Brian Prince

Illinois has become the second state in the country to pass legislation banning companies from asking employees or job applicants for their login information for social networks. The bill, which Gov. Pat Quinn signed into law Aug. 1, makes it illegal for an employer to request social network account information in order to gain access […]

Google has updated its developer policies to take a bite out of spam applications on Google Play. In an email published on Android Central, the Google Play team stated that it was updating its policies to address unhealthy behavior, such as deceptive application names and spammy notifications. Among the changes are new restrictions placed on […]

Cloud-based storage provider Dropbox came clean with more details today about a security breach that led to a spamming campaign. The company’s investigation into the incident revealed that usernames and passwords stolen from other Websites were used to sign in to a number of Dropbox accounts, including one belonging to a Dropbox employee that contained […]

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has reached agreement with Google on the terms of a consent decree that will levy a $22.5 million fine against Google for bypassing the privacy settings of Apple’s Safari browser, according to reports. The decree will allow Google to settle with the commission without admitting any liability, Reuters reported. The […]

Video game maker Ubisoft Entertainment says it has patched a security vulnerability uncovered in a plug-in used by players that could have potentially exposed them to malware. The issue apparently lies in the browser plug-in installed by Uplay, the digital-rights management (DRM) software that allows players to connect with other gamers. According to Ubisoft, the […]

Researchers at Seculert have uncovered what could be evidence of a link between the Mahdi malware and the infamous Flame malware discovered earlier this year. Though no strong connections have been found between the Flame and Mahdi campaigns, a small clue may have been unearthed in the code, according to Seculert, “For each victim, the […]

Black Hat USA, the annual convention for security researchers now in its 15th year, is now officially under way in Las Vegas. The convention began in earnest with training sessions on July 21, and will continue until Thursday, July 26. This year’s conference is expected to draw some 6,500 attendees and feature 82 sessions across […]

Officials at the U.S. Department of Justice announced that a Russian man has been arrested in Cyprus in connection with attacks on Amazon.com. The man, Dmitry Olegovich Zubakha, 25, of Moscow, was arrested July 18 on an international warrant. Zubakha was indicted in May of 2011 for launching two denial-of-service (DoS) attacks on the Amazon […]

A new report from the Anti-Phishing Working Group (APWG) found that the number of brands targeted by phishing reached an all-time high during February and March. According to the group’s Q1 2012 Phishing Activity Trends Report, the number of brands targeted by phishers hit 392 during both months. The 392 brands represent an increase of […]

One of the world’s largest spamming botnets has been knocked out of commission€”though it is unclear just how long the respite users may be seeing from spam will last. Grum, which may have been responsible for roughly 20 percent of the world’s spam, has been taken offline. Dutch authorities got the ball rolling July 16 […]

Mind Games Remembering passwords can be a challenge for any user. According to an October 2011 survey of 300 IT pros by Lieberman Software, 51 percent of respondents had at least 10 passwords to remember for use in their work, and 42 percent said that in their organizations IT staffers are sharing passwords to access […]

Oracle released on July 17 a sizeable security update fixing 87 vulnerabilities spanning a number of products, including 24 for the Oracle Sun product suite. The most critical of the vulnerabilities impacts the Oracle JRockit Java Virtual Machine (CVE-2012-3135), and has a base score of 10.0€”the highest possible rating. From an exploitation standpoint, a 10.0 […]