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Is the CyberGrinch about to Steal Your Cookies?

As we work towards a wrapup of 2014 and peer forward into the 2015
horizon, I can’t help but think about all of the Cybercrime going on today.
Especially in the USA. Not to mention the dynamic shift now taking place
whereby mobile banking and mobile commerce have become a reality.
Instead of hopping into your car and driving to the local retail outlet, it’s
already on your smartphone, or tablet. Ecommerce has arrived in the form
of Mcommerce – it’s gone mobile. Banks are also finding it more
convenient to deliver products and services from a mobile banking ATM
experience to taking a loan application to even opening a new account
remotely through mobile devices.

Today’s threats far surpass the culmination of attacks that have taken place over more than a decade.
We’re truly in the early stages of cyberwarfare. Nation states attacking nation states every day and cyber
criminals abound – looking for every opportunity to steal your identity like the cybergrinch stealing the
cookies you left out for ol’ St. Nick. Don’t think this a daily barrage, just take a look at Norse’s real-time
attack map at http://map.ipviking.com – with honeypots around the globe, can you see what they see?

You can even buy Zero-day exploits – but do you have to be as big or powerful as Microsoft to pay for
them and is it Ethical? This is one of the questions we tackle in this month’s edition. So, yes, there’s tons
of attacks happening, lots of malware out there, some even for sale – will it ever end? Probably not. This
means that there will, of course, be many many more INFOSEC professional jobs in 2015. This means
that there will be new players on the block at RSA Conference 2015, like Norse, who is taking a more
proactive approach to studying cyberwarfare attack patterns in real-time.

I expect 2015 to be a very exciting year - we’ll see that www.privacyrights.org will hit a milestone of over
over 1 billion personally identifyable information (PII) records stolen by the end of the year. Keep an eye
on that website for the current breaches.

As you read through this November’s edition of CDM, I hope you’ll see why ever edition, I suggest you
stay even more vigilant now, than ever. It’s only getting worse. Through this barrage of cyberwarfare and
cybercrime, there will be newfound opportunities for more creative and proactive information security
startups to hit the scene, trying to help you get one step ahead of the next threat. Stay tuned in. Stay
ever so vigilant.
Don’t forget to keep an eye on the latest antivirus software tests at the Virus Bulletin’s VB100:
https://www.virusbtn.com/vb100/latest_comparative/index where you’ll see some promising new entrants
who realize that traditional methods can’t stop the Cybergrinch. They include GData, one of our favorites
– Emsisoft, as well as ULIS, Wontok, Kromtech and Avetix. The Cybergrinch will not be sleeping in this
winter. He’s out for your cyber-cookies. And if your cyber-cookies are mission critical data, consumer
records, or anything else of importance, you better lock your cookie jar before he arrives!

To our faithful readers, Enjoy
Pierluigi Paganini

Pierluigi Paganini, Editor-in-Chief, [email protected]

3 Cyber Warnings E-Magazine – November 2014 Edition
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