Fahmida Y. Rashid

The proposed federal data breach notification law will simultaneously simplify and complicate things for organizations in the wake of a security breach, experts said. The White House outlined the data breach notification law within the broad cyber-security proposal that was sent to Congress May 12. If passed as is, the law would trump existing state […]

Social-engineering attacks in which users are tricked into clicking on a link or downloading malicious programs are far more common than attacks that exploit security vulnerabilities in software, according to Microsoft. One out of every 14 programs downloaded by Windows users later were discovered to be malicious, Jeb Haber, program manager lead of the SmartScreen […]

Sony finally restored its PlayStation Network nearly a month after the data breach that compromised more than 70 million user accounts. Japanese regulators remained skeptical that the company had properly secured its infrastructure. Sony began its phased restoration of the PlayStation Network on May 14. To welcome users back, Sony rolled out a welcome-back package […]

The research arm of the Department of Defense wants a cloud computing infrastructure that is resilient enough to keep working even while it’s getting hit by massive denial-of-service attacks. The DARPA (Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency) will build a cloud-based network that can continue supporting military missions even while under cyber-attack, DARPA said in an […]

Sophos has enhanced its security portfolio to provide “complete protection” for all endpoints, including mobile devices, desktops and laptops, regardless of where the user is. Sophos unveiled the Sophos Mobile Control, a new mobile-device-management platform that will allow IT departments to securely protect all employee devices, on May 17. The company also updated its SafeGuard […]

Cyber-attacks targeting mobile devices are on the rise. However, mobile users are particularly vulnerable as they don’t protect their devices because they assume there is very little risk. To defend against mobile threats, AT&T is planning to roll out wireless-security services for consumers, John Stankey, the head of AT&T’s enterprise business division, told Reuters May […]

Even with the Sony PlayStation Network data breach, Amazon can’t catch a break. The PSN hackers leased servers from Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2) to launch their attack in April, according to a report from Bloomberg, which cited “a person with knowledge of the matter.” Sony was forced to shut down the PlayStation Network, Qriocity […]

As distributed-denial-of-service attacks become more prevalent and easier to launch, companies like VeriSign and Arbor Networks are rolling out DDoS mitigation services for customers. Internet infrastructure company VeriSign expanded its cloud-based anti-DDoS service to small and medium-sized businesses on May 9. Arbor Networks followed up on May 10 with its own line of enterprise data […]

Cyber-attackers are gunning for Google’s Android as they take advantage of a user base that is “unaware, disinterested or uneducated” in mobile security, according to a recent research report. Malware developers are increasingly focusing on mobile devices, and Android malware has surged 400 percent since summer 2010, according to the Malicious Mobile Threats Report 2010/2011 […]

Lawmakers in Washington, D.C. introduced more cyber-security and online privacy bills in Congress last week. Sen. John D. Rockefeller introduced the long anticipated “Do Not Track” bill that would require all companies to honor users’ tracking preferences. Companies that violate rules set by the Federal Trade Commission would face civil penalties and lawsuits from the […]

Despite the flurry of privacy bills that have been introduced in Congress recently, legal experts don’t expect to see a comprehensive privacy-protection law being passed anytime soon. There have been a lot of discussions about implementing the “Do Not Track” measure to give consumers a way to opt out of data tracking and to control […]

The volume of malware continued to increase in April as online scammers and malware distributors took advantage of major events according to security experts. Fake antivirus software and poisoned image search links were particularly prevalent in April. There were over 73,000 new variants of malware released daily in April, a 26 percent increase over April […]