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Leading Endpoint Security Software Prohibits Unauthorized Programs and Blocks Malware by Providing Flexible Policy Enforcement for Acceptable Application Use

HERNDON, Va. — SecureWave, a worldwide leader in endpoint security, today announced that the First National Bank of Bosque County in Valley Mills, Texas is using SecureWave’s Sanctuary[R] endpoint security software as an alternative to traditional anti-virus solutions to prevent viruses, spyware, worms and all other forms of malware from infecting the bank’s PCs and servers. An overview of how the First National Bank of Bosque County is using Sanctuary to enforce acceptable application use policies and prevent malware is available online at: http://www.securewave.com/data/?id=WCMContenido%20M24647327271261~ S116389~NSanctuary_Success_Story_First%20National%20Bank%20of% 20Bosque%20County%20.pdf. (Due to its length, this URL may need to be copied/pasted into your Internet browser’s address field. Remove the extra spaces if they exist.)

"Sanctuary addresses all of our concerns when it comes to malware prevention and blocking unauthorized applications. A complete whitelist is easy to construct, and it only changes when we need it to," said Brent Rickels, senior vice president at the First National Bank of Bosque County and the lone member of the IT staff. "The anti-virus and other blacklisting solutions are controlled by a third party, but we are able to completely control the whitelist of allowed executables. Also, a blacklist can never be complete because of the myriad of new viruses being introduced all the time. Sanctuary is cheaper than anti-virus so it has paid for itself already. Dropping one vendor in favor of a less expensive, more effective one is pretty much a no-brainer."

SecureWave’s Sanctuary enables Rickels to create a whitelist of applications allowed to run on the bank’s workstations, blocking all malicious code and unwanted software by default. In addition to keeping the bank’s endpoints protected against viruses, Trojans, spyware, worms and other malicious code, Sanctuary provides Rickels with the ability to block specific applications — including peer-to-peer (P2P) and instant messaging (IM) programs — that he does not want employees to run. By blocking these programs altogether, Rickels can ensure that no sensitive data is leaving the bank via IM and that P2P software is not taking up valuable bandwidth.

"Whether it’s the latest variation of the Storm Worm that recently infected so many computers or a customized Trojan designed to exploit a single vulnerability in a specific application, the nature of malware is such that traditional blacklisting approaches are no longer effective as a first line of defense to protecting corporate PCs, laptops and servers," said Dennis Szerszen, senior vice president of SecureWave. "Sanctuary removes the guess work from malware prevention by enabling IT administrators to focus only on the applications they know to be safe. Denying all other executables by default ensures that no malicious code — known or unknown — will deliver its payload or propagate to other machines. The First National Bank of Bosque County and thousands of other companies across the globe rely on Sanctuary as the most effective solution for proactively enforcing acceptable application use policies and preventing all forms of malware."

About SecureWave

With SecureWave’s Sanctuary[R], organizations set and enforce policies for device and application use that overcome tomorrow’s security and operational challenges today. More than 1,500 enterprises worldwide in the financial, government, military, manufacturing and healthcare sectors, including Lockheed Martin, CSC/Anglian Water Services, MTU, Barclays Bank PLC and Norwich Union, utilize Sanctuary. SecureWave, named a Red Herring Top 100 Innovator, is headquartered in Luxembourg and services its global customer base via offices in the U.K. and Herndon, VA, as well as through a network of reseller and service provider partners worldwide. To learn more about SecureWave, please call (703) 713-3960 or visit www.securewave.com.

COPYRIGHT 2007 Business Wire
COPYRIGHT 2008 Gale, Cengage Learning

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A deadly Ebola-like virus is killing fish of all types in the Great Lakes, a development some scientists fear could trigger disaster for the USA’s freshwater fish.

Because of a lack of genetic resistance to the virus, fish populations could be damaged in the same way smallpox struck Native Americans and Dutch elm disease decimated elm trees, says Jim Winton, chief of fish health at the U.S. Geological Survey in Seattle.

Viral hemorrhagic septicemia (VHS) has been found in Lake Erie, Lake Ontario, Lake Huron, the St. Lawrence River, the Niagara River and an inland lake in New York. Scientists say the Great Lakes’ $4.5 billion commercial and sport fishing industry could be vulnerable, especially if the virus spreads to Lake Michigan and Lake Superior.

