Security

We've all had problems with our bosses. But few of us would react to such a dispute by hacking our employer's network. And yet, that's exactly what a 41-year-old Long Island man did after being passed over for promotion. Michael Meneses is a systems ... manager living in Smithtown, New York. Until early 2012 he was employed by a local firm that builds high-voltage power supplies. Man Allegedly Hacks Former Employer's Network While working for his former employer, Meneses was responsible for implementing and maintaining customized software designed to keep the firm's production and inventory ... (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)

Mozilla is attempting to stop a British company from masking its spyware program as the Firefox Internet browser. Mozilla has reportedly sent a cease-and-desist letter to the firm. Mozilla has sprung into action after learning from PC security ... researchers that a spyware program called FinSpy has been masquerading as the Firefox web browser. The issue was discovered by Citizen Lab, a group of researchers associated with the University of Toronto's Munk School of Global Affairs. FinSpy is just one part of a spyware toolset called FinFisher, which is produced by a British firm called Gamma ... (view more)

The chief executive officer and founder of prominent Russian security firm Kaspersky Lab says that the nations of the world now face cyber attacks with the potential to seriously disrupt national infrastructure. Kaspersky Lab CEO Eugene Kaspersky ... recently appeared before British police and politicians. Kaspersky's presence at the gathering is seen as evidence that UK authorities are taking the threat posed by cybercriminals very seriously. Cybercriminals Could Bring "Nations to their Knees" "Today, sophisticated malicious programs -- cyberweapons -- have the power to disable ... (view more)

A new report finds that phishers are increasingly targeting online gamers. The report, which was released this past week by the Anti Phishing Work Group, says that phishing attacks targeting gamers increased from 2.7 per cent in September 2012 to ... 14.7 per cent in December. Phishing involves luring targets into giving up important personal information, such as a name, address, password, and credit card number. Usually phishers use fake web forms accessed via bogus emails to get people to give up this critical data. Virtual Items Exchanged for Real-World Cash So, why target video gamers? ... (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)

Back in February 2013, Dom Del Torto's MacBook was stolen from his London, England, apartment. In an effort to get it back, in March Del Torto began using the tracking software he'd previously installed on the device. The results were shocking. ... Using the tracking program 'Hidden', Del Torto found that the laptop had in just one month's time travelled all the way from London to Tehran, Iran. Laptop Outside UK Police Jurisdiction Because the Hidden app allows a user to take pictures of the person using the device on which it's installed, Del Torto was able to see the laptop's new owners. He was ... (view more)

Most of us carry credit and debit cards equipped with a special chip that makes it faster and easier to buy an item. But new applications available for the latest smartphones could give scam artists an opportunity to make charges on your credit card ... account. The cards feature a chip that allows customers to tap or quickly swipe their cards in order to make a purchase. However, Near Field Communication (NFC) technology could place users of those cards at risk. That's because NFC applications, which can be downloaded to Google Android-based smartphones, can be used to acquire information about ... (view more)

Security researchers have discovered a new type of Trojan downloader capable of covering its tracks by deleting the files it downloads. That makes it harder for security experts to find and remove the downloader. The downloader, which is called ... Win32 / Nemim.gen!A, shows how malware writers are producing progressively more sophisticated tools. By deleting all of the files it downloads and uses, this Trojan makes it almost impossible to recover, isolate, and analyze component files. Sophisticated Malware Difficult to Confront According to Microsoft Malware Protection Center researcher Jonathan ... (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)