The past week has been fraught with Internet security debacles. The IOZ mailing list - a list for parties involved with or interested in the local Internet service provider community - exploded with mails containing accusations, retorts and flimsy evidence regarding the identity of a certain "Mr_Twig", a local hacker who has been causing chaos with his prolific attacks.
[VIDEO]A denial of service (DoS) attack aimed, purportedly, at Mr_Twig, took out local IRC service ZANet, and used up most of .co.za`s bandwidth, bringing SA`s Internet to a virtual standstill for a morning.
On the international front, a security hole was discovered in the Yahoo and Hotmail mail services, which could potentially allow worms to spread through these services at an exponential rate. Then there`s a cookie security problem that could see Hotmail and Yahoo users` sessions being "hijacked" by hackers.
Alienated
Seti@Home - the distributed computing platform utilising the power of millions of desktops to search for extraterrestrials - was purportedly hacked, with as many as 50 000 e-mail addresses possibly stolen from the site. Many Seti users received unsolicited e-mail informing them of the hack.
Then there`s the zombie scare. A little over a month ago, security site GRC.com was knocked off the Web through a DoS attack using what are known as "zombies" - little bits of malicious code that lurk on thousands of unwitting users` machines, causing them to play a part in massive DoS attacks. These "zombie" attacks have also been blamed for taking out security advisory Web site CERT.
More to come
The Internet is a war zone, with people trying to do serious business being beset on all sides by hackers, crackers, virus writers and script kiddies.
Jason Norwood-Young, Technology editor, ITWeb
And all this is only the start of it. A variety of defacements, a plethora of DoS attacks, a host of new viruses, and various warnings from security experts claiming that things are only going to get worse, makes this the perfect time to become a security expert.
It is going to get worse: the Internet is a war zone, with people trying to do serious business being beset on all sides by hackers, crackers, virus writers and script kiddies.
Security remains lax despite the dangers involved in running a business on the Web. It`s like having a jewellery store, specialising in gold and diamonds, in the middle of Hillbrow with no security bars, no door, and, in some cases, no glass between the displays and the street.
People serious about utilising the Internet as an enabler for business had best smarten up, or face the consequences.
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