Brian Prince

Webroot has acquired security vendor Prevx for its cloud-based anti-malware technology. According to Webroot, the plan is to integrate Prevx’s technology into Webroot’s cloud security services. The buy continues a cloud strategy that has been expanded this year with the purchase of Website classification vendor BrightCloud as well as the introduction of Webroot’s first cloud […]

Fortinet is refuting rumors that the company is in acquisition talks with IBM. Officials at both companies initially declined to comment about the rumors Nov. 1, but Fortinet later published a press release stating the following: “Bloomberg News cited sources incorrectly indicating that Fortinet is in acquisition discussions with IBM…[Fortinet] is focused on building a […]

Facebook is cracking down on several application developers caught selling Facebook user IDs to data brokers. The crackdown was prompted by revelations last month that some applications on the site were passing user IDs (UIDs) in violation of Facebook policy. In a blog post, Facebook engineer Mike Vernal wrote the site was “instituting a 6-month […]

WiFi hacking, botnets and zero-days led the news this past week in security. The release of the Firesheep extension for Firefox put the spotlight on protecting Internet users. The tool, which was released at the ToorCon 12 conference, allows attackers to hijack the sessions of social network users on open wireless networks. Firesheep set off […]

A Texas man was sentenced to 18 months in prison for selling more than $1 million worth of pirated software via the Internet. Todd Alan Cook, of Wichita Falls, Texas, was sentenced Oct. 29 and received a fine of $599,771 in addition to the prison time. Cook pleaded guilty to criminal copyright infringement in March, […]

A former IT director was sentenced Oct. 29 to 27 months in federal prison for hacking a company’s Website after the company fired him. Darnell H. Albert-El, 53, of Richmond, Va., pleaded guilty to one count of intentionally damaging a protected computer without authorization. He was also ordered to pay $6,700 in restitution to his […]

IBM is proposing a new approach to address WiFi security in the wake of the Firesheep plug-in for Firefox. The Firesheep extension can be used to hijack the sessions of people using unencrypted sites such as Facebook and Twitter on an open wireless network. The tool was released less than a week ago at the […]

Hacktivism has appeared again in the cyber-world, this time starring dissidents in Vietnam. According to SecureWorks, a new Trojan is being used to launch DDoS (distributed-denial-of-service) attacks against blogs and forums criticizing the Vietnamese Communist Party. Joe Stewart, SecureWorks’ director of malware research, reported a botnet dubbed Vecebot is responsible for the attacks. This is […]

Firefox has patched a zero-day vulnerability uncovered earlier this week. The company issued an update to Firefox and Thunderbird late Wednesday to patch the vulnerability. The vulnerability was first uncovered when Telenor SOC reported finding a compromised site redirecting users to a site containing an exploit targeting the issue on a version of Firefox 3.6 […]

Call it a good news, bad news situation for Adobe Systems. On the one hand, the company patched a number of vulnerabilities Oct. 28 in Shockwave Player; on the other hand, it issued a new advisory on a zero-day bug in Adobe Flash Player. The Flash Player vulnerability affects version 10.1.85.3 and earlier on Windows, […]