Tech savvy internet users with dark motives are unstoppable on the web. They prey on innocent peoplw and organizations and spread their illicit and fraudulent acts worldwide.
But authorities are not losing hope because they believe there’s a way to stop these cybercrimes. Even the technology giants are collaborating in this endeavor to make sure the cybercriminals don’t go scot free.
Google Takes Action
This July, Google formed a task force called Project Zero team that will work to reduce the number of targeted cyber attacks. Specifically, it will expose the activities, strategies of malicious internet users and find ways to protect users from attacks such as through program analysis.
This move to create a task force stemmed from the discovery of Heartbleed in early 2014 by a Google researcher. Heartbleed apparently made millions of webites vulnerable to cyberattacks due to a software flaw in the OpenSSL cryptographic library. Flaws in software are normally taken advantage of by cybercriminals to gain illicit entry to computer systems.
With Project Zero, Google is building an external database of all the bugs they find and then submit the results to companies or other groups that maintain the software.
Microsoft’s Move
Microsoft for its part announced also in July a very successful operation that freed an estimated 4.7 million infected personal computers. The digital crimes unit of this largest software maker said the biggest number of infected machines were in India, Pakistan, Egypt, Brazil, Algeria and Mexico.
The high-profile case was the first of its kind involving malware developed outside of Eastern Europe. Microsoft immediately gave internet service providers including government authorities across the globe with the list of IP address of infected machines in an effort to help their users get rid of the viruses.
The software giant revealed that cyber criminals used the servers of Vitalwerks Internet Solutions based in Reno, Nevada to communicate with compromised PCs. Two malicious software were identified by Microsoft which were distributed by developers in Algeria and Kuwait.
Hewlett Packard’s Security Team
Hewlett Packard is taking action as well proving that it’s not sitting on its laurels. The company’s TippingPoint provides advanced network security that protects networks and data centers against threats. Named as a leader in the Gartner Magic Quadrant, this security intelligence feature can secure networks against present-day vulnerabilities.
With these efforts by major technology companies to provide a high level of security to computer networks of their loyal users, people are given hope that their computer issues have ready solutions available today. But should you become a victim of cybercrime notably in the Los Angeles, California area, you can always consult with a [tp lang=”en” only=”y”]Los Angeles criminal lawyer[/tp][tp not_in=”en”]Los Angeles criminal lawyer[/tp] and ask for the right advice.
Cybercriminals have no place in society and should be punished to the full extent of the law. Their presence, however, should not cause you fear because authorities from law enforcers and government agencies to legal professionals are doing their best to catch them and put them to jail.
And while they’re still lurking around, just keep in mind to be vigilant about these bugs and malwares while you’re using the internet whether for work or entertainment.