Dennis Fisher

The Goner worm that tore through corporate networks last week is just the latest evidence that virus writers and crackers are growing ever more skillful. While its infection method is unremarkable and reminiscent of previous mass-mailing worms, Goners destructive payload deletes anti-virus files and installs a distributed-denial-of-service client on infected machines. Such blended threats, as […]

A group claiming to be part of a large hacker organization known as the Alqaeda Muslim Alliance compromised several servers belonging to the U.S. General Accounting Office in Washington on Sunday. The Anti India Crew apparently breached the security of at least one mail server, an FTP server and two Web servers, according to data […]

Four Israeli teens are in police custody after admitting Saturday to writing and then distributing the Goner virus, which tore through corporate networks worldwide last week, according to officials at Israels national police headquarters in Tel Aviv. The youths, aged 15 and 16, are high school students from Nahariya, in the northern part of Israel, […]

NEW YORK — Striking a cautious note, Newt Gingrich on Wednesday warned that government and corporate networks will be the targets of new and varied threats in the coming years that arent even on the map at present. Gingrich, the former speaker of the United States House of Representatives and current CEO of The Gingrich […]

The Goner worm that tore through corporate networks last week is simply one more bit of evidence that virus writers and crackers are growing ever more skillful and adept at their crafts, security experts said. While its infection method is unremarkable and reminiscent of numerous previous mass-mailing worms, Goner carries a destructive payload that not […]

In an effort to improve its battered security reputation, Microsoft Corp. is subjecting elements of its loosely defined .Net Framework to unprecedented levels of scrutiny. While early indications are that the Redmond, Wash., software maker is moving in the right direction, the code review and other radical elements of the companys new security strategy are […]

Nortel Networks Corp. last week unveiled a suite of products and services designed to increase the performance of corporate networks by eliminating the data bottleneck created by firewalls and other security applications. Known collectively as the Alteon Security Cluster, the products include the Alteon Web Switch, Alteon Security Appliances and custom software. The suite is […]

A fast-spreading e-mail worm infected thousands of home users over the Thanksgiving holiday weekend and began spreading in enterprises as well early last week. Known as Badtrans.B, the virus infects PCs through several methods, but the most troubling aspect of the new worm is its ability to install a keystroke logger and a backdoor Trojan. […]

Microsoft Corp. last week launched a Web-based tool designed to help Internet users determine the level of online privacy they want. The tool takes the form of an interactive 10-question quiz that puts the user into one of six categories based on his or her answers. The categories range from “Defender: one who is extra-cautious […]

Network Associates Inc. on Monday continued its year-long overhaul of its executive ranks, naming Gene Hodges its new president. Hodges, who had been running the companys McAfee division, takes on a role that has been essentially vacant since Peter Watkins resigned last year. CEO George Samenuk had held the title of president in the interim. […]

The Washington University FTP daemon (WU-FTPD), which is packaged as a part of numerous Linux and Unix distributions, has two serious security flaws that enable a remote attacker to gain root privileges on vulnerable machines. The two weaknesses in versions 2.5.0, 2.6.0 and 2.6.1 of the server have been the subject of much discussion in […]

RSA Security Inc. on Monday will introduce a major revision of its Keon PKI product line designed to give users greater scalability and enhanced ease-of-use. Although the market for public key infrastructure (PKI) systems has never really materialized the way vendors thought it would, RSA officials say theyre seeing increased demand for PKI-related applications. “We […]