Brian Prince

Security vendor Sophos has plugged a series of security holes in its antivirus product that were uncovered by a security researcher. In some cases, these security holes could have been exploited to cause crashes or to remotely execute code, according to the researcher. The bugs in Sophos Anti-Virus were uncovered by Tavis Ormandy, who posted […]

Security vendor Bit9 classified more than 100,000 applications on Google Play as “questionable” or “suspicious” in a new report that the company said underscores the sometimes overlooked risks posed by permission-hungry applications. Bit9’s criteria for defining an application as “questionable” or “suspicious” included permissions requested by the application, categorization of the application, user rating, number […]

It’s a bustling marketplace with enough buyers, sellers and services to rival any retail industry. But it’s not your local clothing store; it’s the Russian cyber-underground. For just $30 U.S., an interested party can purchase a one-day denial-of-service (DoS) attack. If the buyer wants the attack to go on for a week, the price jumps […]

Several security fixes issued in July by Sybase failed to fully address vulnerabilities in versions of its flagship Adaptive Server Enterprise product. The vulnerabilities exist in versions 15.0.3 and later. According to database security firm Application Security, just two of the 12 flaws the company reported to Sybase earlier this year have been truly fixed. […]

Federal authorities are investigating a massive fraud scheme uncovered at 63 Barnes & Noble stores across the country in which PIN pad devices are believed to have been tampered with. The devices are used by customers seeking to pay with debit or credit cards. According to Barnes & Noble, an internal investigation has revealed that […]

The Federal Trade Commission issued a report Oct. 23 that suggested best practices for companies using facial recognition technology, including a focus on how it should be used responsibly by social networking sites. According to the FTC, facial recognition technologies are being used in a number of ways, from online social networks to mobile applications. […]

HSBC experienced a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attack Oct. 18 that disrupted a number of its Websites as hackers continue their cyber-attack campaign against financial institutions. According to reports, the attack is apparently linked to hacktivists associated with Anonymous. In a Pastebin post, U.K.-based Fawkes Security took responsibility for the attack. “As some of you may […]

The White House is denying a media report that an investigation into corporations supplying U.S. telecommunications companies with equipment found no proof Huawei Technologies was involved in espionage on behalf of China. Citing anonymous sources, Reuters reported that an 18-month examination of Huawei’s communications equipment revealed the products contained security vulnerabilities that could be exploited […]

Security firm Kaspersky Lab is working on a secure operating system for critical-infrastructure companies to use to run industrial control systems. “We’re developing a secure operating system for protecting key information systems (industrial control systems (ICS)) used in industry/infrastructure,” company CEO Eugene Kaspersky confirmed in a blog post. “Quite a few rumors about this project […]

A British man accused of hacking U.S. government computer systems finally won a long-running legal battle against extradition. Gary McKinnon, 46, had been fighting extradition to the United States for 10 years, going back to his arrest in London in 2002 for hacking Pentagon and NASA computers. British Home Secretary Theresa May said she considered […]