“What’s so disturbing is that it’s killing fish from so many species and with amazingly high mortality levels,” says Paul Bowser, …

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Scientists from the Edgewood Chemical Biological Center at Aberdeen Proving Ground and the University of California San Francisco said they identified both a virus and a parasite that are likely behind the recent sudden deaths of honeybee colonies. Using a new technology that was designed for military use to rapidly screen samples for pathogens, Edgewood scientists said they isolated the presence of viral and parasitic pathogens that may be contributing to the honeybee loss.

Confirmation testing was conducted by scientists at the University of California San Francisco.

Copyright 2007 Dolan Media Newswires
Provided by ProQuest Information and Learning Company. All rights Reserved.

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M2 PRESSWIRE-30 April 2007-Email Systems: Virus Writers Launch Large Scale Encrypted Attachment Strategy To Evade Capture Says Email Systems; Propagation Rapidly Escalates For Storm Trojan Virus(C)1994-2007 M2 COMMUNICATIONS LTD RDATE:29042007 Virus writers are attempting to evade the capture of their malicious code by sending it as either an encrypted email or within a password protected zip file attachment, according to email management specialist Email Systems.

Whilst this strategy has appeared previously in different guises, with encrypted zip attachments first becoming a …

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M2 PRESSWIRE-30 April 2007-BitDefender: BitDefender’s Virus Analysts Warn P2P Network Users; Ymeak Worm Masquerades as Installer Executable(C)1994-2007 M2 COMMUNICATIONS LTD RDATE:27042007 FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. - Virus analysts at BitDefender , an award-winning provider of antivirus software and data security solutions, have issued a warning tousers of P2P networks.

A new threat, the Ymeak.A worm has been spreading like wildfire, in part due to a simple yet effective social engineering technique: it masquerades as an installer executable of some popular programs. When it is …

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Apr. 28–ATLANTA: Researchers at security software developer Exploit Prevention Labs have uncovered hard evidence that cybercriminals are using Google AdWords to infect unsuspecting users with malware.

In his blog Roger Thompson, CTO, Exploit Prevention Labs, said that his company has identified exploits posing as legitimate URLs for the Better Business Bureau and cars.com in the "sponsored links" section that appears alongside search results.

Advertisers pay Google for the sponsored links to appear following specific search queries. Clicking on one of the malicious …

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MessageLabs, a leading provider of
integrated messaging and web security services to businesses worldwide,
today announced the findings of its MessageLabs Intelligence Report for
April 2007. In this report, MessageLabs exposes a new level in the
convergence between spam and viruses through intercepted cyber-criminal
activity, whilst highlighting the increase in spam levels and the emergence
of new techniques which have led to decreased rates in traditional virus
and phishing threats.

In what could be one of the most defining moments within the threat
landscape, MessageLabs has intercepted emails that are both spam and
contain a virus. While the cyber-criminals have long used email viruses to
create botnets to send spam, this is the first time MessageLabs has seen
viruses hidden within stock scam spam. Since April 14, MessageLabs has
stopped thousands of these emails as part the latest phase in Storm Worm
activity.

Late this month, the latest strains of Zhelatin, also known as Storm Worm,
were being spammed out in stock pump-and-dump emails which also contained
links to new malware being hosted on websites under the control of the
attackers. Purporting to be a screensaver, the malware then drops the
Zhelatin MeSpam engine onto the compromised computer. Until now, new
versions of Zhelatin have been distributed via botnets to create larger
botnets for the purposes of spamming.

“Why use two emails when just one will do? Now we are seeing the bad guys
layer on the threats — as if it’s not enough to just scam someone and fill
their inbox with junk email, why not also infect and take control of their
computer at the same time? These latest techniques are part of a new
boldness being shown by certain criminal gangs we are tracking,” said Mark
Sunner, Chief Security Analyst, MessageLabs. “These latest developments
also serve to highlight that spam cannot be perceived as just a nuisance
and it should be kept away from the desktop. Protection at the Internet
level avoids any errors by end-users which could have detrimental impact on
a business.”

Earlier this month MessageLabs announced the new data on the levels,
victims and sources of targeted email attacks in March 2007. Last month
MessageLabs intercepted 716 emails in 249 separate targeted attacks aimed
at 216 different organizations. Of these, almost 200 were one-on-one
targeted attacks where the tailored attack comprised a single email
designed to infiltrate one organization. These numbers represent a
significant increase when compared to the same period last year when attack
rates reached one or two per day.

