Sean Michael Kerner

The FBI and the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) are warning of a spam email campaign known as the Business E-mail Compromise (BEC) that has resulted in the global victim dollar loss of $215 million so far. The IC3 alert, which was issued on Jan. 22, provides statistics on the impact of the BEC campaign […]

The risk of unpatched software is one that WordPress understands well and is taking aggressive steps to mitigate. WordPress is a popular open-source content management and blogging system that is available in a hosted model on WordPress.com and as a self-hosted application that users can choose to host wherever they want. WordPress.com also offers the […]

Looking through log data to find potential security risks is much like trying to find a needle in a haystack. Seeking to help find the proverbial needle faster, Dell is updating its InTrust software to version 11.0 with the promise of faster discovery and audit capabilities. InTrust is designed to help enterprises meet compliance requirements […]

A Look at Pentoo Linux and Its Security Analysis Tools by Sean Michael Kerner Users Can Verify Pentoo Files Pentoo 2015 RC 3.7 provides users with the integrated option to verify that the installation files have not been corrupted. The XFCE Desktop Environment Is Included By default, Pentoo starts without a graphical user interface (GUI). […]

Oracle released its first Critical Patch Update (CPU) for 2015 on Jan. 20, providing its customers with patches for 169 security vulnerabilities. Thirty-six of the fixed flaws are in Oracle’s Fusion Middleware products, with Oracle noting that 28 of the flaws may be remotely exploitable without authentication, meaning that an attacker could exploit the issues […]

Ravello Systems announced on Jan. 20 that it has raised $28 million, bringing its total funding to date to $54 million. The latest financing round—led by Qualcomm Ventures and SanDisk Ventures, with participation from existing investors Sequoia Capital, Bessemer Venture Partners, Norwest Venture Partners and Vintage Investment Partners—builds on Ravello’s February 2013 funding of $26 […]

Cisco came out today with its 2015 Annual Security Report, showcasing the latest trends in information security. Among the surprising findings is a reversal of a trend that Cisco reported in 2014 about the prevalence of Java exploits. In its 2014 Annual Security Report, Cisco reported that Java was the primary cause of 91 percent […]

Canonical, the lead commercial sponsor behind the open-source Ubuntu Linux operating system, is getting into the embedded device market in a bid to help secure the Internet of things (IoT). Ubuntu is best known as a popular Linux operating system for servers, cloud and desktops. Now Canonical is positioning Ubuntu to be relevant for embedded […]

Malware is an issue that is costing enterprises approximately 395 hours a week chasing down alerts that aren’t always accurate, according to a new Ponemon Institute study, sponsored by Damballa. The study included responses from 630 surveys completed by IT and IT security professionals in the United States. The purpose of the study was to […]

Google’s Project Zero security research team has once again put Microsoft users at risk by publicly disclosing a pair of new zero-day vulnerabilities on Jan. 15. Google’s Project Zero has a policy of automatically disclosing vulnerabilities 90 days after they have been reported to a vendor. Google reported the two new security issues to Microsoft […]

There is reason for concern about mobile security, but there is also reason for some optimism, a new report from mobile security firm Lookout suggests. The study analyzed security data from Lookout’s base of 60 million users around the world and spotted key trends about mobile security risks, including malware, adware and chargeware. Lookout defines […]

The open-source Xen virtualization hypervisor project is out today with a major milestone update providing improved performance and enhanced security features. The Xen Project is managed as a Linux Foundation Collaboration project initiative and has multiple stakeholders, including Intel, Citrix, Amazon and Rackspace. Among the new features in the Xen 4.5 update are capabilities aimed […]