Law Practice Management Tips & Tricks
| Publication year | 2010 |
| Pages | 13 |
Law Practice Management Tips & Tricks
Staking Out Personal Space in Our Computer Culture
By Larry N. Zimmerman, Valentine, Zimmerman & Zimmerman P.A., Topeka, kslpm@larryzimmerman.com
Human Pawns in the Battle for Machines
I am a cynical loner who does not like sharing. For example, my only advice to my daughter as she began tennis was to "avoid doubles - no obligation to a partner." I suppose it is a character flaw in much of my life but not when it comes to computer security. You are not welcome on my computer network and no, you may not share my bandwidth. Staking out that personal space in our computer culture requires cynical awareness of human frailty more than technological savvy.
Look a Gift Horse in the Mouth
Computer attacks continue to sweep across the Internet with a noticeable spike in June 2010 when upwards of 100,000 websites carried infection to 2.6 million computers. Big name sites like Fox and the New York Times inadvertently served up poisonous banner ads. Infection was easy - just go to a benign site and the infected ad would trigger fake virus warnings. Users accepting the warnings at face value clicked "Clean System" and were rewarded with a shakedown to purchase software (by credit card) and a system that could eventually block their access as it stole sensitive data and bandwidth. Video demonstrations of this type of attack are available on YouTube at http://tinyurl.com/26yzc5a and http://tinyurl. com/2b5bakr.
The Tempting Two-Step
These attacks manipulated people into voluntarily opening up their computer systems to attack instead of using technological skill. Called social engineering, it is just a good old con. In step one of the con, the villain uses a front company to place an infected ad with online distributors like the Fox Audience. The ad is then distributed to thousands of subscriber sites and shown to viewers as the banner ad at the top or side of a page. Worried that users may install ad-blocking software (e.g., Adblock Plus at adblockplus.org), Google has established a website (www.anti-malvertising.com), aimed at educating publishers in identifying and addressing banner ad villains. (Google is keenly aware that ad-blocking could quickly eat into its primary revenue stream.)
Once a villain has a hostile ad in circulation, the attack spreads quickly across the Internet. Step two...
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