Google Searches Warn Against Hacked Web Sites

This looks like a great idea, I just hope people pay attention to it. 

Stay Safe

Oram Security

By Matthew Harwood

12/21/2010 - In an effort to help its customers avoid compromised Web sites, Google has added a new  tool to its search engine that notifies users when it has detected suspicious activity on a Web site, the company revealed last Friday.

When Web surfers use Google to search for something, a "This site may be compromised” warning will appear underneath the search result if Google detects anything suspicious. If users click on the "This site may be compromised" link, they will be transported to Google's Help Center and receive this explanation.

If a site has been hacked, it typically means that a third party has taken control of the site without the owner’s permission. Hackers may change the content of a page, add new links on a page, or add new pages to the site. The intent can include phishing (tricking users into sharing personal and credit card information) or spamming (violating search engine quality guidelines to rank pages more highly than they should rank).

Search-engine users, however, will still have the ability to ignore the warning, click on the search result, and get transported to the Web site.
But with every security measure, there are people who could be adversely affected. In this case, they are Web masters whose sites have been compromised by a hacker.
"Rest assured, once the problem has been fixed, the warning label will be automatically removed from our search results, usually in a matter of days," explains Gideon Wald, an associate product manager at Google. "You can also request a review of your site to accelerate removal of the notice."
Google's new warning is one more additional security layer for its customers. The company already warns its search-engine users that "This site may harm your computer" when it detects a Web site hosting malware.
According to Google's Help Center, "In both cases, our detection might not be perfect -- we continually work on improving our system -- but it would be wise to proceed with caution."

Online Christmas shopping at work 'increases security risks'

Employees trying to save time and shop for Christmas presents online at work are making company networks vulnerable to malware and other cyberthreats. "While the annual survey into workers' internet seasonal shopping habits, conducted by the Information Systems Audit and Control Association (ISACA), suggests employees will spend far fewer work hours shopping online this year – an average of six hours compared with 14 last year – it says the risk of them clicking on dubious or unauthenticated email links, or divulging personal information to unverified websites, is greater," reports the Guardian. "This is mainly due to more employees using company mobile devices such as notebook computers, tablets or smart phones, which increase a company's security risk when used on wireless networks outside of protected corporate networks, the report said. They are also more easily lost or stolen, and contain corporate data that is typically not encrypted."

Stay Safe

Oram Security

Passwords............a pain in the neck.

Passwords are used every day to gain access to personal information e.g. email, banking, online shopping. In the past we were told to use something that is easy to remember. A combination of names or places, perhaps put a date with it, but something that you can remember without writing it down. As with many things, the recommendations have changed. Standard guidance given on selecting secure passwords is to use a combination of letters and numbers. This is a task ideally suited to a computer generated process.

“The PC Tools Password Generator (link at bottom of the page) allows you to create random passwords that are highly secure and extremely difficult to crack or guess due to an optional combination of lower and upper case letters, numbers and punctuation symbols.”

 It will even let you choose what different types of combinations you might want to use, since some sites have specific requirements. Now, this will also makes the pass words harder to remember, so we are starting to recommend writing them down. You see that I used the word 'Them"? Too many people are using one password for all or most of their accounts. This makes it easier for you to remember, but it also means that if someone cracks your password, they can now get into all of your accounts. The larger threat is not the person sitting at your desk and “breaking” into your accounts, it’s the person logging into your account from their own laptop down at Starbucks. Is your pass word your dog or cats name? Think you might have talked about your pet of Facebook? Or posted a lot of pictures? There is a good chance that the answers to your “Security Questions” can be answered by reading your profile on a social network.


So, take the few extra seconds needed to have a “real” password and help keep your privacy.

Stay Safe,
Oram Security

http://www.pctools.com/guides/password/