The past couple days have emphasized what kind of a role Cocoon may play in the future – and how it can help now. Two different attacks occurred across the web, both of which Cocoon users have been protected from.
First was Firesheep – a Firefox plug-in that shows when someone on an open WiFi network (like a coffee shop) visits an insecure site – and then lets the perpetrator access the unsuspecting users logged on sites – such as Twitter or Facebook. This attack was let loose to anyone that wanted to take advantage of it by a developer trying to make a point about how insecure some aspects of the web really are.
The second was a “drive-by download” attack targeted at anyone that visited the website for the Nobel Peace Prize and could be live on other websites.
These events are not unusual, except for how quickly they spread, and their notoriety. The reality is that malware is on the rise. Help Net Security and Panda Labs report that 25 million new strains of malware were created in the past year – as compared to 15 million in the past 20 years. Fairly sobering statistics.
Hopefully the notoriety of these instances will increase awareness of malware as a problem and encourage web users and website owners to be more vigilant in protecting themselves. While Cocoon is not the only solution on the web, we feel it is the most comprehensive, but whatever steps you take, we hope you are private, secure and malware-free.
