Brian Prince

Facebook is taking a page from Google and other sites by making HTTPS default for user connections in North America, following through on plans announced last year. The move is meant to provide secure browsing for part of the social network’s user base, which as of September is counted by the company to be more […]

Virtualization software vendor VMware released an update this month to fix a security issue in its vSphere API. The update patches a denial-of-service (DoS) vulnerability in ESX and ESXi, and was accompanied by several open-source security fixes for the ESX Service Console. “The VMware vSphere API contains a denial-of-service vulnerability,” the company explained in an […]

The latest Transparency Report from Google shows government requests for information jumped dramatically during the past three years. According to Google, there were 20,938 such inquiries from government entities around the world during the first half of 2012 for information about 34,614 accounts. The number of requests represents a significant hike from the second half […]

Microsoft pushed out six security bulletins covering 19 vulnerabilities across Windows, Internet Explorer and several other products. Four of the six updates are rated “Critical,” Microsoft’s highest threat rating. Of those four, two should get immediate attention – MS12-071 and MS12-075, the company said. MS12-071 addresses three security issues in Internet Explorer (IE), none of […]

Research from security vendor BitDefender underscored recently what many Windows users already know—running a machine without antivirus can be risky. In an analysis, the firm found 15 percent of what the security firm classifies as the malware families most favored cyber-criminals this year were able to successfully run on Windows 8 with Windows Defender on. […]

Google has followed through on plans to provide a “do not track” feature in the latest version of its Chrome browser. In Chrome 23, users have the option to select “do not track,” which will include a request with their browser traffic for Websites to disable tracking. The move comes after the company announced in […]

Security vendor Sophos has plugged a series of security holes in its antivirus product that were uncovered by a security researcher. In some cases, these security holes could have been exploited to cause crashes or to remotely execute code, according to the researcher. The bugs in Sophos Anti-Virus were uncovered by Tavis Ormandy, who posted […]

Security vendor Bit9 classified more than 100,000 applications on Google Play as “questionable” or “suspicious” in a new report that the company said underscores the sometimes overlooked risks posed by permission-hungry applications. Bit9’s criteria for defining an application as “questionable” or “suspicious” included permissions requested by the application, categorization of the application, user rating, number […]

It’s a bustling marketplace with enough buyers, sellers and services to rival any retail industry. But it’s not your local clothing store; it’s the Russian cyber-underground. For just $30 U.S., an interested party can purchase a one-day denial-of-service (DoS) attack. If the buyer wants the attack to go on for a week, the price jumps […]

Several security fixes issued in July by Sybase failed to fully address vulnerabilities in versions of its flagship Adaptive Server Enterprise product. The vulnerabilities exist in versions 15.0.3 and later. According to database security firm Application Security, just two of the 12 flaws the company reported to Sybase earlier this year have been truly fixed. […]

Federal authorities are investigating a massive fraud scheme uncovered at 63 Barnes & Noble stores across the country in which PIN pad devices are believed to have been tampered with. The devices are used by customers seeking to pay with debit or credit cards. According to Barnes & Noble, an internal investigation has revealed that […]

The Federal Trade Commission issued a report Oct. 23 that suggested best practices for companies using facial recognition technology, including a focus on how it should be used responsibly by social networking sites. According to the FTC, facial recognition technologies are being used in a number of ways, from online social networks to mobile applications. […]