Fahmida Y. Rashid

Vigilante justice doesn’t always work out well, and that’s also true for the online world. As Anonymous and its prankster off-shoot LulzSec, merrily stomping through company networks around the world, a different class of hackers who opposed their activities have also emerged. A group called “Web Ninjas” started posting information of people they suspected of […]

In a preview of a demonstration at the upcoming Black Hat security conference, a security researcher demonstrated how browser extensions can be used to compromise Chrome OS. The Chrome extension ScratchPad had a wide range of permissions that made it vulnerable to a cross-site scripting attack, Matt Johansen, an application security specialist at WhiteHat Security, […]

A foreign government was behind a March cyber-attack against military computers that led to 24,000 files being stolen from a defense contractor, the Department of Defense said. The intruders were after files related to missile tracking systems, unmanned aerial vehicles and the Joint Strike Fighter. The revelation came in a July 14 speech at the […]

Verizon enhanced its cloud-based identity-management service with new ways for enterprises to authenticate users and manage user access. Verizon added support for more types of tokens and digital signing capabilities to its cloud-based Enterprise Identity Services to help businesses more securely authenticate corporate users, the company announced July 14. Verizon also expanded mobile support for […]

The Chinese government has shut down more than one million Websites in 2010, according to a Chinese state-run agency. The Chinese Academy of Social Sciences said there were 41 percent fewer Websites at the end of 2010 than a year earlier, according to a BBC report July 13. Chinese officials exercise strict control over the […]

Cisco updated its IronPort security family with two new features designed to combat sophisticated email and Web threats, such as spear phishing. Cisco unveiled the IronPort Outbreak Filters and Business Class E-Mail on July 13 at Cisco Live in Las Vegas. The new features highlight what Cisco claims are new trends in cyber-crime. While spam […]

A mortgage fraud case has turned into a battle over the Fifth Amendment as the Department of Justice argued that the government can force individuals to disclose their encryption pass phrases. Ramona Camelia Fricosu and her husband, Scott Anthony Whatcott, were indicted last year for scamming Colorado Springs residents facing foreclosure. After the FBI obtained […]

Spammers don’t need botnets to send masses of spam anymore, as they switch to using legitimate Web email accounts, according to the latest quarterly report on Internet threats. Spammers are increasingly relying on compromised Web mail accounts to push out their email messages, researchers found in Commtouch’s quarterly Internet Threat Trend Report released July 12. […]

Mac security firm Intego launched an iOS version of its VirusBarrier malware scanner to protect the iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch. The VirusBarrier iOS application scans the device for malicious content, Intego said July 12. Available for $2.99, the VirusBarrier iOS can’t scan other applications to ensure they aren’t malicious, but can scan files, such […]

Even as users clamor to join the new Google+ social networking platform, not all of them are willing to leave behind Facebook, the other social networking site. The problem is, there’s an application out there that lets them combine the two services but it may put users at risk. Google+Facebook, a Web browser extension for […]

While Cisco Systems continues to innovate, it has become too complex and needs to become more streamlined and easier to work with, CEO John Chambers said in his opening keynote at the Cisco Live show in Las Vegas. As a result, Chambers acknowledged the company will undergo a restructuring, although he didn’t disclose any specific […]

Microsoft addressed 22 security vulnerabilities across four security bulletins in July’s Patch Tuesday update. Three of the patches fix issues in the Windows operating system. The four bulletins patched issues in all versions of the Windows operating system and in Microsoft Visio 2003 Service Pack 3, Microsoft said in its Patch Tuesday advisory, released July […]