Networking Forum

A report published today by [URL="http://www.experiangroup.com"]Experian[/URL] suggests that for many a business we are still living in the dark ages as far as making sure customers are who they say they are. Furthermore, the [URL="http://www.qas.co.uk/paperchain"]Electronic Authentication: Breaking the Paper Chain[/URL] report at least partly blames those businesses for the growth …

If you were to just take weekly media reports and monthly security researcher statistics as your metric, then I suspect it would be a safe bet to suggest that you would say software security vulnerabilities are on a steep upwards curve. Furthermore, it is just as likely that given the …

Twenty years ago the hard drives I recall using might not have been fast in the data transfer stakes, they were certainly not lithe and sexy pieces of hardware and I prefer not to think how much I actually paid for a large and clunky bit of kit to store …

No less than three critical vulnerabilities have been identified by Adobe affecting upon users of Flash Player 9.0.45.0 and earlier, 8.0.34.0 and earlier, and 7.0.69.0 and earlier. The cross-platform problem refers to an input validation error that could, potentially, lead to arbitrary code execution via content delivered from a remote …

Romanian security developer [URL="http://www.bitdefender.com"]BitDefender[/URL] has issued a warning about a fast spreading Trojan dubbed Spammer.HotLan.A which is using Hotmail and Yahoo accounts to send spam. According to BitDefencer some 15,000 accounts have already been compromised and the situation is likely to get much worse over the next few days. Viorel …

Forty three British MPs have backed a House of Commons motion calling for the [URL="http://www.duchyofcornwall.org/"]Duchy of Cornwall[/URL] estate, owned by Prince Charles, to make its accounts more transparent and the finances of the Prince of Wales clearer. Which is just what might happen following the disclosure that a laptop belonging …

Mention mobile phone viruses and the chances are you will get one of two responses:[LIST=1] [*]It is a money making exercise for security vendors who have created the mobile phone virus myth so they can sell protection nobody needs. [*]Hahahahahahahahahahaha.[/LIST]However, the arrest of a 28 year old man in Valencia, …

According to a posting by someone calling themselves Gabriel, published on the Full Disclosure list (warning – [URL="http://seclists.org/fulldisclosure/2007/Jun/0380.html"]this link[/URL] contains the so-called plot spoiler), the ending of the yet to be published Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows book has been revealed. Not by magic or wizardry, but by good …

In a rather ironic turn of events, the US [URL="http://www.dhs.gov/index.shtm"]Department for Homeland Security[/URL] has found itself having to admit to Congress that it has been subject to the odd one or two minor security problems in-house. Well, I say one or two. Actually the figure is more than 800. Well, …

As reported [URL="http://www.daniweb.com/blogs/entry1490.html"]here[/URL] last week, three security flaws had been discovered that impacted upon the 2.6.x Kernel. A NULL-pointer dereference within netfilter when handling SCTP connections with unknown chunk types that could be exploited to crash the kernel; a cpuset_task_read() function in /kernel/cpuset.c which had an underflow error that could …

According to postings at [URL="http://kernel.org/pub/linux/kernel/v2.6/ChangeLog-2.6.21.4"]Kernel.org[/URL] concerning a report by Vilmos Nebehaj which was consequently signed off by Linus Torvalds and Chris Wright, the Linux Kernel 2.6.x has multiple security vulnerabilities. Well, to be precise, two vulnerabilities and what is described as a ‘weakness’ which are capable of being exploited by …

Websense [URL="http://www.websense.com/"][/URL]has created a YouTube video [URL="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pzKmzO_Xq3k"]here[/URL][URL="http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pzKmzO_Xq3k"][COLOR=black][/COLOR][/URL] which reveals exactly how a ‘tubing’ attack works. What is tubing? Well according to [URL="http://www.websense.com"]Websense[/URL] it is a new crimeware technique that attempts to dupe the recipient into watching a YouTube video clip that is not all it might seem. While watching the …

Independent Austrian antivirus testing outfit [URL="http://www.av-comparatives.org/"]AV Comparatives[/URL] has a reputation for going the extra mile when putting products through their paces. Something that Microsoft discovered to its cost earlier in the year when, rather embarrassingly, its flagship OneCare antivirus product managed to finish last and fail to get a highly …

[URL="http://www.gentoo.org"]Gentoo[/URL] has issued a security advisory with a high impact rating affecting users of PHP <5.2.2. Several vulnerabilities have been found in PHP, not least a huge number discovered by Stefan Esser during the infamous Month Of PHP Bugs (MOPB) including integer overflows in wbmp.c from the GD library and …

IT security and control firm [URL="http://www.sophos.com"]Sophos[/URL] is warning of an ongoing spam campaign which promises not only a trailer featuring, but also free tickets to see, the ‘Pirates of the Caribbean 3: At World's End’ movie. The warning signs are all there, the familiar skull-and-crossbones logo of the popular film …

IT security professional Didier Stevens has been conducting an experiment into computer user stupidity by running a Google Adwords campaign which offers to infect your PC for free. The advert actually read: [B]Drive-By Download Is your PC virus-free? Get it infected here![/B] Which should be enough to stop all but …

