Computer security firm Norton buys Avast for over $8 billion

LONDON - US cybersecurity giant NortonLifeLock is to buy Czech rival Avast for over $8 billion to create a leading consumer business, the pair announced Wednesday after the pandemic fuelled online activity.

The deal, equivalent to more than 6.7 billion euros, "is a huge step forward for consumer cyber safety and will ultimately enable us to achieve our vision to protect and empower people to live their digital lives safely", Norton chief executive Vincent Pilette said in a joint statement.

Ondrej Vlcek, chief executive of London-listed Avast, said that amid increasing global cyber threats, the tie-up would allow for "enhanced solutions and services, with improved capabilities".

More than 500 million users will benefit from the new group's safety offerings, the statement added.

Pilette was set to become chief executive of the expanded group, while Vlcek is to join NortonLifeLock as president and become a member of the NortonLifeLock board.

The combined company, to be listed on the Nasdaq, will be dual headquartered in Prague and Tempe, Arizona.

Businesses worldwide are at threat from an increasingly lucrative form of digital hostage-taking, or ransomware attacks, that typically see hackers encrypting victims' data and then demanding money for restored access. 

A massive ransomware attack on US tech firm Kaseya in July affected businesses from pharmacies to gas stations in at least 17 countries. 

While Kaseya was little known to the public, analysts say it was a ripe target as its software is used by around 40,000 businesses, allowing the hackers to paralyse many companies with a single blow.

"At a time when global cyber threats are growing, yet cyber safety penetration remains very low, together with NortonLifeLock, we will be able to accelerate our shared vision of providing holistic cyber protection for consumers around the globe," Vlcek added Wednesday.

US cybersecurity officials last week announced that Amazon, Google and Microsoft had enlisted to help them fight ransomware and defend cloud computing systems from hackers.

The tech giants are among firms signed on to be part of a Joint Cyber Defense Collaborative intended to combine government and private skills and resources to fight hackers, according to the Cybersecurity and Infrastructure Security Agency (CISA).

Agence France-Presse  

5 security tips for gamers

MANILA – Security software firm Kaspersky Lab shared some tips for gamers as it released data about the number of gaming-related attacks globally.

In a statement, Kaspersky Lab said it recorded a total of 11.7 million attacks on gamers in 2013, with users hit by 34,000 gaming malware every day on average.

Russian gamers were most at risk with more than 8 million attempts on them by hackers, followed by Vietnam (503,947), China (376,058), India (207,245), Spain (139,078), Poland (127,583), Turkey (121,164), Taiwan (97,843), Thailand (92,914) and Italy (75,155).

The Philippines was not included in the list.

As many people are expected to receive games as presents this Christmas, Kaspersky Lab urged users to take the right precautions.

The security software firm noted several types of attacks, such as a fake Minecraft tool that promises to let users ban other players; a fake Grand Theft Auto V download that claims to let users access the game for free; and the traditional phishing, which lures users into handing over data or money with the promise of discounts or cheap gaming goods.

“Gaming has an ever increasing fanbase, which means that the number of potential victims for cyber criminals is rising as well,” said Christian Funk, a senior virus analyst from Kaspersky Lab’s Global Research and Analysis Team.

“Cybercriminals are putting a lot of effort into their attacks and we can see a surge in their sophistication. During Christmas when a lot of new games are being released, gamers need to be even more attentive to stay secure,” Funk added.

Here are Kaspersky Lab’s five tips for gamers:

1. Don’t click through on any offers that look too good to be true, whether from your inbox or on social networks like Facebook or Twitter. If an offer comes through and looks legitimate, ensure the sender is trusted before hitting a link or handing over any details. If in doubt, contact the company the sender claims to be from.

2. Use strong and varied passwords across your gaming accounts. As we’ve seen this year, gaming companies get hacked and logins are leaked. If you don’t have different credentials, stealing one set could be a cybercriminal’s key to open all your different accounts using that same password. Consider investing in a password manager as it will give you simple, smart protection.

3. Get a good quality antivirus. With rafts of gaming malware out there and the increasing sophistication of malicious software, you’ll need some level of protection. You’ll need an antivirus that goes beyond signature-based detection to look at file reputation if you want to stop the smartest malware from getting on your system.

4. Be careful whom you befriend. It’s easy to make friends in virtual worlds today, but not all are doing so innocently. Beware of anyone who asks for your personal details as they may want to do more than just contact you.

