Brian Prince

Google has acquired ReCAPTCHA, an open-source CAPTCHA service that the search engine giant will use to bolster security and its efforts to digitize books and newspapers. CAPTCHA technology is widely used to fight spammers by preventing them from using computers to automatically sign up for Webmail accounts or other online services. This is where ReCAPTCHA […]

IT security has less to do with bracing for the inevitable zero-day vulnerability than some outside the industry may think. Truth be told, the biggest threats facing users and organizations today are unpatched client-side applications and unsecure Web programs – that is the message of a sweeping study undertaken by Qualys, TippingPoint and the SANS […]

Microsoft has backported changes to its AutoRun and AutoPlay features to Windows Vista and Windows XP to help users fight malware that spreads via USB devices. Microsoft made the change in Windows 7 earlier in 2009 to stop the spread of the infamous Conficker worm, which was taking advantage of the functionality to silently jump […]

NYTimes.com readers got a little bit more news than they bargained for this weekend when it turned out the site was serving up malicious advertisements to some of its visitors. According to a posting on the Website, some readers saw a pop-up messaging warning them that their computer had been infected and telling them to […]

Symark International has a new name and a new set of capabilities under its belt. The company announced today it has acquired BeyondTrust, and will henceforth be known by that name as it sharpens its focus by providing security and compliance for privileged user access for Microsoft Windows. The acquisition broadens the company’s portfolio, which […]

Oracle unveiled new releases of its Berkeley DB and Berkeley DB XML today with a host of performance enhancements and new features. With the new Oracle Berkeley DB 4.8 and Oracle Berkeley DB XML 2.5 releases, Oracle has taken aim at enabling developers, independent software vendors and OEMs to deliver high performance, scalable applications. In […]

Apple has fixed an issue in Snow Leopard that was silently downgrading users to a vulnerable version of Adobe Flash Player. Security researchers had taken Apple to task about the issue a week ago after it was revealed users who upgraded to Mac OS X 10.6 were downgraded to Adobe Flash version 10.0.23.1. The latest […]

Symantec has uncovered a scheme to use a Google Groups newsgroup to sneak commands to malware on compromised computers. The move is another example of attackers looking for covert ways to communicate to their bots. Earlier this year, attackers were found using Twitter as a command and control (C&C) mechanism. By integrating their messages with […]

The anti-phishing feature for the iPhone OS 3.1 isn’t all it’s cracked up to be, according to security researchers. For whatever reason, some researchers have found, phishing sites blocked by the desktop version of Apple Safari are not consistently blocked by the mobile version. Since Apple released the iPhone OS 3.1 upgrade on Sept. 8, […]

Security vendor Trustwave is buying its way into the data loss prevention space with the acquisition of Vericept. The financial details of the deal are under wraps. However, officials at Trustwave say the buy combines Vericept’s data loss prevention (DLP) technology with Trustwave’s portfolio of managed security and compliance services. “We’ve developed a leading DLP […]