phone. Today, it's a whole different landscape for parents because of the Internet. Like it or not, our children are growing up in a cyberworld and the threats to them are quite frightening. In addition to access to adult sites, there are many other online threats like cyber bulling, predators, and privacy. I think it's worthwhile to mention them, too.

We even got a few people suggesting how they approach the situation with their kids. I personally enjoyed reading through the solutions and opinions, and I think you will too. Just remember, kids nowadays are pretty computer savvy and no matter what you do, nothing is 100 percent guaranteed to block access to those sites. And if they can't access those sites at home, more than likely they'll be accessing them somewhere else. Good luck to you, Marti, and all the parents who are faced with this and other online concerns. So protect your self and your tech or someone will take if off you cyber crime is not a joke it's real. The Internet is a great bit of kit but it is also very dangerous if not used correctly.

If you have something else to recommend, please feel free to share it with us in the discussion. Thank you all for participating. Have a safe and happy Easter weekend!

This Vince Bailey (The Mad Hatter) so follow "That Man" with your comments

EU to set up cyber crime centre

As Cyber crime is on the increase it's about time we did something in Europe.

 Take a read and tell me what you think

This is Vince (The Mad Hatter) Follow "That Man"

The European Commission is set to propose a European Cybercrime Centre on 28 March as part of efforts to tackle rising levels of online crime across Europe.

The proposed agency, which is expected to open in 2013, will also be responsible for training national experts on cyber crime and form part of the EU police agency Europol, say reports.


The cyber crime centre will co-ordinate national cyber authorities established by member states, and collect information gathered by national and European police IT networks.

The EC first raised the idea of the cyber crime centre in its 2010 Internal Security Strategy.

The plan shows a serious intent to fight back against cyber crime, said Joseph Souren, a leading member of the Trusted Computing Group for open industry standards in IT.

“Co-ordinated efforts, led by units such as the EU Cybercrime Centre, will help to map the extent of online criminal activity as well as advocate more robust IT defences," said Souren, who is also vice-president and general manager for Wave Systems in Europe.

MEPs and member states are currently finalising a directive on attacks against computer networks. The directive will criminalise the sale, production and use of botnets, networks of infected computers that can be remotely controlled to launch large-scale coordinated cyber attacks.

"These elements are part of the ongoing strategy against cyber crime, but unless organisations adopt more effective network security policies, this will be a losing battle," said Souren.

Both the UK and US governments advocate the adoption of Trusted Computing open industry standards, which provide a fluid path to future security needs and start by securing the device that will connect to an IT network, he said.

“This means that enterprises and public sector bodies can, with relative ease, adopt proven, trusted and open industry standards and roll out a programme that ensures every device is protected by the Trusted Platform Module (TPM), and that the data is secured by the use of self-encrypting drives (SEDs)," said Souren.

EU Digital Agenda Commissioner Neelie Kroes this month announced plans by the EC to present a European internet security strategy in the third quarter of 2012, that will focus on cooperation between member states and the private sector.

Kroes wants better cyber oversight. She said the obligation to notify security breaches to government, which currently applies to telecoms companies, should be extended to companies in the energy, water, finance and transport sectors.
She pointed out that the recent World Economic Forum estimated a one in 10 chance of a major breakdown of critical information infrastructure in the next decade.