US President Barack Obama officially declared October as the National Cybersecurity Awareness Month. Now in its sixth year, the said campaign promotes increased awareness with its theme, “Our Shared Responsibility.” It also calls for everyone to do their fair share in securing the nation’s digital infrastructure. Furthermore, it stressed out the need for people to familiarize themselves with best computing practices to protect them against threats plaguing the Web today.
Threats are continuously evolving and increasing. In fact, Trend Micro Smart Protection Network blocks at least 1 billion threats per day. Cybercriminals are incessantly employing new tactics such as SEO poisoning where search results on current news are rigged to redirect users to malicious websites that serve FAKEAV and other malware. This year, we also saw the full-blown rise of KOOBFACE botnet that leverages on the popularity of social networking sites. ZBOT variants are still prominent threats that come via spam attachments.
With that in mind, it is crucial for law enforcement, government, and security researchers to maintain their collaboration to fight cybercrimes. In the past, such collaboration was able to take down McColo, a spam mogul. McColo is known for hosting malicious operations like credit card theft and fraud to name a few. Advanced Threats Researcher Paul Ferguson along with other security researchers worked with HostExploit.com Cyber Crime Report, providing research and intelligence on the criminal activities of McColo.
Users can also help in the battle against cybercrimes by equipping themselves with knowledge on best practices. For tips on safe computing, users can visit the Trend Micro Internet Safety for Kids and Family website. They can also use free tools like HouseCall, TrendProtect, and Transaction Guard to secure themselves from threats lurking in the Web.
Trend Micro commends the United States for this cyber security initiative and encourages other countries to actively promote security awareness. After all, cybercrime is a global concern that involves everybody. In addition, let us not forget that security is a long-term campaign that goes beyond this month. Every month should be treated as cybersecurity awareness month.