Bay Geeks Computer Repair Services

Amazon has warned its customers that one of Samsung’s digital picture frames shipped to customers infected with a virus. While Samsung has some egg on its face, malware that ships on consumer hardware is not as serious of an issue as it may seem.

Earlier this week Amazon alerted its customers to an issue affecting the installation CD that shipped with the Samsung SPF-85H 8 inch Digital Picture Frame. Apparently the CD shipped with a copy of the W32.Sality.AE virus. Amazon is recommending that people download a recent copy of the application directly from Samsung’s website rather than using the CD.

So yes, this is embarrassing for Samsung. It shows that either they or the subcontractor who cut the CD need to tighten up their processes surrounding manufacturing systems. There is no reason for those machines to be exposed to malware, let alone not run up-to-date anti-virus to catch these infections.

The customers have a pretty low likelihood of being infected by this malware, though. Any system running up-to-date anti-virus would have been guaranteed to spot the potential infection, as the delay between when the CD was first cut and when the customer attempted to install the application was far longer than the average amount of time it takes for a piece of malware to be detected by an anti-virus package. If the system wasn’t running an up-to-date anti-virus package, well, it probably had oodles of malware already, and the marginal cost of one more infection is pretty small.

I suspect next year Samsung will be asking Santa for security people who are tightwads about compliance.

Adam J. O’Donnell, Ph.D. is an R&D engineer who has focused on computer security since 2000. He currently is the Director of Emerging Technologies at Cloudmark, a messaging security company located in San Francisco. See his full profile and disclosure of his industry affiliations.

Vulnerability Assessment & Vulnerability Remediation

Bay Geeks is now offering an in-depth vulnerability assessment & vulnerability remediation solution.

Bay Geeks has been strategically aligned with global leaders in the information security industry to provide the most comprehensive, in-depth vulnerability analysis which not only covers your critical systems but also your PC workstations.

We were invited to participate in a recent security conference along with several other leaders in the security industry. “We’ve seen a shift from hackers and virus writers almost exclusively targeting Windows machines (81%) to recently 92% of the exploits targeting 3rd party applications” according to a Senior Security Evangelist with Kaspersky Labs .

Microsoft, after years of public scrutiny has made tremendous progress in securing the most popular operating systems in the world. So much so, that these hackers are realizing that as soon as they start taking advantage of various exploits, Microsoft is already working on patching these holes.

These international crime rings have some of the most talented individuals, committed to their cause, constantly learning from the collective work of their respective colleagues who share tips, techniques and processes in much the same way the security analysts work who are dedicated to thwarting their archenemies, but publish much of their findings online for all to read.

These illicit groups have realized that they are having much more success targeting 3rd party software (Adobe Reader, Flash, Real Player, Google Earth and others) because these other software companies don’t have the resources in place to address the security issues as quickly as Microsoft. The more time they have with unpatched vulnerabilities, the more profitable their ventures will prove.

Keeping up with Microsoft Updates is no longer sufficient to protect yourself from these attacks. Well-trusted web sites have become unknowingly infected, such as USA Today, Superbowl, CNET, Walmart, Target, ABC News, Bank of India and more.

What we’re seeing is a frightening reality: The internet is under permanent siege.

• - Malware is up 278%  in 2008
• - 1-in-5 desktop applications are unpatched
• - 98% of PCs have unpatched software
• - Over 90% of all e-mail sent is spam
• - Majority of these e-mails are lures for malware
• - 2H07: MSRT removed malware from 15.8 million computers worldwide – 80% increase over 1H07
• - Total disinfections in 2H07 rose to 42.2 million, an increase of ~ 120% over 1H07

Bay Geeks solution:

We’ll analyze your system on a quarterly basis to identify known security holes and other issues with your system.
 

Vulnerability Assessment: A Bay Geeks Security Analyst will provide an in-depth analysis of your computer systems.  Our database of more than 7,500 software titles will ensure we find problems with some of the most obscure applications on the market (past and present). We will ensure your anti-virus is up-to-date, anti-spyware measures are sufficient and up-to-date, we will identify deficiencies in your operating system and provide a detailed report on our findings. 

This detailed Vulnerability-Threat Assessment & Report is currently $50.00 for a limited time (normally $89.00).

Vulnerability Remediation: A Bay Geeks Security Analyst will work through the report to resolve outstanding security issues identified in the Vulnerability Assessment.

  Our Vulnerability Remediation service is provided at our standard service rate.
 

Call Bay Geeks today at 727.579.GEEK (4335) or go to www.BayGeeks.com for details.