Attention School Districts: You are Being Targeted by Cyber-Criminals

Jersey City, NJ, January 13, 2010 — Local school districts across the United States have emerged as a prime target for cyber-criminals. In the fall of 2009, districts in Colorado, Illinois, Oklahoma and Pennsylvania all reported thefts of tens of thousands of dollars each due to a cyber-crime wave. The threat continues: on January 5, 2010, the Duanesburg, New York Central School District disclosed an attempted theft of $3.8 million, about a quarter of the district’s operating budget.

These crimes have been driven by malicious software infecting central office PC’s containing the district’s electronic banking details. These details were subsequently used by cyber-criminals to access the district’s online bank account and illegally transfer money out of the account to money-mules, who subsequently transfer the funds to the criminal ringleaders.

Comodo CEO Melih Abdulhayoglu commented on this threat in a video blog post entitled Schools Hacked: Students and Taxpayers Lose, where he points out the soft-target characteristics of school districts and similar organizations including local governments, not-for-profit-organizations, and small businesses that make them attractive to cyber-criminals. Abdulhayoglu further points out the need for much stronger “Default Deny” PC endpoint security to be deployed by organizations that will always appear to be soft targets relative to larger organizations with the personnel and financial resources to mount stronger cyber-defenses.

Comodo Internet Security offers “default deny” PC Security, where unknown/untrusted applications are denied access to PC resources by default, effectively preventing malicious programs such as those being targeted at local school districts an opportunity to infect and execute. Available in both 32 and 64 bit versions, Comodo Internet Security offers easily affordable, full endpoint security protection and administration.

About Comodo

Comodo is a leading brand in Internet security, covering an extensive range of security software and services, including digital certificates, PCI scanning, desktop security, online faxing, and computer technical support services.

Businesses and consumers worldwide recognize Comodo as standing for security and trust. Comodo products secure and authenticate online transactions for over 200,000 businesses and have more than 25,000,000 installations of Comodo desktop security software, including an award-winning Firewall and Antivirus software offered at no charge.

The Comodo family of companies is committed to continual innovation, core competencies in PKI, authentication, and malware detection and prevention. As a catalyst in eliminating online crime, the companies’ mission is to establish a Trusted Internet.

With US headquarters overlooking Manhattan on New Jersey’s waterfront, and global resources in United Kingdom, China, India, Ukraine, and Romania, Comodo products offer intelligent security, authentication, and assurance.

Comodo — Creating Trust Online®. For more information, visit Comodo’s website, or our Internet Video Channel, Comodo.TV.

For more information, reporters and analysts may contact:

Comodo — Creating Trust Online®
Email: media-relations@comodo.com
+1 (201) 963 0004 x4073