Ryan Naraine

A decision by Google Inc. to block certain search queries has helped thwart the spread of the Santy worm, but the public release of the worms source code could lead to new attacks, security experts warned on Wednesday. Google began filtering the worms queries late Tuesday night, effectively stopping the Santy propagation on vulnerable Web […]

Anti-virus vendors have raised the threat level on a new Internet worm squirming through Web servers that are running unpatched versions of the popular phpBB Web forum software. The worm, known as Net-Worm.Perl.Santy.A or Santy, uses Google search to randomly find sites running phpBB and overwrites several different files to deface the forums. By targeting […]

Looking to widen its appeal and find a niche in the small business market, Cerulean Studios has added support for Apples Rendezvous protocol to its popular Trillian instant messaging application. With Rendezvous support, Trillian now will offer serverless IM capabilities for users on the same LAN. The Rendezvous protocol, which is a key feature in […]

Web search powerhouse Google has acknowledged—and patched—a security vulnerability in its desktop search utility that opens the doors for man-in-the-middle data leak attacks. The Google fix was issued after a pair of Rice University graduate students discovered that two different attack scenarios could be used to exploit the Google Desktop vulnerability. The students, Seth J. […]

Microsofts big move into the anti-spyware business has hit an immediate speed bump, with questions swirling around a Florida companys claim that it co-owns the Giant AntiSpyware code—and all future definition updates—that Microsoft purchased earlier this week. Sunbelt Software Distribution, which markets a spyware-protection application powered by Giant, reacted to the Microsoft acquisition with glee, […]

Microsoft Corp. has quietly released a “critical” Windows XP Service Pack 2 update to fix a serious flaw in the Windows Firewall utility. “After you set up Microsoft Windows Firewall in Microsoft Windows XP Service Pack 2 (SP2), you may discover that your computer can be accessed by anyone on the Internet when you use […]

An audit of the Department of Homeland Securitys system controls for remote access has found an alarming absence of configuration guidelines and several unpatched software products that put the DHS at risk of malicious hacker attacks. In a report made public this week, the Office of Inspector General in the DHS warned that the audit […]

Microsoft Corp. has bought into the anti-spyware business. Just two months after Chairman Bill Gates dropped a strong hint that Microsoft planned to do something about the spyware scourge, the Redmond, Wash., company announced the acquisition of Giant Company Software, a New York-based startup with a highly rated anti-spyware application. Financial terms of the purchase […]

Microsofts sudden acquisition of highly rated anti-spyware startup Giant Company Software has set the cat among the pigeons. As competitors rush to spin the news as a “validation” of the nascent anti-spyware sector, analysts predict that Redmond is working on an enterprise-class product combining spyware- and virus-fighting capabilities. “We believe Microsoft will come out with […]

A new virus strain masquerading as electronic Christmas cards is accounting for one in every 10 e-mails hitting in-boxes, security experts warned Wednesday. The W32/Zafi-D worm, which originated in Hungary, is using mass-mailing and P2P (peer-to-peer) techniques to squirm through in-boxes and slow network traffic to a crawl. The worm, which poses as a Christmas […]

Looking to cement its place as a legitimate contender in the enterprise anti-spyware space, Webroot Software Inc. has beefed up its Spy Sweeper Enterprise product with new features to handle bandwidth conservation and mobile client updates. With Spy Sweeper Enterprise 2.0, the Boulder, Colo.-based Webroot is reaching out to high-end corporate clients with new features […]

Microsoft on Tuesday released fixes for five vulnerabilities in Windows products, including a patch for a known security issue in the WINS (Windows Internet Name Service) name server. As expected, the company released five advisories with “important” severity ratings but warned that four of the five could lead to code execution attacks. Microsoft typically rates […]