Week in review: 1m Apple IDs leaked, and Google hackers behind zero-day attacks
Here’s an overview of some of last week’s most interesting news, reviews and articles:
The top Internet dangers for kids
Data received from Kaspersky Security Network (KSN) show that alerts from the Parental Control component are triggered most frequently by the “Pornography, erotic materials’, “Social networks’ and “Illegal software’ categories.
Secure operating system Qubes officially released
Qubes OS will make users as secure as they are able to make themselves by choosing the right security choices.
Networkless working: The future of the public sector?
It is no secret that the UK Government is still running at a significant loss. It is therefore no surprise that organizations are having to cut costs, and for the public sector, this has fast become its mantra. One popular initiative has seen many local councils consolidate their operations by co-locating their staff. But while on the surface this seems a practical solution, for the IT team it’s a logistical nightmare.
Spoofed Microsoft notification leads to Zeus
Microsoft has updated its Services Agreement last week, and has begun notifying its users about the change via email. Eager to take advantage of any kind of legitimate opening to lead users to pages hosting malware and exploit kits, cyber crooks have copied this email, replaced the link with their own and begun sending it to users around the world.
Pirate Bay co-founder arrested in Cambodia
The 27-year-old Svartholm, who had been residing for several years in Cambodia’s capital Phnom Penh, has been arrested at the request of Swedish authorities for a “crime related to information technology.”
Inmates breached prison system’s network
Inmates at the state prison in Concord, New Hampshire, have managed to connect the computers they use in the prison’s industries program to the prison system’s network, but it is unknown if they managed to gain access to or modify the confidential information held in it.
Anonymous leaks 1m Apple device UDIDs stolen from FBI
A file containing a million and one record sets containing Apple Unique Device Identifiers (UDIDs) and some other general information about the devices has been made available online by Anonymous hackers following an alleged breach of an FBI computer.
“Win 8 Security System” rogue AV spotted
Windows 8 has not yet been released and cyber crooks are already taking advantage of its name.
76% of IT pros in the dark about unauthorized application downloads
The study, conducted across TechEd North America and TechEd Europe attendees, surveyed more than 1,500 IT professionals, many of whom hold decision-making and purchasing power in a wide array of work environments, vertical sectors, and job functions.
FinFisher commercial spyware toolkit goes mobile
The existence of FinFisher, a commercial spyware toolkit created by UK-based Gamma Group International, has recently grabbed the attention of the general public when two security researchers from Toronto released the results of the analysis of FinSpy, a module that is part of the toolkit and gets installed on PCs. Now those same researchers have received samples that proved that FinFisher also has a component that can spy on mobile users.
A Practical Guide to Fedora and Red Hat Enterprise Linux, 6th Edition
An increasing number of advanced users are drawn to open source solutions as an alternative to Microsoft Windows. The popular free Linux distribution Fedora and it’s big brother Red Hat Enterprise Linux (RHEL) are introduced and described in this massive book that will help run your own network services, and more.
Service desks not equipped to deal with BYOD
A majority of company IT support teams are either unable or unwilling to support their employees who want to bring their own device (BYOD) to work, according to a survey by Dell KACE.
Savviest North American cities for online security
AVG announced the results of a survey of 15 key U.S. and Canadian cities to determine which is the savviest when it comes to defense against online threats. The winner: Austin, Texas.
Shamoon attacks persist
While it still unknown whether the recent attacks against Saudi Aramco and RasGas were part of the so-called Shamoon attacks, the latter are continuing unabated, says Symantec.
Apple denies handing UDIDs over to FBI
As the issue of the leaked million of Apple device IDs by the AntiSec hacker group and the alleged existence of a list of over 12 million of those and other personal information belonging to the users gets bigger by the day, the question is will we ever definitely know from where that list was stolen?
Solving the portable data security headache
Protecting intellectual property and sensitive information is a major security concern for any business today – especially against the backdrop of workers needing to share documents and files with their colleagues, customers, and partners on a daily basis.
Zero-day-loving Google hackers furiously active in last three years
The hackers behind the Aurora attacks that were discovered targeting Google, Adobe and other big U.S. companies in 2009 have seemingly been working hard ever since.
BEAST developers come up with new SSL/TLS attack
From the security researchers who created and demonstrated the BEAST (Browser Exploit Against SSL/TLS) tool for breaking SSL/TLS encryption comes another attack that exploits a flaw in a feature in all versions of TLS.