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Cyscon GmbH is an IT consultancy with its main headquarters in
Düsseldorf Düsseldorf ( , , ; often in English sources; Low Franconian and Ripuarian: ''Düsseldörp'' ; archaic nl, Dusseldorp ) is the capital city of North Rhine-Westphalia, the most populous state of Germany. It is the second-largest city in th ...
, Germany, by Thorsten Kraft and Thomas Wolf. cyson aided a group of companies in taking down the computer virus
Conficker Conficker, also known as Downup, Downadup and Kido, is a computer worm targeting the Microsoft Windows operating system that was first detected in November 2008. It uses flaws in Windows OS software and dictionary attacks on administrator passw ...
as part of the Confiker Working Group and is a founding member of Botfrei, the German anti-botnet advisory centre. Since 2013, cyscon has powered the online security audit Check & Secure and is an official partner of the
Bundesamt für Sicherheit in der Informationstechnik The Federal Office for Information Security (german: Bundesamt für Sicherheit in der Informationstechnik, abbreviated as BSI) is the German upper-level federal agency in charge of managing computer and communication security for the German g ...
(abbreviated BSI in English: Federal Office for Information Security)


cyscon SIRT (C_SIRT)

cyscon is responsible for C-SIRT, an online incident reporting team that works with a variety of partners to identify domain hacking and incidents of malware across the internet. cyscon's C-SIRT is part of the VirusTotal scanning engine.


Check & Secure

In 2013, cyscon, alongside
Vodafone Vodafone Group plc () is a British multinational telecommunications company. Its registered office and global headquarters are in Newbury, Berkshire, England. It predominantly operates services in Asia, Africa, Europe, and Oceania. , Vodafon ...
, founded Check & Secure as part as an end-user safety initiative. The test is divided into four parts, a Router Check, a
Botnet A botnet is a group of Internet-connected devices, each of which runs one or more bots. Botnets can be used to perform Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) attacks, steal data, send spam, and allow the attacker to access the device and its conn ...
check, a Browser and Plugin check and a "Cyber Vaccination", which includes the software of SurfRight's HitmanPro.


Press coverage

In January 2014 and again in April 2014, massive
data theft Data theft is a growing phenomenon primarily caused by system administrators and office workers with access to technology such as database servers, desktop computers and a growing list of hand-held devices capable of storing digital information, su ...
s, mostly of email addresses and passwords, were discovered in Germany, causing panic amongst the general public. Check & Secure was cited in reputable German magazines such as Spiegel and Stern as a solution to the issue, as users were advised to update their browsers and plugins using the tool.


Co-operation with BSI

As part of the reaction to the issue of 18 million email accounts being lost, the Federal Office for Information Security (BSI) set up a service with which the general public could check whether their own address had been compromised. Although cyscon were initially critical of the methods used by the BSI in an article on the Check & Secure blog, the company has since worked with the ministry to improve consumer safety in Germany, becoming a member of the newly formed Alianz fuer Cybersicherheit (English: Alliance for Cyber Security).


STOP.THINK.CONNECT

Early in 2014, Check & Secure announced its partnership with the STOP.THINK.CONNECT program, powered by the National Cyber Security Alliance. Check & Secure is an international partner of the program and will as such focus on consumers in Germany and Russia.


Swiss Internet Security Alliance

In September 2014, cyscon was named as the technical provider for the Swiss Internet Security Alliance. The partnership between cyscon and partners such as Swisscom and Sunrise was one of the first national online projects to focus solely on end user security. The SISA portal followed the template set by Check & Secure.


PhishKiller

cyscon partnered with
Opera (web browser) Opera is a multi-platform web browser developed by its namesake company Opera. The browser is based on Chromium, but distinguishes itself from other Chromium-based browsers ( Chrome, Edge, etc.) through its user interface and other features. ...
in June 2015 to create Phishkiller.Opera integrates cyscon's security software to protect German users from phishing attacks
/ref> Phishkiller turned into a major international project, with partners from Germany, Slovenia, Australia, Norway and Ukraine. The project was intended to provide National online incident reporting teams, security vendors and end users with tools for the recognition of
Phishing Phishing is a type of social engineering where an attacker sends a fraudulent (e.g., spoofed, fake, or otherwise deceptive) message designed to trick a person into revealing sensitive information to the attacker or to deploy malicious softwar ...
The initiative was ended in 2016.


References

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External links


Official website
Technology companies established in 2001 Companies based in Düsseldorf