Security

German security technologies company Sirrix AG has recently released what some critics are calling the most secure web browser in existence: a sandboxed version of Mozilla firefox, known as BitBox. What makes this variation of Firefox most ... intriguing is that the web browser runs completely independent of Microsoft Windows. The program uses VirtualBox 4.04 (a software virtualization program by Sun Microsystems) and a securely locked-down ("hardened") implementation of Debian 6 Linux. The web browser (Firefox 4) then runs in a virtual machine with its own operating system (Debian 6 ... (view more)

A company that rents both furniture and PCs has been accused of spying on its customers. A lawsuit alleges Aaron's Inc remotely accessed a spy camera on a PC to take a shot of a customer using it. No Disclosure of Spy Software The claims arose in a ... case involving a customer who had taken a computer from Aaron's Inc on a rent-to-own agreement. That allows a customer to pay a monthly fee for a set period: after this period they own it outright, but before then they can also simply return it and stop paying. In the case of customer Brian Byrd, Aaron's believed he had stopped paying (which ... (view more)

Microsoft has revealed that the infection rate for Windows 7 computers has increased. But the Windows 7 operating system still remains considerably more secure than its predecessors. The most talked-about figure in the newly-published statistics is ... a 33 per cent hike in the proportion of Windows 7 computers suffering from a malware infection. That's a potentially misleading oversimplification, though. The actual rate increased during 2010 from three PCs per thousand to four per thousand, figures that could easily be distorted by rounding errors. Windows XP Still Riskiest for Malware ... (view more)

Online phone service Skype is preparing to fix a bug in the Mac edition of the system that could allow hackers to take control of a computer remotely. The site that discovered the bug has accused Skype of dragging its heels on the issue. Gordon ... Maddern of purehacking.com says he discovered the bug entirely by mistake. He was talking to a colleague on a Skype connection about some code written for a client. To his surprise he was able to make the code run on his colleague's computer. Upon closer examination, Maddern discovered that the hack only worked where the recipient's computer was a Mac ... (view more)

Microsoft has announced an overhaul of the way it assess and publicizes the risk security problems pose to users of its products. The new technique will give added detail as well as highlighting the benefits of upgrading to the latest version of ... Windows. The changes will affect Microsoft's monthly security update, which includes ratings for the potential damage that could be caused by a particular security flaw if the relevant patch is not applied. As well as giving an overall idea of the range and scale of problems, the ratings are also aimed at business users for whom applying updates ... (view more)

With a range between 3,000 to 5,000 tweets per second , it is no wonder that so many people found out about the capture (and subsequent demise) of Osama Bin Laden via Twitter earlier in the week. While the majority of people world-wide learned about ... the covert operation only after it was complete, a few thousand people were in fact following the sting in real time via a live Twitter feed hosted in Abbottabad. Man Blogs About Raid Without Knowing About It Sohaib Athar, the man behind the blog, now believes that one of his Twitter followers might have actually been a hacker looking to prey on ... (view more)

There's no doubt that many are curious to know more details of Osama Bin Laden's recent demise . Security experts, however, are warning that clicking on some links related to that subject may end up getting your PC infected with malware. "I suppose ... this was just inevitable," said McAfee Labs' director of security research, Dave Marcus. "The reported death of Osama Bin Laden is just too good a lure for cybercriminals and scammers to pass up." (Source: chicagotribune.com ) Emails, Google, Facebook Tainted with Infected Links Lucas was referring to a number of emails now circulating the web that ... (view more)

In one of the more embarrassing security breaches of all time, a major government laboratory has fallen victim to a phishing scam . Fortunately, the stolen data wasn't among the most confidential information in the centre's database. The scammers ... struck at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, a town known for its role in the Manhattan Project. The laboratory works with the Department of Energy on subjects that require intense computing power to help simulate millions of possible outcomes to particular scenarios. The lab is host to Jaguar, the world's second-fastest ... (view more)

Government officials say they'll need more time to tackle a major network of infected Windows computers. The request comes as more details emerge about just how widely affected major organizations were by the Coreflood botnet . Zombie Windows PCs ... Steal Over $100 Million Those responsible had used a Windows-based virus to seize remote control of more than two million machines , most of which were located in the US. The machines were then ordered to collect and transmit confidential data, with one independent estimate suggesting more than $100 million may have been stolen as a result. The FBI ... (view more)

Late last week Russian police investigated the abduction of Kaspersky Antivirus founder Eugene Kaspersky's 20-year old son, Ivan. Reports now say that a high-risk scheme by law enforcement officials was successful in freeing the young man. Ivan ... Kaspersky Kidnapped, Held Ransom for $4.3 Million Early last week Ivan Kaspersky, who is training to be a programmer and currently attends school at Moscow State University, was kidnapped while on his way to work at InfoWatch, a tech firm owned by his mother, Natalya Kaspersky. Ivan is the son of Eugene (or Yevgeny) Kaspersky, founder of the extremely ... (view more)