Brian Prince

Hackers are targeting Websites for human rights and foreign policy think tanks to spread malware and to conduct cyber-espionage. According to the Shadowserver Foundation, attackers have launched a series of €œstrategic Web compromises€ that infect users via drive-by exploits. Attacks targeting human rights organizations are hardly new. In 2010, a report from Harvard University’s Berkman […]

Apple released a pair of security updates May 14 for Mac OS X 10.5 to disable outdated versions of Adobe Systems’ Flash Player and fight off Flashback infections. The Flashback Trojan was at the center of news reports last month when it was discovered attackers had used it to build a botnet of more than […]

A California woman linked to an international phishing operation was sentenced May 14 to five years in federal prison.Nichole Michelle Merzi, 26, of Oceanside, was convicted in 2011 after being tied to a gang that sought to defraud banks of more than $1 million. After a six-week trial, she was found guilty of bank and […]

Cyber-security has worked its way onto Americans€™ list of hot-button issues in the coming presidential election, according to research from the Unisys Corporation.According to the bi-annual Unisys Security Index, 74 percent of those surveyed listed protecting government systems from hackers as a €œvery important€ issue for presidential candidates. Furthermore, 73 percent also counted the defense […]

The Pentagon is expanding a cyber-security program meant to promote information sharing between the private and public sectors.In partnership with the Department of Homeland Security (DHS), the Department of Defense (DoD) announced on May 11 that it is expanding its Defense Industrial Base Cyber Security/Information Assurance Program (DIB CS/IA) to all eligible companies.The goal of […]

A U.S. senator is requesting that the Department of Justice hand over information about how it goes about requesting location data from wireless carriers. In a letter, Sen. Al Franken, (D-Minn.), expressed concern about media reports that law-enforcement agencies are €œworking around the protections€ of the law in order to get records of location information […]

The FBI issued an advisory this week alerting international travelers about attempts to infect their computers with malware when they log on to hotel networks. In an intelligence note from the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3), the agency warned that attackers have been targeting travelers abroad when they use the Internet connection in their […]

LAS VEGAS €” Secure cloud computing and mobile device security are top priorities for enterprises, but they also share top spots on Symantec€™s list of plans for extending its product portfolio, company executives told eWEEK. At the company€™s Vision 2012 Conference in Las Vegas, Symantec officials laid out a road map that includes building up […]

Twitter denied on May 9 that it was hacked in response to reports that thousands of passwords and user names had been stolen and posted online. The statement comes in response to reports that some 58,978 user name and password combinations belonging to Twitter users were dumped online Monday in a series of postings to […]

Microsoft released patches for 23 security vulnerabilities today as part of a busy Patch Tuesday that includes critical fixes for issues for Microsoft Windows, Silverlight, Microsoft Office and the .NET Framework. Of the seven bulletins, Microsoft recommends administrators turn their attention to two first: MS12-034 and MS12-029. Both bulletins are rated “critical,” address remote-code-execution issues […]

If successfully exploited, the vulnerability could allow hackers to crash and even take control of an affected system. According to Adobe, the Microsoft Vulnerability Research (MSVR) program reported the vulnerability on April 25. The patch was pushed out as soon as it was available, a company spokesperson said. “There are reports that the object confusion […]

Hackers are attempting to extort Belgian credit provider Elantis after claiming to have breached the company’s systems. In a statement on Pastebin, the hackers threatened to publish customer information if the bank does not pay ‚¬150,000 (US$197,000) before today. According to reports, Elantis confirmed the data breach on Thursday, but is refusing to give in […]