Brian Prince

Researchers at Zscaler have discovered nearly three million fake YouTube pages indexed by Google that lead to rogue anti-virus programs. Zscaler found the pages by searching under “Hot Video” and a particular URL. Yandex, a Russian search engine, also returns numerous links to the pages as well, the researchers found. “The fake Youtube video page […]

Apple released a security update for Mac OS X that patches 13 vulnerabilities. The release fixes issues in several components, including CoreGraphics and Apple Type Services. Several of the vulnerabilities are buffer overflows that could be exploited to execute arbitrary code. According to the Apple advisory, the ATS (Apple Type Services) bug can be triggered […]

Rustock retained the top spot as the busiest spam-sending botnet on the Web this month despite the fact the number of bots under its control shrank. According to Symantec’s August 2010 MessageLabs Intelligence Report, Rustock increased its output from 32 percent of botnet spam in April to 41 percent in August. Ironically, this happened even […]

Visa has released a set of best practices for payment application vendors to help ensure security beyond the requirements of industry compliance. The document comes roughly two weeks after the PCI (Payment Card Industry) Security Standards Council outlined proposed changes to payment card industry regulations. According to Visa, which developed the guidance with the help […]

Microsoft issued an advisory Aug. 23 for application developers and customers about a security issue impacting hundreds of third-party programs. The week of Aug. 16, security researchers revealed that scores of applications running on Windows are affected by a class of vulnerabilities dubbed remote “binary planting” bugs by Acros Security. The situation, Microsoft said, is […]

A Trojan may have played a role in a 2008 plane crash in Madrid that claimed the lives of 154 people, according to a media report. The Spanair flight was headed for the Canary Islands in August 2008 when it crashed just after takeoff at Madrid-Barajas Airport. Just 18 people survived the crash. According to […]

When people think of cyber-crime, the typical image being pushed today is that of highly organized criminal operations. New research, however, suggests the underbelly of cyber-space may be less mafia-like than some think. In an effort to improve the level of understanding of today’s black hats, security researchers Fyodor Yarochkin and “The Grugq” have spent […]

IT Security Professionals Want a Bigger Payday, Says Survey by Brian Prince Salaries Remain the Same The survey found little change in salary between 2009 and 2010. The change that did occur for respondents was not good—5 percent more were making less than $100,000 in 2010 as opposed to in 2009. Feeling Underpaid More than […]

Cameron Diaz has gone from being just another one of Charlie’s Angels to the most dangerous celebrity on the Web, according to research by McAfee. In the latest version of its “Dangerous Celebrities” study, McAfee found that Diaz had replaced fellow actress Jessica Biel as the celebrity who, when entered into search engines, was most […]

Intel has signed a definitive agreement to acquire security giant McAfee for approximately $7.68 billion. If completed, McAfee would become a wholly owned subsidiary of Intel and would report to Intel’s Software and Services Group. For Intel, bringing McAfee into the fold continues with the company’s plans around software, explained Ren??«e James, Intel senior vice […]

News that Intel has agreed to buy McAfee for $7.68 billion generated some mixed reaction from industry analysts Aug. 19. While officials at both companies touted how the integration could allow them to integrate security more deeply into Intel’s portfolio, others questioned whether the deal is a good fit. “If Intel wants to grow the […]

Malware spreading via USB devices is not a new phenomenon, but it is still effective. According to McAfee’s 2010 Q2 Threat Report, the most widely detected threat was the Genericlatr Trojan, AutoRun malware found on nearly 9 percent of machines scanned by the company worldwide. Then there is Stuxnet, Conficker and other malicious threats that […]