Brian Prince

Hackers are launching attacks against an unpatched vulnerability in Microsoft Office PowerPoint, the company’s popular presentation program. Microsoft described the attacks in an advisory as “limited and targeted” in scope, but cautioned that a successful exploit could allow a hacker to execute arbitrary code with the rights of the logged-on user. “The vulnerability is caused […]

While U.S. lawmakers discuss new data security requirements, cyber-thieves are making a killing. Officials at ScanSafe reported that in 2008, 14 percent of all ScanSafe Web malware blocks were the result of encounters with data theft Trojans, more than twice the percentage of 2007. The highest levels occurred in October and November, when the credit […]

SQL injection consistently rates as one of the top vulnerabilities affecting Web applications. But for all the attention paid to it, one researcher feels the full impact of SQL injection has yet to be fully demonstrated in public. This month at Black Hat Europe, security researcher Bernardo Damele Assumpcao Guimaraes plans to rectify that by […]

Though the Conficker hype has died down, there are still people on the lookout for remediation and detection tools to make sure their networks stay safe. There is still cause to be on guard, and those who are infected and have not cleaned their PCs are still subject to the plans of the attackers, who […]

The Conficker worm’s supposed doomsday deadline has passed quietly. According to security vendors, so far there has been no dramatic activity. “McAfee Avert Labs has been closely monitoring Conficker-related threats and, we haven’t observed any significant activities on the domains that it is polling for thus far,” blogged McAfee researcher Shinsuke Honjo. “Even so, please […]

The doomsday some were predicting the Conficker worm to bring had not materialized as of the evening of April 1. But that hardly means Conficker is a bust. In short, the Conficker worm did what was expected-generate 50,000 domain names and begin contacting them. According to BKIS, the Bach Khoa Internetwork Security center, 1.1 million […]

Intel is partnering with database software vendor GroovyChannel to develop a new range of database appliance servers for enterprise cloud computing. The appliance servers will be based on Intel’s multicore processors and GroovyChannel’s patent-pending multicore database virtualization software. The collaboration is aimed specifically at dealing with the growing demands of Web applications and cloud computing […]

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security has released a DHS-developed tool aimed at squashing the Conficker worm. The announcement followed similar news from the Honeynet Project and the Conficker Cabal, which worked over the weekend to develop a tool to scan for the worm. The DHS tool was developed by the department’s United States Computer […]

As the Conficker worm continues to dominate headlines, users should keep some things in mind. Despite the talk of a doomsday, there are a number of Conficker mitigations and tools to help home users and enterprises fight Conficker. The major security vendors have all made detection and removal tools available, and recent research has improved […]

Spammers are officially back in full force five months after the shutdown of Web hosting company McColo. According to Google, spammers have fully recovered from the death of the notorious Web hosting firm. By the second half of this March, the seven-day spam volume was the same as before McColo shutdown. Symantec’s MessageLabs said spammers […]

Security pros have uncovered a new technique for detecting PCs infected by the Conficker worm. The technique is based on a discovery by members of the Honeynet Project, which found that Conficker’s attempts to cloak itself from network administrators may have backfired. As part of its defenses, Conficker deploys a fake patch for the Microsoft […]

Oracle has enhanced integration between Database Vault and Enterprise Manager 10g Release 5, one of several moves the company has made to improve database administration in the latest version of Enterprise Manager. When the company announced the latest version of Enterprise Manager earlier this month, it included a number of enhancements designed to improve database […]