Brian Prince

Oracle announced the general availability of MySQL 5.5 with a number of enhancements aimed at improving performance and scalability and a focus on Windows. The company unveiled the release candidate for the open-source database in September at the Oracle OpenWorld 2010 conference in San Francisco. At the time, the company touted moves meant to bolster […]

An e-mail touched off a bit of a firestorm when a former government contractor alleged the FBI put backdoors and side-channel key leak mechanisms in the OpenBSD Cryptographic Framework some 10 years ago. The e-mail, which was posted online here by OpenBSD founder Theo de Raadt, came from Gregory Perry, who is now CEO of […]

The FBI is looking into the recent hack of Gawker Media that exposed password information and e-mail addresses belonging to users, according to reports. A group known as “Gnosis” has taken credit for the attack, and put the data it swiped into a file that was initially available via The Pirate Bay. Rumors of the […]

Symantec is adding new machine learning technology to its data loss prevention (DLP) product to ease efforts to classify sensitive data and define policies. The feature, called Vector Machine Learning, will be included in Symantec Data Loss Prevention 11 when it becomes available during the first half of 2011. The technology, the company explained, aims […]

A new NSS Labs report puts Internet Explorer way ahead of rival browsers from Google, Apple, Mozilla and Opera in the fight against malware. The report, which was commissioned by Microsoft, is the fourth analysis by NSS Labs aimed at testing the ability of Web browsers to block “socially engineered malware” attacks. The findings are […]

Microsoft bid farewell to 2010 Patch Tuesday updates with 17 security bulletins and 40 security fixes, among them a patch for an Internet Explorer vulnerability first disclosed in November. Two of the 17 bulletins are rated “Critical”-the IE bulletin and another that covers three vulnerabilities in Windows’ OpenType Font driver-while 14 are rated “Important” and […]

“Operation Payback” is taking a new twist, as attackers have begun a new fax-based campaign against some of the companies that cut ties with WikiLeaks. Hacktivists with “Anonymous” are encouraging members to send faxes to Amazon, MasterCard, PayPal, Visa, Tableau Software and Moneybookers in a bid to launch a fax-based version of denial-of-service, according to […]

Gawker Media’s servers were hit by hackers during the weekend, exposing the e-mail addresses and passwords of registered users of their Websites and apparently leading to a spam campaign launched on Twitter. A group called “Gnosis” has taken credit for the attack and put the compromised data in a 500MB file. Inside is information on […]

Those participating in denial-of-service attacks in support of WikiLeaks may not be as anonymous as they think. According to an analysis (PDF) of the Low Orbit Ion Cannon (LOIC) tool by researchers from the University of Twente in the Netherlands, the tool does not protect the Internet Protocol (IP) address of its users. The revelation […]

Malware, Hacks and Leaks: The Top 10 Security Stories of 2010 by Brian Prince Operation Aurora In January, Google announced it fell victim to a cyber-attack that also impacted dozens of other companies. Immediately, the finger-pointing began, with China playing the role of chief suspect. Although the Chinese government officially denied involvement, the speculation remains. […]

Cyber-attacks and other twists and turns tied to the WikiLeaks controversy continued to dominate the news this past week. The story of the whistle-blower site has taken a number of twists and turns. The week started with the arrest of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange in the U.K. on sexual assault accusations first levied in Sweden […]

Key people involved with WikiLeaks have reportedly resigned to start up their own rival whistle-blower site. The new site is dubbed Openleaks, and will debut on Dec. 13, according to Swedish newspaper Dagens Nyheter. The news follows the arrest this week of WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange, who was picked up by police in the U.K. […]