Fahmida Y. Rashid

The 25 most popular passwords in 2011 include such gems as “password” and “123456,” according to an analysis of various lists and databases dumped online by hackers this year. Internet users were selecting common names, numeric sequences and keyboard layouts as their passwords online, according to the 2011 Worst Passwords of the Year list released […]

It is official. The United States military has explicitly stated that it has the right to retaliate with military force against a cyber-attack. In a 12-page report sent to Congress and made public Nov. 21, the Department of Defense said the military can launch a physical attack in the case of a cyber-attack against its […]

As Android market share continues to grow, malware developers are increasingly targeting the platform, according to security researchers. While the total volume of mobile malware and malware specifically targeting Android remains very small in comparison to malware targeting the Windows platform, recent reports found the numbers are growing, and will likely continue in 2012. Malware […]

AT&T notified some of its wireless customers that unknown perpetrators had tried to hack their accounts. The attack was unsuccessful as no accounts appear to have been breached, the company said in a letter to its customers. Attackers appear to have used an automated script to see if AT&T telephone numbers were linked to online […]

The number of networks supporting the new IPv6 protocol has exploded this year, thanks to a handful of large domain registrars, according to a recent Internet “census.” A little more than 25 percent of the Internet zones under .com, .net and .org surveyed support IPv6, compared with a mere 1.27 percent a year ago, according […]

Security professionals have been sounding the alarm about protecting critical infrastructure from cyber-attackers for a while, and recent incidents show that attacks are very likely. Shortly after reports emerged of cyber-attackers breaching a city water utility network in Springfield, Ill., and damaging a water pump, another hacker, going by the name “pr0f” targeted a city […]

Organizations are struggling to keep track of changes in their networks and to effectively manage their firewall policies, according to a new study. Nearly 85 percent of network administrators in the 2011 Firewall Management report said half of their firewall rule changes need to be fixed because they were configured incorrectly, Tufin Technologies found in […]

The Web exploded in outrage as the House Judiciary Committee conducted hearings on Nov. 16 to discuss the Stop Online Piracy Act. Consumer advocacy groups, industry organizations and technology giants slammed Congress for stacking the witness panel with five advocates for the bill and only one against the bill. None of the speakers supporting the […]

More details leaked from the investigation into the cyber-attack on Nasdaq OMX Group in the fall of 2010 show that the stock exchange was surprisingly lax in its security, Reuters reported. Federal investigators found that some of the exchange’s computers were running out-of-date software and some of the firewalls were improperly configured, Reuters reported on […]

Hackers breached the network at a water utility in Springfield, Ill. and destroyed a pump, according to a post on the Wired Threat Level blog.Cyber-attackers gained remote access into the control systems used by the city water utility in Springfield, Ill. on Nov. 8, a security expert told Wired. A water district employee noticed the […]