Hackers and cybercrime prevention

BT extends cyber security agreement with MoD

BT is to extend its cyber security agreement with the Ministry of Defence (MoD) in a deal to expand its cyber defence service Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

Cyber Risk Perceptions: An Industry Snapshot

Concerns about cyber-risks in business have increased over the past 12 months, this snapshot survey from Marsh and Chubb reveals. Continue Reading

The technology behind the Wimbledon tennis championships

We venture into the IBM bunker to see the IT operation behind the world's most famous tennis tournament. Continue Reading

By

• Bryan Glick, Editor in chief

White House cyber security coordinator Howard Schmidt joins Qualys

Former White House cyber security coordinator Howard Schmidt is to join the board of security and compliance company Qualys Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

Network security: Is new technology bypassing traditional controls?

Network security practices are among the most mature, but can businesses be sure network traffic is not sneaking past traditional controls? Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

FTC sues Wyndham Worldwide hotel group over data breaches

The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is suing hotel group Wyndham Worldwide over claims it failed to secure customer data Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

Six arrested in the UK in worldwide FBI-led credit card data sting

Six people in the UK and 12 in the US arrested in an FBI-led sting operation that netted a total of 24 credit card cyber fraudsters in 13 countries Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

Techniques for preventing a brute force login attack

A brute force login attack can enable an attacker to log in to an application and steal data. Rob Shapland explains how to prevent brute force attacks. Continue Reading

By

• Rob Shapland

Maltego user guide part 2: Infrastructural reconnaissance

This part of our Maltego tutorial details how you can use the multi-faceted tool for infrastructural aspects of information gathering. Continue Reading

By

• Karthik Poojary, Amazon

2012: Will this be the year TPM finally comes of age?

Will 2012 be the year that TPM finally delivers on its potential to provide a hardware-based "root of trust" for enterprise information security? Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

Flame malware gets kill command

The controllers of Flame, the most powerful cyber weapon discovered to date, have recently sent a kill command that removes the malware from some infected computers Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

eHarmony, Last.fm join LinkedIn with password leaks

Online dating site eHarmony and Last.fm have joined LinkedIn with password leaks, as hackers focus on social networks Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

Top 10 tips for IPv6 security

Many organisations are being misled about the complexities surrounding IPv6 security, according to security firm Stonesoft Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

Security researchers discover powerful cyber espionage weapon 'Flame'

Security researchers have discovered a cyber espionage weapon, dubbed 'Flame', with a functionality greater than any other known threat Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

UK regulator PhonepayPlus shuts down Angry Birds smartphone scam

UK users of Android smartphones have been targeted by premium-rate phone scams masquerading as popular apps such as Angry Birds Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

File upload security best practices: Block a malicious file upload

Do your Web app users upload files to your servers? Find out the dangers of malicious file uploads and learn six steps to stop file-upload attacks. Continue Reading

By

• Rob Shapland

Mobile threats demand focus on data protection, says Websense

Business needs to focus on data protection as cyber criminals turn to mobile malware, says Websense. Continue Reading

The Pirate Bay is latest site to be hit by DDoS attack

The Pirate Bay has become the latest high-profile website to be hit by a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

Court stops Dutch party sharing Pirate Bay links

A court in The Hague has ordered a political party in the Netherlands to stop publicising ways to get around blocks to Swedish file-sharing site, The Pirate Bay Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

Cyber attackers increasingly targeting applications, research shows

Web and mobile applications are the new frontiers in the war against cyber attack, according to an HP cyber security risks report Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

Government snooping plans unveiled

The Queen's Speech has revealed that the government still plans to make it easier for security and police services to spy on e-mails, phone calls and internet activity Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

UK to expand cyber info-sharing hub after initial success

A public/private cyber security initiative exposed a campaign of malicious emails targeting UK defence companies, Cabinet Office minister Francis Maude has revealed. Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

