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Posts Tagged ‘data encryption’

Codemasters ‘ attacked by hackers’

June 12th, 2011

Image via Wikipedia

It is the era of hacking ! Before the Cyber-world recovers from the recent data attack on Sony and Citigroup, hackers have managed to access personal data of Codemasters ’s users.

The story

The British games developer was attacked on June 3 and personal details like names, addresses and phone numbers of thousands of people were stolen. IP addresses, details of last site activity, order history, biographies, Xbox Live Gamer-tags of the Codemasters CodeM database and the DiRT 3 VIP code redemption page were also a part of the theft. Luckily payment details were not hacked into as those were processed by an external provider.

Codemasters.com and its associate web services have been taken off the web till the investigation is on. Users have been advised to log on to the company’s Facebook Page for more information. US and UK websites have also been redirected to the company’s Facebook page. A new Web site is in the pipeline.

According to BBC News, the company is still probing about possible suspects. The number of affected users is still not known. It could be anywhere from thousand to hundred thousand. The company said. “We assure you that we are doing everything within our legal means to track down the perpetrators and take action to the full extent of the law”

Data Security

Gamers have also been advised to change their passwords linked with Codemasters accounts. Codemasters spokesperson has further advised to refrain from opening any suspicious mail that might lead a user to an illegal website. Users need to be extra cautious of emails asking them to share their password or any other personal information

Users’ reactions

Leanne Lee from Eastbourne, Codemasters website user, blamed the company of being slow to report. She was shocked that she was told a week later after the breach occurred and that too via an impersonal email. According to Brad Langford of Manchester, Codemasters or any video game company for that matter does not really require sensitive information like birth place and birth dates.

Breaking news

‘Epic Games’ suffers cyber attacked ! Stay tuned..

Data security with Alertsec

D ata security is of utmost importance for any organization. This news stresses the need for data protection applications. The loss in the above incident could have simply been reduced to an insurance matter by a mere investment of $13/month. The amount is meager compared to what the company has lost. The need of Data encryption software and recovery software cannot be underestimated . Had the company used Alertsec’s services, the information would have been secure. Alertsec Xpress offers a very good and easy-to-use laptop security service that includes more than the traditional software licensing model. Feel free to subscribe for your personal 30-day free trial

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Posted in data breach

Tags: alertsec AlertSec Xpress computer encryption software data breach data encryption data security data theft prevention hacking

Why Data Encryption is Important

May 7th, 2011

Part of the EFF's DES cracking machine which w...

Data Encryption

As the technology is upgrading day by day, people are getting more involved to their work and they have very little time for the things which seem negligible at the starting but can be very dangerous in future. In today’s world 99% people are more interested in sending and receiving data through internet and mobile data storage devices. But among those 995 people 90% people do not encrypt their data though they know that the data contains personal information and the chances of data lose or hacking is very high.

Sending data through internet has high chances of getting hacked. Because the number of hackers are increasing in a rapid rate day by day and those hackers are so efficient in their job that they can easily hack the unencrypted data from the internet. And if those hacked data contains any sort of personal information then they can misuse those data, even they can make some criminal offenses by using those data and without doing anything wrong you will become a criminal. At the time of sending data through internet lot of people can easily access your data if your data is not encrypted.

Another importance of data encryption is that is helps to protect your computer from viruses. Though you may think that your computer/ laptop is protected enough because of the anti-virus and router you are using, but remember keeping your data safe from the hackers is not that easy. And if your computer becomes virus affected, then any other computer presents in your office or home can be easily affected by the virus.

Now internet is available in the hostels, cyber cafe, hotels and those connections have no protection. So the data can easily be hacked of accessed by some other person.

And data encryption also helps to protect the data of different mobile data storage devices. As the data storage devices sometimes contain personal or sensible data, so the loss of any storage device can be very harmful for us. Because any one can misuse those data. But we will keep our data encrypted then we will be sure that no one can misuse those data.

These are the main reason behind the data encryption. Data encryption not only keeps our data safe but also helps us to be tension free.

