Rotary Golf Day

Rotary Golf Day, a set by garioch43 on Flickr.

Held to ransom - Cyberstyle

A recent survey by Symantec claims that this year, cyber crime will cost the UK economy an estimated £1.9 billion, or £103 per cyber crime victim, and that an estimated 19 million Brits – almost a third of the population – will be affected by cyber crime in some that during 2011.

Cyber crime has already come to the North-east with at least one company receiving an email ransom demand after a hacker accessed its computer system and encrypted 50 gigabytes of data.

“This probably happens more often but it isn’t spoken about much because people are embarrassed to admit their security is so lax that they have been hacked, and the amount of money demanded isn’t very high,” according to Bruce Skinner, managing director of Pisys Net, who managed to rescue almost all the “kidnapped” data. It’s the first time in eight years of working in IT that Bruce has experienced this.

“We had recently taken on the company and were sorting out a lot of their IT issues,” he explained. “But before we persuaded them to address all the security needs, their system was hacked into. The weakness of the company passwords and use of internal remote access software meant that hacking was possible.”

The hacker, who could be based anywhere in the world, had logged on and managed to access the server to see how it had been set up, realised there was an operations system on one drive and all the company data on the other. “So all he had to do was install some encryption software which is available to buy on the internet for about $20, create an encryption folder and drag all the data into it. If you don’t have the encryption password you’re never going to get that data back. It’s still there on the server, you just can’t get into it.”

The hacker then sent an email (see below) with his terms and conditions. “But the risk is, if you pay up will you get the key? Will you be seen as an easy target? And if you pay you are giving in to cyber crime.”

In this case, Bruce and the Pisys-net team managed to recover virtually all the data because so much of it had been backed up and printed off.

+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

The Ransom note:-

Your server has been hacked and your data has been encrypted.
Read the following message for more information and decryption details.
Your reference ID is [*****]

We accessed your Windows 2003 server and encrypted selected data folders using TrueCrypt data encryption.
See www.truecrypt.org for details of the encryption used, you may see there that we have fully encrypted your data using AES 256 bit with a strong encryption key. This data is not coming back to you without the encryption password.
We require a small payment, then we will provide you with the encryption key and simple, quick instructions to decrypt the data.

All you need to do is email us at decrypter@mail.ru and include your reference number. We will respond quickly with instructions to decrypt the container.
We will send you payment details. If you pay our modest fee, we provide you with the encryption password and simple instructions.
Your data file is stored at e:\encrypted_data_1

This is how we work.
Let us talk about some alternate scenarios:

Q...... You don´t believe this is happening and ignore us.
A...... This is happening, it has happened, the damage is done, your only hope is to interact with us.

Q...... You believe that the police can help you catch us and force us to give up the passkeys to your data
A...... This is wasting our time and is wasting your time. Don´t hold false hope. When was the last time that Soviet hackers been extradited anywhere?

Q...... You are believe that we bluff, and that it is possible to get your data back with some data recovery company.
A...... It is simple to encrypt your data beyond recovery with good tools.
We have gona to the trouble of breaking into your system and encrypting your data. We have done this correctly, your own investigation should make this apparent.

Q...... How long will it be before I get my data back?
A...... Usually less than 4 hours after you send payment.

Q...... I will just buy "data recovery" software, or use "data recovery" service.
A...... Before you waste your time, check with the supplier if it can decrypt AES 256 bit disk encryption... Data recovery software "undeletes" data, it can not decrypt encrypted information.

Q...... I see a new file "encrypted data", what is that and can I delete it?
A...... That is an encrypted store of your data. If you delete this, your data will not be recoverable.

Q...... I had confidential information on that server.
A...... No data escaped your server. You can verify this from your logging system. We are not interested in your data.

Q...... How can I pay, and how much do you want?
A...... Contact us via email to discuss this.

Q...... What can I do now?
A...... Just email us at decrypter@mail.ru and include your reference ID

USB 3.0 (Superspeed) is here

USB 3.0

As a Small business IT infrastructure consultant, this excites me very much.
For example, Microsoft Small Business server 2008 does not have native suppport for tape drives. We use USB Hard Drives and if your back up image is large, a back up can take hours to process, more importantly, Hours to restore a back up....... It now looks like we can do it 10 times faster with USB 3.0!

