Thursday, June 12, 2014

Software : Facebook offers more ad control in exchange for user interests

Software : Facebook offers more ad control in exchange for user interests

Facebook offers more ad control in exchange for user interests

Posted:

Facebook offers more ad control in exchange for user interests

Prefer to be in control of your own destiny? Facebook will soon hand some of the social network advertising reins over to users, even though advertisers will be watching your interests from afar.

Facebook today announced upcoming changes in how the social network determines what type of advertising to show users, who will finally have a little more say it what gets presented to them.

Instead of mining activity only from Facebook, advertisers will soon be able to tap into other websites and apps frequently used by members to provide "interest-based advertising" similar to what Google already provides.

The new initiative will roll out to Facebook users in the United States over the next few weeks, and will then expand across the globe in the months to come.

What are your interests?

Even as Facebook expands its advertising reach, the social network has devised a peace offering for members in the form of ad preferences, which enable users more control over what type of ads they'll see.

Facebook used the example of a consumer researching the purchase of a new television, which would then trigger interest-based advertising in the future for other electronics that could potentially complement such an acquisition.

Assuming the TV shopping was a one-time event, Facebook users could then remove electronics from their ad preferences, effectively turning off a potential faucet of similar product offerings to come.

Facebook members will also be able to opt out of the new ad targeting on the web using a Digital Advertising Alliance opt out, or the new controls being baked into the iOS and Android mobile apps.

Exclusive: Keeper Security to launch a military grade storage and sharing product

Posted:

Exclusive: Keeper Security to launch a military grade storage and sharing product

Mobile password management company Keeper Security has created a product that enables users to upload and store files to the cloud via a mobile device, Keeper Security CEO and Co-Founder Darren Guccione told TechRadar.

The product, Secure File Storage, allows individuals and organizations to share files with other Keeper users through Keeper's secure cloud environment.

Secure File Storage will be the latest release from the Chicago-based password management company. The product, which uses military-grade encryption, features 256bit AES encryption, with PKI encryption for secure sharing.

Secure File Storage comes with advanced threat detection warnings, a self-destruct mechanism in case of a disaster-related event, and two-factor authentication.

Keeper was founded in 2009 by Guccione and CTO Craig Lurey. Guccione and Lurey sold their first company, Apollo Solutions, to CNET Networks in 2000. Guccione also co-founded syndication platform OnlyWire, which was acquired by Snipitron in 2008.

The available plans

Keeper for Groups, the company's enterprise product, is a multi-user version of Keeper Backup Unlimited. Keeper for Groups is built for more than five users and unlimited devices. More than 3,200 organizations manage passwords and devices with Keeper, Guccione said.

Secure File Storage can be added to any existing Keeper plan starting July 2. Existing Keeper Security users will be able to upload five files to Secure File Storage for free. Secure File plans range from 10 GB of storage for $9.99 per year to 1000 GB for $749.99 per year.

Secure File Storage will be live on iOS, Android, Web App, Windows Desktop and Mac app. Windows Phone, Surface and Windows 8 versions will be available later this year.

Keeper will also release a tool that enables Android users to auto-fill their login credentials across all mobile apps and browsers on their smartphones and tablets. FastFill will be available on all Android devices in which Keeper is installed on June 23.

Industry voice: 4 steps to improving security intelligence

Posted:

Industry voice: 4 steps to improving security intelligence

Big data has become the golden goose for businesses, so it's no surprise that data theft is surging. In its latest Breach Level Index, SafeNet found that nearly 200 million data records were stolen in Q1 2014, a 233% increase over the year prior.

Businesses traditionally zero in on the point of compromise – malware detection – to curb these breaches, but doing so is an uphill battle given there are an average of 82,000 new malware threats created per day. Even the best malware detection technology is incapable of keeping up. But hackers only activate malware at the beginning of the attack, using it simply as the gateway to steal login credentials and move within a business' IT environment undetected while they access precious data.

Rather than exhausting their resources to detect malware, which typically doesn't hang around for longer than an hour after activation, security teams should balance their efforts by monitoring for and detecting suspicious user behavior to identify compromised credentials before greater damage can be done.

SIEM limitations

The challenge with this is that existing security event and information management (SIEM) systems have no way of quantifying threats or identifying patterns of anomalous activity, as impersonating users does not trigger signature-based detection alerts.

It's quickly become a serious problem, as stolen credentials accounted for 76% of network intrusions in 2013 – more than twice as many as in 2012. The rapid evolution of malware, and the acute focus on its detection as a security strategy, is leaving businesses more vulnerable to stolen user credentials. Of course, malware isn't the only way hackers steal credentials.

Social engineering tactics, such as email phishing, pretexting and diversions, are also on the rise and have proven to be just as successful in gaining access to IT environments.

To improve security operations efficiency and better identify compromised users, businesses can do the following.

  1. Track your users. See how and when they access the business' IT assets on a regular basis. This also includes vendors and other partners that have access to the IT environment.
  2. Establish a baseline. Once normal behavior has been determined, baseline this activity so suspicious behavior can be measured.
  3. Detect anomalies. Record every anomaly detected that deviates from the established baseline.
  4. Quantify the anomalies. Not all anomalies are created equal. Sometimes a user needs to access the network at night to grab a file, or log in from their hotel on the road. Measuring how much the suspicious activity deviates from the norm is crucial to separating valid from invalid behavior.

IT teams need to build their security posture around fighting against attacker tactics, not weapons. The weapons are changing every day, and the time to compromise is becoming shorter. What hasn't changed are the tactics of stealing user credentials to access the IT network. Businesses can improve security intelligence by developing a system to monitor for suspicious user behavior, enabling them to react more quickly and stop a data breach before it's too late.

This posting includes an audio/video/photo media file: Download Now

Posted by at

No comments:

Post a Comment

Subscribe to: Post Comments (Atom)