F-Secure Application Control: Part 2

F-Secure’s Application Control allows the active blocking of scripts hidden in malicious files and documents (see related article here), but this is not its only feature. The Application Control module also allows the control of recognised application by implementing block rules based on specified criteria. Multiple criteria can be defined per rule for more control. These criteria include, but are not limited to the following:

Gone Phishing

Cyber criminals are busy too. Not a day goes by without receiving emails from unknown sources in an attempt to steal credentials.

Click here for Malware

Also spotted recently are malware downloading links distributed via email. The embedded links navigate to a file-hosting website where the malware is stored to avoid detection by email spam and greyware filters.

Latest Cyber Attack Threats

South Africa Under Attack
DDoS Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks have been directed at numerous South African ISPs in recent weeks. Most recently, Cool Ideas, a fibre specific ISP, reported an attack on 23 November 2019 which restricted international internet traffic for all their users. Cool Ideas co-founder Paul Butschi told MyBroadband that the size of the attack exceeded 300Gbps. According to a later report, Echo Service Provider, the upstream provider supplying services to Afrihost, Axxess and Webafrica, was also targeted causing limited connectivity to international services. Connectivity has since been restored. This comes a month after Afrihost, Axxess, Webafrica and the RSA banking industry was targeted by the same type of attack.

As with previous DDoS attacks this year, mitigation takes some time, but services are generally restored in full after a few days.

28 years of Internet in South Africa
November 12th, 2019 marked 28 years of internet access in South Africa. On this day in 1991, the first IP connection was made between Rhodes University’s computing centre and the home of Randy Bush in Portland, Oregon (USA). Mike Lawrie and his colleagues provided South Africa with a tremendous contribution in technology. The internet in South Africa was born on this day using a 386 personal computer (PC) with a CPU of 12 to 40MHz on each end and a connection speed of 14,4kbps. [ITWeb]

Thanks to this milestone in South African history, we have seen incredible progression and growth of internet technologies, business, communications and many other basics which are taken for granted today. As of 2017, 31.8 million South Africans (56.17% of the total population) were Internet users. [wikipedia]

This bulletin is intended to increase the security awareness in organisations by providing useful information to help enhance security and safety when using computing devices and the Internet.

We trust that you find the above information useful and should you wish to check out further resources or contact us, please feel free to visit the Cybervision website.

The Cybervision Team