Infosecurity News
AlienVault doxes the man behind the PlugX RAT
AlienVault has been tracking the PlugX remote access trojan for some months, and following extensive detective work has now uncovered enough information to name the person behind it.
GCHQ Academic research institute to investigate the “Science of Cyber Security”
Yesterday the UK Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ – one of the UK’s three intelligence agencies) announced that it has set up “a new academic Research Institute to improve understanding of the science behind the growing Cyber Security threat.”
BlackHole 2.0 now available, with a raft of hacker upgrades
Fave hacker toolkit BlackHole has gotten an upgrade. Version 2.0 of the exploit kit is now available to mine security holes for opportunities to infect machines with slew of malicious programs. It adds a host of new features, at the same pricing as before.
Pre-installed malware in production lines spurs Microsoft's 3322.org takedown
Microsoft digital crime investigators have purchased several PCs from stores in China, finding that 20% were already infected with Nitol botnet.
Microsoft kills most of Forefront portfolio
In an effort to align its security and protection portfolio with the workloads and applications they protect, Microsoft is eliminating several of its Forefront products.
Anonymous criticizes the world’s media
Anonymous has rebuked the media, effectively accusing it of being Indecisive Dave – the Fast Show character (Brilliant in the US) who continually changed his opinion to agree with the most recent comment he heard.
Chip & PIN’s unpredictable numbers are predictable
Professor Ross Anderson at Cambridge University's Computer Laboratory has a long-standing interest in bank systems and bank cards, repeatedly showing they are not as secure as claimed.
HP focuses on printer security for healthcare environment
Pretty much any connected device poses a security threat to business and home IT networks – even that brand-new scanner/printer workhorse in the corner. HP has launched a new program that offers secure authentication for all online printers, as well as a management suite for identifying vulnerabilities, such as Java vectors.
Hackers serve up account details from Dominos India
Online ordering may have revolutionized food delivery for couch potatoes everywhere, but for pizza lovers in India the convenience has turned into a bad breadstick all around.
Dubai looks to shore up government cybersecurity policy
With the Middle East becoming a hotbed for cyber terrorism and hacktivists, the Dubai government has taken another step toward developing an integrated strategy for information security in the emirate.
Treasure trove of opinion on the Communications Bill
The Joint Committee on the UK government’s Draft Communications Data Bill has published the written evidence submitted to its public consultation on what has generally become known as the government’s proposed snooper’s charter.
Twitter must hand over OWS user data
Twitter must hand over the subpoenaed tweets of OWS protestor Malcolm Harris by Friday or face a monetary penalty for contempt, declared Manhattan Supreme Court Judge Matthew Sciarrino.
Emma Watson: World's most dangerous celebrity
Be careful, Harry Potter fans: Emma Watson has supplanted Heidi Klum as McAfee's 2012 most dangerous celebrity to search for online. It will take more than a magic wand to avoid threats: Watson searches yield a nearly a one-in-eight chance of landing on a malicious site.
In search of gold-selling, 11,000 Guild Wars 2 accounts already hacked
Just as security experts feared, the highly anticipated multiplayer video game known as Guild Wars 2 has found itself the target of hackers, who have already compromised 11,000 accounts in the name of gold-selling.
Google to acquire VirusTotal for email security
Joining the fight for online security, internet behemoth Google has acquired tiny security firm VirusTotal.
Pirate Bay co-founder extradited to Sweden
Hollywood studios rejoice: Pirate Bay co-founder Gottfrid Svartholm Warg has been finally extradited to Sweden to begin a one-year jail sentence for copyright infringement, stemming from media piracy charges. He was also charged upon landing with a new rap: hacking into Swedish tax authority data.
GoDaddy had problems yesterday – but we don’t yet know what they were
“#tangodown http://www.godaddy.com/ by @AnonymousOwn3r” tweeted the hacker known as Anonymous Own3r yesterday. And sure enough, the company that describes itself as a “Worldwide hosting provider and the Web's largest domain registrar” was having problems.
Al-Jazeera SMS platform hacked by Syrian hacktivists
The war of disinformation surrounding the Syrian unrest and other political hot potatoes is continuing, with the Al-Jazeera news service falling victim in the latest attack.
Active authentication seeks to augment passwords
Passwords and access tokens, we are frequently told, are not enough. They can be broken, stolen or bypassed. DARPA is seeking a new approach – rather than authentication solely on access, it is looking for ways to maintain continuous biometric user authentication.
'Botnet Bandit' gets 2+ years in prison
The Botnet Bandit, as he’s known, has been brought to justice after infecting thousands of computers and using them for profit. Joshua Schichtel has been sentenced in federal court in the District of Columbia to 30 months in prison and three years of supervised release.