About Alertsec:-

Alertsec Xpress is the No.1 encryption service provider for hundreds of banks and financial institutions worldwide. They are providing 24*7 customer service system. By offering computer protection software, encryption with lowest TCO (Total Cost of Operation), Checkpoint and Pointec they are assuring to make data secure. For more details about Alertsec log on to: http://www.alertsec.com

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Posted in Alertsec Express, Data Protection, Encryption, Encryption Chip, Hard Disk, data encryption

Tags: data encryption data encryption software Encryption

Full Disk Encryption – An Executive’s Introduction To How It Works And Other Issues

May 2nd, 2011

Icon from Nuvola icon theme for KDE 3.x.

Encryption

File encryption or Full disk encryption?? That is the most important question for most of the organizations now a day. Because some of the organizations encrypted their important files but still failed to prevent data lose, and file encryption does not allow encryption on in and out moving data. So the organizations are not finding any profit in adopting data encryption. Full disk encryption is the only solution of their anxiety.

Now the organizations are not sure whether they will apply the full disk encryption on each and every system of their organization or just on those systems which contain sensitive data. According to PCI and ICO the answer is an organization should apply the full disk encryption to all the system. Because only a few stuffs of the organization can access the sensitive data but still there is a chance that due to some emergency an ordinary stuff can also get access to sensitive data. So, be ready before the mistake has been done.

Full disk encryption not only save your sensitive data but also assures you the protection of each and every single data of your organization. But some people do not want to apply encryption because of some drawbacks and those drawbacks can cause data loss or computer malfunction, because the following things can happen due to encryption:-

Password forgotten.
Problem in the hardware.
Data corruption due to the encryption of data.
Normally people like to make some common as well as weak password just because they can remember it. Those passwords are known as weak keys password.
Sometimes we write down our passwords because we do not have the confidence that we can remember them.
Data corrupted by the encryption process.
The encryption algorithm can be cracked sometimes.

But we have to keep in mind before applying full disk encryption that encryption does not enhance or reduce risks, it just provides protection to your data from data loss. So it depends on us that how we are applying the full disk encryption process to our system. Before the implementation of full disk encryption we have to be very careful about the following factors:-

The encryption process is approved by the Advanced Encryption Standard (AES) or not.
Due to presence of scratch pad the modern day’s computers cannot protect the hard disk and full memory. And the dangerous thing is that through these scratch pads the hackers can easily access your data.

Another problem with encryption is that there is a chance of potential data loss, but in case of full disk encryption as full disk encryption works in the hardware level not on the software level, so the chances of interaction between the encryption and other applications automatically reduces and as a result of it the probability of data loss also reduces.

So, if your system has sensitive data and you do not want to lose those data, and then apply full disk encryption to your system because it does not drop the speed of your system but it makes your system fully protected.

About ALERTSEC:-

Alertsec Xpress is the No.1 encryption service provider for hundreds of banks and financial institutions worldwide. They are providing 24*7 customer service system. By offering computer protection software, encryption with lowest TCO (Total Cost of Operation), Checkpoint and Pointec they are assuring to make data secure. For more details about Alertsec log on to: http://www.alertsec.com

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Posted in Alertsec Express, Computer security, Data Protection, Encryption, Hard Disk, full disk encryption

Tags: data encryption disk encryption drive encryption Encryption full disk encryption

Leak Fear as Hospital Loses Patient Detail

April 29th, 2011

Flah Drive

As the number of laptop and data storage device robbery increasing day by day, the negligence of different organizations about the implementation of data encryption software and laptop encryption software come to the notice of ICO. Though ICO is trying hard to make all the organizations aware about the importance of encryption of data but the organizations are showing to less energy to encrypt the laptops and data storage devices. As a result of that any short of data or device loss is making huge effect on the organization.

ICO came to know that recently at Queen Marry Hospital a flash drive which contained the details of the patients of that hospital had been lost. Though the main copy of those data has been stored in a computer with password protection but the data in the flash drive was neither encrypted nor password protected.

