Forbes.com gave an overview on the different aspects of the increasingly occurring problem in cyber space concerning cyber security. Here is an overview of some of the more than 20 articles they provide to have a profound outline of this question.
Criminal, terrorist and nation-state cyber attacks against banks, technology companies, online merchants, individuals and government agencies cost the U.S. economy $400 billion annually, according to a 2007 Congressional report. These attacks are most often designed to steal information, such as business and military secrets, and personal data. Often they succeed in installing hidden malware that will "phone home" with updates, or enable a denial of service in the future. " Cyberspace has emerged as a war-fighting domain," said Gen. James E. Cartwright, head of the U.S. Strategic Command.
In “Why Web Privacy Is Impossible” Andy Greenberg writes about how hard it is to keep from strangers data as basic as a phone number or an address.
An article by Greenberg, “In Pictures: Companies That Profit From Your Data”, shows Acxiom, ChiocePoint and Reed Elsevier, three data aggregation businesses which collect data and sell it to marketers; Intelius, US Search, two companies which collect publicly available data and package it up to power many of the Web's people-focused search engines; Google and Microsoft, which have the ability to track users beyond their initial search, including much of their behavior on any site hosting their ads; Facebook, which has unique insight around how users are socially connected--hence its recently launched Beacon advertising program, designed to exploit those connections by broadcasting users' purchases to their friends as endorsements.
Another article of Greenberg “How Your Cellphone Can Stop Cybercrime” is about finding new ways to block digital thieves: Banks and security researchers are working to use physical gadgets to block cyber crime, like Bank of America's SafePass, RSA's Wi-Fi Prototype, RSA and Entrust Tokens, Sandisk's SecurID USB Drive, BlackBerries with SecurID, Eikon's Biometric SecurID USB Fingerprint Reader, and Authentify.
Wendy Tanaka’s article, “Making Social Sites Safer” is about how new ways social sites (or their owners) like MySpace, Facebook, Google and Microsoft are finding to make social networks safer places for kids.
Greenberg’s other article, “Canning The Real Spam Kings” is about how the US federal cybercrime cops are trying to cope with increasing cyber crime. This March, Robert Alan Soloway of Seattle was pleaded guilty to charges of mail and e-mail fraud that together carry a sentence of up to 26 years in federal prison. A related article “The Year's Biggest Cybercrime Convictions” gives an insight to special cases of phishing spam, pornographic spam, stock spam, service attacks, insider sabotage, insider data theft, P2P identity theft, spying and intimidation,
There is a separate section for the business community where Andy Greenberg and Scott Louis Weber write about the main cyber crime related issues concerning the companies:
- In “Where The Web Is Weak” Greenberg selected a bunch of hacker tricks that make it possible to infiltrate millions of Web pages. Connecting to this article, “In Pictures: Eight Ways To Hack The Web” describes what is cross-site request forgery, a form of Google hacking, forced browsing, timing attacks, captcha breaking, distributed denial of service,
- In “How To Protect A Company's Data” Greenberg writes about security companies which are trying forgoing firewalls and embedding security into information itself to prevent data breaches.
- “Virtualization's Dark Side” is about the warning of security researchers that the latest IT trend, virtualization has hidden vulnerabilities.
- In “Commercial Espionage: Travelers Beware” Greenberg is writing about another security risky IT trend, increasing wi-fi usage which is also a dreamland of the cyber spies.
- “Cloud Computing's Stormy Side” is an article about the possible security risks of another IT trend.
Another section deals with issues concerning state security:
- “When Cyber Terrorism Becomes State Censorship” is about a wide scale attack against Estonia's data networks, knocking government, media and banking Web sites offline one year ago. Local officials were quick to point fingers at the Russian government, declaring its country the first victim of cyber warfare. Now, a year of analysis has shown that it was nothing so straightforward but the difference between government-sponsored attacks and grassroots cyber terrorism is growing increasingly fuzzy…
- In “Broadband Big Brothers”, Greenberg writes about the World's most net-repressive regimes and how they try to filter the internet usage of their natives or on the contrary, using online surveillance to silently track dissident activity.
Three expert commentators also add their views on this topic:
- Alan Paller, director of research at the SANS Institute in Washington, D.C. writes about “The Cost Of Privacy”: the cost of trying to clean up the mess in federal cybersecurity now has a price tag: $40 billion in new funding over the next six years.
- In “Federal Security: Welcome But Too Secret”, James X. Dempsey, vice president for public policy at the Center for Democracy & Technology, a nonprofit working to develop pragmatic policy solutions that will keep the Internet open, innovative and free, writes about whether the federal government can keep its own systems secure.
- Bruce McConnell, a former White House IT policy chief, in his commentary, “How To Make Security And Privacy Fit Together”, states: “There are myriad causes of this largely invisible crisis, but much can be explained by the relative immaturity of the information systems industry. While historical analogies are dangerous, I am often reminded of the evolution of the automobile industry, from craft-based production serving thousands of casual drivers and amateur mechanics, to a highly regulated engine of economic growth, critical to every aspect of modern life.”
Visit the “The State of Cyber-Security” pages of Forbes.com!




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