5. Only download titles from legitimate sellers. If you’re downloading an illegal copy of a game, you aren’t just breaking the law. You also risk getting malware on your machine as crooks often disguise malicious software as game files.

source: www.abs-cbnnews.com

Symantec anti-virus update makes some PCs inoperable

BOSTON — A bug in an update of Symantec Corp’s anti-virus software caused some Windows PCs to crash, making machines inoperable until they were serviced in an embarrassing episode that angered some customers.

The company disclosed the problem on its website, saying that an update to its widely used Symantec Endpoint Protection 12.1 anti-virus software for businesses caused some PCs running Windows XP software to crash repeatedly, showing what is known as the “blue screen of death.”

The embarrassment comes at a challenging time for Symantec, whose shares have lost about a quarter of their value since it warned of a pending profit decline three months ago.

“Enterprise security has continued to be an uphill battle for Symantec,” said Daniel Ives, an analyst with FBR Capital Markets. “There is increasing competition. The company historically has not been consistent around executing.”

Customers reported it took Symantec hours to identify and fix the bug and that they needed to fix computers broken by the tainted update on their own.

Symantec’s advisory said the company did not know what caused the problem, but that PCs could be fixed if customers manually removed the software from each disabled computer.

“Phoning Symantec support this morning was the start of the hell we went through,” one customer said in a support forum on Symantec’s website.

“The support is a joke, the quality control is a joke, and the software is not much better.”

Customers complained on a Symantec user forum that the removal process was time consuming, although one said the software maker had offered compensation for the inconvenience.

That customer said on the support site that he emailed technical support to ask: “How is Symantec going to compensate customers for the hours of lost worker production and the time and effort taken by IT staffs to rectify this huge error by Symantec?”

He said a company representative called him 20 minutes later to say they were working on a compensation package.

“I encourage everyone to ask to be compensated for the time and effort it took all of us (to) fix Symantec’s software,” the customer said on the support site. (bit.ly/LiH764)

Symantec spokeswoman Ellen Hayes said she could not immediately discuss the terms of any compensation that might be in the works. She was also unable to say whether the update caused machines running Symantec’s Norton anti virus software for consumers to malfunction.

A technology manager with Dutch company PSO Beheer BV told Reuters the bug caused some 150 PCs to fail. His company had to close a laboratory with equipment running on Windows XP machines and also sent some workers home so they could access their network remotely.

“It did have quite an impact on our business,” said manager Ron van den Broek. “My first impression is Symantec is downplaying the effects of this issue.”

A Maryland-based insurance company temporarily shut down anti-virus software for all its 150 PCs to prevent them from getting damaged, leaving them without protection, the company’s technology manager told Reuters.

Hayes also said she could not immediately say how many PCs had crashed after receiving the update.

source: interaksyon.com

Samsung Android phones in PH to come packed with Kaspersky antivirus

MANILA, Phillipines — Soon, corporate buyers of Samsung’s Android-based smartphones could be assured that their units will be virus-free as it will come packed with an antivirus software provided by Russian IT security provider Kaspersky Lab.

The antivirus protection comes under a new partnership between the two global IT brands as Kaspersky becomes a Golden Member of the Samsung Enterprises Alliance Program, designed to provide differentiated benefits to users.

The partnership also comes at a time when the need to arrest the rise of malware on Android phones is at an all-time high. Juniper Networks estimated that the number of Android malware jumped 3,325 percent to 13,302 samples during the last six months of 2011.

Under the program, corporate customers of Samsung mobile products could opt to be protected with Kaspersky Mobile Security and Kaspersky Tablet Security, two products which have yet to be made available in the Southeast Asian region.

Apart from virus protection, the two mobile apps will protect users against unwanted calls and messages, privacy violations and data loss or theft–a security issue of particular importance to businesses.

“[The demand for Internet-enabled devices] has been noticed by cybercriminals who continue to target people for their confidential information, especially among corporate users whose information are stored in their smartphones and tablet PCs,” noted Suk Ling Gun, Kaspersky Lab’s corporate sales director for the APAC region.

Gun said that the partnership with Samsung allows them to “educate people on the risks of cybercrime,” highlighting how it could also strengthen the security software firm’s foothold in the Philippines.

“The Philippines will be an important market for Android-based devices in the coming years and we see more growth as we work with Samsung Electronics,” she added.

According to Google, the developer of the Android mobile operating system, an estimated 850,000 Android devices are activated every day, which means millions of users are potentially exposed to security holes on the platform.

Korean brand Samsung is currently the dominant provider of Android-powered smartphones around the world. Kaspersky, on the other hand, is among the top security software vendors in the world.

source: interaksyon.com