Ryan Naraine

The sudden appearance of a rootkit file in a spyware-laden IM worm attack has set off new fears that malicious hackers are sophisticated enough to launch a fully automated worm attack against instant messaging networks. In the most recent attack aimed at users of America Online Inc.s AIM network, the “lockx.exe” rootkit file was bundled […]

Its being called the “story of a dumb patch.” A private security research firm has published an advisory with details on a fundamental mistake made by Microsoft Corp. that caused a security patch to ship without an adequate fix for the flaw it was meant to address. Cesar Cerrudo, founder and CEO of Argeniss Information […]

Anti-virus vendor McAfee Inc. on Wednesday clinched a deal with PC maker Gateway Inc. to preinstall its Internet Security Suite on all Gateway and eMachines computers. The exclusive two-year agreement gives the Santa Clara, Calif.-based McAfee a key outlet to sell its anti-virus, anti-spyware and anti-phishing software and a key ally to help stave off […]

Multiple security flaws in the popular Skype voice chat application could put millions of users at risk of computer takeover attacks, the company acknowledged Tuesday. Skype Technologies S.A., which is being acquired by eBay Inc., warned in two separate advisories that the vulnerabilities could lead of system access or denial-of-service attacks. The Skype program, which […]

Microsoft Corp. plans to roll out a minor refresh of its Windows OneCare PC security bundle to add new features for file scanning and data backup. In a note to beta testers, Microsoft said the refresh will be shipped automatically Tuesday as part of a plan to push out continuous feature updates to keep PCs […]

Microsoft Corp. plans to bundle anti-spyware protection into Windows Vista, a move that is sure to raise eyebrows among the companys security competitors, many of which are also its partners. The Windows AntiSpyware product, which currently ships to consumers as a free stand-alone application, will be integrated into Vista, as is indicated in the latest […]

Microsofts patch for a worm-vulnerable security flaw in Windows 2000 is causing problems for some users. Microsoft recently confirmed several “isolated deployment issues” with the MS05-051 update but insisted that the problems should not stop anyone from applying the critical patch. Word of problems comes at the worst possible time for the Microsoft Security Response […]

Microsoft plans to discontinue the use of the SSLv2 (Secure Socket Layer) protocol in the coming Internet Explorer browser refresh. In its place, he company will fit the stronger TLSv1 (Transport Layer Security) protocol into IE 7 as part of an overall plan to improve the security and user experience for HTTPS connections. Microsoft Corp. […]

America Online Inc. late Wednesday shipped a new version of its Netscape browser to correct multiple critical code execution vulnerabilities inherited from the Firefox code base. In a brief advisory, AOL said the Netscape v8.0.4 upgrade includes all Firefox security patches through 1.0.7. In all, nine vulnerabilities are patched, including a critical heap overrun in […]

For the second time in as many weeks, the MSRC has revised one of its “critical” security bulletins after some users complained of problems figuring out which patch to apply. It appears that Windows 2000 users running Microsoft DirectX 8.0 or DirectX 9.0 had problems sorting through the bulletin to find the appropriate patches. In […]

Microsoft Corp. has quietly backported one of the security improvements slated for the new Internet Explorer 7 browser into IE 6.0, but the giveaway comes with a small catch. The Microsoft Phishing Filter, which is being embedded into IE 7, will now be available in IE 6 but only via an add-on to the MSN […]

Just call it SplogSpot. Google Inc.s free BlogSpot service has become a happy hunting ground for spammers cashing in on the easy integration of AdSense advertisements into the “push-button” publishing tool. Over the past few days, the situation has spiraled out of control, prompting outrage from bloggers and third-party blog search providers and an acknowledgement […]