Brian Prince

Apple fixed 27 vulnerabilities in Safari for Mac OS X and Windows today. All of the vulnerabilities exist in the open-source Webkit engine. In addition, nearly all of them can be exploited to execute code remotely on Macs or Windows PCs. Among the vulnerabilities is a problem due to Safari using a “predictable algorithm” to […]

Adobe Systems has released Adobe Reader X, bringing with it sandboxing technology the company has touted as an answer to some of the company’s recent security challenges. The sandboxing technology is aimed at Windows users, who bear the brunt of the attacks against the PDF-viewing software. The technology is similar to what Google built into […]

A Malaysian man was charged today by a federal grand jury with hacking into a Federal Reserve Bank computer network and possessing more than 400,000 credit and debit card numbers. Lin Mun Poo, 32, was arrested shortly after his arrival in the United States Oct. 21 and has been in custody since then, according to […]

China Telecom, the Chinese wireless service provider at the center of the recent Internet hijacking charges, has called the accusations against it “groundless,” but that has done little to squash a controversy that could have reaching implications. In a report to Congress (PDF), the U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission said China Telecom routed some […]

Spam might have slipped, but malware authors were as busy as ever during the third quarter of the year, according to McAfee. In the “McAfee Threats Report: Third Quarter 2010″ (PDF), the company notes that even though spam declined, an average of 60,000 new malware threats were identified each day, which is nearly four times […]

Much has been made about the U.S. government’s need to hire more cyber-security professionals. But finding the best way to build that workforce may be difficult. A new survey from the International Information Systems Security Certification Consortium (ISC)?? found that many of the trending ideas on how to structure the cyber-security workforce do not jibe […]

The Stuxnet worm was a “game-changer,” and the country must develop better approaches to address today’s cyber-threats. Those were two of the sentiments that came out of a hearing today by the U.S. Senate committee on Homeland Security and Government Affairs. First detected in June and publicized in July, Stuxnet is the first threat known […]

Many Facebook users found themselves locked out of their accounts Nov. 16 due to a bug in the social network. According to Facebook spokesperson Simon Axten, the problem was created by a bug in a system designed to find and root out fake accounts. Though the issue was fixed within hours, the site is still […]

When Facebook announced its plans Nov. 15 for its Messages feature, it opened the door to new questions about spam and security. Once it is fully rolled out, the new Messages interface will weave together not only Facebook messages, but also chats, SMS (texts) and e-mails in a central location. “You decide how you want […]

Research from Webroot illustrated that many small to midsized businesses (SMBs) have taken to blocking social networking sites. In a survey of more than 1,000 businesses from the U.S. and U.K., Webroot found 50 percent do not allow their employees to visit any social networks via company computers. Almost 40 percent of those polled prohibit […]

Adobe Systems released a patch today to plug a security hole affecting Adobe Reader that is on the radar of attackers. The update actually fixes two vulnerabilities, though only one is known to be under attack. That vulnerability-a flaw affecting Adobe Reader 9.4.1 and earlier 9.x versions for Windows, Unix and Mac OS X-had been […]

A report slated to be made public Nov. 17 highlights security issues posed by a massive redirection of Internet traffic through Chinese servers earlier this year. Citing a draft of a U.S.-China Economic and Security Review Commission report to Congress, the Washington Times reported today that roughly 15 percent of the world’s Web traffic was […]