attack

Microsoft has warned users of its software to beware bogus file attachments. The firm says a newly discovered vulnerability in Windows Vista and the Office software suite could allow hackers remote access to a victim's computer. The flaw affects the ... Windows Vista and Server 2008 operating systems. It also affects Microsoft Office 2003, 2007, and 2010, plus Microsoft Lync, a communications package. Later editions of Windows, such as Windows 7 and Windows 8, are unaffected. The problem does not affect Windows XP, either. The problem involves the way the affected software handles image files in ... (view more)

According to reports, hackers recently infected the United States Department of Labor website with malware. Security experts have indicated that the attack may have originated in China, since the strategy employed by hackers is very similar to ... tactics used by Chinese hackers in the past. The hackers targeted the Site Exposure Matrices (SEM) page within the U.S. Department of Labor website. According to two security firms (AlienVault and Invincea), that page features data related to the storage of toxic substances at United States Department of Energy sites. Attack May Have Originated in China ... (view more)

Spanish police have arrested a man on suspicion of masterminding one of the largest online attacks ever recorded. The suspect appears to be the chief of a controversial web hosting company who had begun a rivalry with the anti-spamming group hit by ... the attack. According to Dutch prosecutors the man arrested was a 35-year-old Netherlands resident with the initials 'S.K.' That appears to match Sven Kamphuis, a senior figure at Cyberbunker. (Source: om.nl ) Cyberbunker is a web hosting company known for having a particularly relaxed attitude to the online activities of its customers. That led to ... (view more)

Microsoft says that approximately one in four computers around the world are completely vulnerable to cyber attack. That finding is one part of Microsoft's newest Security Intelligence Report. According to the fourteenth volume of Microsoft's ... Security Intelligence Report, 24 per cent of all computers worldwide are not protected by up-to-date antivirus or anti-malware software. The problem with that, Microsoft says: "Computers without antivirus software are 5.5 times more likely to be infected." (Source: digitaltrends.com ) Microsoft's report also highlights the dangers posed to computers ... (view more)

Do you use a Linksys, Netgear, Verizon, D-Link, or Belkin router for your home network? Then your network could be vulnerable to attack. Baltimore, Maryland-based security consultancy firm Independent Security Evaluators (ISE) says that in a test of ... popular home routers most were vulnerable to attack by hackers. ISE put routers from Linksys, Netgear, Verizon, D-Link, and Belkin to the test after having installed each firm's latest firmware updates. ISE also left each router's default configurations in place when carrying out their tests. Hackers Intercept Sensitive Information ISE found that ... (view more)

Hackers have reportedly initiated a widespread attack on sites that use the WordPress publishing platform. Hosts using particularly weak passwords are being told to change those passwords or risk having their sites taken over. The hacking campaign ... reportedly uses a "brute force" strategy, meaning hackers use the login name "admin" and then try thousands of typical passwords to bypass security. Hackers Hoping to Create a "Beefy" Botnet The goal, according to security experts, is to build a huge and powerful botnet. "One of the concerns of an attack like this is that the attacker is ... (view more)

A newly-discovered form of malware can reportedly spread via malicious PDF documents. An infected system can then be controlled via Twitter. Called 'MiniDuke' by security experts, it appears the malware is still very active. Russian security company ... Kaspersky Lab, who recently discovered MiniDuke, said that recovered fragments of the malware had been created as recently as February 20, 2013. That has led Kaspersky researchers to suggest that MiniDuke is still being used to attack computer systems. Hackers Capitalize on Adobe Flaw The malware is reportedly being spread in the form of malicious ... (view more)

Microsoft has acknowledged that its Mac software business unit was recently infected with malware. However, the company insists that the infection did not result in any customer data being compromised. Microsoft Trustworthy Computing Security chief ... Matt Thomlinson recently made this statement on the firm's security blog: "During our investigation, we found a small number of computers, including some in our Mac business unit, that were infected by malicious software using techniques similar to those documented by other organizations." No Customer Data Compromised Thomlinson went on to say that ... (view more)