SOCA takes its website offline in DDoS response

Just days after SOCA shut down carder sites, the agency was the victim of a DDoS attack, leading SOCA to takes its website offline. Continue Reading

By

• Jane Wright, TechTarget

InfoSecurity Europe: Odd Bugs

A selection of photos showing how far exhibitors will go to get people to their stands at InfoSecurity Europe 2012... Continue Reading

By

• Cliff Saran, Managing Editor

Half of UK networks vulnerable to APTs

Many UK corporate networks are vulnerable to advanced persistent threats (APTs), a survey has revealed. Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

Infosec 2012: Unscrubbed hard drives a threat to business, says ICO

Unscrubbed hard drives on computers that are decommissioned and sold on represent a significant risk to business Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

Infosec 2012: Internet security body to tackle SSL problems

The Trustworthy Internet Movement (TIM) is to tackle implementation and governance internet communication protocol (SSL) as its first project. Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

Infosec 2012: Patching alone can deliver 80% protection

Keeping software up to date with security patches can deliver 80% protection from cyber threats, says security firm Secunia. Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

Infosec 2012: Cloud enables security expertise for SME

Small and medium enterprises (SMEs) typically face the same threats as bigger organisations, but lack the same level of expertise and other security resources. Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

Infosecurity Europe

With 300 exhibitors and hundreds of delegates, security is still hot on the IT agenda. Cliff Saran presents the highlights of infosecurity Europe Continue Reading

By

• Cliff Saran, Managing Editor

2012 Information Security Breaches Survey

Security breaches cost the UK billions over the last 12 months as cyber attacks reached record levels. Continue Reading

UK firms see competitors as greater cyber attack risk than criminals

More than half of UK firms expect a cyber attack in the next six months, but see competitors as a greater risk than criminals Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

Busy security patch month for Microsoft administrators

Microsoft has released six patches, four critical, for 11 vulnerabilities in Office, Windows and various server products in its April security update. Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

UK business fears impact of new EU data protection framework

More than half of senior UK IT managers in large enterprises believe the proposed new EU data protection framework will cost their business more money, a survey has revealed Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

Eight UK universities awarded excellence in cyber security research status

The first eight UK universities have been awarded 'Academic Centre of Excellence in Cyber Security Research' status Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

Fighting Economic Crime in the Financial Services sector

PwC examines the impact of Cybercrime on the financial services industry. Continue Reading

SIEM deployment case study shows patience is required

Williams Lea’s SIEM is already helping reduce manual log reviews. But there’s still a lot of work to be done before the SIEM can be fully deployed. Continue Reading

By

• Ron Condon

Study: Shnakule, four other malnets caused most 2011 attacks

Huge global malnets, such as Shnakule, were responsible for most attacks in 2011, and Blue Coat predicts they will trigger 66% of all attacks in 2012. Continue Reading

By

• Ron Condon

UK hacktivist cases should spur business to action, says lawyer

The last of four alleged UK members of hacktivist group LulzSec has appeared in Westminster magistrates court in London Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

SourceForge takes down Anonymous operating system

The open-source collaboration website SourceForge has taken down an Ubuntu Linux OS project purportedly affiliated with online hactivist group Anonymous, after a review by security experts Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

BBC cyber attacks highlight difficulty of attribution

The BBC has said it is was targeted by cyber attacks following a campaign by Iran against its Persian service, but stopped short of accusing Tehran of ordering the cyber attacks Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

Hackers expose weak security on Digital Playground porn site

A hacking group claims to have stolen the details of more than 70,000 users of the Digital Playground porn site Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

FBI informer Hector Xavier Monsegur aids in arrest of LulzSec hackers

Authorities in the US, UK and Republic of Ireland have arrested seven suspected members of hacktivist group LulzSec, including Hector Xavier Monsegur, who helped investigators Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

Session fixation protection: How to stop session fixation attacks

Session fixation attacks rely on poorly managed Web application cookies. Rob Shapland answers a reader’s question on session fixation protection. Continue Reading

