Infosecurity News
Use iMessage rather than SMS, says Apple
Apple was responding to French iOS hacker pod2g’s announcement that he “found a flaw in iOS that [he considers] to be severe”, and that he is “pretty confident that other security researchers already know about this hole, and I fear some pirates as well.”
NCC Group buys Intrepidus for £7.1 million
Manchester, UK based NCC Group has acquired US-based mobile security testing specialist Intrepidus for £7.1m. It is NCC’s ninth acquisition in the network testing and software security space and the third in North America.
Judge rules that the Video Privacy Protection Act (VPPA) applies to online video
Hulu, an online video content provider, had attempted to get a class action against its practice of passing users’ viewing habits to a marketing company dismissed. In June, a California judge tossed six of the seven claims, but deferred ruling on the seventh.
Cyber Security Challenge UK launches new summer Cyber Camp
The task faced by Cyber Security Challenge UK is to fill the skills gap – there are simply not enough security specialists coming through the system. The organization’s latest innovation is a new 5-day summer camp to be held at Lancaster university next month.
Disttrack/Shamoon: a new targeted and destructive virus
Anti-virus companies and researchers are warning about a new targeted and destructive virus variously known as Shamoon and Disttrack. It seems to be targeted at the oil industry – and it wipes PCs.
Bugs beware: Google to offer researchers bonuses on top of bounties
Google has announced plans to hand out bonuses, in addition to its existing bug bounties, to researchers who report particularly troublesome flaws in its Chrome browser.
Atlanta police provides personal information to insurance scammers
At least three dozen members of the Atlanta police force provided personal information to scammers who posed as agents selling insurance benefits.
NASA not ready for APTs, warns audit
NASA’s inspector general (IG) is criticizing the space agency for not being ready to combat advanced persistent threats (APTs).
Security issues increase corporate BYOD costs
Despite the perception that bring your own device (BYOD) saves organizations money, more than two-thirds of IT professionals believe it increases costs, primarily due to the added security risks and measures required, according to a survey by Lieberman Software.
Adobe’s patches for Windows and OS/X expose Linux
During June, Google researchers seeking to strengthen the security posture of the embedded PDF reader for Chrome discovered numerous vulnerabilities in Adobe Reader. Most of these were patched in this week’s Adobe security update – but not for Linux.
CloudFlare helps restore WikiLeaks
After more than a week of persistent DDoS attack by Anti Leaks, WikiLeaks is now available again, courtesy, it says, of increased capacity and CloudFlare protection.
Assange: asylum crunch day
WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, wanted by Sweden (definitely) and the US (probably) is inside the Ecuadorean embassy in London seeking political asylum. Today, Thursday 16 August, is the day that Ecuador has said it will announce its decision.
Security vendor Prolexic uncovers vulnerability in hacker toolkit
Security vendor Prolexic has turned the tables on cybercriminals and exposed a vulnerability in the Dirt Jumper toolkit used to launch distributed denial of service (DDoS) attacks against corporate networks.
Bitcoinica, twice hacked in 2012, is being sued
Bitcoinica is a UK-based online trading site for the online cash alternative ‘bitcoin’. Following its second hack, Bitcoinica was taken offline and will remain off-line until a ‘transitional’ period designed to improve security is complete.
Information Please: Kaspersky Lab needs help decrypting Gauss warhead
Kaspersky Lab is asking for help from the information security community to decrypt the mysterious Gauss’ encrypted warhead suspected of targeting industrial control systems.
Marketers dis Congress over data aggregation privacy concerns
The Direct Marketing Association (DMA) is dismissing congressional privacy concerns about the mass aggregation of consumer data.
Groupon email scam gives victims more than they bargained for
Commtouch has detected a series of recent attacks that contain emails promising great Groupon “deals”, but deliver malware instead.
Police in Scotland have used RIPSA 85,000 times in the last 5 years
The Regulation of Investigatory Powers (Scotland) Act is used by public bodies, including the police, to obtain phone and text information on customers from telecoms companies. It was originally designed to help combat terrorism and serious crime.
iOS poses serious problems for law enforcement
MIT’s Technology Review says that Apple’s iPhone and iTab security has improved to the extent that, if used correctly, it can prove unbreakable even to law enforcement.
Citadel trojan targeting major international airport hub
The Citadel trojan is best known for its recent delivery of the Reveton ransomware. Now Trusteer has discovered a Citadel-based man-in-the-browser (MitB) attack aimed against VPN-using employees at a major international airport.
