Sean Michael Kerner

New disclosures and investigations into the activities of the U.S. National Security Agency (NSA) have revealed fresh insights about the targets of cyber-surveillance activities. Among the new revelations are details about some of the target locations for the NSA XKeyscore system, which monitors and collects Internet data. According to a report first published in German […]

Finding and fixing bugs is always a challenging task, but it’s a task that prepaid card vendor Card.com is making easier by leveraging crowdsourcing for its bug-funding efforts. Part of the Card.com platform is built on top of open-source technology, including the Drupal content management system, which is a key component in enabling Card.com to […]

The world needs a secure Android phone like the Blackphone. Not only will it protect users against privacy violations, but it potentially will always be fully patched, too. The Blackphone began shipping on June 30 as a security-focused mobile device. At its core, the Blackphone uses the PrivatOS operating system, which is based on Android […]

The first release of Automotive Grade Linux (AGL) is out today, providing car vendors with an open-source platform on which to embed applications and features. AGL officially started in September 2012 as a collaboration project operated by the Linux Foundation and currently has 32 members, including Toyota, Nissan, Hyundai, Jaguar and Intel, on its roster. […]

The move toward a services-based approach for all IT is taking another step today with the launch of the CoreOS Managed Linux operating system as a service offering. CoreOS is an open-source Linux startup that has been developing a Docker container-based virtualization platform since August 2013. CoreOS first released a beta of its platform in […]

Peppermint Five Linux Brings the Cloud to Linux Desktop By Sean Michael Kerner Peppermint Five Provides a Lightweight Linux Desktop The main Peppermint Five desktop leverages the LXDE version of Ubuntu 14.04, known as Lubuntu, as its base. Users Get a New Control Center in Peppermint Five One of the features debuting in Peppermint Five […]

The open-source WordPress content management system and blogging platform is potentially at risk from a newly reported vulnerability in the Timthumb image manipulation library. The vulnerability was publicly reported on June 24 by security researcher Pichaya Morimoto, who posted an advisory on the full-disclosure security mailing list. The Timthumb vulnerability could potentially enable an attacker […]

The open-source ownCloud project is releasing a new beta today, providing users with enhanced features that aim to make it easier and more secure to share files and content in the cloud. The ownCloud technology enables cloud file storage, sharing and synchronization capabilities. Among the new features in the ownCloud 7 community beta release is […]

The open-source OpenStack cloud platform is getting a security boost today thanks to software-defined networking (SDN) vendor PLUMgrid. PLUMgrid’s new OpenStack Networking Suite is an attempt to provide virtual networking and security through the use of a number of innovative technologies. The OpenStack cloud platform is made up of multiple components, including the Neutron networking […]

A new report from Duo Security revealed that PayPal’s two-factor authentication technology can be bypassed, and the online-payment company—which does not disagree with the findings—is disabling two-factor authentication for its mobile users. Two-factor authentication, a widely recommended approach, is intended to provide an additional layer of security for user account access. In addition to a […]

Flappy Bird Clones Spread Malware as Ransomware Declines By Sean Michael Kerner Total Volume of Malware Surges The steady rise in the total volume of malware continued in the first quarter of 2014, topping 200 million samples for the first time. Digitally Signed Malware Continues to Grow When a piece of software is digitally signed, […]

At the beginning of the year, the United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team (US-CERT) warned of the dangers of distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks that were leveraging Network Time Protocol (NTP) servers to amplify attacks. Apparently, that warning did not fall on deaf ears, as most vulnerable NTP servers have been patched in the last six […]