Brian Prince

Researchers at Symantec have uncovered a Trojan using Facebook as a coordinator for its command and control server. The Trojan malware, known to Symantec as Whitewell, is being spread via e-mail through “documents (PDF, or MS Office formats) containing exploits for known vulnerabilities,” Andrea Lelli, a security analyst with Symantec Security Response, wrote on a […]

The Conficker worm struck Windows computers this past year with the force of a tsunami and swept away illusions of security in the minds of its victims. But after the overhyped April 1 deadline passed quietly, interest in the general public started to dwindle, and the malware for some became just another entry on an […]

Facebook scored a win against a notorious spammer in federal court. The social networking site was awarded $711 million in damages Oct. 29 by a U.S. District Court in San Jose, Calif. The judge found spammer Sanford Wallace guilty of violating the Can-Spam Act as well as a temporary restraining order. The award is a […]

Researchers at several security firms have tied the Bredolab Trojan to a spam campaign targeting Facebook users. The malware is being blasted out by spammers in e-mails claiming to come from “The Facebook Team.” Inside the e-mails is a message that the recipient’s Facebook password has been changed. In order to get the new one, […]

Midsize businesses are slashing their security budgets even as cyber-threats continue to grow, according to a report from McAfee. In a survey of 900 employees of midsize businesses around the globe conducted by MSI International, 75 percent of the respondents reported cutting or freezing their IT security budgets in 2009. At the same time, 56 […]

Ever reinjure an old wound? New research from Dasient suggests that may happen on the Web more than you think. In a report on Web security during the third quarter of 2009, the company found that Websites that had been compromised had a reinfection rate of 39.6 percent. Though the company did not point to […]

Cisco Systems announced plans to acquire software-as-a-service vendor ScanSafe to broaden its presence in the cloud and expand its Web security offerings. The deal, made for approximately $183 million, is expected to close in the second quarter of Cisco’s fiscal year 2010, and comes only two weeks after security SAAS vendor Purewire was gobbled up […]

How Notorious Trojans Hit Banks and Steal Your Money Trojans for Sale The Zeus crimeware toolkit has been around for years, and has been linked to a number of data theft operations, including the notorious “Rock Phish” group. The toolkit has become widely available in the cyber-underground. Here is an example of a “for sale” […]

Google Offers Six Tips to Stop Malicious Online Ads No Title Know Who You’re Working WithPublishers should research the domain names of ads’ click-through URLs, as well as the domains for advertisers’ and agencies’ companies. If a domain was registered recently, the domain registrant’s name and contact information is hidden or false it should send […]

Federal IT security spending is expected to jump by nearly 50 percent between 2009 and 2014, according to research from analyst company Input. In a report titled “Defining the Federal Information Security Mission: 2009-2014 Forecast,” the company predicts federal spending will jump “from $7.9 billion in 2009 to $11.7 billion in 2014 at a compound […]