Fahmida Y. Rashid

The United Kingdom outlined plans to secure critical infrastructure and improve the country’s cyber-defenses to protect national security and citizens from multiple cyber-threats. The United Kingdom will create a new cyber-crime unit within the National Crime Agency to deploy cyber-specialists with skills and experience solving cyber-crimes to police departments across the country to assist with […]

Holiday shoppers planning to search for that perfect gift are gearing up for online deals on Monday after Thanksgiving. Security experts warned that scammers are also ramping up their efforts for the biggest online shopping day of the season. With close to $1 billion in online sales, last year’s Cyber Monday surpassed Black Friday as […]

After public reports on Nov. 18 of a network breach at a Springfield, Ill., water utility were “downplayed” by the Department of Homeland Security, an unknown hacker posted screenshots from a South Houston, Texas, water utility to illustrate the ease in which someone can compromise the industrial control systems in these facilities. The hacker, using […]

Security firm Bit9 on Nov. 21 released its “Dirty Dozen” list of insecure smartphones. The list focused on Android smartphones because approximately 56 percent of Android phones in the marketplace are running out-of-date and insecure versions of the mobile operating system, Harry Sverdlove, CTO of Bit9, told eWEEK. Smartphone manufacturers Samsung, HTC, Motorola and LG […]

With the holiday season ramping up, it’s not just online shoppers that have to be vigilant for cyber-threats. Enterprises and retailers have to be alert for scammers, cyber-criminals and hackers. High-profile distributed-denial-of-service attacks made headlines in 2011, and security vendors warned retailers could face similar attacks during the holiday shopping season. Online sales last year […]

Companies are exploring near-field communication technology to spur mobile payments using smartphones. While mainstream adoption is still years away, several recent announcements show that the idea is gaining traction despite lingering security concerns. Research in Motion partnered with Spanish telecommunications giant Telefonica to roll out a pilot program that would allow employees to make electronic […]

Well Do Security Later This kind of thinking is very common during a merger or an acquisition or when the company is rushing out a new product. Since systems and networks are continuously evolving and getting more complicated, it is always difficult to retrofit security at a later date. Security should be considered from the […]

Shoppers heading to the stores for Black Friday shopping this week should be vigilant when using mobile devices as scammers and criminals will be gunning for them, security experts warned. Mobile appears to be king on this year’s Black Friday, traditionally the biggest holiday shopping day of the year. Many shoppers will use their mobile […]

The 25 most popular passwords in 2011 include such gems as “password” and “123456,” according to an analysis of various lists and databases dumped online by hackers this year. Internet users were selecting common names, numeric sequences and keyboard layouts as their passwords online, according to the 2011 Worst Passwords of the Year list released […]

It is official. The United States military has explicitly stated that it has the right to retaliate with military force against a cyber-attack. In a 12-page report sent to Congress and made public Nov. 21, the Department of Defense said the military can launch a physical attack in the case of a cyber-attack against its […]

As Android market share continues to grow, malware developers are increasingly targeting the platform, according to security researchers. While the total volume of mobile malware and malware specifically targeting Android remains very small in comparison to malware targeting the Windows platform, recent reports found the numbers are growing, and will likely continue in 2012. Malware […]

AT&T notified some of its wireless customers that unknown perpetrators had tried to hack their accounts. The attack was unsuccessful as no accounts appear to have been breached, the company said in a letter to its customers. Attackers appear to have used an automated script to see if AT&T telephone numbers were linked to online […]