By

• Rob Shapland

2012 security outlook

This report, based on extensive research from chief information security officers, identifies the top 10 security imperatives for 2012. Continue Reading

RSA 2012: IT security experts urge enterprises to ban smartphone BYOD schemes

Enterprises should ban employees from using their own smartphones for work, a panel of IT security practitioners told the RSA Conference 2012 Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

IT departments risk losing responsibility for IT security

IT security professionals can no longer take it for granted that IT security will continue as part of the IT function Continue Reading

By

• Bill Goodwin, Computer Weekly

OSSIM update enables cyber threat intelligence sharing

The latest update to the Open Source Security Information Management (OSSIM) base system includes a mechanism for sharing cyber threat intelligence. Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

UK regulator PhonepayPlus fines Dutch typosquatting companies

UK phone regulator PhonepayPlus fines two Dutch firms £100,000 for exploiting well-known websites Wikipedia, Twitter and YouTube Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

President of European Parliament critical of Acta

After a weekend of public protests against the controversial Anti-Counterfeiting Agreement (Acta), the president of the European Parliament has added his voice to those of critcs. Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

IE update top priority for Patch Tuesday

Microsoft releases nine bulletins addressing 21 vulnerabilities in its monthly Patch Tuesday security update on 14 February Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

UK to take part in weekend protests against Acta

Protests against the controversial Anti-Counterfeiting Agreement (Acta) have been organised across Europe, with most set to take place on 11 February. Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

FBI investigates Anonymous intercept of call with Scotland Yard

The US Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) is looking into how a conference call with Scotland Yard was intercepted by a member of the activist hacking group Anonymous. Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

Fewer than a third of UK organisations plan mobile security projects

Despite the media hype around the adoption of mobile technologies and the need to secure them, relatively few UK organisations are planning mobile security projects, a survey has revealed Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

Google mortified after staff access competitor's database

Google said it is mortified after people working on a project in Kenya were found to have stolen the details of a competitor’s customers and used them to sell its own products. Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

Rupert Murdoch attacks Barack Obama over online piracy legislation

News Corp chief Rupert Murdoch has accused Barack Obama's administration of siding with "Silicon Valley paymasters" as two anti-piracy bills go through US Congress. Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

Ramnit worm steals 45,000 Facebook passwords

A computer worm has begun targeting Facebook accounts and has stolen at least 45,000 login credentials from users, say security researchers. Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

The cyber-savvy CEO and growing cyber threats

This report from PwC explains why CEOs need to take the lead in protecting their organisations from the surge in cyber attacks. Continue Reading

Hacktivists plan to use satellites to by-pass internet censorship

Hacker activists plan to launch communication satellites to overcome the threat of internet censorship. Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

Is it the end of the line for antivirus signatures?

Traditional antimalware can't keep up with the threat landscape. Are antivirus signatures destined for the rubbish bin? Continue Reading

By

• Ron Condon

Emerging 2012 security trends demand information security policy changes

2012 security trends involving cookies, fines, devices and threats will demand more skills -- and a little finesse -- from security professionals. Continue Reading

By

• Ron Condon

Cloud leaves many firewalls wanting – but could automation prove the silver bullet?

Most companies rely on firewalls, but the IT landscape is changing and so must approaches to security. Is there a silver bullet? Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

Adobe to release out-of-cycle patch for latest vulnerability

Adobe has issued a security advisory about a newly discovered and still unpatched vulnerability in Adobe Reader and Adobe Acrobat which is being used in "limited, targeted attacks in the wild". Continue Reading

One in four IT security staff abuse admin rights, survey shows

At least one in four IT security staff use their privileged login rights to look at confidential information, a survey has revealed. Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

United Nations Development Programme investigates hacking claims

The United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) is investigating claims from hacker group Team Poison that it extracted over 100 e-mail addresses and login details belonging to UN staff. Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

