Pipe B Blog

Last month, McAfee cybercrime strategist Pamela Warren sat down with a senior executive at a Sydney bank to discuss the risks to the corporate network from workers using social networking.

After going over the trade-offs associated with allowing insiders to use social networks at work, his team confirmed that they would use data leak prevention technology to monitor the network traffic–balancing the desire to benefit from such new technologies while ensuring company secrets remain protected.

Warren had a similar meeting with a U.S. government agency last week to discuss strategies for dealing with public employees using Web apps at work and mobile devices, which can introduce viruses and other security problems into a corporate network. And she’s been preparing for the launch early next year of McAfee’s Cybercrime Response Unit, a site where consumers can go when they think they’ve been victimized by online scams.

People also are getting e-mails and seeing ads on the Web for work-from-home “jobs” where all they have to do to become an “international sales rep” is open a bank account to receive money in and then wire the money to some international third party. In reality, the transaction is nothing more than a money-laundering move, known as a “cyber mule operation,” to transfer money to another country and hide the trail in an illegal deal.

Typically, the transaction is a payment for some kind of illegal activity such as the exchange of lists of credit card information or personal data that can be used for identity fraud.

Wikipedia functionality has returned for Brits after the country’s Internet watchdog reversed its decision to prevent users in that country from visiting a Wikipedia page containing an image of a naked child.

The Internet Watch Foundation had taken exception with a page dedicated to a 1976 album by rock band The Scorpions. The cover of that album–called Virgin Killer–includes the image of a prepubescent girl, which the group deemed a “potentially illegal indecent image,” landing Wikipedia on the group’s blacklist.

As a result, Internet service providers in the U.K. began filtering access to all pages of the online encyclopedia over the weekend.

The IWF announced in a statement Tuesday that it would reverse that decision after an appeal and presentation by the Wikimedia Foundation, the nonprofit organization that operates Wikipedia.

“The IWF board has today considered these findings and the contextual issues involved in this specific case, and–in the light of the length of time the image has existed and its wide availability–the decision has been taken to remove this Web page from our list,” it said.

The group went on to acknowledge that its effort to prevent people from seeing the image actually resulted in the opposite effect, bringing more attention to the album cover worldwide.

“IWF’s overriding objective is to minimize the availability of indecent images of children on the internet, however, on this occasion our efforts have had the opposite effect,” the watchdog group said. “We regret the unintended consequences for Wikipedia and its users.”

The Wikimedia Foundation applauded the Internet watchdog’s “swift action,” but noted that the episode emphasized the need for watchdog accountability.

Those wanting to get their hands on the Web-based versions of Word, Excel, and PowerPoint will have to wait a little bit longer.

Business Division President Stephen Elop said in an October interview that a technology preview of the browser-based applications would come this year, followed by a beta in 2009. However, it turns out Microsoft is using a rather tortured interpretation of the term “technology preview.”
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It’s currently being used by fewer than 1,000 Microsoft employees, as part of a test that started last month and is slated to go through February. Consumers won’t be able to try a test version of the products until sometime next year. Microsoft isn’t saying when, but I’d say you’ll have plenty of time to try the Windows 7 beta before you have to worry about testing the Office Web apps.

Ultimately, Microsoft is planning the release of the Office Web Applications in conjunction with the next wave of Office product, code-named Office 14. Microsoft has not offered a release date for the desktop version of Office 14.

Microsoft is planning two ways of offering the browser-based Office programs–one for consumers and the other for businesses looking to offer Office Web apps to their workers. Consumers will be able to use them through Office Live. The company currently has a free product called Office Live Workspace that lets users view and share–but not edit–Office documents.

Meanwhile, rivals like Google and Zoho already offer editing abilities. Microsoft is staking its claim on being able to offer better compatibility and document fidelity with its products. The company has recently had some big customers consider abandoning Office and move to Google Apps, but has wooed some of them back by sharing their plan for the Office Web apps.

In what appears to be a first, Apple is recommending that Mac users install antivirus software.

But don’t read this as an admission that the Mac operating system is suddenly insecure. It’s more a recognition that Mac users are vulnerable to Web application exploits, which have replaced operating system vulnerabilities as the bigger threat to computer users.

Apple quietly signaled its shift with an item titled “Mac OS: Antivirus utilities” posted on its Support Web site November 21: “Apple encourages the widespread use of multiple antivirus utilities so that virus programmers have more than one application to circumvent, thus making the whole virus writing process more difficult.”

The item offers three software suggestions: Intego VirusBarrier X5 and Symantec Norton Anti-Virus 11 for Macintosh, both available from the Apple Online Store, and McAfee VirusScan for Mac.

Brian Krebs, who first reported on the Apple antivirus recommendation Monday in his Security Fix blog at The Washington Post, said an Apple store employee told him he didn’t need antivirus software when he purchased a MacBook three months ago.

Web-based chat company Meebo has partnered with Universal Music Group to bring ad-supported music videos to the service. As a kickoff, Universal artists Kanye West, Ludacris, and the Killers will be featured on the Meebo home page. In return, Meebo chat rooms will be embedded on Universal artists’ sites.

In the past year, Meebo has launched an application programming interface, partnered with media brands such as Hearst to power embeddable chat rooms, and launched a “Community IM” initiative for social sites.

Meebo is just the latest of many video partners for Universal. Universal has made investments in Imeem, a music playlist-based social network, and Buzznet, a music fan community hub.

Earlier this year, the label struck a music video deal with Last.fm, a music-focused social network owned by CBS Interactive (which publishes CNET News) and Kiwibox, a community site for teens. Like the major other labels, it has a stake in MySpace Music.

Universal is also reported to be working on a “Hulu-like” site for its music video content. There’s no word if that’s still on the books, now that music video portal MTV Music has launched.