Microsoft to Fix 22 Flaws ...

Microsoft is to release a larger than usual security update on 9 August, with 13 patches fixing 22 vulnerabilities. ‘Critical’ flaws in Internet Explorer 6-9 and Windows XP, Vista, Server 2003 and 2008 all allow remote code execution on a target machine, and all patches require a full restart. The bulk of the patches are rated ‘important’,...

Microsoft Will Pay $250,00...

Microsoft is offering more than $250,000 to researchers who develop new security defenses to protect Windows users against attacks that exploit software bugs. Microsoft’s Blue Hat Prize announced on Wednesday at the Black Hat security conference will pay $200,000 for the best “novel runtime mitigation technology designed to prevent the exploitation of memory...

Indian Call Centres Sellin...

Indian call centre staff are selling UK broadband user’s financial data, including credit cards and security codes, for as little as 25 pence per user for bulk purchases. An investigation by The Sun found a former call centre worker who sold the bank account details, personal data such as job description and credit card numbers with the three-digit CVV security...

Flying Drone Can Crack Wi-...

How do one ex-Air Force official and one former airplane hobby shop owner, both of whom happen to have decades of experience as network security contractors for the military, spend their weekends? Building a flying, unmanned, automated password-cracking, Wi-Fi-sniffing, cell-phone eavesdropping spy drone, of course. At the Black Hat and Defcon security conferences in...

Backtrack 5 Release One R1...

Some good news for you who love and like to use Backtrack Linux, because in a few days (about 9 days to go) Backtrack will release it’s update Backtrack 5 Release 1. This update will available to download at August 10, 2011 with over 100 bug fixes, and also numerous package updates and the addition of over 30 new tools and scripts. According to it’s...

Anonymous touts its own so...

With the Defcon 19 hacking conference set to begin in Las Vegas next week, hacking group/movement/”idea” Anonymous is touting its own “social network,” a site with the Googly moniker Anon+. @YourAnonNews recently sent out a tweet advertising the effort, which seems to be an attempt to create an anonymous, open-source communications platform...

Amazon’s Cloud Servi...

Security researchers from Kaspersky Labs have spotted yet another SpyEye crimeware variant using Amazon’s Simple Storage Service (Amazon S3) for command and control purposes. According to a graph released by the vendor, cybercriminals are systematically abusing Amazon’s service for command  and control gateway, in an attempt to increase the average lifetime of...

Facebook to Hackers: Find ...

Good news for hackers. Social networking giant Facebook has announced a bug bounty program, in which it will pay hackers for finding and reporting security flaws on its Web site. People who can figure out significant problems with the site will get paid a hefty amount, starting at a base rate of $500. The amount will go up as per the significance of the flaws...

UK Cops ‘duped’...

The 19-year-old Scotsman fingered Wednesday as a central figure of the LulzSec hacking crew is a fall guy who was framed to take the heat off the real culprit, according to unconfirmed claims from a rival group. “We believe MET Police got the wrong guy and it happens because of lot of disinformation floating on the web,” a Thursday post on the LulzSec Exposed...

‘War Texting’ ...

Researcher will demonstrate at Black Hat USA next week how ‘horrifyingly’ easy it is to disarm a car alarm system and control other GSM and cell-connected devices It took researcher Don Bailey a mere two hours to successfully hack into a popular car alarm system and start the car remotely by sending it a message. Bailey, a security consultant with iSec...

Hackers call for PayPal bo...

Two high profile hacker groups have called on their followers to boycott PayPal over its continued refusal to handle donations to Wikileaks. Anonymous and Lulz Security issued a joint statement asking supporters to withdraw funds and close their accounts. PayPal froze Wikileaks’ assets after it released stolen US diplomatic cables. The company declined to...

Stuxnet Clones May Target ...

Officials with the US Department of Homeland Security warned that hackers could attack the country’s power generation plants, water treatment facilities, and other critical infrastructure with clones of the Stuxnet computer worm, which was used to disrupt Iran‘s nuclear-enrichment operations. Stuxnet was first detected last July as a self-replicating...

Anonymous, Lulzsec, Mannin...

THE COMPUTER SECURITY INDUSTRY’S Pwnie Awards ceremony is a week away and the nominations are out. The notorious Lulzsec hacking outfit, the Anonymous hacktivist collective, the Stuxnet industrial sabotage worm and the alleged WikiLeaks source Bradley Manning are all up for the ‘Epic 0wnage’ Pwnie award at Black Hat. Anonymous was nominated for...