Brian Prince

It’s no secret that adoption of software as a service is growing, particularly when it comes to security. All of the major vendors have made a push around cloud-based services, Symantec with the acquisition of MessageLabs and Trend Micro with its Smart Protection Network pitch. Now it’s McAfee’s turn to talk SAAS. McAfee July 20 […]

Security researcher Dino Dai Zovi has had his hands in the Mac OS X security dirt for a long time. In fact, he says he has been using OS X since it was referred to as “the next step.” It should come as no surprise then that his July 29 talk at the upcoming Black […]

Mozilla stitched a security hole in Firefox 3.5, fixing a vulnerability in the browser after attack code targeting the vulnerability was made public earlier this week. With Firefox 3.5.1, Mozilla fixes a critical flaw in the TraceMonkey JavaScript engine’s JIT (just-in-time) compiler that could be exploited to run arbitrary code. The vulnerability was reported last […]

In the aftermath of the latest Twitter breach, much has been written about password strength and the risks of cloud computing. But when it comes to the two most recent hacks targeting Twitter employees, there are other issues involved. After all, password strength in and of itself means nothing if someone can reset your password. […]

CAPTCHA cracking has become big business for spammers, and there has been no shortage of chinks in the armor. But a startup is taking a new approach to the battle. Pramana’s answer-available as an appliance or as SAAS (software as a service)-is HumanPresent, the technology the company is aiming directly at spammers who have made […]

Exploit code for an unpatched, critical bug in Firefox 3.5 is floating around the Web. Mozilla issued a warning about the vulnerability July 14. The bug rests in Firefox 3.5’s Just-in-time (JIT) JavaScript compiler, and can be exploited by attackers to execute arbitrary code. “The vulnerability is caused due to an error when processing JavaScript […]

Sybase has updated its column-based IQ software with new functionality to improve in-database analytics. The company announced the availability of Sybase IQ 15.1 July 15, bolstering it with additional numerical and analytical functions and ANSI SQL OLAP extensions. Also added to the mix courtesy of Sybase partner Fuzzy Logix were new libraries of pluggable analytical […]

A hacker has gotten a hold of Twitter company information after hacking into the personal e-mail account of an employee. The hacker, who goes by the nickname “Hacker Croll,” sent hundreds of company documents to TechCrunch and a French blog called Korben. The documents range from contracts with companies such as AOL and Nokia to […]

SenSage is now taking its event data warehouse concept to the cloud. With SenSage 4.5, the company has decided to target cloud-based computing environments by offering the product as a software as a service aimed at public cloud service providers interested in offering SenSage products. “The No. 1 application of cloud-based data warehousing is GRC […]

Just how concerned should users be with insider threats in a struggling economy? Maybe a lot more than they think, according to a report by Cisco Systems. In their 2009 Midyear Security Report, Cisco’s researchers had a conversation with a botmaster who turned to cybercrime when the paychecks stopped coming in. His earnings are modest […]

Microsoft released six security bulletins for Patch Tuesday on July 14, including fixes for vulnerabilities affecting DirectShow and the Video ActiveX Control that have been targeted by attackers. The bulletins address a total of nine vulnerabilities. Three of the bulletins-the ones affecting DirectShow and the Video ActiveX Control and a third addressing issues in the […]

Microsoft officials provided a sneak peak at the road map and pricing information for SQL Azure Database at Microsoft’s Worldwide Partner Conference July 14 as they talked up their overall plans for the Windows Azure platform. Microsoft SQL Azure and SQL Azure Database-formerly known as SQL Services and SQL Data Services, respectively-represent Microsoft’s attempt to […]