Lisa Vaas

iPhone hackers are on the cusp of not only being able to write programs for the phone but also finding a way to cut the devices tether to Cingulars service plans. According to one of the group of hackers who are working collaboratively via wiki and #iphone IRC channel, one of the last major hurdles […]

Microsoft has updated its critical security advisory on Excel, put out on its July 10 Patch Tuesday, to include Office 2004 for Mac. Microsoft’s MS07-036 advisory covers three critical Excel bugs, all remotely exploitable. This isn’t a patch to ignore, security analysts say, given that vulnerable systems can be taken with a Trojan. “Vulnerabilities in […]

The Bush administration is itching to update a snooping law to encompass new technologies, even as a DOJ report shows the FBI is using data mining on a dizzying array of U.S. citizens non-terrorist activities: Think auto insurance fraud and Medicare claims abuse. “Today, cellular phones are the size of credit cards, you would be […]

Tainted QuickTime movies can get a system hijacked or lead to sensitive information being stolen due to eight security vulnerabilities in Apples movie-viewing software. According to Apple, the first problem is caused by a memory corruption error when processing a malformed H.264 movie. H.264—also known as MPEG-4 Part 10 or AVC (Advanced Video Coding—is a […]

Microsoft is spending another $50 million to pump up sales, marketing, training and other support for its Forefront line of security products, the company announced July 11 at its Worldwide Partner Conference in Denver. Its also expanding eligibility so that more partners can take advantage of the up to 30 percent additional fees that they […]

Theres still no consensus regarding whether the zero-day vulnerability that security researcher Thor Larholm found is on Internet Explorer or on Firefox. But more to the point, there is a way to block the exploit, which otherwise could lead to remote system hijacking. According to Microsoft Security Program Manager Jesper Johansson, blocking the exploit boils […]

Microsoft has issued patches for seven critical flaws in Excel, Windows Active Directory and the .Net Framework. Those seven vulnerabilities cover the worst-hit applications. The July 10 Patch Tuesday saw a total of 11 vulnerabilities fixed in six security bulletins. Analysts were warning about the critical .Net flaw ahead of the bulletin release, given the […]

Claiming that security researchers are dissatisfied with current remuneration—white-hat chump change or the potential of black-hat broken kneecaps—a Swiss company has launched the first non-black-market auction site for zero-day vulnerabilities. The eBay-like bug market, called Wabisabilabi, launched July 3. Security researchers and vulnerability brokers like the concept of selling vulnerabilities for fair market price just […]

Security researcher Thor Larholm has discovered a zero-day vulnerability that could lead to remote attackers hijacking systems running both Internet Explorer and Firefox. Larholm is calling this an IE zero day, blaming the vulnerability on an input validation flaw in Internet Explorer that allows users to specify arbitrary arguments to the process responsible for handling […]

Microsoft is issuing six patches on Patch Tuesday on July 10, one of which addresses a critical .Net Framework vulnerability that has the potential to affect a wide array of applications on all of Microsofts actively supported platforms. Microsofts .Net Framework, a component thats included with the companys operating systems or which can be added […]

Google is all about information. Its become the No. 1 tool people use to find information on the Internet. More troubling to privacy experts, though, is the amount of information Google has accumulated about us. The Mountain View, Calif., company is continually raked over the coals regarding the massive amounts of PII (personally identifiable information) […]

Lately Dave Aitels been thinking: whats the difference between organized online crime groups and commercial companies that do penetration testing? “A company has a rather large budget, dedicated infrastructure and an experienced and skilled staff. So why do so many of them fight like flabby novices? The fact is, giving someone a lot of money […]