Items tagged with security
There have been countless polls that have tried to predict who is ahead in the Presidential race, Barack Obama or Mitt Romney, but AVAST Software thinks it has them all beat. Yes, that AVAST Software, the same one that makes security software, including a popular free antivirus program named after itself. What's AVAST...
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A new report by network security provider Kindsight suggests that 13 percent of all home networks in North America are infected with malware, which is slightly less than the infection rate of the previous quarter (14 percent). That works out to one in seven home networks. In addition, some 6.5 percent of broadband...
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My, how times, have changed. It wasn’t that long ago that Apple reigned supreme on the security front and Windows (and the operating system's associated software) was a vulnerability-laden punchline, but over the years Microsoft has buckled down to fix its security woes. No one is saying that Microsoft is...
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One of the most talked-about features of Google's upcoming Android OS, 4.2, has been its app-scanning capabilities. Similar to a solution like Microsoft Security Essentials on Windows, Android's new scanning feature will be able to quickly tell you if the side-loaded APK you're about to install is dangerous. We assume...
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You probably wouldn't attempt walking down the street waving a handful of hundred-dollar bills around, yet when you think about it, that's exactly what every person does who owns a smartphone. Off contract, many smartphones cost upwards of $500, and that makes them attractive items to robbers who have grown tired of snatching purses. Try this...
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It was only a matter of time before someone actually hacked the weather, but before you run outside in a panic and make a mad dash for your storm shelter, understand that your city's forecast remains unchanged, save for the typical unpredictability of it all. Hackers haven't gained control of the Sun or storm clouds...
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Verizon Wireless has been collecting information about its customers' geographical locations, app use, and Web browsing activities. Now, the wireless carrier is looking to sell that information to marketers with its Precision Market Insights initiative. Verizon Wireless has also said it may link the data it has...
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We’re glad we don’t spend too much time in the terrifying world of cyber security, and we’re even more happy to see that there are others who do. Eugene Kaspersky is one of those people, and his Kaspersky Labs is currently building a secure operating system designed to protect the industrial control...
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Security outfit Avast Software has partnered with Facebook to share its Virus Lab data with the social networking service. In doing so, Facebook now has access to Avast's real-time cloud database, which it will use to block malware from being shared unwittingly by its users. When you click on a link within Facebook...
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One of the downsides to Mozilla's rapid release schedule for Firefox is that new updates are at risk of being rushed to the public before they're ready for prime time. We're not sure if that's what happened here, but we do know that Mozilla yanked Firefox 16 from the web just a few hours after posting the download...
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A self-proclaimed security enthusiast has exposed a major flaw in Facebook, one in which nearly every user's phone number can be used to view their personal information. His name is Suriya Prakash, and his method of cultivating numbers involves using Facebook's mobile site to bypass security limits imposed on the social networking site's regular...
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It’s not clear how many jobs will be lost, but according to a Reuters report, at least a small percentage of Intel’s McAfee security division will be getting the pink slip soon. McAfee has about 7,100 employees, so even a “small percentage” could be a lot of people. McAfee is best known for its...
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According to new research sponsored by HP, the cost and frequency of cybercrime has increased for the third straight year. The third-annual Cost of Cyber Crime Study shows the occurrence of cyberattacks has more than doubled since 2010. The cost of the attacks has increased by nearly 40 percent over the same three...
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Tensions with China's government are already at an uncomfortable level, but who would have guessed that they would trickle into mobile? Yet that's exactly what's happening, following an investigation by a congressional panel into Chinese telecom firms Huawei and ZTE. According to the resulting House Intelligence...
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The web is a dangerous place, and one of the threats that emerged in 2011 was that of malnets, or malware networks, which are just what they sound like. These infrastructures are designed to last beyond a single attack and allow cybercriminals to adapt to new vulnerabilities and launch malware attacks over and over again. Malnets grew in popularity...
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Think your week was rough? Trying running security for a U.S. bank, many of which were hammered with non-stop cyberattacks for more than seven days. According to reports, Bank of America, JPMorgan Chase, Citigroup, and around half a dozen banks in all saw significant traffic surges and suffered disruptions in service...
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Tread carefully on the Internet, surf ninja. That's always sound advice, but it's especially important now to be extra cautious, particularly if you use Java. Researchers at Security Explorations discovered a zero-day exploit in multiple versions of Java that could affect over a billion PCs around the globe. Technical details of the exploit...
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While everyone is bringing their own mobile devices to work, those phones might as well be put to work contributing to building security; at least that’s the purview of HID Global, which announced the results of a pair of pilot studies using NFC technology in employee smartphones to (physically) open doors at...
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The power of the Internet makes us wonder how we ever got along without it. Case in point: Kevin Burke, an independent developer, discovered a major security hole that left six million Virgin Mobile USA customers vulnerable to a relatively simple brute force attack. After alerting Virgin Mobile of the flaw a month ago and seeing no fix in...
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Still clinging to Internet Explorer? If so, be aware of a recently posted security advisory (2757760) alerting IE users of a vulnerability that could allow attackers to execute malicious code from a remote location. According to Microsoft, the the vulnerability affects affects IE6, IE7, IE8, and IE9 (IE10 is...
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Well here's a bit of a bummer going into the weekend. Apparently the developer responsible for the popular Black Hole exploit kit -- the one that lazy hackers and inexperienced script kiddies are particularly drawn towards -- has released a new version of his nefarious software, with new and improved features designed to evade antivirus scanners....
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With all of the advances made to vehicle technology in recent years, it'd be easy to assume that security has never been better. A video showing security footage released to the Web a couple of months ago proves otherwise, however, as thieves managed to approach a BMW one minute, and drive off with it moments later - all without having the...
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