Brian Prince

Microsoft says it has addressed a security issue affecting the User Account Control feature in the Windows 7 beta that researchers contended leaves users vulnerable. Microsoft fixed a privilege escalation issue in internal beta builds of Windows 7 that was raised by researchers, the company said. Still, Microsoft officials take issue with claims that UAC’s […]

IBM Rational has updated its AppScan tool to offer developers a helping hand in finding vulnerabilities in their Adobe Flash applications. With AppScan Standard Edition 7.8, IBM has added the ability to not only test and scan Flash apps but also SOA (service oriented architecture) applications and AJAX technology. The enhancements come as hackers continue […]

Database security vendor Sentrigo wants to help programmers, database administrators and security pros pinpoint vulnerabilities in code before hackers get their hands on them. To do this, the company has released a free fuzzing utility for Oracle databases to help identify vulnerabilities in PL/SQL code. Dubbed FuzzOr, the open-source tool is now available for download […]

It’s no secret that the Web is the No. 1 attack vector for hackers. That puts Web browsers on the front line of the war against malware, and leaves vendors to decide just how much security to embed in browsers. The latest versions of the major browsers, from Microsoft Internet Explorer 8 to Google Chrome, […]

IBM’s X-Force is pushing for a reprioritization of security threats. In its end-of-the-year Trend and Risks Report for 2008, released today, the X-Force contends that a key reason a number of critical vulnerabilities that caused alarm in the security community were not wildly exploited in 2008 was economics. Hackers focus first and foremost on threats […]

Data breaches are costly, and they are not getting any cheaper – particularly breaches due to third parties. But data breach costs don’t just come in the form of a line item expense tied to notification. They also come in the form of lost business opportunity, which is far and away the most expensive part […]

A fired Unix engineer stands accused of planting a malware time bomb at the mortgage firm Fannie Mae that had the potential to destroy countless computer files, federal officials said. Rajendrasinh Makwana, 35, of Frederick, Md., was indicted on Jan. 27 for the attempted malware attack. Makwana was an employee for a firm called OmniTech, […]

Clickjacking is not going away. The same week Microsoft announced on Jan. 26 it had put protections against clickjacking in Internet Explorer 8, security researcher Aditya Sood posted on BugTraq on Jan. 29 a new clickjacking advisory for the Google Chrome browser, with a link to a proof of concept. Officials at Google said they […]

Malware Makes Social Networks Less Sociable by Brian Prince What President Barack Obama and Britney Spears Have in Common Obama and Spears joined a number of people whose accounts were compromised when an individual hacked into some of the tools Twitter’s support team uses to help people do things like edit the e-mail address associated […]

OPSWAT is offering customers a new vision of layered security. The company unveiled on Jan. 27 a product called Metascan that combines anti-virus engines from seven different vendors to improve the chances of catching malware infections before they do any damage. Metascan brings together technologies from Kaspersky Lab, CA, ESET, AVG Technologies, VirusBuster, Norman and […]

Officials at Archer Technologies have their eyes set on a rival in the IT governance, risk and compliance space. The company plans to acquire Brabeion Software, a direct competitor of Archer, for an undisclosed sum. According to officials at Archer, the move is meant to bolster the company’s policy management tools by adding Brabeion’s content […]

Websense has announced the acquisition of Defensio, a technology platform focused on stopping spam on social Web sites. The acquisition is meant to extend the content identification and classification capabilities of the Websense ThreatSeeker Network by providing visibility into spam posted as comments to social Web sites, including blogs, user forums and social networking sites. […]