Security

According to security researchers, the Conficker worm virus -- which has infected millions of machines since its discovery in October 2008 -- is set to wreak havoc next Wednesday, April 1st. The problem is that nobody is sure exactly what the worm ... will do. At the moment the virus, which exists in at least three different 'strains' , does not actually do anything other than attempt to spread further across the webosphere. Secret Methods of Communication All that's known at the moment is that on April 1st, PCs already infected with Conficker will contact a random website for instructions on ... (view more)

As of yesterday, the first Release Candidate (RC1) of Internet Explorer is now available from Microsoft's web site. Much of the publicity for the latest (and potentially last edition ) of Microsoft's Internet Explorer has surrounded the browser's ... usability features, which promise to make surfing easier than ever before. But it's the added security elements that deserve the most attention. It's already been proven that Internet Explorer 8 is not unbeatable by hackers . But the new security options will make more of a difference in the long run than usability features such as Web Slices and ... (view more)

When educational technology specialist Kevin Andreyo recently read a report on people search engines , he decided to conduct a little 'people search' on himself. Andreyo did not expect to find much -- so, imagine the surprise when he uncovered the ... user name and password to his Comcast Internet account, put out there for the entire online world to see. In addition to his personal information, Andreyo also discovered a list that exposed the user names and passwords of (what he believed) to be 8,000 other Comcast customers. Andreyo immediately contacted both Comcast and the FBI, hoping to find ... (view more)

As Facebook readies itself for a complete profile page makeover, hackers are now striking fast and furious with a barrage of attacks aimed at all those associated with the social networking site. The site has been exposed to five different security ... threats in this past week alone, including four new hoax applications that trick members into divulging usernames and passwords. There are a number of reasons why hackers are attracted to social networking websites like MySpace and Facebook. The interconnectedness of millions of people, coupled with pages and pages of personal information, make ... (view more)

How much thought do you give to security when you use your credit card at a retail location? According to the Chicago Tribune, most consumers don't think about what happens to their credit card information when their plastic gets swiped at the cash ... register. Unfortunately, large retailers have networks that are potentially vulnerable to breaches connected to cash registers, bar code scanners and store computers. (Source: chicagotribune.com ) In some high-profile cases of network vulnerability, thieves don't just pluck one credit card number. They pluck millions of them. For instance, in 2007 ... (view more)

Cyber criminals beware! European police officers will soon receive corporate-sponsored university training in order to help fight cyber crime more effectively. Support for the new project will be provided by several leading IT companies. Online ... security magnate McAfee estimates that businesses lose over a billion dollars each year as a result of online crime. Just recently Ebay suffered a security breach where attackers were able to exploit a browser vulnerability. Since international police are not always trained to tackle the crimes directly, companies like Microsoft, Ebay, and AOL ... (view more)

Microsoft has made good on its promise to fix eight security flaws with its most recent Patch Tuesday offering. The download helps prevent at least one issue marked "critical," but as rumored last week. still fails to address another flaw. The fix ... that will garner the most attention with this latest patch is one meant to prevent hackers from taking control of a user's computer by launching malicious code through specially engineered EMF or WMF images. "That is the most important one," remarked Wolfgang Kandek, security company Qualys' CTO. "Your machine can be controlled by the attacker," ... (view more)

The frightening Conficker worm is just getting bigger and meaner all the time. W32.Downadup.C, a third variant of the Conficker/Downadup worm , is reportedly being pushed out to systems that are already infected. Analysis of the third variant of the ... worm by Symantec is still in the early stages, but their initial research found a couple of new attributes -- one of which includes targeting antivirus software and security tools with the intention of disabling them. (Source: symantec.com ) New Variant Protects itself from AntiVirus Software The Conficker/Downadup authors moved from a 250-a-day ... (view more)

eBay buyers are being asked to take extra precautions when conducting their online shopping after security specialists warned that a string of hackers had infiltrated the popular auction site. The hackers exploited several unpatched vulnerabilities ... in Firefox and Internet Explorer browsers to create false listings and entice people to bid on fraudulent items. Details of the Stealth Attack Analysts believe that it was an XSS (cross-site scripting) attack that implemented unauthorized java script elements stored on third-party websites. This allowed eBay pages to contain outside email links and ... (view more)

Sophos Security is warning that the Conficker/Downadup worm ("Conficker worm") is targeting multiple domains -- including Southwest airlines -- that could end up causing Denial of Service ( DoS ) attacks and temporary disruptions. The Conficker worm ... has been kicking around since last year and usually spreads via a) removable storage devices such as USB drives and b) network sharing. It exploits a Windows vulnerability that was patched by Microsoft last year. According to a blog entry by Mike Wood of SophosLabs Canada, those computers infected with the Conficker worm are programmed ... (view more)