Forensics key to effective info security, says E&Y

Intelligence-led security strategies are the most effective in eliminating vulnerabilities and preventing IP theft through enabling informed change, says consultancy firm Ernst & Young. Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

IT security not always part of cloud decision, says IDC

Cloud adoption is outstripping security concerns, says Eric Domage, programme manager for IDC in Europe. Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

EDF fined £1.3m for hacking into Greenpeace computers

A Paris court has fined French energy firm EDF £1.3m for hacking into Greenpeace computers to find out about the environmental group’s plans to block four planned nuclear power plants in the UK. Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

The market landscape for print security

This report is gives an overview of the security risks of the print environment , the market landscape, best practices for a print security strategy. Continue Reading

London cybersecurity conference: a missed opportunity?

World leaders gathered in London. Our prime minister and foreign secretary hosted all the luminaries and dignitaries. Was it worth it? Continue Reading

Analysis: Intelligence key to security business case

Information security is becoming an increasingly important part of any business as the value of information assets continually grow, as do the threats from cyber crime and espionage. Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

US and EU hold first joint cybersecurity exercise

The US and EU are holding their first joint cybersecurity exercise in Brussels on 3 November 2011, involving more than 20 EU member states and supported by the EU's cybersecurity agency Enisa and the US Department of Homeland Security. Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

The top five SME security challenges

Best practice in IT security and compliance for small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) is often seen as a "grudge purchase", but SMEs face the same threat as larger organisations - just without their budgets. Continue Reading

By

• Lisa Kelly

MoD calls on academics, industry and inventors to pitch cyber security ideas

The Ministry of Defence is calling for innovative solutions from academia and industry to protect and secure UK interests in cyberspace. Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

Hague calls for collaboration to realise full potential of cyberspace

It is increasingly clear that countries with weak cyber defences and capabilities will find themselves at a serious strategic disadvantage given the rise of state-sponsored cyber attacks, according to foreign secretary William Hague. Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

Japan may be facing sustained cyber attack

Japan's mapping agency is the latest in a series of government agencies to be targeted by hackers, raising fears that the breaches are part of a series of sustained attacks. Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

Facebook admits to 600,000 cyber attacks a day

Facebook has revealed that every 24 hours it receives around 600,000 logins to the social networking website from impostors attempting to access users' messages, photos and other personal information. Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

UK security strategy draws on growing expertise across Whitehall

The UK's soon-to-be-released cyber security strategy includes input from policy makers across government, says Nigel Harrison of the Office of Cyber Security and Information Assurance (OCSIA). Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

BackTrack 5 Guide II: Exploitation tools and frameworks

Our BackTrack 5 guide looks at exploitation and privilege escalation techniques. This part of our guide will improve penetration testing skills. Continue Reading

By

• Karthik Poojary, Amazon

New batch of IDS, IPS evasion techniques are hitting their targets

Stonesoft has discovered 163 new advanced evasion techniques (AET), claiming these AETs can pass below the radar of some IDS, IPS products. Continue Reading

By

• Ron Condon

Computer Weekly wins prestigious journalism award

Computer Weekly has won a prestigious award for its journalism. Freelance contributor and Computer Weekly blogger Mark Ballard won the Best Cybercrime Feature of the Year prize at this year's BT Information Security Journalism Awards. ... Continue Reading

By

• Computer Weekly Staff

UBS systems detected $2bn rogue trader fraud, admits CEO Sergio Ermotti

UBS interim CEO Sergio Ermotti has admitted systems in the banks IT infrastructure detected the unauthorised trading of the rogue trader who cost UBS over $2bn, but nothing was done about the warning signals. Continue Reading

By

• Karl Flinders, Chief reporter and senior editor EMEA

GPU cracks six-character password in four seconds

A £30 nVidia GeForce GT220 graphics card is capable of cracking strong passwords in a matter of hours. Continue Reading

By

• Cliff Saran, Managing Editor

Researchers claim to have broken SSL/TLS encryption

Two security researchers claim to have found a way of breaking the SSL/TLS encryption that is widely used to guarantee the reliability and privacy of data exchanged between web browsers and servers. Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

