Inter(net)pol?

Believe it or not, 2008 was the year that witnessed an explosive growth in
the amount of malicious software (malware) on the Internet.

According to a report recently published by F-Secure, a provider in security
solution for Internet service providers, the amount of malware accumulated over
the previous twenty-one years increased by 200% just in the course of one year.

This year the overall detections count has tripled against 2007 and about 1.5
mn signature-based detections have been done by F-Secure.

And the amount of malicious software, infections, number of botnets, criminal
profits naturally calls for actions against the attackers.

Further, total malicious samples increased by almost 350%, where 10 mn
suspicious samples have been imported, scanned, indexed, classified and
categorized by F-Secures Response Lab Systems, says the IT security threat
report for 2008. The question is: how does one deal with the issue?

It can be dealt in two ways: one by minimizing these attacks using
technology, and two by taking action against the culprits or perpetrators
involved in such crimes, says Mikko Hypponen, F-Secures chief research officer
(CRO).

The latter remains more important, as it sends a message across the board to
those perpetrators, gangs or others that they can be punishable and we wont
tolerate them.

However, Hypponen commented that the tech tools developed by them are also
being used by those attackers to write virus or malicious programs. Hence it
doesnt solve the purpose.

So far not many have been caught or punished by security and government
agencies globally due to lack of mechanism or an agency like Interpol. We are
not the police, but we need real police to fight them who are sitting in
different countries and operating, he affirmed.

Interestingly, Hypponen is working with foreign governments and security
agencies to set up Internetpol (Internet Police), same as Interpol, to fight
cyber crimes. He has already discussed this idea with European Union security
agencies, UKs Scotland Yard, USAs Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) and
also hopes to do the same with the Indian agencies.

F-Secures security technologies are based on Threat Analysis Process using
the Blacklighta scan engine for scrutinizing the virus and malware samples.

Our new security solution, Deep Guard 2.0 is based on cloud approach
offering real-time protection network, where the tool examines the applications
or computer programs and accordingly blocks malicious programs and only allows
the proper ones, he explained.

CyberMedia News Bureau

maildqindia@cybermedia.co.in