A recent ruling by consumer court in Mumbai, India has held the bank responsible if it has not complied with regulations and the account holders money is fraudently transferred. Continue reading “Banks responsible for hacked customer accounts”
Responding to Authentication challenges in Online Banking
Traditional authentication mechanisms for online banking have been password and/or a one time password from a dedicated token. Variants or a combination of these two authentication types have been deployed by most banks across the globe. Increasingly these traditional customer authentication methods are being challenged and defeated. Continue reading “Responding to Authentication challenges in Online Banking”
No Work No pay? Time to change the rules
In what is nearly comical for the type and nature of incident, telecom giant Avaya paid salary to an employee who never worked. Investigations reveal that it was a simple case of not deleting the name from payroll file. Continue reading “No Work No pay? Time to change the rules”
Results of Internet Security Survey
The IBM Internet Security Systems X-Force® research and development team has recently issued a white paper on Internet Security threats. Some of the key findings are Continue reading “Results of Internet Security Survey”
Another incident and more questions
Network Solutions had an IT Security incident in June this year that compromised more than 573,000 credit and debit cardholders. In what is becoming a very regular post incident debate the issue being asked is – Do certifications such as ISO27001, PCI really beef up IT Security in companies? Continue reading “Another incident and more questions”
OSI (Open Systems Interconnection) Layer – Functionality, Tools and Protocols
OSI Layer Model developed by ISO, which is a 7 layer networking model, defines how networks should be designed and how devices on a network talk to each other. Each layer in the OSI model works directly with the layer above or below it and has a set function for moving communication across a network. The following table gives a quick overview of each layer and devices / tools / protocols used by each layer for communication.
Continue reading “OSI (Open Systems Interconnection) Layer – Functionality, Tools and Protocols”
Understanding Demilitarized Zone in Networks
Demilitarized zone or DMZ as it is abbreviated is a firewall configuration for securing internal network of an organization.In any business environment a need arises to permit external access to some part of organization’s network, for example to enable external e-mail to be received and to provide public access to a web site. This introduces the concept of the “demilitarized zone”. Continue reading “Understanding Demilitarized Zone in Networks”
7 Basic Steps to Secure Your Wireless Router
Wireless network has become one of the weakest security links in IT infrastructure in recent times. Many security incidents have been linked to weak configuration of the Wi-Fi router at home / office. This article gives a checklist of 7 basic steps to secure your Wi-Fi router. Continue reading “7 Basic Steps to Secure Your Wireless Router”
Audit of Solaris BSM – An Overview
Basic Security Module or BSM is the audit tool used by Solaris Operating System. The BSM files are located in the /etc/security directory. To enable the BSM, the administrator has to run the bsmconv script. This script creates a number of files in the /etc/security directory. In this article we shall discuss two important files that are created viz. Audit Control File and Audit User File Continue reading “Audit of Solaris BSM – An Overview”
US loses one laptop every 50 seconds in its airport!!
Imagine the situation of losing one’s laptop. What is the cost? It involves not only losing a significant expense but also the data stored in it which may range from personal data like photos, important numbers, music, software etc to corporate data where the cost involved could be unimaginable. A recent survey conducted by Dell and Ponemon Institute reveals that upto 12000 laptops are stolen in the United States Airport every week. This means one laptop is getting stolen every 50 seconds approximately!! Continue reading “US loses one laptop every 50 seconds in its airport!!”