Infosecurity News
China's ZTE admits to backdoor in mobile phone model
China mobile phone maker ZTE admitted that one of its mobile phone models sold in the US contains a backdoor that could enable someone to take control of the device.
Understanding the legal problems with DPA
We have known for many years that the EU is not happy with the UK’s implementation of the Data Protection Directive – what we haven’t known is why. This may now change thanks to the persistence of Amberhawk Training Ltd.
Who attacked WikiLeaks and The Pirate Bay?
This week both the The Pirate Bay and WikiLeaks have been ‘taken down’ by sustained DDoS attacks: TPB for over 24 hours, and Wikileaks for 72. What isn’t known is who is behind the attacks.
BYOD threatens job security at HP
BYOD isn’t simply a security issue – it’s a job issue. Sales of multi-function smartphones and tablets are reducing demand for traditional PCs; and this is hitting Hewlett Packard.
UK council objects to ICO fine for data loss resulting from burglary
A UK council is objecting to a 70,000-pound fine levied by the Information Commissioner’s Office (ICO) for losing sensitive data as the result of a theft at an employee’s home.
US firms team with German institute on cybersecurity center
US high-tech firms have teamed with German research institute Fraunhofer FOKUS to open a cybersecurity research center in Berlin.
25 civil servants reprimanded weekly for data breach
Government databases are full of highly prized and highly sensitive personal information. The upcoming Communications Bill will generate one of the very largest databases. The government says it will not include personal information.
Vulnerability found in Mobile Spy spyware app
Mobile Spy is covert spyware designed to allow parents to monitor their children’s smartphones, employers to catch time-wasters, and partners to detect cheating spouses. But vulnerabilities mean the covertly spied-upon can become the covert spy.
McAfee uncovers Pinterest scamming toolkits
US security firm McAfee recently uncovered several ready-to-use toolkits that enable hackers to redirect unsuspecting Pinterest users to malicious websites with only a couple lines of code.
Online travel industry is most vulnerable to email attack
The online travel industry is the most vulnerable to email attack, according to a newly launched email trust index by email security firm Agari.
Utah governor fires state's technology director over medical data breach
Utah Governor Gary Herbert has fired the director of the state’s Department of Technology Services (DTS) over a breach that exposed healthcare records of 780,000 Utah Medicaid recipients.
Canada’s interception bill C-30 dead in the water?
For all intents and purposes, the bill is dead; it appears that Public Safety Minister Vic Toews’ plans to ease police tracking of those who use the web for criminal purposes has been shelved.
UK companies are cyber self-confident
A new study by BAE Systems Detica shows that British business is pessimistic about security in general, but strangely confident about its own.
McAfee, Intel team on ‘reference implementation’ to secure power grid
At a time when cyberthreats to critical infrastructure are growing, McAfee and Intel have teamed to create a “reference implementation” for the energy sector that integrates a number of McAfee security products for substations and network operations centers with Intel processors and hardware-based security and management technologies.
The danger in service operators’ censorship filters
Yesterday we reported that the German Pirate Party had been ‘accidentally’ blocked by an automatic content filtering system used by many German schools. And yesterday the Open Rights Group and the LSE Media Policy Unit published a new report: Mobile Internet censorship: What’s happening and what we can do about it.
South Carolina county takes nine month to notify thousands of data breach victims
Officials with York County, South Carolina, took nine months to notify close to 17,000 job applicants and vendors that their social security numbers were exposed by an intrusion into a web application server.
Mozilla’s objection to IE-only Windows on ARM: a major row in the making
Windows is not Apple’s iOS, says Mozilla's top lawyer after the organization complained that Firefox and other browsers would be excluded from Windows RT running on ARM systems.
BeyondTrust acquires vulnerability management company eEye Digital Security
BeyondTrust, a company that provides privilege delegation and authorization systems with its PowerBroker suite of products, has acquired eEye Digital Security, developer of the Blink and Retina vulnerability management tools.
Drowning in data: Security professionals look to metrics for a lifeline
Security professionals are experiencing an information overload and want better metrics to analyze the data so they can take action, according to a survey conducted by Dimensional Research on behalf of RedSeal Networks.
K-State receives Air Force contract to examine network "moving target" defense
Kansas State University (KSU) has received a five-year, $1 million US Air Force (USAF) contract to study "moving target" defense for networks.
