Fahmida Y. Rashid

Amid a brewing controversy over a tracking feature in Apple’s iOS 4, several members of Congress have called on Apple to explain what the information is for. Rep. Edward Markey (D-Mass.) wrote to Apple CEO Steve Jobs on April 21 requesting information and suggesting that the practice may violate the Federal Communications Act. Markey asked […]

A day after security firm Sophos penned an open letter asking Facebook to improve its privacy and security features, Facebook introduced a suite of security tools aimed at helping users stay safe online. The social networking giant improved its social reporting tools for flagging wall posts and photos as spam, improved its secure browsing options […]

Microsoft will begin disclosing vulnerabilities it finds in third-party Windows software in addition to its own products. It started off with two bugs in Google’s Chrome Web browser. In a nine-page document titled “Coordinated Vulnerability Disclosure at Microsoft,” the company outlined how Microsoft developers will reveal security flaws in its own and other companies’ software, […]

Oracle on April 19 released 25 security patches that addressed 73 vulnerabilities, of which 36 have been classified as “critical,” as part of its quarterly Critical Patch Update. The critical issues may be exploited remotely without requiring a username or password. April’s CPU contained updates to Oracle Database Server11g and 10g, Oracle Fusion middleware, Oracle […]

After attackers compromised several machines at federal research facility Oak Ridge National Laboratory, administrators temporarily shut down all Internet access and e-mail systems to contain the damage. An investigation is currently underway. The laboratory’s IT administrators made the decision to disconnect the machines from the Internet after discovering malware on several systems attempting to transfer […]

Skype has fixed the privacy vulnerability in its Android application that allowed malicious apps to harvest sensitive user data. The vulnerability has been addressed in the latest Skype for Android, Version 1.0.0.983, and the user data has been properly secured on the mobile device, Adrian Asher, chief information security officer at Skype, wrote on the […]

Despite a challenging first quarter and weakening consumer demand, strong business spending and emerging markets are driving demand for Intel’s traditional businesses. Company executives are expecting the momentum to continue for the rest of 2011 as the company strengthens its presence in the mobile device segment. During an April 19 conference call with analysts and […]

While the number of data breaches soared in 2010, the amount of information lost has dropped dramatically, according to Verizon’s latest data breach survey. The contradiction underscores what some security experts have been saying: attackers are increasingly targeting smaller companies because it’s easier. Released April 19, the latest “2011 Verizon Data Breach Investigations Report” from […]

Even though the number of available IPv4 addresses are dwindling faster than expected, the move to IPv6 remains sluggish, according to a recent study from Arbor Networks. In a study of native IPv6 traffic volumes across multiple large carriers, IPv6 adoption remains minuscule as a result of technical and design challenges, no economic incentives, and […]

PCI-compliant organizations suffered fewer or no data breaches in 2009 and 2010 compared to previous years, according to the latest Ponemon Institute report. Even so, organizations still do not believe that implementing PCI-DSS made them more secure. More than half, or 64 percent, of PCI-DSS compliant organizations reported suffering no data breaches involving credit card […]

The same hacker who compromised MySQL.com and Sun.com last month claimed to have breached the European Space Agency. Approximately 200 usernames, passwords and email addresses related to the European Space Agency was posted by a hacker under the name TinKode on his blog on April 17. The post also included the details on other servers […]

Security updates from major companies dominated headlines this week, as Microsoft, Apple, Adobe and Oracle pushed out critical patches. Many of the fixed vulnerabilities, if exploited, would have given remote attackers the ability to execute code on the compromised systems. The week began with Microsoft releasing its Patch Tuesday updates, fixing 64 bugs across 17 […]