Brian Prince

Security researchers have cracked the encryption code used to protect most of the world’s digital mobile phone calls, but some say the impact is being exaggerated. According to reports, cryptographer Karsten Nohl led an effort to break the 21-year-old GSM algorithm used to protect the privacy of 80 percent of mobile phone calls worldwide. Known […]

Cyber-criminals have no shortage of incentive to innovate, so perhaps it is not really surprising to see new technologies get wrapped up in malicious activity. Perhaps the best example of the year is Conficker, which used the MD6 cryptographic hash function in some of its variants. At the time, MD6 was brand-new, and its use […]

Microsoft is investigating reports of a new vulnerability affecting Microsoft Internet Information Services that could be used to execute malicious code on vulnerable Web servers. Details of the vulnerability came out Dec. 25 when security researcher Soroush Dalili posted information about the bug on his Website. According to security company Secunia, the vulnerability is caused […]

In three days, 2009 will officially come to a close. The year saw its share of security incidents, from the dramatic rise of the Conficker worm to the hacking of military drones to massive data breaches. Then there was the security industry itself, which saw a number of acquisitions around security software as a service […]

An article appeared in Phrack magazine 11 years ago that discussed a problem that remains a security headache to this day — SQL injection. That article, which came out on Christmas Day 1998, is believed to have been the first publicized mention of SQL injection. It is fitting, then, that as Christmas approaches we take […]

The search for a U.S.cyber-security coordinator has officially ended. After months of searching, U.S. President Barack Obama selected Howard Schmidt to step into the role. Schmidt, president and CEOof the Information Security Forum, has served as chief security officer for Microsoft and as chief information security officer at eBay. His selection comes 10 months after […]

There was no recession in the rogue antivirus industry in 2009. According to Microsoft, four of the top 11 threats cleaned by its Malicious Software Removal Tool between Dec. 8 and Dec. 16 were tied to rogue antivirus software. Just how much damage the scareware rings behind these types of malware do to users’ pocketbooks […]

The death of 32-year-old actress Brittany Murphy Dec. 20 has touched off a flurry of malicious activity, with attackers looking to take advantage of anyone looking for information about her death. According to McAfee, the following searches have been yielding questionable results: Brittany Murphy dies Brittany Murphy dead Brittany Murphy husband Brittany Murphy death hoax […]

MP3 spam is making a bit of a comeback. According to security pros, spammers have returned to an oldie-but-goodie in a spate of new attacks. Symantec has been tracking a campaign involving a small .mp3 file promoting a meds domain attached in the e-mail messages. The messages have no subject line or message body – […]

A Look Back at the 7 Top Security Acquisitions of 2009 A Look Back at the 7 Top Security Acquisitions of 2009By Brian Prince McAfee Buys MX Logic This was an important deal for McAfee, which brought a respected security software-as-a-service business into its portfolio. The deal put McAfee in a better position to compete […]