Swine Flu hits the Internet
The swine flu is an influenza virus strain that pigs have. Previously it could only be passed from pigs to humans, however there is a current mutation which is spread by humans to humans.
In computer terms, a virus is a piece of malicious code that self-propagates over the network and Internet. There are many variations of viruses from simple harmless ones, to major viruses that spread like wildfire and kill your computer. (like Windows?)
Traditionally, computer viruses were Windows PC-based, copying executable code from one computer to the next. Although there are many anti-virus software applications on the market today, the new breeds of virus are getting tougher and tougher.
Although not officially called the swine flu, I use the analogy because viruses are changing their hosts in sneaky ways. One method which is extremely nasty is using websites to spread.
Some of these nasties, once executed on your PC, will monitor all your FTP activity. They recognize when you connect to websites for editing purposes and inject malicious code into the code being sent up.
Naturally the danger of your password being sent to someone untrusted via email is extremely high since FTP handles passwords in plain text.
The malicious code on the website could then propagate to all visitors of the site. This is usually attempted with JavaScript in an iframe to hide the fact that the site is not exactly what was uploaded to the infected webmaster who's uploading it.
In the past, this kind of activity would have been limited to techies only, but these days there are many software products on the market that allow non-programmers to edit their website content with ease, and some use FTP as their communication protocol (like Contribute).
My recommendations for everyone who works on or with the web to stop the spread of Internet-based viruses and increase the security of websites you work with are as follows:
- Always have a good firewall between you and the Internet. There usually is one built into most good routers, but make sure anyway.
- Never use plain FTP when uploading or download files. It is a garbage outdated protocol, which is less secure than wet paper bag in a hurricane. Use SFTP instead.
- If you manage your own server, disable FTP altogether. Clients should use SFTP.
- If you're a programmer, make sure any web apps you code are up to security standards and best practices (ie prevent SQL injection, etc)
- If you utilize any open source or third-party widgets or plug-ins on your site, make sure they remain up-to-date with all patches and updates that are released as soon as those updates are released.
- Always have good and up-to-date anti-virus software running on your PC's and servers. It should never be out of date for a minute. If it wants to restart your computer for changes to take effect, do it immediately. Don't be tempted to wait until you have some time because you're busy right now.
- Always have good and up-to-date anti-spyware software running.
- Change passwords regularly for all your sites. Even every month is good.
- Only use strong passwords of 8 characters or more with a mix of letters and numbers, and both upper case and lower case.
- Wherever possible, lose Windows altogether. Linux is much more secure - not to mention faster.
- Don't use the same old password for every site. If your password does somehow leak out, you want to be assured of minimal damage.
- Never ever ever send passwords via email or IM. Email can be read by every server that passes it along (use something like MyMessageSafe.com instead).
It's *YOUR* safety and security. If you work on client sites, then it's *YOUR* integrity at stake.
Be safe,
-Andreas
Posted: 2009-04-29 16:15:24
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By Insec on 2010-01-12 13:01:53
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