The hospital informs that the flash drive contained the names and id numbers of at least 19 patients of them. From this we can easily understand the situation that is going to occur if the incident came to the notice of those patients. And not only in this hospital but this thing is happening in everywhere like; schools, different organizations even in antivirus developing organizations also. A source of the hospital informed that the data was stored in the flash drive from a password protected computer to upgrade the computer. The management of the hospital immediately lodged a report to the police and they assured that the treatment of the patients would not be affected due to this incident.

Such type of incidents shows us the importance of data encryption software, computer security software. If encryption is enabled in our system and storage devices then we do not have to worry about the manipulation of data after the data has been lost. Though a lot of encryption software is available in the market and ICO is trying their best so that every organization uses those encryption softwares to protect their system and data but due to unawareness and negligence most of the organizations show lethargy to implement it in their organizations. ICO has decided to take some serious steps so that every organization will implement those softwares in their organization.

Though the hospital informed the police and the patients and apologized to them for their mistakes, just to put off the light from their fault but everyone can easily understand the effect of this incident.

About Alertsec:-

Alertsec is one of the leading data encryption software providers. Alertsec offers computer protection that is convenient and affordable. Analysis of the total cost of ownership of the Alertsec Xpress solution and the major alternatives show that the benefits of the Cloud Service can cut the TCO by up to half.

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Posted in Alertsec Express, Computer security, Data Protection, Encryption, Encryption Chip, Hard Disk, USB Key, full disk encryption

Tags: Cloud computing Cryptography data encryption Data storage device Encryption security

Anonymous Identity Attack forced HBGary Federal’s CEO to Resign

March 5th, 2011

HBGary Federal CEO Aaron Bar

HBGary is a technology security company and HBGary Federal is its affiliated firm which sells its products to the US Federal Government and HB Gary, Inc. Recently CEO of HBGary Federal, Aaron Bar has resigned from his post in the response to the anonymous identity attacks into the company’s network and to his personal data. Some unknown people hacked the company’s information and stole thousands of e-mail messages. Before few weeks Aaron Bar has promised to expose the names of anonymous members who are involved in this identity theft.

The group has posted the mails and the process on the Internet: how they exploited weak passwords, un patched servers to crack the network, then used information on passwords which resulted to break into the company’s Gmail accounts.

According to the reports, “Anonymous members hacked HBGary Federal’s website and unleashed 71,000 internal company e-mails, including one revealing that Barr’s wife had threatened to divorce him. They also hijacked Barr’s Twitter account, changing his profile photo and announcing that he was in fact a sweaty ball sack of caterpillars”.

Why Anonymous Group Targeted HBGary

The firm HBGary was targeted because Barr was quoted in a published article on 5th February saying that he had used clues found online to discover the identities of key Anonymous associates and was able to make these connections by using services such as LinkedIn, Classmates.com, and Facebook, as well as IRC itself.

In the reaction of this story which was used for a presentation during B-Sides San Francisco, the anonymous group compromised HBGary and HBGary Federal and leveraging Web vulnerabilities. The group also gained access to the Rootkit.com Web site which was launched by HBGary founder Greg Hoglund.

Data Breach infected Company’s and Bar’s Reputation

The disclosure of all the sensitive and private data poses a major security risk to those organizations, as well as individuals who had corresponded with the HBGary. Since the breach took place company’s business practices comes into question. There were various rumours related to the content of the stolen e-mails. Barr told that he stepped down to help the company regain its reputation and to improve his own. Barr wants to focus on taking care of his family and rebuilding his reputation. He told that it’s been a challenge to do that and run a company.

Barr says in an interview, “I have been the focus of much bad press; I hope that, by leaving, HBGary and HBGary Federal can get away from some of that. I am confident they will be able to weather this storm”.

Secure your Data with Alertsec

Following the essential guidelines is very necessary for data security in any organization. This news exemplifies the need for data protection applications. In an incident which highlights the need of Data encryption software and recovery software, the threat could have simply been reduced to an insurance matter by a mere investment of $13/month. The information would have been secure with no loss what so ever. That is certainly a small price to pay compared to what can happen if you lose confidential or sensitive data. Alertsec Xpress offers a very good and easy-to-use laptop security service that includes more than the traditional software licensing model. Feel free to subscribe for your personal 30-day free trial.