Canadian Security Connection

Think about it… ever curious about those great watches at really cheap prices ? Or that TV converter that gets you a million channels for free ? Ok, if not you, I am sure you know of someone who has…

Infact, a study  released by the Messaging Anti-Abuse Working Group (MAAWG) confirms that 1 out of every 3 consumers admitted to responding to a message they suspected might be spam.

About two-thirds of the consumers surveyed considered themselves “very” or “somewhat” knowledgeable in Internet security. While most consumers use anti-virus software and over half said they never click on suspected spam, the survey also found that 21 percent take no action to prevent abusive messages from entering their inbox. A majority of consumers, 63 percent, would allow their network operator or anti-virus vendor to remotely access their computer to remove detected bots.

“Spamming has morphed from an isolated hacker playing with some code into a well-developed underground economy that feeds off reputable users’ machines to avoid detection. Consumers shouldn’t be afraid to use email, but they need to be computer smart and learn how to avoid these problems,” said MAAWG Chair Michael O’Reirdan.

Ideally, you want to ensure that you have security software that helps protect you from the inbound security risks, as well as protect your computer from any outbound risks such as a bot that is trying to ‘call home’ and transmit personal information it has garnered from your machine.

“The proposed legislation strikes an appropriate balance between the investigative powers used to protect public safety and the necessity to safeguard privacy and the rights and freedoms of Canadians.”

Another excerpt from the press release…

…”technologies have also provided new ways of committing crimes such as distributing child pornography. We must ensure investigators have the necessary powers to trace and ultimately stop crimes.”

Here are some thoughts from the Canadian Privacy Law Blog and the Gartner Blog on this legislation.

Your thoughts ?? Does  it change things for you ? How does this affect your security policies ? Does it ?

Michael Geist recently posted an article on a ruling by a Canadian arbitrator regarding Google’s Gmail and Lakehead University Faculty Association’s concerns about the prospect of surveillance by U.S. authorities under laws such as the USA Patriot Act.

The arbitrator concludes: “One should consider e-mail communications as confidential as are postcards.”

You can read his post  as well as additional coverage on Wired Campus.

Particularly interesting to me as the concern for email security / level of privacy for Canadians comes up quite often in conversations with customers and partners about hosted solutions…especially if the Data Centers reside outside of  Canada.  Not sure I would equate email to postcards … but as someone commented, perhaps closer to cell phones.