DigiNotar certificate authority breach: Why it matters

There has been much speculation around the identity and motive of the hacker who was able to breach DigiNotar and issue fraudulent digital certificates for hundreds of websites, but putting such speculation aside, what is the broader significance of the incident? Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

OpenVAS how-to: Creating a vulnerability assessment report

In this OpenVAS how-to, learn how to use the free scanner to create a vulnerability assessment report and assess threat levels. Continue Reading

By

• Mike McLaughlin, Contributor

Metasploit tutorial 3 – Database configuration & post exploit affairs

Part three of our Metasploit tutorial covers database configuration in Metasploit and what needs to be done subsequent to exploitation using Metasploit. Continue Reading

By

• Karthik Poojary, Amazon

UK business should educate internally to get the right IT security skills at lower cost

UK businesses should look to internal training to meet future IT security needs rather than paying high prices by competing to recruit scarce skills externally, warn experts. Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

Ten-year-old hacker exposes exploitable flaws in Apple and Android games

A 10-year-old Californian hacker has exposed a new type of security vulnerability in many mobile games at a hacker conference in Las Vegas. Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

Blackberry to co-operate with police after youths used BBM to organise riots

Research in Motion has said that it will co-operate with the police after it was revealed that London rioters used Blackberry Messenger rather than Twitter to organise looting sprees across the capital, with violence later spreading to Birmingham, Liverpool, Nottingham and Bristol. Continue Reading

By

• Kathleen Hall, TechTarget

Automated web application attacks are the top security threat, study reveals

Websites are attacked about 27 times an hour or once every two minutes on average, peaking at 25,000 attacks a minute or seven a second, according to research... Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford

Hacking group Anonymous claims to have hacked into NATO servers and stolen data

Hacking group Anonymous has claimed to have hacked into NATO servers, according to the Blottr.com news service. Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

Nmap tutorial: Nmap scan examples for vulnerability discovery

Learn how to use Nmap, the free network scanner tool, to identify various network devices and interpret network data to uncover possible vulnerabilities. Continue Reading

By

• Mike McLaughlin

Microsoft offers bounty in hunt for Rustock spambot operators

A $250,000 reward is being offered to anyone who provides new information that results in the identification, arrest and criminal conviction of the cybercriminals behind the Rustock botnet. Continue Reading

By

• Robert Westervelt, TechTarget

Microsoft packs a lot into July’s four Patch Tuesday security updates

Microsoft is to release only four security updates in this month's Patch Tuesday security update, but these will cover 22 vulnerabilities in Windows and Office. Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

Cyber criminals deploy TDL-4 virus to create indestructible botnet of 4.5m computers

Over 4.5 million computers around the world have been infected by the TDL-4 virus, creating an indestructible botnet. Continue Reading

By

• Kathleen Hall, TechTarget

Chinese software flaw makes infrastructure vulnerable, warns report

China's public infrastructure is vulnerable to cyber attack because of vulnerabilities in software used to run weapons systems, utilities and chemical plants, according to Reuters. Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford

Adobe patches Flash to fix zero-day XSS vulnerability

‘Important’ cross-site scripting vulnerability in Flash Player on all platforms mitigated to combat zero-day attacks in the wild. Continue Reading

By

• SearchSecurity.IN Staff

Hacker group Anonymous steals 10,000 Iranian government e-mails

Hacking group Anonymous has hacked into Iranian government servers and stolen more than 10,000 e-mail messages from the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, say US reports. Continue Reading

By

• Warwick Ashford, Senior analyst

E-mail accounts of senior US officials targeted in Chinese hack attack

Chinese hackers have accessed the accounts of hundreds of Gmail users, including senior US officials, Chinese political activists, military personnel, journalists and officials in several Asian countries, Google has said. Continue Reading

By

• Kathleen Hall, TechTarget