Security

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)

According to news agencies, Kaspersky Antivirus founder Eugene Kaspersky's son has been kidnapped and is being held for ransom in Russia. Unconfirmed reports, including a bulletin from BBC News, state that 20-year-old Ivan Kaspersky was nabbed while ... on his way to work. Eugene Kaspersky is the founder of Moscow-based security company Kaspersky Labs, a world leader in software designed to protect PCs from viruses and malware. The firm says its products are currently being used by more than 300 million people around the world, making it the third-largest security software company in the world. ... (view more)

According to a recent report, the number of records compromised by data breaches fell dramatically in 2010. While that makes for welcome news, the number of actual breaches was much, much higher last year than in 2009. The figures come from ... Verizon's business department, which carries out investigations into security breaches as a commercial service. Unlike its figures for 2009, the company included details of some cases provided by the US Secret Service for the first time in 2010. That makes a direct comparison very tricky, though it turns out the overall trends are clear. Three Times More ... (view more)

A computer programmer will spend two years behind bars after bringing down several high-profile websites. But unlike most modern hackers, Bruce Raisley was motivated by embarrassment rather than greed. Raisley had formerly worked for an online ... vigilante group known as Perverted Justice, which has members pose as youngsters online in order to catch and expose adults seeking an illicit meeting. The group works with television show To Catch A Predator. Eventually, Raisley quit the group following an argument with its founder, Xavier Von Erck, who then carried out a quite spectacular and ironic ... (view more)