Fahmida Y. Rashid

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 […]

Web security firm Sophos has posted an open letter to Facebook taking the social networking giant to task for its ongoing safety and privacy issues. Sophos security experts outlined three steps Facebook should take to better protect its users and improve overall data security in a post on the company’s Naked Security blog. Facebook needs […]

Education and government Websites continue to redirect users to malicious Websites months after the hijacked pages were flagged in a report. Major search engines also continue to rank those pages high on search results pages. A Zscaler researcher identified numerous hijacked domains belonging to government organizations and educational institutions in a report in January. A […]