For the average user spam has always been an annoyance. For the average spammer it has always been about making money. For the criminal gangs that have muscled in on this lucrative industry during the last few years it is now about territory and control. Control, that is, of the …

Add SuSE to the list of operating systems going to be offered by Dell as they ally with Novell and Microsoft to sell their server software. Planning on selling both SuSE SLES (SuSE Linux Enterprise Server) and Microsoft's Windows Server, Dell broadens their offering of solutions, hoping to increase their …

GPS satellite navigation devices have become an indispensable part of everyday life for millions of drivers the world over. Without these little technological route planning miracles, many of us would literally crash and burn as we struggled to regain control over that map while driving too fast and drinking a …

My friends over at security specialists [URL="http://www.sophos.com"]Sophos[/URL] have warned me to be on the lookout for Sandra and her stiletto shoes when using [URL="http://www.skype.com"]Skype[/URL]. Usually it would be my mother offering this advice, but then she would not understand the implications of getting infected by the Pykse-A worm that exploits …

[FONT=&quot][/FONT]A newly published report by [URL="http://www.infosec.co.uk"]Infosecurity Europe[/URL] reveals that out of 300 office workers interviewed at London railway stations and IT professionals at a computer show, an amazing 64 percent were prepared to give their passwords in exchange for a bar of chocolate and a smile. The survey also found …

If you're visiting a known site such as Google.com, you're perfectly safe, right? Wrong. New DNS vulnerabilities in Microsoft's Windows 2000 and 2003 severs could potentially allow a DNS server to get hijacked, and redirect a user to a completely different site than they expected to see. The vulnerability exists …

IT security and control firm [URL="http://www.sophos.com"]Sophos[/URL] is urging computer users once again to patch against a critical bug in how Microsoft Windows handles animated cursors (ANI files) as hackers exploit the problem by sending out emails related to professional party girl Paris Hilton and hardcore actress Jenna Jameson. This latest …

The [URL="http://www.itu.int"]International Telecommunication Union[/URL] (ITU)[URL="http://www.itu.int/"][/URL] and the [URL="http://www.aptsec.org"]Asia Pacific Telecommunity[/URL] (APT)[URL="http://www.aptsec.org/"][/URL] today announced the outcome of a jointly organized workshop in Bangkok, Thailand which addressed plans for the implementation and development of Next-Generation Networks (NGN) in the region. With over 180 experts from 24 countries attending, including representatives of international …

I have been a supporter of RAID for the longest time; after all it would be crazy not to like something that brings efficiency and protection to the data storage process. RAID has certainly provided both, but that was then and this is now, and it is time for RAID …

Proposals for a virtual red light Internet district have been overturned for the third time during a contentious meeting of the [URL="http://www.icann.org"]Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers[/URL] (ICANN) in Portugal. Concluding business at the meeting, a resolution rejecting a proposal from the [URL="http://www.icmregistry.com/"]ICM Registry[/URL] to create an .xxx top …

IT security specialist [URL="http://www.sophos.com"]Sophos[/URL] is warning anyone with a website about recently uncovered evidence that spammers are hacking into legitimate sites in order to sell drugs. Online pharmacy spam, be it under the Viagra or just general prescription drug banner, has become one of the most annoying and persistent forms …

If you had any doubts that the code that powers the applications you use is secure, then it's time that you see this in perspective. Because very unsurprisingly, the SANS exam of developers [URL="http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&taxonomyName=software_development&articleId=9014307&taxonomyId=63&intsrc=kc_top"]scored terrible overall in terms of security[/URL]. With the increase of hackers and such on the internet …

Web security company [URL="http://www.scansafe.com"]ScanSafe[/URL] has published its latest monthly Global Threat Report that looks at corporate usage of the web. The results should not be shocking as we all know that if you give someone free access to the Internet at work then they will abuse that access if at …

A number of users are reporting that the new Kaspersky AV component in the latest [URL="http://www.zonealarm.com"]ZoneAlarm [/URL]Security Suite 7 is broken. And broken in such a way as to leave your system unprotected while appearing to be fully functional. The problem manifests itself after a successful installation with the AV …

[URL="http://www.itpro.co.uk/news/107043/alqaeda-plot-to-blow-up-uk-internet.html"]Reports[/URL] have come in over the weekend of a series of dawn raids by the Metropolitan Police on a number of terrorist suspects with Al-Qaeda connections in London. All the suspects have been arrested. The raids follow the seizure of computer files last year suggesting that the target of their …

During the course of this week there have been numerous reports floating around, mainly online and mainly pretty devoid of any real substance, claiming that the popular anonymous browsing solution [URL="http://tor.eff.org/"]Tor[/URL] has been cracked. In fact, what these reports should have been reporting is the fact that researchers from the …

Security specialists [URL="http://www.sophos.com"]Sophos[/URL] has released a warning regarding the inevitable malware posing as a message of love on this, Valentine’s Day. The Dref-AB worm is said by Sophos to be spreading fast across the Internet, helped by a clever distribution campaign which saw it emailed to inboxes late last night …

