Cyber Attacks, China has been identified, is it true? 02262012

Cyber attacks have been coming from all over the world, most are criminals looking to make financial gains, some attacks appear now to also be government, or military which ultimately will attack Financial, Personal and Infrastructure.  Interesting these targets are not new only the accusations of who is at the heart of the attack.

We need to be aware and try to protect ourselves. As general consumers the first suggestion Do not give out information to someone you do not know or feel comfortable trusting.  Most of us think of this information as our Social Security, DOB, Home Address.

Phone Number

Yes we feel your phone number needs to be protected. If you don’t understand why just search the internet for you Phone Number and see what you find. In the case of the E2 Computers family not surpprised we were able to make unsecured links, no log in required, and found how we completed our voter registration cards.  So the information is out there and easily accessible.  In a post a couple of days ago we identified a collection call from a Citi related vendor wanting to contact us about a private label account that must have an over due balance.  We contacted the number and explained that unless the call to us 1st contained more identifying information that we would not supply any information to them. They continued to insist on a telephone number.  While most of us will give this out we believe this may need to be safeguarded to. Our final answer to this collector was to call us back and have a human not an answering machine phisihing for them. The collector is a real company but their tactic is not a good practice in a day of cyber mistrust.  The bill has been brought up to date but we are still getting the call.

 Help Desk

Trying to find help is a huge scam and in some cases just a marketing ploy.   we have had 2 customers recently try to contact Yahoo.com help after they were blocked from their accounts. Both found an toll free(888) number for a company that was willing to help them and even identified themselves initially as the Yahoo Help Center.  In both cases the customers gave remote access to the agent who said their machines need to be cleaned and registry required repair.  Before we go to far we check computers and do these repairs too.

In each of these cases the agent offered a 1 year service agreement with the customer to make repairs like this. Oh did we mention that in each case the agent accent was foreign.  Additionally, in each case after the experience which both clients did decline they found they were having even more issues before they began. One of the customers the issue was not even related to their computer.  their Yahoo account was hacked, and had nothing to do with the local equipment.  We are not throwing all help desk providers under the bus. What we do suggest is that you try to understand what they are offering and decide if the service is what you need. If the agent is only offering this as a solution and you think it is more than what you need it probably is so you should trust your instincts and look at other options. Our company is constantly shopped by price. We are not the cheapest but we believe we offer some of the best support. That is what you should look for.

Foreign Government

We do not have enough information to add to this topic except some links to current news about what is going on. Our main thought after reviewing some of the new is “What is really New?”  We are not surpprised by the accusations, nor by the actual activity wether it is organized crime, individuals, cults, zealots, radicals, governments agencies, or military when people have a cause they will act on it.  Our only hope is that amidst all the name calling the real facts are identified and discussions between people will take place and not a war of machines. 
Defending cyber attacks from criminals is already difficult it would be nice if the major governments could work together to protect their citizens and not look at ways to propagate wars and hatred.

Check out some of the news about the accusations between China and the US:
US losing global cyber war to China – House Intelligence chairman 
Hacked in China: Chinese government-sponsored cyber attacks threaten U.S. companies By Jared Rosen
Chinese Army Unit Is Seen as Tied to Hacking Against U.S. By DAVID E. SANGER, DAVID BARBOZA and NICOLE PERLROTH

How We Became Who We Are

In 2004, below a Thai restaurant and the ever-present aroma of Pad Thai, Mandiant opened for business. Our founder was industry guru Kevin Mandia, and he remains our CEO, our intellectual provocateur, and an insistent — yet fundamentally optimistic — voice about the realities of today’s threat landscape

Now as the reader is is your turn, assess, research and formulate your own thoughts on this issue.   Most importantly use the “Head” to try to stay safe on the internet.

Security and news presented by E2 Computers of Tarpon Springs, and www.end2endsupport.com.

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