Infosecurity News
UK IT profession could suffer as postgraduate course fees face huge rises
The UK IT profession could suffer as a result of the soaring cost of postgraduate courses on the back of rises in the fees for undergraduate studies.
Thales develops on-SIM mobile wallet authentication and encryption technology
Thales has developed what it claims is the industry's first cryptographic technology capable of running in the memory of a cellular phone's SIM card, meaning that the secure m-wallet function can operate wholly on the SIM card, interacting with secure servers across cellular data channels.
Imperva says hackers are tapping Google's powerful search engine features once again
Data security specialist claims that cybercriminals are tapping the powerful search features that Google offers, generating more than 80,000 daily queries. This, the firm says, allows the hackers to conduct a significant amount of cyber reconnaissance at little of no cost to themselves.
Source code for SpyEye trojan leaked onto forums and filesharing services
It seems that the source code for SpyEye – the sister malware to Zeus – has been released on a number of file-sharing sites, as well loaded onto the file areas of a number of darkware forums. The move follows the `sharing' of the source code of Zeus earlier this year, Infosecurity notes.
2011 UK Infosecurity Virtual Conference – Confirmation of Conference Programme
We are pleased to announce the details for our Infosecurity 2011 UK autumn virtual conference, to be held on 27th September 2011. This one-day event will bring together a series of topical keynote sessions direct to your computer and gives you the flexibility to learn about the latest information security trends and challenges from wherever you are in the world.
Elite hackers create RankMyHack.com
A group of hackers have set up a leader board website called - appropriately enough - RankMyHack.com, under which elite hackers can post information on their latest hacks and allow their peers to rank their network and system incursions.
Black market sales emails are Chinese scams says CA researcher
If you've started receiving emails offering you all manner of electronics and similar goods at significantly below market prices in the last few weeks, you are not alone, as a Computer Associates senior security researcher says the emails are widespread. But far from being offers for counterfeit goods, as many surmise, they are almost certainly scams.
Anonymous hackers hit San Francisco transport site in protest at mobile blocks
Hacking group Anonymous has defaced a website of San Francisco's rail transport company.
GCHQ to help police catch rioters who used social networks to coordinate violence
The Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), which is responsible for key aspects of the UK's cybersecurity, and MI5 are working with police to hunt rioters by trawling social networks.
SSL VPNs pose network security risks
The use of secure sockets layer (SSL) virtual private networks (VPNs) opens up networks to security risks, according to a white paper by NCP Engineering.
Android malware levels steadily increasing
A researcher with ESET says that his firm has identified that the volume and incidence of malware seen on the Android smartphone and tablet platform are increasing. Cameron Camp, from the East European IT security vendor, says malware authors are ramping up their output to account for the take-up of Android devices amongst end users.
New DDoS defence technology launched
Simwood has launched a defence technology that it claims can be used defend against distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks.
Android malware eavesdrops on users, tapping Google+ as disguise says researcher
A threats analyst with Trend Micro is reporting that another piece of Android malware – from the Nickispy family – has been spotted in the wild. As with other versions of Nickispy, the malware eavesdrops on users and data sessions on the infected mobile device.
Major stolen card credentials site hacked
Whilst carder forums and other types of illegal card credential exchanges are numerous on the darker side of the internet, security researcher Brian Krebs has revealed that a major vendor of stolen card details has been hacked, presumably by his/her fellow cybercriminals.
LinkedIn bows to pressure over “social ads” privacy concerns
LinkedIn has responded to criticism of its "social ads" feature over its use of members' names and photos in advertisements on its website.
University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee admits to possible data breach affecting 75,000
The University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee (UWM) has notified 75,000 students and staff members that their personal information, including social security numbers, may have been compromised as the result of a data breach.
Sophos warns LinkedIn users to review their online data following privacy rule change
Sophos has warned LinkedIn users of the need to be aware of a change to the business social networking site's privacy policy, apparently allowing the site to use member's names and photos in promotional advertisements. The change, says the IT security vendor, allows LinkedIn to use the information and pictures by default, meaning that users have to opt out of seeing their names and photos in the site's advertisements.
Canadian Apple store refuses to return woman's stolen iPhone
Here's an interesting – if cautionary – tale of how an Apple store in Canada apparently refused to hand back a stolen iPhone to a woman, despite police and Apple's database as confirming the hardware was registered to her.
GFI senior threat researcher warns on cybercriminal sting offering low-cost versions of CCleaner
GFI Software's senior threat researcher has warned about a Russian website that is apparently offering various low-cost versions of the CCleaner PC utility, which is widely used to remove unwanted files, fix problematic registry entries and the like. The only problem with the pirate site is that the software is infected with malware.
ISO and IEC publish new standards on biometric data security
The International Organization for Standardization (ISO) has teamed up with the International Electrochemical Commission (IEC) to publish joint security and privacy standards regarding the use of biometric data for authentication.
