Weekly Brief - July 20 2009

Chinese internet hackers arrested

The Chinese government has finally tracked down four hackers who caused a potentially serious internet failure in six provinces / regions of China in May of this year. Unconfirmed sources suggested at the time that the hackers had developed a new type of DDoS attack.

For more see Hack-in-the-box...

Fortinet soups up its IPS technology

California's Fortinet has enhanced its Intrusion Prevention Service (IPS) technology to stop remote code execution caused an ActiveX flaw in Microsoft Office's web components.

For more see Fortinet...

South Korea slashed its cybersecurity forces by 80%

News that South Korea has been hit by a hacker / DDoS attack from crackers sympathetic to the cause of North Korea has been followed by the revelation that South Korea has cut its electronic defence spending by around 80%.

For more see the Korea Herald...

Microsoft to offer web-based version of Office

Fresh from issuing multiple security patches, Microsoft has decided now is a good time to announce plans to develop a web-based version of its Office software suite.

For more see the Washington Post...

Facebook has serious gaps in privacy says Canada's privacy commissioner

Facebook is not doing enough to protect the personal information it gets from subscribers, and it gives users confusing and incomplete information about privacy matters, says Canada's privacy commissioner.

For more see the Toronto Star...

Twitter calls in the lawyers over data hack/leak

Twitter, the social networking microblogging site has reportedly called in its lawyers after a US technology portal apparently posted details of its growth plans that had anonymously been emailed in by a hacker.

For more see KB Networks...

CA anti-virus detects Windows system file as virus

Computer Associates' IT security software users were reported to be less than impressed after the application they all know and love detected a Windows system file as a virus. And quarantined it.

For more see CNet...

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