From the AEGIS e-Journal, Volume 12 Number 4, April 2009
Kaspersky Internet Security 2009 Kaspersky Lab $59.00 http://www.kaspersky.com/ 1-800-406-4966 As anyone with a computer knows, we are drowning in a sea of spam and malware. The problem is exacerbated by the significant percentage of people with computers who have either no anti-malware software, or who don’t bother to keep it current. While we find this puzzling, we don’t fall into that group, and, at the moment, use Kaspersky Internet Security 2009 as our PC anti-malware program of choice. We have chosen this software for several reasons. It is an integrated program, containing a virus scanner (used by a number of other similar products), firewall, popup blocker, email scanner, the ability to protect your computer registry, and more. This is good, because you don’t have to buy, install, and maintain multiple programs. It is easy to install: Just accepting the defaults will give the unsophisticated user good protection. The program updates its databases regularly – it seems to do an update every hour or so – and uses less memory and system resources than other anti- malware programs we have used, which is a relief even on a powerful machine with a lot of memory. Kaspersky Internet Security 2009 has a number of features, like parental control, which we didn’t look at. A feature we only recently discovered – it is new in the current version – is a security analyzer, which looks at all your programs and tells you which ones are compromised, and where to get updates. We updated Java, as well as a few other programs, and got rid of the vulnerabilities. It also scans for rootkits, which often modify parts of the operating system or install themselves as drivers or kernel modules. While some rootkits are malware designed as malware, others are by folks like SONY, whom one would have thought knew better, with its dangerous DRM rootkit (http://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2005/11/sonys_drm_rootk.html). While Kaspersky has business solutions, we only looked at tools appropriate for the home and small-office user. This program has our recommendation. ÆGIS, April 2009 8 7. Subscription/Unsubscription/Copyright Information •• ÆGIS is supported and maintained by voluntary efforts. This publication is owned, published, and copyright © 2009 by The LUBRINCO Group Ltd, Inc. and Financial Examinations and Evaluations, Inc. It is edited jointly by Richard Isaacs (RBIsaacs@lubrinco.com), L. Burke Files (LBFiles@feeinc.com), and Terry Phillips (TPhillips@aegisjournal.com). LUBRINCO provides services in three high-threat areas, too specialized to be dealt-with in-house, that can adversely affect domestic and international bottom lines.
• International asset location and due diligence. o Anti-money laundering, financial fraud, and anti-corruption program development and training. o Statutorily mandated AML independent examinations for financial institutions and gatekeepers; o Investigation and location of missing or concealed assets, related to fraud, theft, and divorce. o Due Diligence to prevent fraud and loss, as well as validate potential business partners or potential business acquisition or merger. LUBRINCO has significant expertise in performing Due Diligence in China, Central and Eastern Europe, Central Asia, the offshore financial centers, Latin America, and the Caribbean. • Identification, valuation, and protection of intellectual assets and critical information. • American businesses lose $300 billion in revenues annually to competitive intelligence, economic espionage, inappropriate disclosure, and information theft. • LUBRINCO provides private sector consulting access to OPSEC, the government-standard process for identification, valuation, and protection of intellectual property and critical information. • Implementing an OPSEC program is likely to increase revenues for an at-risk operating group by $75 million. ÆGIS, April 2009 9 • Protection of executive management, staff, and families. o In the high-threat environments of Latin America, Africa, the Mid- East, and Southeast Asia. o When traveling and living overseas. o When transporting items of substantial value. LUBRINCO identifies and quantifies threats and vulnerabilities, and their associated risk, then manages the vulnerabilities so you can transfer or live with the residual risk. We prevent disastrous financial loss to your company, and physical harm to you, your family, and your staff. For information on LUBRINCO and its services, or for the archive of all past issues of ÆGIS in PDF format, please go to http://www.aegisjournal.com/. Subscription to ÆGIS is available for $15 per year in North America and $20 per year outside of North America. To sign up for a complimentary subscription to ÆGIS or the ÆGIS PDF notification list, send an email to subscribe@aegisjournal.com. To subscribe to our AvantGo channel, go to http://avantgo.com/channels/_add_channel.pl?cha_id=1773 To be removed from the subscription list, send an e-mail to unsubscribe@aegisjournal.com. If you know of anyone else who should be receiving ÆGIS, please send their e-mail address to subscribe@aegisjournal.com. If there is a topic that you would like to know more about, please send your request to editor@aegisjournal.com and the editors will consider it as the topic for an article in an upcoming issue. If you would like to submit an article for publication in ÆGIS, please send it as an attachment to an e-mail to editor@aegisjournal.com. Submission of an article for publishing consideration certifies that: (a) all information in the article is in the public record, or (b) that you are authorized to release any personal or corporate proprietary information contained in the article, and (c) that none of the article has previously been copyrighted. ÆGIS, April 2009 10 The submission of materials for publication in ÆGIS constitutes a license to LUBRINCO, and/or Financial Examinations and Evaluations, Inc, their assigns, associates, or affiliates, to abridge and/or edit said submission, and to copyright and publish/republish any submitted materials in whatever written and/or electronic form they may choose. If you would like to go beyond normal fair-use in reproducing articles from this issue of ÆGIS, you may do so freely as long as appropriate source, copyright, accreditation, and link to the ÆGIS Web site is included. This should be in the form
Article Title, from the April 2009 ÆGIS (© 2009 LUBRINCO and FE&E), to be found at http://www.aegisjournal.com/. ÆGIS is a forum for the exchange of information, ideas, operating styles, theories, and related topics for corporate managers who make decisions about threats typically outside the expertise available in-house, yet which have the potential to affect their company’s domestic and international bottom lines. Nothing appearing in ÆGIS should be construed as legal advice. The information provided is “general information,” not “specific advice.” The solution to any problem is highly dependent upon the precise facts involved. Thus, before making any reliance upon anything said here, you should consult with an appropriately skilled professional. Opinions expressed by contributors are not necessarily endorsed by the publisher, and may be presented to encourage a dialogue among subscribers. The publisher and any re-publisher cannot be held responsible for any loss incurred as a result of the application of any information published in ÆGIS. Please be safe, and be smart.