F-Secure's The Cloud

F-Secure makers of fine anti virus softwares is going to be launching a new version of their DeepGuard modal that will use cloud computing to help protect user's systems.



What they are doing is an online signature database rather than a local one. This means that if your system encounters a new application or word macro, it can ask the cloud about it, the cloud will then tell your computer if it is safe, not or if it is something new. If it is new it can be scanned and a report sent to the cloud. The cloud will then inform all other computers asking about that application from then on. This sounds like a good idea around large signature updates that only arrive several days after the virus has already gained a foothold, but for people who are using poor, overloaded or intermittent internet connections I am not convinced. At least the video was nice.

National Cybersecurity

I felt like I needed to comment on This BBC News Post about America's national computer security. It is full of statements like "we need leadership" and "it is upto industry to provide better solutions". Well the truth is, and has been for many years now, that industry and governments have all the solutions to protect their data and their users, but are too lazy to implement them properly. The tools that help organisations sleep at night are:

Antivirus
Firewall
Strong Passwords
Common Seance/Training
Backup Policy
Asset Management
Disaster Recovery Plan

The final two are not the kind of thing home users can implement, but the rest are good things for everybody to know about, and should be implemented on every computer on the planet. Why there are still organisations and governments floundering over IT security annoys me as it is not rocket science.