Security

Thu
09
Aug
Dennis Faas's picture

Web Thunderstruck by 'Storm' Worm

The newest email virus to terrorize PCs all across the world is aptly named the "Storm" worm, and shows just how far online hacking-for-profit networks have come. Joe Stewart, considered one of the best virus-hunters currently working for ... SecureWorks in Atlanta, released some shocking "Storm" statistics at the annual Black Hat security conference. According to Stewart, Storm releases spam messages by the millions, enticing all recipients to open fake e-cards supposedly sent by family and friends. (Source: blogs.usatoday.com ) The worm can also take on the form of an online newspaper article ... (view more)

Tue
07
Aug
Dennis Faas's picture

Phishing for Big Fish

The most powerful and in most cases rich people in the United States are becoming lavish targets for online phishers. Emails disguised as reports from the Better Business Bureau, Internal Revenue Service, and random look-a-like business partners are ... fooling corporate executives, and it's costing them big. We can't blame the boss entirely, however. This most recent phishing campaign is a well-designed one, perhaps because of its well-respected and lucrative intended audience. The emails, typically packed with malware, carry few of the red flags associated with most phishing outbreaks of this ... (view more)

Fri
03
Aug
Dennis Faas's picture

Fewer Businesses Believe Vista is More Secure

A recent survey of more than 250 CIOs, CSOs, IT managers and network administrators across Europe, Asia Pacific, and the U.S. conducted by PatchLink shows that fewer businesses are now planning a migration to Windows Vista than seven months ago. ... More businesses are saying they'll either stick with the Windows thay have, or they'll switch to Linux or Mac OS X. The poll also shows that corporations are afraid of zero-day vulnerabilities. Of the more than 250 businesses polled, 2% said they're already running Windows Vista. 9% said they plan to roll Vista in the next three months. 87% said they ... (view more)

Wed
01
Aug
Dennis Faas's picture

Canadian Predators Roam MySpace

Is MySpace safe? It may be hard to answer yes to this question since, as of July 25, 2007, 29,000 registered offenders had created profiles on the world's most popular social networking community. (Source: businessweek.com ) Before you cancel your ... Internet service and sell the kids' computer, find comfort in the fact that things will be changing for the better. MySpace has teamed up with Sentinel Tech to create technology to banish registered offenders from its site. However, the new measures do not apply to Canada. But, don't be too eager to point fingers at MySpace. Ottawa's information ... (view more)

Tue
31
Jul
Dennis Faas's picture

AOL is Watching

AOL wants to enhance its online advertising business by partnering with Tacoda, a company that offers ads based on a person's online behaviour. Tacoda was founded in New York in 2001. It caters to well-known publishing clients such as The New York ... Times, and has more than 4,000 websites in its ad network. Tacoda's job is carried out in a series of steps. First, the online behaviour of Internet users is evaluated across a wide number of sites. This task is done in order to determine the active and passive interests of visitors. Next, the online audience is divided according to these interests ... (view more)

Fri
27
Jul
Dennis Faas's picture

Search Security: Ask, and You Shall Receive

Google search rival Ask.com is providing its clients with a new tool called AskEraser, which prevents the company from storing a user's search results. AskEraser gives searchers the ability to control their search history and data retention at the ... same time. While the program is extremely user-friendly, it is surprisingly only the first of its kind amongst the world's top search engines. The sceptical may wonder how this concept can possibly be successful if leading search engines, such as Google, did not discover it first. In terms of mechanics, "with AskEraser, users can instantly request ... (view more)

Fri
27
Jul
Dennis Faas's picture

Microsoft Patent Application Raises Security Concerns

In what's beginning to look like the technological version of "One Flew Vver the Cuckoo's Nest," Microsoft filed a patent application on July 5 detailing advertising software that uses applications and data on a computer rather than the web. ... (Source: Information Week ) The summary of the patent, which amounts to nothing short of adware, begins with this lengthy statement: "an advertising framework may reside on a user computer, whether it's a part of the OS (operating system), an application or integrated within applications. Applications, tools, or utilities may use an application program ... (view more)

Thu
19
Jul
Dennis Faas's picture

Windows Vista: A Forensics Examiner's Dream Come True

A report by the American Bar Association notes that from a litigator's perspective, Windows Vista makes it easy to uncover what's been performed on a particular PC. Quite simply, forensic evidence maintained by Vista makes it easier to find out what ... was done and when it was done. What am I talking about? Shadow copy is a new feature built into Vista that backs up all of your data and stores it on unused sectors of the hard drive. It was designed to prevent data loss but because the information it stores stays on there, it's easier for a forensic examiner to find deleted data. Transactional ... (view more)

Fri
13
Jul
Dennis Faas's picture

Police to Blanket NYC with Cameras

In a recent piece on Microsoft's Windows Vista, our Bill Lindner warned users that "Big Brother" might just be watching you. If you're a resident of New York City, that threat just moved from your computer to the busy, dingy streets outside. What ... this essentially means is that the city itself will be installing both license plate readers and cameras across the crowded areas of Lower Manhattan. The project is called the "Lower Manhattan Security Initiative", a bit tamer than London, England's similar "ring of steel". London put such technology to use in order to curtail terrorist threats, ... (view more)

Fri
13
Jul
Dennis Faas's picture

Be Cautious of Upcoming Vista SP1 Beta

After spending months denying that there even was a Vista Service Pack 1 (SP1), Microsoft will be rushing out the first Vista SP1 beta around the middle of July. After agreeing to change the search feature in Vista due to complaints by Google and ... leading everyone to believe the first beta of SP1 for Vista wouldn't be released until near or after the first of the year, it now appears that Microsoft is attempting to get the final version of Vista SP1 out around November 2007. There is also a lot of widespread speculation that Vista SP1 is being rolled out in an effort to encourage Vista ... (view more)

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