Sophos news in review: Sysmas prizes, Gameover do-over, and warbiking down under

We have an extremely cool prize to give away as part of our celebration of the 12 Days of Sysmas. It’s called the Ultimate IT Throne and, even if it won’t give you any real powers over your users or your bosses, it will make you feel like a king (or queen).

There’s a lot going on that demands your attention at nearly every moment, from the not-so-aware user who accidentally downloads new threats like the re-born Gameover malware, to old threats like users accessing insecure Wi-Fi networks.

IT pros, we’ve got your back. (And if you win our IT Throne, we’ll get your behind too).

It’s #SophosSysmas – how to win our prizes

Right now and through SysAdmin Day on Friday, July 25th, we’re honoring the 12 Days of Sysmas by giving away prizes to our favorite people in the world — IT folks like you. We’re giving away custom-designed sysadmin socks to anyone who signs up for a Sophos Cloud free trial. You can see the styles to choose from at www.sophos.com/sysmas.

On the big day itself we are giving away the Ultimate IT Throne. To enter the contest, just share a link to the Sysmas page on Twitter with the hashtag #SophosSysmas. You can see the throne at www.sophos.com/sysmas. Yeah, we think you’ll like it.

Follow us on Facebook and Twitter over the 12 Days of Sysmas for more fun including hilarious videos and some quirky quizzes.

Gameover returns for a do-over

We were hoping, but not expecting, that Gameover would be defeated by the takedown of the malware’s command and control infrastructure by the FBI in June.

Well, new SophosLabs research shows that Gameover is back, with a new variant that leaves out some of the more advanced features that made it such a success for the bad guys.

According to SophosLabs threat researcher James Wyke, this new variant can still do plenty of damage, and only a month after the Gamoeover botnet was disrupted, it’s spreading again via infected attachments in spam.

To learn more about how Gameover is getting a new lease on life, check out our coverage at our award-winning Naked Security blog.

• Gameover malware returns from the dead
• Has CryptoLocker been cracked? Is Gameover over?
• Gameover and CryptoLocker revisited – the important lessons we can learn

Wireless security in Sydney

Meanwhile, James Lyne, global head of security research at Sophos, traveled to the beautiful city of Sydney, Australia to continue his World of Warbiking tour.

“Warbiking” involves James riding his bike around the city, scanning for Wi-Fi networks to learn about those networks and the people using them.

As James explained in an interview with ARN, Wi-Fi users may wrongly assume their personal information is being encrypted and protected, “when in reality it is available for anyone to pick up,” James says.

“It’s clear from our warbiking exercise in Sydney that there are a large number of businesses and home users employing insecure, poorly implemented, or even defunct wireless security protocols,” James adds.

Previously, James has warbiked in San Francisco, Las Vegas, London, and elsewhere. How will other cities around the world compare?

Find out when the World of Warbiking comes to a city near you.

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