# MA-354.082013: MyCERT Alert - Festive Season and Long Holiday Alert

**Date:** 06 Aug 2013  
**Source:** https://www.mycert.org.my/portal/advisory?id=MA-354.082013  
**Advisory ID:** MA-354.082013

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It is time for festive season and long holiday break. We would like to alert System Administrators and Internet users to ensure sufficient measures had been implemented to secure their systems and networks before leaving for the long holidays.
There had been past incidents of servers compromise and web defacements during festive seasons/long holiday break. For the past weeks we had also been observing increase in web defacement, malicious code and fraud activities. Thus, with the release of the alert, we hope such incidents could be prevented and minimized to a certain extent.
System Administrators should take extra precautions against any possibilities of web defacements, phishing attacks, server compromise and malware activities during the festive and long holiday season by implementing proper preventive measures against the said threats. Data Centres and Web Hosting Companies should also take extra precautions against any software or third party add-ons they're running by applying the latest patches/upgrades to prevent intrusions that may exploit unpatched applications.
Financial Institutions must also be vigilant against any possibilities of phishing and fraudulent activities that target internet banking. Customers must be advised adequately on avoiding themselves becoming victims of phishing and fraudulent activities by applying safe browsing and safe internet banking practice.
Organizations must ensure contact information of System Administrators is made available in the event of a security incident that occurs at or originate from your site.
Attached below are some useful guidelines and measures that can be implemented to prevent systems from being compromised:
> 1. Make sure systems, applications and third party add-ons are installed with latest service packs and patches.
>
> If you're running older versions of operating systems or software, make sure they are upgraded to the latest versions as older versions may have some vulnerability that can be manipulated by intruders. Aside from that, please make sure that your web based applications and network based appliances are patched accordingly.
>
> You may refer to your respective vendors’ websites for the latest patches, service packs and upgrades. You may also refer to MyCERT's website for information on the latest patches, service packs and upgrades by referring to our latest advisories at:
>
> <https://www.mycert.org.my/portal/advisories?id=431fab9c-d24c-4a27-ba93-e92edafdefa5&year=2013&ctype=&keyword=>
>
> 2. Make sure Anti-virus software that are running on hosts and email gateways are updated with the latest signature files and are enabled to scan all files.
> You may refer to the AV sites at:
>
> [https://www.mycert.org.my/portal/articles-content?menu=4b05e0fb-afa1-408f-90ca-ea0edf4aca8b&id=b83f4c4d-f1e2-4a9d-ab55-6389ae1f6efc](https://www.mycert.org.my/portal/articles-content?menu=4b05e0fb-afa1-408f-90ca-ea0edf4aca8b&id=b83f4c4d-f1e2-4a9d-ab55-6389ae1f6efc
> )
>
> 3. Make sure that your systems are configured properly in order to avoid incidents such as information disclosure, directory listing caused by system misconfiguration.
>
> 4. Make sure loggings of systems and servers are enabled.
>
> 5. Make sure to back up important and relevant data from all your systems.
>
> 6. Organizations are recommended to apply defence in depth strategy in protecting their networks. Firewalls, intrusion prevention systems (IPS), network and host based intrusion detection systems (IDS) can prevent and log most of the generic attacks.
>
> 7. Home Users who are using PCs/computers at home are advised to:
> - Make sure your PCs and browsers are up-to-date with the latest upgrades and patches
> - Install an Anti-Virus software on your PCs to scans and blocks any malware to the PC. The Anti-virus should be regularly updated with the latest signature files in order to detect new worms/viruses
> - You may refer to the following site for links to download anti-virus software.
>   [https://www.mycert.org.my/portal/articles-content?menu=4b05e0fb-afa1-408f-90ca-ea0edf4aca8b&id=b83f4c4d-f1e2-4a9d-ab55-6389ae1f6efc](https://www.mycert.org.my/portal/articles-content?menu=4b05e0fb-afa1-408f-90ca-ea0edf4aca8b&id=b83f4c4d-f1e2-4a9d-ab55-6389ae1f6efc
>   )
> - Take precautions against online scams.
> - Tips and guidelines on safe Internet
>   <http://www.cybersafe.my>
Please take note that our office will be closed on 7th, 8th and 9th August 2013 respectively. However, if  you need to report critical incident, you can call Cyber999 via the 24x7 Hand phone Reporting. Non-critical incidents can be reported to Cyber999 through our other reporting channels as below.
MyCERT can be reached at:
E-mail :[[email protected]](/cdn-cgi/l/email-protection)
Telephone : 1300882999(monitored during office hours)
Fax : +603 89453442
Handphone : +6019 2665850 (24x7)
SMS : CYBER999 REPORT and send it to 15888 (24x7)
Office Hours : Mon - Fri 09:00 AM -18:00 PM MYT
Web: <https://www.mycert.org.my>
Twitter: <http://www.twitter.com/mycert>
Postal : Malaysian Computer Emergency Response Team (MyCERT)
CyberSecurity Malaysia
Level 7, SAPURA@MINES
7, JalanTasik, The Mines Resort City
43300 Seri Kembangan
Selangor DarulEhsan
MALAYSIA