Security

Too often security measures taken against identity theft, malware infection and other vulnerabilities are performed in reaction to an attack. With the creation of their latest hard drive feature, however, Toshiba is taking a proactive approach in ... combating online thieves. The new Toshiba hard drive boasts a feature that effectively wipes out data after the storage devices are powered down. The Wipe setting is available with Toshiba's SED (Self-Encrypting Drives) and promises to delete secure data prior to disposing or repurposing hard drives. (Source: computerworld.com ) While the new ... (view more)

Hackers are running a new social engineering scheme that tricks users into uninstalling their legitimate anti-virus program protecting their computer, and using a rogue product instead. Those behind the duping scheme have leveraged a clone of the ... CoreGuard (fake) Antivirus product and relabeled it as AnVi Antivirus. Both products are rogue. Rogue antivirus products have become a reoccurring problem for security companies, though one particular security software firm, Symantec, noted that this method of attack differs from rogue antivirus products of the past. Symantec, AVG, Microsoft ... (view more)

Facebook users have been urged not to click on a link claiming to offer a "dislike" button. The link scams users to get access to their Facebook account. Dislike Link is Not Endorsed by Facebook There is an official "Like" function on Facebook. It ... allows users to give a virtual 'thumbs up' to comments or news posted by their friends. The function has now been extended so that third-party websites can publish a "Like button" on their sites: when visitors click the button, their Facebook account automatically posts a link to the relevant page. A common use is to allow readers to share a link to ... (view more)

Adobe will today release a patch for a critical security vulnerability in its popular Reader and Acrobat software. The issue was first identified at the Black Hat security conference in July, and has since remained without a fix. Adobe noted in ... early August that the patch would be available this week, well ahead of its next scheduled security release (based on a quarterly timetable) in mid-October. Reader, Acrobat for Windows and Mac Affected According to an advisory from Adobe, the patch is meant to fix a number of critical issues affecting Reader 9.3.3 for Windows, Unix and Mac as well as ... (view more)

Website domain name registration business Network Solutions says that domains marked "page under construction" have been dishing up malware. It's suggested that millions of websites have been infected, and that the malware has been live for several ... months. The domains used a malicious script targeting Taiwanese and Hong Kong IP addresses to deliver a fake chat message that directed users to other web sites. (Source: computerworld.com ) Drive-By-Downloads Infect Unsuspecting Users Malware spread when a now-disabled widget in the Small Business Success Index section of Network Solutions' ... (view more)

Microsoft has confirmed it's investigating yet another large-scale bug affecting all supported editions of Windows. At the same time, it's ruled out issuing an emergency patch for the kernel-related issue that emerged just last week. On Tuesday, ... Microsoft issued a record-breaking monthly Patch Tuesday update containing a record 14 security bulletins. When that was announced, it looked as if it would be network administrators who'd be in for a particularly busy time, while Microsoft security staff could at least have some breathing room. That turned out not to be the case. Bogus Color Data ... (view more)

Those wanting to jazz up their Google Android phones better watch out for a new malware that masquerades as a wallpaper application. While aesthetically appealing, the malware rooted behind the wallpaper strips personal data and sends it away to a ... remote server. The mal-app (malware app) targets phone numbers, subscriber identity and voicemail passwords. The vulnerability was uncovered by the US-based security company Lookout, which is currently working on the App Genome Project, a website designed to uncover apps with malicious code embedded. Malware Source Identified Fortunately, the source ... (view more)

Computer users aren't the only ones who need to worry about their privacy and security. A new report from San Francisco-based Lookout Inc., a mobile phone security firm, reveals that smart phone applications may be closely monitoring users and ... relaying that information to others. (Source: yahoo.com ) Personal Data Secretly Transmitted to Third Parties Nearly 300,000 free applications for Apple's iPhone and phones built around Google's Android software were scanned by Lookout, Inc. Results of those scans found that many of those apps were secretly pulling sensitive data off user phones and ... (view more)

The ' Koobface ' virus is once again making its rounds, freshly updated and even tougher to combat. It's responsible for delivering spyware payloads and also sniffing out passwords and credit card numbers of unsuspecting users. "Several weeks ago ... Koobface added ... hijacking functionality that blocks access to security sites, tipping users off to the fact that something might be wrong with their systems. Since then the authors have taken a giant leap toward invasiveness with the installation of a fake anti-virus Trojan," said Mcafee researchers. (Source: avertlabs.com ) Koobface Now ... (view more)

Microsoft has faced the first major test of its policy to phase out support for some versions of Windows XP. A major security patch last week was only available to users who had upgraded to the third and final Service Pack (SP3). As previously ... reported, Microsoft issued an out-of-cycle update (known more casually as an emergency pack) to patch a Windows shortcut flaw. The issue was particularly serious because it meant machines could be hacked if a user opened a folder containing the infected shortcut file, even if they didn't click on the shortcut itself. The shortcut flaw was such a clear ... (view more)