Fahmida Y. Rashid

Even as the Department of Defense unveiled a cyber-security strategy, a senior military official said it was “way too predictable,” and that the Pentagon needs to prepare offensive counter measures to deter cyber-attacks Deputy Defense Secretary William Lynn July 14 released the Pentagon’s “Strategy for Operating in Cyber-Space,” outlining five “strategic initiatives” on how the […]

The hacking group Anonymous has struck again, this time releasing documents it said it stole from the network of giant biotechnology and agricultural seed company Monsanto in retribution for alleged corporate misconduct. The hacking collective posted information it stole last month on 2,500 Monsanto employees and associates, the group announced July 13. Anonymous also launched […]

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. […]