Articles in the Featured Category
Featured, Risk »
Information Security Models bridge the gap between security policy statements (which explain which users should have access to data) and the operating system implementation (which allows an administrator to configure access control). The models help map abstract goals onto mathematical relationships that underpin whichever implementation is eventually chosen (Windows, Unix, MacOS etc).
The Bell-LaPadula Model
This model was developed in the 1970s for the US Military by David Bell and Leonard LaPadula of Mitre Corporation. It was developed in response to a single problem – information leakage. The military were using time-sharing …
Featured, Social »
The world is a dangerous place, but this is a reality with which the digital generation are comfortable. Teenagers today are used to media scares affecting every fascet of modern life. They won’t be surprised, therefore, when they discover that the Internet – the very fabric of their social existence – is the subject of the latest health scare.
Psychologists have long lined up to offer help for our cyber-inflicted neuroses. An organisation known as the Internet Addiction Centre, for example, offers services to combat over-indulgence in everything from cyber-sex to eBay. These afflictions, though, are merely off-line vices that have jumped the virtual gap. Does the Internet itself pose a threat to our health?
Featured, Programming »
Operating Systems Programming is a difficult subject to get to grips with. It involves knowledge of the hardware platform, assembler and low level programming. Chosing a starting point amongst all of this can be difficult. That said, a question that gets posed frequently via this website is how to write a bootloader – code that a computer will execute on boot. By way of an answer, this short article runs through a “Hello World” example.
Featured, Risk »
There is some debate in the security community surrounding the defintion of Threat, Vulnerability and Risk. ISO, IEC, NIST and ENISA all disagree, and the Information Security industry also offer various defintions. As examples, Richard Bejtlich of TAO Security, International Charter, Eleventh Alliance and Ingenta all differ in their opinions.
The one common theme is that Information Security exists to manage risk, and that risk exists as a function of at least threat and vulnerability. Lets start with the least controversial defintion, Vulnerability.
Featured »
Conficker (aka W32.Downadup) is a complex multi-mode worm that exploits Windows platform computers, using the MS08-067 vulnerability. Despite being patched by Microsoft on October 23, 2008, Conficker.A was picked up by security researchers in late November exploiting the large number of remaining unpatched systems without firewall protection. In January 2009 almost 30% of machines affected by the vulnerability remained unpatched, according to Wolfgang Kandek of Qualys.
This article examines the features of the worm, drawing on research by Symantec, SRI and others to present the methods of exploitation, propagation, auto-update and …
Featured »
The recent release and wild propagation of the Conficker worm marks a milestone in the evolution of the Internet Worm.
In this post, I look back over two decades at the evolutionary process of the worm and discover that even complex worms supporting multiple infection vectors, e-mail propagation and social engineering have been around for over 20 years.
Conficker marks the arrival of a new breed of worm, incorporating functionality – disruption-resistant command and control with signed updates – that previously existed only in the written speculations of security researchers. It represents …
