Fahmida Y. Rashid

Scammers have jumped on the news of Apple founder Steve Jobs’ death to push forward more survey scams on Facebook. Security researchers warned more are probably on the way. In the latest scam, Facebook users are told that a company-not Apple-is giving away 50 iPads in memory of Steve Jobs, Sophos researchers posted Oct. 6 […]

ExploitHub, which operates a penetration-testing site and is run by NSS Labs, announced a bug-bounty program for researchers to develop exploits for 12 high-value vulnerabilities in Microsoft and Adobe products. The penetration-testing site identified a “dirty dozen” of client-side vulnerabilities in Microsoft Internet Explorer and Adobe Flash Player and offered a total of $4,400 for […]

Mobile threats have exploded this year, and researchers believe the number of mobile device exploits will double by the end of the year, according to the latest IBM report. The number of known mobile operating system vulnerabilities will increase only incrementally from 2010 to 2011, but the number of exploits based on those flaws is […]

IBM announced it will acquire Q1 Labs, a data analytics software company, to expand its security and events management capabilities. With advanced analytics from Q1 Labs, IBM can provide customers with correlation capabilities to automatically detect and flag suspicious or abnormal events, IBM said Oct. 4. The deal is subject to regulatory approval and is […]

Not all unwanted email flooding inboxes can be classified as spam, and Microsoft appears to be one of the few companies paying attention to cleaning up the other types of emails that get through spam filters. Malicious email, or messages specifically sent to distribute malware, is usually not defined as spam, according to Avi Turiel, […]

McAfee announced its plans to acquire privately owned Nitro Security to create a new security-information and event-management division focusing on security analytics and log management. McAfee expects to combine the Nitro Security technology with its own security-management portfolio to provide organizations greater visibility into their endpoints, network infrastructure and threats targeting the environment, McAfee said […]

Last week’s data breach of patient health records at a military health care provider is a sign that major organizations are still not properly encrypting their data, despite compliance regulations. Tricare, a provider of health care services to active and retired military personnel, disclosed Sept. 29 that a third-party technology contractor had misplaced backup tapes […]

Senior corporate executives are largely unaware of how secure their data centers are, according to a recent report. Only 22 percent of data center managers surveyed in a report felt senior management is aware of the company’s security preparedness, according to a data center study from Gabriel Consulting released Oct. 3. There is a “serious […]

Facebook is partnering with Websense to protect users from clicking on links on the social networking site that may direct them to malicious Websites. When a user clicks on a link, Facebook will first check the link against Websense’s system to determine whether it’s safe, Websense said Oct. 3. If the link is identified as […]

Due to a flaw in how HTC devices log application data, any application that requests permission to get Internet access can read various phone data such as call and Short Message Service logs and a list of all user accounts saved, researchers found. The modifications HTC made in a version of the Android mobile operating […]

Government agencies and the private sector are coming under additional pressure to increase their vigilance and to implement new technologies to protect sensitive information and critical infrastructure. One of the prominent conclusions that emerged from the September National Security Agency (NSA) Trusted Computing Conference & Exposition in Orlando, Fla., was that Trusted Computing technologies would […]

Facebook dominatedthe privacy conversation this past week, as the social networking site rolled out a slew of new interface changes, including a real-time news ticker and Timeline information-sharing interface. Users complained about having their every move publicized to people they don’t know. Security experts warned that Timeline could be exploited by cyber-criminals to harvest personal […]