Sean Michael Kerner

Some vulnerabilities have a bigger impact that others, and not every flaw that a researcher claims is critical represents an immediate risk to users. Case in point: security firm Perception Point’s recent disclosure of the CVE-2016-0728 vulnerability. Perception Point alleges that the zero-day flaw exposes tens of millions of Linux devices, including Android phones to […]

Security firm Kaspersky Lab is warning of an evolving threat from a mobile banking Trojan, dubbed Asacub, which appears to be using infrastructure elements that the CoreBot Windows spyware Trojan employs. Asacub emerged in June 2015 and was initially acting as an information-stealing Trojan that pilfered user contact lists and browser history. Kaspersky Lab’s analysis […]

Docker Inc. today announced the acquisition of Unikernel Systems in a deal that aligns the emerging world of unikernel purpose-built system development with Docker containers. Financial terms of the deal are not being publicly disclosed. “Just like we’ve seen a spectrum of application payloads deployed across virtual machines, Linux containers and soon Windows containers, we […]

Security firm Symantec issued a warning today about an ongoing attack against small and midsize businesses in the United States, United Kingdom and India that is infecting users with a remote access Trojan (RAT). A RAT enables an attacker to have remote access to a victim’s machine and can lead to information disclosure and financial […]

Apple released its first security updates of 2016 on Jan. 19, with the debut of OS X 10.11.3 and IOS 9.2.1, which provides patches for multiple classes of vulnerabilities that could potentially enable attackers to exploit users and their devices. Apple last issued security patches for OS X and iOS on Dec. 9. Among the […]

Over the course of 2015, the overall level of confidence that organizations had in how secure they were declined marginally from 2014, according to Cisco’s 2016 Annual Security Report. The decline in confidence in companies’ ability to determine the scope of network compromises and to remediate damage comes as vulnerabilities remain commonplace, though Cisco has […]

Automated bots are costing advertisers an estimated $7.2 billion, according to a new study conducted by the Association of National Advertisers (ANA) and security vendor White Ops. It isn’t just simple click fraud; it is an elaborate process that makes use of multiple components of the online ad delivery system. Bots are automated and can […]

Among the most impactful attacks on the Internet today is spear-phishing, in which an attacker takes targeted aim an individual or an organization in an attempt to steal information. The targeted nature of spear-phishing makes it more challenging to defend against traditional spam, and is driving email security vendor Cloudmark to develop a new purpose-built […]

Hyatt Hotels is the latest hotel chain to admit that it has fallen victim to malware that steals customer information from payment systems. The breach began at some Hyatt locations as early as July 30 and extended until Dec. 15, 2015. Hyatt has published a list of affected locations, which spans 250 hotels around the […]

Apple’s Gatekeeper technology is intended to protect Mac OS X users from malicious software, but according to Patrick Wardle, director of research at Synack, there are some holes that could enable attackers to exploit systems and bypass Gatekeeper. Gatekeeper is the built-in anti-malware technology that Apple has integrated into OS X since the OS X […]

The open-source OpenSSH project today announced a critical update, patching a pair of vulnerabilities that an attacker could have used to steal user information. OpenSSH is a widely used and deployed technology that is intended to enable secure remote access to a system. OpenSSH is an implementation of the SSH (Secure Shell) protocol 2.0 that […]

There is a new name on the cyber-security landscape today, as Raytheon|Websense announced that the company is being rebranded as Forcepoint. The newly named company is set to grow an integrated portfolio of security technologies that serve to help organizations detect and defend against increasingly sophisticated attackers. Raytheon acquired Websense for $1.9 billion in a […]