Infosecurity News
Alleged Laval botnet creator arrested in Canada
The alleged author of the Laval botnet has been arrested by police in Canada. It is thought that the 24-year-old programmed the malware himself and then infected servers in Canada, the US and beyond, creating a vast network of zombie PCs.
Police swoop on hacktivists in the US, UK and Netherlands
Police and law enforcement officials have swooped on and arrested more than 20 people in the US, the UK and the Netherlands in connection with the spate of LulzSec and AntiSec hacktivist attacks in recent months.
Former Harvard student charged with hacking into MIT network
Federal prosecutors are charging a former Harvard University student with hacking into a Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) computer network and stealing 4.8 million academic journal articles.
FBI charges 16 in connection with cyber attacks
The FBI announced the arrest of 16 people, at least 14 of whom were allegedly part of the ‘Anonymous’ hacker group. The charges relate to the recent cyber attacks on PayPal and AT&T.
Boston hospital admits to data breach affecting more than 2,000 patients
Beth Israel Deaconness Medical Center (BIDMC) in Boston is notifying more 2,000 patients that personal information was stolen from a hospital computer due to a security lapse by a computer service vendor.
Social networking friend bulk-buying practices revealed
It seems that the pervasively popular nature of social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter are not all they might seem, as a security researcher has revealed how easy - and cheap - it is to use third party companies to gain large followings on the services.
iPhones and Galaxy Tabs banned from Saudi security establishments
The Saudi Ministry of the Interior has banned the use of certain high-definition camera-equipped smartphones and tablets from its security establishments, arguing that the devices are easy to hack and be remotely subverted.
Hackers infiltrate German police and customs service computers
Hackers were able to infiltrate computers at the German federal police and customs service and remain there for months without being detected, according to a German newspaper.
UK counter-terror report confirms extremists are early adopters of technology
The latest report on the UK's Counter Terror strategy says that extremist groups such as al-Qaeda are early adopters of technology in their bid to wage war on governments and their citizens.
PCI DSS broadens appeal beyond credit card data security
The PCI Data Security Standard (DSS), originally developed to protect credit card data, can be used to vet cloud providers for data security practices, as well as provide a template for compliance with information security laws, noted Sean Bruton, senior director of client services and security with managed hosting services provider NeoSpire.
EU seeks public comment on personal data breach notification rules
The European Commission has opened a public consultation on expanding, standardizing, and clarifying personal data breach notification requirements for European businesses.
Signify moves 2FA onto Android smartphones and tablets
Signify has enabled its software token two-factor authentication (2FA) service as an Android app, making the company one of the first to extend 2FA to the Google smartphone platform. The Android app joins similar apps available for the BlackBerry, iPhone and iPad platforms.
Symantec researcher warns on Apple MobileMe/iDisk phish
A Symantec researcher is reporting a large phish taking place surrounding Apple's new iDisk cloud service, with recipients being routed to a rogue MobileMe/iDisk login page - located on a free web hosting service - in a bid to extract their login credentials.
Avast claims 60% of Adobe Reader users are running vulnerable versions of their software
Research carried out by Avast has revealed that 60% of users of Adobe Reader are using an outdated and vulnerable version of the popular Adobe application.
Cloud-based secure browsing service for Firefox goes free
The development team behind the Cocoon service - a cloud-based extension to Mozilla Firefox that stores all cookies and internet session attributes securely in the cloud - have announced the service is now free of charge.
NASA hacker refuses to pay compensation to US government
A former Romanian hacker, after graduating in law in his home country, is reported to have refused to pay $240,000 compensation to the US government for hacking the servers of NASA, the US Navy and the Department of Energy back in 2005/2006.
Texas Comptroller hires chief privacy officer after massive data breach
Fulfilling a pledge she made in May, Texas Comptroller Susan Combs has hired a chief privacy officer to oversee data security in her office following a data breach in April in which personal information on 3.5 million citizens was exposed.
Defense contractor Booz Allen Hamilton comes clean on hack
After hiding behind a “no comment” regarding Anonymous’s claim that it stole 90,000 military email addresses and password hashes from the defense contractor, Booz Allen Hamilton has admitted that it did in fact suffer a data breach.
GCHQ has lost up to £1m worth of equipment, ISC report reveals
The Government Communications Headquarters (GCHQ), which is responsible for key aspects of the UK's cybersecurity, has lost equipment worth up to £1m, the latest Intelligence and Security Committee (ISC) report reveals.
Azerbaijan at centre of pharma and fake AV card processing says researcher
In his continuing research into which banks are processing card transactions for spamming rogue pharma websites - which supply drugs without the need for prescriptions - Brian Krebs says that a number of banks in Azerbaijan are now central to this type of business.
