Brian Prince

Microsoft is investigating reports of a new vulnerability affecting Microsoft Internet Information Services that could be used to execute malicious code on vulnerable Web servers. Details of the vulnerability came out Dec. 25 when security researcher Soroush Dalili posted information about the bug on his Website. According to security company Secunia, the vulnerability is caused […]

In three days, 2009 will officially come to a close. The year saw its share of security incidents, from the dramatic rise of the Conficker worm to the hacking of military drones to massive data breaches. Then there was the security industry itself, which saw a number of acquisitions around security software as a service […]

An article appeared in Phrack magazine 11 years ago that discussed a problem that remains a security headache to this day — SQL injection. That article, which came out on Christmas Day 1998, is believed to have been the first publicized mention of SQL injection. It is fitting, then, that as Christmas approaches we take […]

The search for a U.S.cyber-security coordinator has officially ended. After months of searching, U.S. President Barack Obama selected Howard Schmidt to step into the role. Schmidt, president and CEOof the Information Security Forum, has served as chief security officer for Microsoft and as chief information security officer at eBay. His selection comes 10 months after […]

There was no recession in the rogue antivirus industry in 2009. According to Microsoft, four of the top 11 threats cleaned by its Malicious Software Removal Tool between Dec. 8 and Dec. 16 were tied to rogue antivirus software. Just how much damage the scareware rings behind these types of malware do to users’ pocketbooks […]

The death of 32-year-old actress Brittany Murphy Dec. 20 has touched off a flurry of malicious activity, with attackers looking to take advantage of anyone looking for information about her death. According to McAfee, the following searches have been yielding questionable results: Brittany Murphy dies Brittany Murphy dead Brittany Murphy husband Brittany Murphy death hoax […]

MP3 spam is making a bit of a comeback. According to security pros, spammers have returned to an oldie-but-goodie in a spate of new attacks. Symantec has been tracking a campaign involving a small .mp3 file promoting a meds domain attached in the e-mail messages. The messages have no subject line or message body – […]

A Look Back at the 7 Top Security Acquisitions of 2009 A Look Back at the 7 Top Security Acquisitions of 2009By Brian Prince McAfee Buys MX Logic This was an important deal for McAfee, which brought a respected security software-as-a-service business into its portfolio. The deal put McAfee in a better position to compete […]

It hasn’t been the best 10 days for Facebook. After instituting changes meant to improve user privacy, Facebook has been hit with a Federal Trade Commission complaint alleging the social networking site did the exact opposite. According to a host of consumer and privacy groups, Facebook’s changes actually did more harm than good. But just […]

New details about the attack that disrupted Twitter Dec. 17 have begun to emerge. According to Twitter, the DNS (Domain Name System) settings for Twitter.com were hijacked, resulting in roughly 80 percent of the traffic from the site being redirected elsewhere from 9:46 p.m. to 11 p.m. PST. Apparently, the attackers got their hands on […]

Ten privacy and consumer groups filed a complaint Dec. 17 with the Federal Trade Commission over Facebook’s recent privacy changes and urged the agency to open an investigation. “This is the most significant case now before the Federal Trade Commission,” Marc Rotenberg, executive director of EPIC (Electronic Privacy Information Center), said in a statement. “More […]

Seven Security Attacks for Your Christmas Stocking by Brian Prince Santa Claus Is Coming to Town This e-mail is being distributed through what is called a “snowshoe” operation. Snowshoe spamming is a technique where the spammer distributes the spam load across static IP address ranges, which makes spam harder to identify and trap. According to […]