Security

In taking advantage of a security loophole, hackers have hijacked as many as four million website pages over the past week. It's thought to be the biggest attack of its type, ever. The attacks have been dubbed LizaMoon, named after the first ... destination to which visitors of hijacked sites were redirected. The hijack campaign has proven to be incredibly successful: on the first day, security firm Websense estimated 28,000 web sites were affected, but within three days that figure had risen to 500,000. Two days later and the number of affected pages were estimated to be as high as three or four ... (view more)

A computer security company has apologized after its software mistakenly reported that new Samsung laptops carry malicious software. The confusion was due to security software labeling a legitimate folder directory as being infected. The claims were ... first made by tech writer Mohamed Hassan in an article for Network World. He wrote on Monday that after buying a new Samsung laptop, he ran a security software check and found two cases of a keylogger known as Starlogger. A keylogger is a malicious application that records all keystrokes made by the user and returns them to the application's ... (view more)

A myriad of different brand-specific search boxes have been embedded in the most popular social media and entertainment websites in recent years, so it should come as little surprise that one of the most popular social networks, Facebook, would ... decide to implement one on their main page as well. But the company is bewildered by the latest presence of a second search box, dubbed "Search the Web", which is leading many to believe that the feature could potentially lead to the spread of malware. Facebook news blog AllFacebook was the first to report on the issue, after a number of ... (view more)

The last day to file your taxes in the U.S. is not until April 18, but hackers and online scumbags have long been preparing for the date. A number of new scams have since surfaced online, promising tax credits and other incentives for charitable ... donations. Online Tax Filing Up 6 Percent Since 2010 Almost 19 million people have already filed their taxes at home this year, which is up 6 per cent compared to 2010. For many, this will be their first time tackling the ominous task via the Internet and without the assistance of an accountant. Hackers realize that this is the time when taxpayers ... (view more)

Hackers are actively exploiting a bug that involves both Windows and Internet Explorer. Google believes the hackers may be targeting specific users. The bug involves MHTML, which is a special format designed to combine all the different files of a ... web page, such as the coding for the text and layout, the image files and video files, into a single file. It was originally developed as a way for a user to save an entire webpage to their desktop without winding up with a messy collection of files, but can also be used as a web link. The vulnerability involves the way that Internet Explorer and ... (view more)

Earlier this year, Jeremy Hotz, known to some as "GeoHot", made quite a name for himself by using his website to publish programming code that allows people to hack Sony's PlayStation 3 (PS3) video game console. Hotz is currently in the middle of a ... lengthy legal battle with Sony as a result, and we've yet to see a final decision. However, it's a side story from the case -- a court order that allows Sony to see who is and has been visiting Hotz's web site and YouTube page -- which has drawn lots of attention lately. Hotz originally decided to publish a special hack for the PlayStation 3 that ... (view more)

Security firm Symantec says it's found a new and very fake Google "security program" designed to install malware on Google Android smartphones. Called the Android Market Security Tool, the fake software is actually a repackaged Google-built tool ... with origins in the Far East. Symantec discovered the fake tool last Wednesday. It actually imitates a program of the same name released by Google last week and was found in Chinese markets not sanctioned by the search giant. (Source: symantec.com ) Fake Security Software a Clever Ploy by Malware Designers Symantec says it's all a very ... (view more)

For the third year in a row, Google's Chrome web browser has put in an impressive performance at the Pwn2Own hacking challenge. Indeed, after two days nobody had even attempted to breach the browser's security, despite an increased reward of $5,000. ... The contest involves hackers attempting to exploit security loopholes on the four major web browsers (Chrome, Firefox, Internet Explorer and Safari) to win a $15,000 prize, along with the computer used for the challenge -- hence the contest name. Contestants are allowed to give judges a website address to visit, simulating the process of a web ... (view more)

Think Macs can't be infected by viruses? Think again. While Apple computers are generally less likely to be attacked by hackers, it's not impossible to infect a Mac with malware (or virus). For years Apple has boasted that its computers are more ... secure than PCs. And they were right -- but that was based on a technicality that only a tiny fraction of the population owned Macs, and thus, there was less profit to be made and less havoc to wreak for hackers. But that's starting to change as the number of Mac owners increases, making for an awkward situation at Apple headquarters in Cupertino, ... (view more)

Malware peddlers are once again scamming Facebook users for profit. What makes this swindle different is that once the scammer gets what they want out of their target, they turn around and offer the victim a chance to scam others for a nominal fee. ... Facebook Creeping: Too Good to be True It seems as if it is human nature for someone with a Facebook account to want to know who is looking at (or "creeping") their profile page at any given time. The scam centers around this kind of curiosity with applications such as "Profile Creeps" and "Creeper Tracker". Once a user falls victim to the scam, ... (view more)