Restricting travellers from Ebola zone could put us at greater risk
Despite reassurances that the risk of a widespread outbreak of Ebola in western nations is extremely low many still want restrictions in place. Canada’s decision to restrict visas for travellers from those countries affected by the outbreak has been criticized by Stephen J. Hoffman, professor of law, Director of the Global Strategy Lab at the University of Ottawa and a Visiting Assistant Professor of Global Health at Harvard University. Hoffman says that the restrictions contravene international law and will actually put the country at greater risk for future pandemics. He says that Canada can’t break the rules and then expect other countries to adhere to them.
Are internet firewalls becoming irrelevant?
Firewalls are lagging behind the sophisticated threats that criminals now pose and could become irrelevant. That’s the warning from Sean Newman, security strategist for Cisco Security Business Group. He says that many organizations are using multiple security systems that do not work together and are therefore leaving gaps in their defenses which can be exploited by hackers. Writing for itportal.com Newman is calling for the industry to tackle three key points; security should be ‘visibility’ driven, allowing IT security teams to see attacks in real time; threat defenses need the capability to assess risk before, during and after attacks including the ability to go back in time to deal with malicious files that were previously deemed as safe; and security systems need to be simplified and scalable while being highly sophisticated.
Study finds vulnerability in contactless card payments
Are we making compromises on security for the sake of convenience? The current trend for making consumer payment transactions as fast and easy as possible may seem like a good idea but there have already been problems. Now a new study from Newcastle University in the UK reports vulnerability in contactless payment cards. The cards work with chip which transmits a code to payment machines without the need for a PIN number to be entered. Only lower value transactions are authorized but the study has found that it’s possible to bypass the limit by using foreign currency transactions. Furthermore they discovered that contactless cards could be charged using a mobile scanner. VISA has said that the study does not take into consideration the multiple security safeguards it has in place and the UK Cards Association says that although the fraud may be possible in a laboratory it hasn’t been tested in the real world and no money has been lost in this way. So far!
