IT Departments Are Blocking the Wrong Cloud Services and Putting Themselves at Risk [Study]

Today’s IP news roundup highlights some of the latest headlines in cloud computing, network security and more:

• A study by SkyHigh Networks revealed that IT departments are blocking low-risk cloud services 40% more than high-risk services. The study of 300 organizations found that IT departments are trying to make employees more productive by blocking access to popular cloud services such as Netflix. However, “they’re not blocking services that could potentially be higher-risk from a security standpoint.”  

According to Network World, “SkyHigh found that IT shops are blocking access to services like Box and Dropbox, but it says those services are actually more secure and lower risk compared to services like RapidGator, SendSpace and WeTransfer, which do not have as robust security measures in place like data encryption, two-factor authentication and policy-based user credential access.” For more information on the SkyHigh cloud security study, see Network World.

• Exploits were on the rise in the first half of 2013. F-Secure’s Threat Report 1H 2013 revealed that 78 out of every 1,000 US users encountered an exploit attempt in the first half of this year, while “Java-targeted exploits lead the pack of exploits as a whole, making up almost half of the top ten detections, up from a third the previous half-year.”

The study also found that mobile malware is on the rise, particularly Android malvertising. According to F-Secure, “Malvertising, or advertisements that lead users to malicious products, is increasingly being used to distribute mobile malware, due in part to its wide reach.” For more information on 2013 security threats, see the Threat Report 1H 2013 press release.

• Red wine does more than offer health benefits … it can now provide power. At the Intel Developer Forum, an engineer from Intel’s New Devices Group used red wine to power a microprocessor. According to Computerworld, the engineer poured the wine “into a glass containing circuitry on two metal boards. Once the red wine hit the metal, the microprocessor on a circuit board powered up. The low-power microprocessor then ran a graphics program on a computer with an e-ink display.” For more information on projects in the works at Intel’s New Devices Group, see Computerworld.
• And finally … a German hacking group, The Chaos Computer Club, explained how to bypass Apple’s Touch ID. The group discovered that by photographing someone’s fingerprint and creating a latex copy of it, you can get past Apple’s Touch ID screen. The group recommends avoiding fingerprint authentication, or using it in conjunction with other forms of security. For more information on this security experiment, see IT World.

What is your take on today’s news? Feel free to share your opinions below.