When news of the “Google hack” (also referred to as Aurora, Google Attacks, and Hydraq) break-in of gmail accounts first occurred, some observers thought the news could hurt cloud computing. As the story has evolved, it turns out that the attack was a straightforward endpoint exploit. I don’t want to diminish the significance of the attack, but want to clarify that this does not highlight any particular cloud security issue and is a standard endpoint security issue.
Trend Micro has published some nice, actionable information along with details of the Google attack. My colleagues at Trend Micro’s TrendLabs Threat Research Team have some outstanding details in their blog describing on the actual exploits. Microsoft released an out-of-band patch this morning for this public vulnerability and seven privately reported vulnerabilities.
If you are an enterprise who is concerned about whether you might be at risk, I would suggest you consider a Trend Micro Threat Management Services (TMS). A TMS Assessment can do wonders to alleviate worries whether or not you use Trend Micro for your enterprise security. If you are a consumer or concerned about your home PCs, you can scan your system with our free HouseCall scanner.