"SuperSpeed USB brings significant performance enhancements to the ubiquitous USB standard, while remaining compatible with the billions of USB enabled devices currently deployed in the market.
SuperSpeed USB will deliver up to 10x the data transfer rate of Hi-Speed USB, as well as improved power efficiency. The USB 3.0 specification was developed by the USB 3.0 Promoter Group which consists of Hewlett-Packard Company, Intel Corporation, Microsoft Corporation, NEC Corporation, ST-Ericsson and Texas Instruments." (quoted from virtual press office)
USB 2.0 offers speeds of up to 480Mbps but an effective rate of 40MBps for your average data transfer. So does this mean and effectice data transfer rate of 400Mbps for USB 3.0? only one way to find out.... lets get our hands on some USB 3.0 kit ofer the coming months and try it out!

My Computer Girl's Tips & Tricks: Access or Uninstall TrendMicro; When You Have Forgotten the Password

My Computer Girl's Tips & Tricks: Access or Uninstall TrendMicro; When You Have Forgotten the Password

Windows 7 - A definite replacement for Windows XP

Windows 7 was released to manufacturing (e.g. Dell, HP etc) today (23rd July 2009).

Microsoft Certified partners will gain access to 50 internal-use licences for Windows 7 Enterprise in late August.

With Windows 7 internal-use licences, Microsoft Certified Partners can run their business, train staff, test new solutions and demonstrate Windows 7 features to customers

I have been using Windows 7 (RC) on a 3 year old Pentium4 HP laptop with 1GB RAM for a month or so now and I really think this is the replacement for XP we have been waiting for.

Oh yes and for those of you thinking "I bet not all my applications will work on Windows 7" well, they will, because there is a neat function called "Windows XP Mode".
Windows 7 cleverly runs a virtual XP pc, so say for example you want to run an AutoCAD type program not compatible with W7, you install it using XP mode. The great thing is, a user does not need to know this because, Windows 7 will run the application just like any other!

This is the operating system you have been waiting for.............For more information on Windows 7 click here

25GB of free online storage Windows Live SkyDrive

25GB of free online storage and make it look like another folder on your PC!

I have been using Microsoft Windows Live SkyDrive for some time now and I think it’s a good offering.

If you want one, all you need is a windows live ID and go to skydrive.live.com to use it.

How often have you saved a file to "My Documents" on your desktop PC then wanted to access that file from home or another location. The file is not on a shared drive, your PC at work is turned off so you have no chance of accessing it!

Another Scenario is you have a 20Mb file you want to share with 6 other people, what are some of the options? Use an FTP site? IT savvy users might use this but it can be slow, awkward to access and may not be secure. Email it? No Chance! Most email systems have 8Mb restrictions.

Windows live SkyDrive lets you save files to a secure virtual drive online, meaning you can access your files from anywhere. You can Share certain folders with users, this solves the sharing of large files scenario.

Map your SkyDrive with Windows Explorer

The only issue I had with SkyDrive was having to log on to skydrive.live.com each time to drag and drop files, a minor issue but a worthy one. I have now discovered Gladinet - http://www.gladinet.com/

Gladinet is a free software utility that allows you to connect to your SkyDrive as if it were a folder on your PC!!

If you are interested, here's what to do

Download the free version of Gladient here

It's a 11ish Mb download.

Install the software then using the "Virtual Directory Manager" Mount a "Windows Live SkyDrive"

Click on the "Mount" icon

Click on Mount "Windows Live SkyDrive"

Give your SkyDrive/Virtual Directory a name; add your Windows live ID and password.

Once you have done that, you should now have a windows explorer view of your SkyDrive!

Multi Purpose training simulator goes modular (lite)

In an earlier post about our Simulator and on our website we describe the available simulation models, some of these being:

Jack up, FPSO, SemiSub etc.

Historically we have only delivered each model with all of the following training possibilities:-

Jack up

Major Emergency Management

Jacking operations

Familiarisation

Power Management

Rack Phase Differentials

Semi-Sub

Major Emergency Management

Marine operations / Moorings

Ballast Control / Stability

Familiarisation

Power Management

FPSO

Major Emergency Management

Cargo Loading/Discharge

Tank Cleaning

Ballast Control / Stability / Longitudinal Stress

Marine operationsProcess Overview

Familiarisation

Power Management
------------------------------------
We always listen to our clients and we have found that often each training organisation may only train on one process. E.g. Major Emergency Management but not process. This means you do not use all the capabilities.

With this in mind we have been able to develop our systems to deliver only what our clients need.

So for example, if all you do is Major Emergency Management for FPSO's we can now supply that as a package.

This reduces costs and allows training originations that felt that buying or renting a simulator was not cost effective to think again!

Interested? Get in touch


bruce.skinner@pisys.co.uk