October 2006 Archives

As both the quantity and quality of work being transmitted electronically grows exponentially, the cost of each data breach has soared. An article at Search Security quotes a Ponemon Institute survey which estimates that the costs of such breaches average... Read More..

The past two months have seen a significant increase in the volume of spam, reports Security Focus. The reason for the increase has to do with a major change in tactics, as spam black lists have realized some success with... Read More..

In what is starting to resemble nothing less than the gunfight at the OK Corral, the white hat firm of Authentium announced that they have created a new version of their product that circumvents PatchGaurd’s kernel protection technology. In an... Read More..

As if any more evidence was needed that hacking has grown from a juvenile delinquent’s quest for attention to big-time crime, a report in EWeek has found that high-tech criminals using spyware have been victimizing discount brokerages on the order... Read More..

With a week for DBAs to get accustomed to Oracle’s October patch update and revamped bulletin, so far the reviews have been mixed. In its most recent quarterly update, Oracle fixed 101 security flaws and included an updated bulletin that... Read More..

As popular as Apple’s iPod has become, many companies are developing policies or installing software that prohibits employees from plugging them into work machines to download music and videos. In an article at Search Security, Rob Israel, CIO of John... Read More..

While McAfee and Symantec have been battling furiously with Microsoft over the Vista operating system, Sophos' believes, as quoted on the website Softpedia, that Symantec and McAfee have simply been caught unprepared by Microsoft's new operating system. Richard Jacobs, CTO... Read More..

The risk of corporate networks being hijacked by hackers or employees sharing corporate devices with non-employees remains a considerable challenge for worldwide corporate security. While two out of three teleworkers said they were aware of the risk, many admitted that... Read More..

One in three people still jot down their computer password on a slip of paper, compromising a system's security, says a study released by Nucleus Research, a global research firm, and KnowledgeStorm. Because of this, companies are being urged to... Read More..

Patches are now available to plug the security flaws found in the Bluetooth communications software that can give hackers the ability to compromise certain machines. Bluetooth technology allows computers to exhange information wirelessly over short distances (typically between 10 to... Read More..

In news from Infoworld, IBM just completed their buyout bid for Internet Security Systems, Inc. Yesterday IBM's shareholders approved a $1.3 billion dollar cash offer for ISS, the Atlanta company whose security services aim to protect networks, servers, desktops and... Read More..

Take a second to listen to the background sounds of your office. Then imagine that beneath those random office sounds of air vents and printers and doors opening and closing a secret message was being transmitted. That is pretty much... Read More..

To most people, patch Tuesday means a chance to shore up their Microsoft programs and hopefully make their desktops more secure. For hackers, it means Microsoft is pretty much finished fixing their vulnerabilities for a month, so why not maximize... Read More..

An article from Search Security reports that no matter the size of your company, your IT must always keep tight control over authenticating users and controlling network behavior. But where large companies have the resources to implement controls such as... Read More..

According to market analysts at Gartner, we are about to enter a brand new age of computer security. The company predicts that the third phase for the security market will integrate security into each new wave of technology as it... Read More..

As Microsoft continues to adhere to their plan of one set of patches per month, their list of security updates scheduled for today has grown to 11 (not exactly a record, which I believe is 22). Of the eleven, six... Read More..

An article from CSOonline reports that Google's new source-code search engine will make it easier for hackers to search out software bugs, password information, and even proprietary code. Google's source-code search engine is different from their standard web search engine... Read More..

With many recent studies indicating that, no matter how great of a security system you have in place, most computer systems are likely to be cracked either by a con artist calling you directly and tricking you into giving them... Read More..

Microsoft, which has been downplaying a recently discovered VML (vector markup language) vulnerability, has "rush released" a patch to resolve the problem, making one believe that it was more critical then they let on. The vulnerability primarily targets those who... Read More..

A new anti-phishing site, Phishtank, a service from OpenDNS, is determined to put an end to phishing - which are emails that impersonate legitimate messages from customer-service or financial or ecommerce sites but were actually created to scam you out... Read More..

An article today from the website Search Security reports on the difficulty of getting small and medium sized enterprises to recognize their need for computer security. While large companies have larger budgets and make larger targets, smaller companies have smaller... Read More..

A recent report from McAfee reveals that a number of European enterprises are literally drowning in security products. While many of the IT managers at those companies say they wished they had a single solution, the reality is that nearly... Read More..