Fahmida Y. Rashid

Dutch certificate authority DigiNotar has closed its doors, less than a month after news broke about the security breach in which fake digital certificates were issued for high-profile Web sites. DigiNotar filed for voluntary bankruptcy, parent company Vasco Data Security said on Sept. 20. A trustee will oversee the process and all assets will be […]

A week after the quarterly patch update for Adobe Acrobat and Reader, Adobe released an emergency update to address a zero-day vulnerability in its Flash Player. Adobe announced the out-of-cycle patch on Sept. 21 to fix a zero-day vulnerability and several critical issues affecting Flash Player 10 and earlier versions for Windows, Macintosh, Android, Linux […]

Attackers most likely used spear-phishing techniques to compromise Japanese defense contractor Mitsubishi Heavy Industries last month, security researchers said. Spear phishing techniques are increasingly being used to steal sensitive information. Mitsubishi Heavy Industries admitted Sept. 19 that 83 systems in over 10 locations had been infected with several types of malware, including data-stealing Trojans. Japanese […]

Email may be critical to an organization’s day-to-day operations, but it is also becoming one of the main sources of data leakage, according to a recent Ponemon Institute report. In a survey of 830 information technology, security and compliance professionals, more than half of the respondents said improper email use by employees is the main […]

Cyber-crime is a lucrative business which offers criminals very high returns in exchange for very low risk. Trend Micro researchers showed just how profitable in their analysis of a recently uncovered Russian cyber-crime operation. The researchers found this operation amassed $3.2 million in just over a six month period, Loucif Kharouni, a senior threat researcher […]

IronKey has sold its USB-based security hardware business to Imation, freeing up resources for IronKey to focus on its cloud-based security services for enterprises. Under the sales agreement, Imation will acquire the assets of IronKey’s secure data storage hardware business for an undisclosed amount, the companies announced on Sept. 20. As part of the deal, […]

Federal government IT and cyber-security professionals are worried about sophisticated threats and the level of visibility they have in their networks, Cisco found in a recent online survey. Many of the professionals are seeing the cloud as a way to improve security while reducing costs. Employee behavior, increasingly sophisticated cyber-threats and lengthy IT processes top […]

McAfee unveiled its latest approach to securing data on mobile devices with several new products. These new mobile security products will focus on protecting mobile devices, data and applications, McAfee said Sept. 20. The centerpiece of the three-pronged strategy is the McAfee Enterprise Mobility Management software, along with McAfee’s ePolicy Orchestrator and its Global Threat […]

The Federal Trade Commission is planning to hold a workshop to examine how increased use of facial recognition technology impacts consumer privacy and security. Facial recognition technology has been adopted in a variety of new contexts, ranging from online social networks to digital signs and mobile apps, the FTC said Sept. 19. The workshop will […]

Less than 48 hours after a national security organization released a report on cyber-threats and defenses, attackers breached its Website and posted the membership list on an underground forum. The Intelligence and National Security Alliance, a “premier intelligence and national security organization,” said in a Sept. 12 report that security professionals needed to develop better […]

In the wake of the breach on the Dutch certificate authority in which several hundred fraudulent digital certificates were issued, many security researchers claimed the certificate authority system was irrevocably broken and a new system was necessary to establish online trust. One CA, Symantec, argues that the incident just reinforces that CAs need to improve […]

A major Japanese defense contractor discovered cyber-attackers had breached its computer network in August. The company says it’s not clear yet what has been compromised. Approximately 45 servers and 38 computers were infected with malware at ten facilities located throughout Japan and its Yokohama headquarters, Mitsubishi Heavy Industries told Reuters on Sept. 18. Japan’s largest […]