The biggest test of Internet homeland security went pretty much unnoticed this week. Yet it represents the most serious attack on the Internet itself for five years. On the 6th February a 12 hour concerted Distributed Denial of Service attack took place aimed at the DNS root servers that manage …

My [URL="http://www.daniweb.com/blogs/entry1276.html"]original news story[/URL] here at DaniWeb has certainly caused something of a media frenzy. Everyone from specialist GPS and gadget websites through to national newspapers have been covering how TomTom let an unspecified number of its GO 910 satnav devices escape from the factory with not one but two …

It started with an email from a worried satnav user, Lloyd Reid of [URL="http://www.trichromic.co.uk/"]Trichromic LLP[/URL] an IT consultant who knows his way around a computer and knows a virus when his AV software flags one up. The cause for his concern being a newly purchased [B]TomTom GO 910[/B] satnav unit …

The [URL="http://www.parliament.uk/parliamentary_committees/lords_s_t_select.cfm"]UK House of Lords Science and Technology Committee[/URL] are currently [URL="http://www.parliament.uk/parliamentary_committees/lords_s_t_select/internet.cfm"]investigating [/URL]personal Internet security, something that would normally be a dull as dishwater parade of civil servants and former civil servants now consulting for private sector business giving boring ‘evidence’ to a committee of half asleep geriatrics. But something …

Gartner has estimated that phishing attacks cost the US something in the region of $2.8 billion last year, a problem that is growing fast as proved by the statistic showing the average individual loss per attack has risen from $256 in 2005 to a staggering $1244 in 2006. Banks are …

The [URL="http://www.finjan.com/SecurityLab.aspx?id=547"]Finjan Malicious Code Research Center[/URL] (MCRC) has set itself something of a Herculean task with a goal of staying not just one, but many steps ahead of those hackers who would exploit open platforms and technologies to develop spyware, Trojans, phishing attacks, worm and viruses. But, working alongside some …

Sometimes you just cannot help it, you find yourself with time on your hands and you go snooping around in places that normal folk just do not venture. So it was with security researcher [URL="http://portal.spidynamics.com/blogs/msutton"]Michael Sutton[/URL] who spent an entire day plugging through the [URL="http://sb.google.com/safebrowsing/update?version=goog-black-url:1:1"]Google blacklist, [/URL] the [URL="http://sb.google.com/safebrowsing/update?version=goog-black-enchash:1:1"]Google encoded/hashed …

Research published by the Office of Fair Trading (OFT) just before Christmas revealed that UK consumers are being conned to the tune of £3.5 billion every single year. The detailed analysis suggests that nearly half of the adult population of the UK has been targeted by a scam, and as …

J.K.Rowling has now officially announced that the latest, and last, in the Harry Potter series of books will be called ‘Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows’ putting an end to the frenzy of speculation on the subject over the last few months. While it has been genuine fans interested in …

[URL="http://www.websense.com"]WebSense [/URL] security experts have published their predictions regarding the security threats that we will face in the new year, and perhaps unsurprisingly they revolve around the changing and dynamic nature of the Internet. “Organized criminals are realizing that the Internet has been a largely untapped resource in terms of …

Google has now introduced its "[URL="https://www.google.com/a/"]Google Apps for Your Domain[/URL]" service. Google Apps is a free collection of tools targeted at small businesses, including online web applications such as a GMail, Google Page Creator, customized start page, among others. This has already been around for a while, but now Google …

According to my Finnish friends, [URL="http://www.f-secure.com"]F-Secure[/URL], Bagle looks like it might be back in business. Not that it has ever really gone away of course, as it is one of the most prevalent of worm families. F-Secure have noticed new activity during the last couple of days, which sees a …

When computer systems get "owned", you may think it takes a master-geek with an extensive amount of knowledge to hack into tightly-secured systems. After all, security bugs are quickly found out, and patches can be released within a few days. But when securing a computer system or network, especially the …

London taxi drivers have a reputation as being amongst the most opinionated and talkative in the world, and their grueling training and testing program ‘The Knowledge’ is equally well known. Now, it appears, the black cab driver has a new claim to fame: the place where more technology kit is …

[URL="http://www.kaspersky.com/"]Kaspersky Lab[/URL] has released its latest Malware Evolution [URL="http://www.viruslist.com/en/analysis?pubid=204791907"]report[/URL], covering the period between June and September 2006 and, as usual, it makes for interesting reading. Alexander Gostev, Senior Virus Analyst, Kaspersky Lab comments that the first six months of 2006 was “notable for the complexity of the technologies which antivirus …

I hate it, you hate it, [B]everyone hates spam[/B]. Perhaps just as annoying as the fact that most of us have no interest in improving our sexual performance, enlarging our sexual organs or accepting a refinancing deal from a complete stranger, is the fact that we just do not know …

If you think of a virus as being something that replicates itself, spreading from computer to computer, until seemingly everyone has it installed, then maybe you could classify Google’s [URL="http://www gmail.com"]Gmail[/URL] service as being one. If you happened to be using Microsoft [URL="http://www.windowsonecare.com"]Windows Live OneCare[/URL] security over the weekend then …