Other report highlights:

Spam: In April, the global ratio of spam in email traffic from new and
unknown bad sources was 76.1 percent (1 in 13.1), an increase of 0.9
percent on the previous month. However, the figure is in real terms
considerably higher, but MessageLabs is now able to filter out large
volumes of known spam from sources such as known botnets. Without
MessageLabs at the Internet level to filter out known spam, and make it
more difficult for spammers to reach its clients, 83.6 percent of email
traffic would have been identified as spam.

Viruses: In April, the global ratio of viruses in email traffic from new
and previously unknown bad sources destined for valid recipients was 1 in
145.5 (0.69 percent), a decrease of 0.003 percent since March. MessageLabs
has found that large scale virus outbreaks have almost become a thing of
the past, as attacks are becoming increasingly more targeted and with
specific business motives.

Phishing: April shows a decrease of 0.08 percent in the proportion of
phishing attacks compared with the previous month, with one in 416.1 emails
containing a phishing attack. However, notably the number of attacks has
fallen by 12 percent, to levels last seen in August 2006, and is now
accounting for 35 percent of all malicious emails intercepted. MessageLabs
expects phishing to continue to decrease in the coming months, due to the
increased numbers of stringent measures being put into place by corporate
organizations.

Geographical Trends:

--  Spam attacks continued to target Israel, with 73.3 percent this month;
    however virus attacks are negligible
--  In Germany, spam attacks increased significantly by 10.3 percent,
    taking second position in the global rankings, whilst virus rates dropped
    by 0.6 percent (1 in 61.5)
--  India continues to lead the virus chart, with an increase of 2.2
    percent (1 in 31.7), which is likely to be a result of the country's lack
    of Anti-Virus protection and diverse IT infrastructure
--  In contrast, Sweden takes the accolade for the least targeted country
    by viral writers, with a decrease of 0.76 percent (1 in 653.6)
    

Vertical Trends:

--  Once again, Education was the main industry targeted in April, with 1
    in 60.4 emails heading for this vertical sector harboring a virus or some
    form of malware. This represents a 0.5 percent increase on the previous
    month, the largest shift for any vertical
--  The Telecommunications sector continues to be the least targeted
    vertical in April, and virus levels fell by 0.02 percent this month
--  An increase in spam activity was noted for the Wholesale sector with a
    rise of 0.9 percent; however, the greatest increase occurred in the
    Business Support Services sector where levels rose by 16.3 percent
--  Spam levels across Government and Public Sector bodies fell by 3.3
    percent this month, and a fall of 1.8 percent was noted across the Finance
    sector also, making the vertical the least targeted sector for spam in
    April
    

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SYDNEY (AFP) — Australian doctors revealed Sunday that three people who died shortly after receiving organ transplants from the same donor were all infected with a previously unknown virus.

The virus was found in three Melbourne patients who died just weeks after they received organs from a 57-year-old man who suffered a fatal brain haemorrhage one week after returning from Europe.

Australian officials said the infection was similar to lymphocytic choreomeningitis virus (LCMV), which was linked to the deaths of several transplant patients in the United States last year.

“I’m very pleased that out of a sad episode we’ve been able to draw some conclusions and find something new in a world first,” Dr Mike Catton from the Victorian Infectious Disease Laboratory said.

“It’s a new virus and it’s a new way of finding the virus.”

Catton said tests carried out with the assistance …

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BEIJING (AFP) — China will send bird flu virus samples to the World Health Organisation, state media reported Friday, apparently in response to WHO complaints that Beijing was not sharing them.

Early this week, WHO’s China representative Henk Bekedam said Beijing had not shared any recent samples of the virus since May 2006 despite repeated requests.

Several new cases have appeared in China since the last batch was shared and the WHO wants more rapid sharing of samples to keep on top of potential mutations in the avian disease that could raise the risk of human transmission.

“Upholding the principle of openness, transparency and cooperation, the government has always worked closely with the international community as part of the global effort …

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M2 PRESSWIRE-18 April 2007-US FDA: FDA Approves First U.S. Vaccine for Humans Against the Avian Influenza Virus H5N1(C)1994-2007 M2 COMMUNICATIONS LTD RDATE:17042007 The U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) today announced the first approval in the United States of a vaccine for humans against the H5N1 influenza virus, commonly known as avian or bird flu.

The vaccine could be used in the event the current H5N1 avian virus were to develop the capability to efficiently spread from human to human, resulting in the rapid spread of the disease across the globe. Should such an …

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