Brian Prince

MarkLogic released a new version of its database Oct. 19 with a host of new features aimed at helping organizations deal with unstructured data. In MarkLogic Server 4.2, the company has added a new ETL (extraction, transformation and loading) tool for managing the data. According to Ken Chestnut, vice president of product marketing at MarkLogic, […]

Two congressmen have sent Facebook a letter with questions about privacy in light of the recent controversy regarding applications exposing user data. An investigation by the Wall Street Journal revealed some of the most popular applications on Facebook were exposing User IDs, the identifying numbers Facebook assigns to users. The numbers can be used to […]

Attackers are advancing their techniques, and intrusion prevention systems need to advance as well. That is the lesson to be taken from new research from security firm Stonesoft. The company published a report about a new trend of what it calls AET (advanced evasion techniques). The techniques allow attackers to bypass current network security devices […]

Facebook has found itself in the middle of another privacy flap. This time, the Wall Street Journal uncovered that many Facebook applications are sharing user information with advertising networks and other Internet-tracking companies. According to the Journal, some of the most popular applications on Facebook-including Mafia Wars, FarmVille and Texas HoldEm Poker-are transmitting Facebook ID […]

Attacks on Java reached “unprecedented” levels during the third quarter of the year, a Microsoft researcher reported. For the most part, attackers have been targeting three vulnerabilities that have all been patched, noted Holly Stewart, senior program manager at Microsoft, in a blog post. Still, attacks on Java number better than 6 million and have […]

Brand protection vendor MarkMonitor has acquired DtecNet to bolster its ability to fight fraud and piracy. MarkMonitor, based in San Francisco, offers products and services to prevent brandjacking and online fraud. The acquisition, made for an undisclosed sum, builds on the existing relationship between the two companies. According to MarkMonitor, the addition of DtecNet’s development […]

Adobe Systems is making good on its promise to bring sandboxing to bear in Adobe Reader in the name of security. The technology will be built into Adobe Reader X, which is scheduled to be released within 30 days. Known as “Protected Mode,” the technology is aimed at protecting Windows PCs, which are often the […]

It was a week of patches that are sure to create some extra work for administrators. Microsoft broke its record for the most patches ever Oct. 12, releasing a total of 16 security bulletins to fix 49 vulnerabilities across its products. One of the fixes patched a zero-day issue exploited by the Stuxnet worm. According […]

The U.S. government is reviewing plans by Australia to allow Internet service providers to keep compromised computers off the Internet and alert customers if their computers are hijacked by attackers, according to media reports. White House Cybersecurity Coordinator Howard Schmidt reportedly told the Associated Press that the United States is studying a number of ways […]

Zeus is down off malware’s Mount Olympus and infecting PCs yet again, this time using a tax scam being spammed out by attackers as bait. Using the Oct. 15 tax filing extension deadline as a ruse, the malware has been up to its old tricks, targeting banking and other user information. The spam typically comes […]

Google has added a new alarm for phishing URLs to a service designed to alert administrators if their networks have been compromised. The new phishing alert is part of Google Safe Browsing Alerts for Network Administrators, a service launched in September. The idea behind Safe Browsing Alerts is to notify AS (autonomous system) owners about […]

The subject of federal surveillance of social networks has come up again, this time prompted by new government documents unearthed by privacy watchdogs. The documents, which were revealed due to a FOIA (Freedom of Information Act) request filed by the EFF (Electronic Frontier Foundation) with the help of UC Berkeley’s Samuelson Clinic. According to the […]