Trojan horse attack involving many major Israeli companies, executives

Amir Herzberg herzbea at macs.biu.ac.il
Wed Jun 1 06:05:17 PDT 2005


J.A. Terranson wrote:

> So, how long before someone, possibly even me, points out that all
> Checkpoint software is built in Israel?

Nicely put, but I think not quite fair. From friends in financial and 
other companies in the states and otherwise, I hear that Trojans are 
very common there as well. In fact, based on my biased judgement and 
limited exposure, my impression is that security practice is much better 
in Israeli companies - both providers and users of IT - than in 
comparable companies in most countries. For example, in my `hall of 
shame` (link below) you'll find many US and multinational companies 
which don't protect their login pages properly with SSL (PayPal, Chase, 
MS, ...). I've found very few Israeli companies, and of the few I've 
found, two actually acted quickly to fix the problem - which is rare! 
Most ignored my warning, and few sent me coupons :-) [seriously]

Could it be that such problems are more often covered-up in other 
countries? Or maybe that the stronger awareness in Israel also implies 
more attackers? I think both conclusions are likely. I also think that 
this exposure will further increase awareness among Israeli IT managers 
and developers, and hence improve the security of their systems.
-- 
Best regards,

Amir Herzberg

Associate Professor
Department of Computer Science
Bar Ilan University
http://AmirHerzberg.com

New: see my Hall Of Shame of Unprotected Login pages: 
http://AmirHerzberg.com/shame.html

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