Infosecurity News
Is the Olympics Committee too heavy-handed in protecting its rights?
As the internet has learned, copyright holders can be insistent in protecting their legal rights. This now includes the London Olympic Organizing Committee (LOCOG), which has been surprisingly busy in issuing threats and warnings.
New financial malware: Tilon – son of Silon
Trusteer first discovered the Silon financial malware targeting the IE browser back in 2009. Things then went quiet; but now a new variant is back, full of evasion techniques and with a wider target.
Entrust withdraws from the CAB security forum
The Certification Authority/Browser Forum is a consortium of certification authorities and browser vendors co-founded by Entrust in 2005 to ensure the security of EV SSL certificates used on the internet. Now Entrust has withdrawn.
Warning issued about another free Apple product scam
Sophos is cautioning smartphone users about bogus text messages offering free Apple products that deliver a bill instead.
Gauss, the Flame malware's 'cousin', targets banks in Lebanon
A new cyber surveillance malware called Gauss, created by the same actors behind the Flame malware, has been discovered stealing banking credentials primarily in Lebanon, according to Kaspersky Lab.
Google receives record fine for bypassing Safari privacy settings
The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has fined Google a record $22.5 million as part of a settlement of charges that the company violated an FTC order in bypassing privacy settings on Apple’s Safari browser.
Obama weighs executive order on cybersecurity
In response to the Senate’s failure to pass the Cybersecurity Act, President Obama is mulling issuing an executive order to beef up the cybersecurity of critical infrastructure, according to White House homeland security adviser John Brennan.
University of Arizona server exposes personal data on 7,700 individuals
About 7,700 vendors, consultants, guest speakers, and University of Arizona students had their names and social security numbers compromised in a data breach that occurred in February and early March, a school official disclosed this week.
NIST advises firms to have cybersecurity response plan in place
The US National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is advising organizations to have a detailed cybersecurity incident response plan in place before an attack occurs.
Was this the hack that will change the world?
The hacking of Matt Honan – which he bravely and openly shared with the world – may just be the one that changes our attitude to security. Apple and Amazon, two of the principle actors in the saga, have already responded by changing their customer service procedures.
Stalk a Democrat today: Obama for America app
Obama’s election campaign has developed and publicly released an app called ‘Obama for America’. Its purpose is to help campaign volunteers shore up votes – and tout for donations – by locating local Democrats.
Starbucks signs up with mobile payment business Square
Jack Dorsey, CEO of Square, yesterday said, “I am pleased and proud to announce that today Starbucks signed up for Square.” Square is a mobile payment company with 2 million customers; Starbucks has 7000 stores in the US.
New malware targeting Android and BlackBerry
Kaspersky Lab has uncovered five new Zitmo (Zeus-in-the-mobile) malware samples for Android and BlackBerry smartphones.
US appeals court decides GPS tracking ruling not retroactive
A federal appeals court judge has ruled that information gathered by law enforcement from a GPS tracking device prior to the Supreme Court decision requiring a warrant can be used as evidence.
South Korea leads nations in PC infections
South Korea surged to first place, vaulting past China and Taiwan, in PandaLabs’ quarterly ranking of countries with the highest percentage of infected PCs.
Australia demands Google destroy Street View data
Australian Privacy Commissioner Timothy Pilgrim is demanding that Google destroy information it collected using its Street View vehicles in Australia.
Fingerprint authentication introduced by Vietnam bank
Fourteen years after the Nationwide Building Society introduced and abandoned iris recognition at its UK ATMs, the Mekong Development Bank (MDB) in Vietnam introduces Temenos fingerprint authentication at its NCR ATMs.
Reuters got caught up in a Syrian war of disinformation
Reuters has finally come clean on its hack – “a now closed vulnerability in the WordPress software” – but indicates that it is a small part of a widespread war of disinformation being waged between the two sides in Syria.
One-quarter of websites examined by testing service were malicious
One-quarter of the 30,156 websites tested in the second quarter by Zscaler’s Zulu service, which tests the security of websites, were malicious, according to Zscaler’s second quarter 2012 State of the Web report.
Quantum cryptography is not provably secure
Quantum cryptography (more accurately, quantum key distribution) has long been the holy grail of security. The reason is simple, or so the theory goes: it offers complete and provable communications security.
