Robert Lemos

The allure of big data for companies and researchers is in its ability to make connections between disparate events, allowing better insight into the relationships in the data. However, for the individuals whose data is collected, big data also means far less privacy. The latest example, published by Massachusetts Institute of Technology researchers, found that […]

In early January, Google’s Project Zero—a 6-month-old effort to hunt for bugs in popular software—released, for the second time, information on a vulnerability in Microsoft software before the software giant had patched the issue. Not two weeks later, Google took the same action for security issues in Apple’s products. Google has argued that holding every […]

Malware code reportedly leaked from the National Security Agency has been linked to a sophisticated cyber-attack framework, known as Regin, which had previously been used to attack political targets in Russia and the Middle East. In an analysis published on Jan. 27, researchers from security firm Kaspersky Lab highlighted similarities between Regin’s code and code […]

Attackers are actively compromising Windows systems using an exploit for a previously unknown vulnerability in Adobe’s Flash software, according to an analysis of attack traffic by a researcher known as Kafeine. The attack, confirmed by security firms Symantec and Malwarebytes, is part of a suite of exploits included in the Angler exploit kit, software sold […]

Recent reports alleging that the National Security Agency has infiltrated North Korean networks and collected evidence connecting the country’s leadership with the attack on Sony Pictures Entertainment should have settled the question of who was responsible for the brazen breach of the Hollywood studio’s data assets. Yet, doubts persist. On Jan. 17, German news magazine […]

Changes proposed by the Obama Administration to a variety of laws used to prosecute cyber-crime have raised concerns among security professionals and vulnerability researchers, who worry that activities meant to improve security could lead to criminal charges. In a document published on Jan. 13, the White House presented its legislative proposals to amend a variety […]

An attack tool used in an ongoing cyber-espionage operation gives digital spies a backdoor into the affected network and allows them to retain control in a nearly undetectable way, according to research published by managed-security firm Dell Secureworks on Jan. 13. For more than two years, the program, dubbed ‘Skeleton Key,’ appears to have resided […]

Supporters of the radical Muslim movement that has captured territory in Syria and Iraq hacked the social media accounts of the U.S. Central Command (USCENTCOM) on Jan. 12 and reportedly posted messages supporting the Islamic State. The hackers, calling themselves the CyberCaliphate, used their access to three Twitter accounts and a YouTube account belonging to […]

While companies and their employees continue to wholeheartedly adopt cloud services, the security implications of having business data regularly stored online increasingly worry executives, according to an annual survey by the Cloud Security Alliance. The Cloud Adoption Practices and Priorities Survey Report found that 74 percent of companies plan to adopt cloud services this year, […]

Customized greeting-card maker Moonpig suspended its mobile services on Jan. 6, after a developer claimed that the company’s poor code security could allow attackers to collect details on millions of users. The security issue apparently occurs in the company’s application programming interface that’s used to communicate between Moonpig’s online services and its mobile applications. Because […]

Online thieves apparently take a break from work to do their own shopping during the holiday season, just like everyone else. The number of attacks against sites, especially against retailers, dropped dramatically during the week before and after Black Friday and Cyber Monday, according to data released on Jan. 5 by IBM. In a study […]

The second largest U.S. dollar-Bitcoin exchange, Bitstamp, suspended trading on Jan. 4, warning customers that the system may have been compromised and requesting that they refrain from making digital currency deposits. Attackers appear to have compromised the exchange’s operational cache of Bitcoins, also known as a “hot wallet,” on Jan. 4, the company said in […]