Security

A recent Wall Street Journal report has revealed that some popular mobile apps have been sending personal data of their users to third parties without consent. A whopping 56 applications using the Apple iPhone and Google Android systems were found ... guilty of such practices. In a recent statement, Alex Deane, director of Big Brother Watch, was outraged with such activity. Founded in 2009, Big Brother Watch is a British-based group dedicated to combating intrusions of privacy and protecting civil liberties. Personal Info Breach "Alarming News" "This is alarming news. Most users of ... (view more)

Security company McAfee Labs recently released their 2011 Threat Predictions report, where they foresee cyber criminals turning their attention to three specific attack vectors in the coming year. An attack vector is "a path or means by which a ... hacker (or cracker) can gain access to a computer or network server in order to deliver a payload or malicious outcome. Attack vectors enable hackers to exploit system vulnerabilities, including the human element." (Source: techtarget.com ) Most specifically, Google TV, the Apple iPhone, and Foursquare: a location-based social networking ... (view more)

Microsoft has revealed that hackers have attempted to exploit a bug in Microsoft Word. The bug was fixed in a security update last month, but the company is also concerned that some users may not have installed the update. The bug involves the way ... MS Word handles rich text format (.RTF) files. This is a format used for text documents that have a very limited degree of formatting information compared to full-blown MS Word documents. The format is most commonly used as a way of moving documents from one word processor to another without altering the text's formatting. RTF Flaw Causes Memory ... (view more)

According to security firm Armorize Technologies, both Google and Microsoft ad systems recently linked to web sites containing malicious software. Once an infected link is clicked, Internet Explorer automatically installs bogus software that claims ... the user's PC is infected, requiring payment to remove the alleged problems. Santa Clara based security firm Armorize Technologies says that the bogus links appeared on banner ads provided through DoubleClick (owned by Google) and MSN (Microsoft). The ads did not appear on Google or Bing's search results pages, but rather on third-party websites ... (view more)

Amazon Web Services (AWS) earlier this month pulled the plug on the WikiLeaks web site, forcing the latter to find a new web hosting company. WikiLeaks is amid controversy after the site began releasing a mammoth collection of confidential U.S. ... State Department diplomatic cables. According to Computerworld, "WikiLeaks is now hosted by a Swedish firm, Bahnhof Internet AB, which is headquartered in Uppsala, a city approximately 44 miles north of Stockholm." (Source: computerworld.com ) In response, activists calling themselves "Anonymous" who support the WikiLeaks cause have ... (view more)

While it is no secret that spam and botnet attacks are becoming more sophisticated with each passing day, there are a number of advanced security software programs that have been able to effectively combat malware in most of its forms. In spite of ... these positive strides, Symantec recently revealed new information that suggests botnets are adapting new methods of attacking computers. In short, a botnet is a jargon term used to describe a network of computers under the control of 1 (or few) users. For example, a PC can become part of a botnet when the primary user inadvertently download and ... (view more)

Users of Windows 7 64-bit that use AVG Antivirus received a rather unpleasant surprise earlier this week. A recent AVG security update reportedly bricked these systems, presenting users with the infamous Blue Screen of Death (BSoD), thus making ... their PCs virtually unusable. The update was automatically distributed to AVG Antivirus users on Wednesday night. Those who downloaded the update found their systems caught in a repetitive reboot loop. Users of both free and paid versions of the software have been affected. AVG Apologizes for Poisoned Antivirus Update Since the problem was first ... (view more)

Recently leaked US State department documents make the strongest claims yet that the Chinese government was behind attacks on Google systems late last year. The claims appear in a collection of 250,000 cables: confidential messages between the State ... department and the various United States consulates and embassies around the world. The collection appears on the controversial Wikileaks.org site, which publishes a wide variety of leaked material relating to many countries and from many sources, but has hit the headlines with large-scale leaks relating to military conflicts in Iraq and ... (view more)

With Black Friday and Cyber Monday officially behind us, Christmas is fast approaching. As such, online scamsters are working overtime to swindle as many victims as possible in response to the increased online traffic that comes with the bustling ... holiday season. Responding to the issue is the FBI (Federal Bureau of Investigation), Better Business Bureau (BBB), and security software companies McAfee and F-Secure, which have all offered their take on the five most pertinent scams that online shoppers will face this year. Scam #1: The Free iPad It seems as if iPad-related scams began popping up ... (view more)

Security firm BitDefender suggests that one in five users using its 'safego' product have been exposed to malicious threats through Facebook. The report reinforces the position held by many industry experts that Facebook needs to do more to protect ... its users from privacy or security threats. Safego is a BitDefender security product specially designed for frequent social networking users. It is built to detect malware and prevent users from getting spammed because they use these sites. (Source: bitdefender.com ) Safego is in its beta stages, and BitDefender is thoroughly analyzing the tool ... (view more)