Wave Systems Corp. (fka WAVXQ)

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http://blog.wave.com/souren/guardian-blog-post-points-to-global-out-of-control-cybercrime/
Joseph Souren

September 26, 2011

Guardian blog post points to global, out-of-control cybercrime


Misha Glenny asks a very pertinent point on his current Guardian blog post: “Cybercrime: Is it out of control?”

Glenny is author of DarkMarket: CyberThieves, CyberCops and You and his post expands at some length on cybercrime, with the key theme: “It’s time we got our act together”.

Cybercrime has been estimated to cost the global economy $1trillion a year – almost 1.75% of global GDP, according to Misha, author and cybercrime expert.

There is a very strong case to be made that this global criminal activity is indeed almost completely unfettered, growing by the day and presents a clear and present danger to the operations of government, business and individuals.



Scareware stories have been around as long as the networks but in this case, Glenny is really echoing the fears and anxieties of governments and corporations around the world.

Significantly, his post starts with the hacker breaking into the bank’s network. The fact is, all or most of these hacks start by some unauthorised person with an unauthorised device finding a way (usually “socially engineered” stolen username/password, stolen smartcard/pin, etc.) onto the network they want to steal from.

Hardware-based trusted authentication (keys held in the device’s Trusted Platform Module) prevents that entry onto the enterprise network. The TPM helps enforce “only known devices on my network”.

If thieves cannot get on the network with an untrusted device, they cannot steal anything from the enterprise.

The TPM is one of the ‘best-kept secrets’ of network security. More than half a billion laptops and desktops have this device embedded. Leading manufacturers, including Dell and HP, ship thousands of new PCs, laptops and notebooks every month with the TPM installed.

The TPM is based on open standards developed by the Trusted Computing Group and Wave has, as a founder and a leading force in the group, been proud to create the frameworks that will offer the best, most robust and unmatched network security to government, business and organisations.

At the same time, we are sure that criminals will continue to become more sophisticated in their attack strategies. This is why organisations urgently need to embrace trusted, proven ways to protect their network and data. The layered software approach has been shown time and time again to be ineffective.

The point is exactly that hacking has moved very swiftly in the past two years from sociopathic individuals and groups who seek status in their community and notoriety in general, to well-funded, organised criminal gangs who have some of the best and brightest hackers.

The problem is not static, rather it is now critical. At stake is not only the integrity of financial systems but, more important, the future of nations and every organisation because these gangs are stealing Intellectual Property – ideas, plans, blueprints and strategies.

According to William Hague, UK Foreign Secretary there is an “alarming” rise in the levels of attacks by states on states, criminals on states, terrorists on states and organisations, and criminals on business and individuals.

“There are a rapidly multiplying set of challenges in cyberspace on government and institutions,” he says.

Mr Hague believes that industry in Britain is under attack because it has intellectual property worth billions of pounds.

“This is so important in the national and economic sense. These are very valuable things. And they are not sitting in a vault so we need to take precautions to safeguard them.”

Hague underlines that the UK is at the forefront of the battle in cyberspace and that, at the national level, GCHQ is extremely effective. Hear more from Mr Hague and others on Radio 4: File on 4 podcast.

The solution governments and other forward-thinking organisations are rapidly moving towards to end the cyber-crisis is based on Trusted Computing frameworks, which every business and organisation should know about – and implement quickly.

Every day, across the globe, organisations are reporting serious network breaches. Wave’s framework is the solution and the company’s commitment to research & development means that these solutions form an unbeatable defence against the cybercriminals intent on stealing everything of value – including our future.