ANTenna Blog -- Keith Ferrell

Keith Ferrell covers security issues for bMighty.com. He is also the author of more than a dozen books, including novels and biographies. He has written widely on technology and science, as well as business and medicine, has spoken to business, government and educational audiences in the United States, Europe and Asia, and has appeared frequently on television and radio.

From 1990 to 1996, Ferrell was editor-in-chief of OMNI Magazine, the world’s largest circulation science magazine; additionally he was editorial director of the Compute family of books and magazines, as well as senior vice president of parent company General Media International. In 1994, Ferrell oversaw the launch of OMNI On-Line, the first major magazine to make the transition to Internet publication.

Ferrell lives on a small farm in the hills of southern Virginia where, in addition writing for bMighty, he is completing a long new novel and a history of science from the dawn of language to the dawn of the Internet.

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2010 Cybercrime Goals: Symantec

Posted by Keith Ferrell 10:35 AM ET | Dec 16, 2009

What do cybercrooks want next year? According to Symantec Hosted Services, they want bigger and badder botnets, pathways through CAPTCHA traps, local language spam and plenty of hooks as good as Michael Jackson and Tiger Woods.

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Security

Trojan Buzus Attack Passes 1.5 Million Infected Sites

Posted by Keith Ferrell 10:26 AM ET | Dec 14, 2009

A widlfire-fast SQL injection that started picking up speed last week hasn't slowed down. Last week's hundreds of thousands of compromised sites have grown to more than 1.5 million, eSoft reports.

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Security

Top 15 Threats: How The Crooks Are Coming At You

Posted by Keith Ferrell 11:43 AM ET | Dec 10, 2009

The latest Verizon Data Breach Report lists the top outside threats -- keyloggers, spyware, SQL injections, remote access and control -- and inside threats -- access and privilege abuse, usage and other policy violations -- that businesses have faced. The report is based on actual business's data breach experiences.

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Security
Business & E-Business | IT | Internet/Web

Bank Phishing: It Doesn't Take Much For Phishers To Take A Lot

Posted by Keith Ferrell 12:49 PM ET | Dec 7, 2009

Most people ignore -- and, one hopes, delete unopened -- those phishmails that pose as correspondence from legitimate banks. But even a fraction of a percentage of responses generates millions for the crooks.

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Security
Business & E-Business | Company Size: 1-49 | Finance/Accounting | Finance/Banking/Insurance

SMB Security Spending To Grow In 2010, Vendors Say. What Say You?

Posted by Keith Ferrell 11:43 AM ET | Dec 4, 2009

Small and midsized businesses are "poised" for security growth in 2010, according to a recent panel of experts. But that same conversation included warnings that the growth would come while SMBs continue to slash budgets. Paradox? Not when you factor in the cloud and security services.

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Security
Business & E-Business | Cloud Computing | Company Size: 1-49 | Company Size: 50-249 | Internet/Web | Services

Security Pro Market Heating Up

Posted by Keith Ferrell 12:56 PM ET | Dec 2, 2009

The good news for IT security professionals is that demand for their skills is likely to increase in the next few months, according to Robert Half Technology. The challenging news for small and midsized businesses looking for security pros is that rising demand for their skills is going to make finding and hiring them harder.

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Security
Business & E-Business | HR | IT | IT Management

Cyber Monday Security Risks Are All Business

Posted by Keith Ferrell 11:15 AM ET | Nov 25, 2009

Why Cyber Monday for the online shopping surge? Because for many, Monday's the first working day after Thanksgiving. Which means they can do their online shopping on business time, on the business dime, using business machines over business connections. You may not be able -- or want -- to do anything about the productivity drop, but at least you can tell your people to shop safely.

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Security
Business & E-Business | IT Management | Retail | Social Networking

Employees Stealing Data At Frightening Rate

Posted by Keith Ferrell 11:40 AM ET | Nov 24, 2009

Two new studies indicate that workers are not only able to steal confidential data from employers, they're ready and willing to do so -- at rates that are troubling, if not downright frightening.

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Security
Business & E-Business | Company Size: 1-49 | Economics | Finance/Banking/Insurance

Twilight's Latest Hacking: Vampire Byte Scam Targets Stephanie Meyer Fans

Posted by Keith Ferrell 01:13 PM ET | Nov 20, 2009

Scareware masquerading as an interview with Twilight author Stephanie Meyer is making the rounds, and fast. Time to pass the word to any of your employees who are Twilight-obsessed and, more importantly, have them pass the word to their kids who may well be chasing the phenomenon on the same computers their parents may use for work-at-home.

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Security
Business & E-Business | Company Size: 1-49 | Messaging

Free SMB Firewall Offfered By Astaro

Posted by Keith Ferrell 02:28 PM ET | Nov 17, 2009

Security firm Astaro is offering free firewalls to small and midsized businesses starting today. Too good to be true? Maybe not.

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Security
Business & E-Business | Internet/Web | Networking & Communications