Paul F. Roberts

A group of malicious hackers is using the BitTorrent peer-to-peer software to push copies of movies and Disney cartoons onto infected machines. A group of hackers in the Middle East is believed to be responsible for the BitTorrent infections, which were observed on a network of computers infected by a recent instant message worm. It […]

At the two year anniversary of the CAN-SPAM act, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission announced legal actions against spammers, including joint operations with state attorneys general and the Canadian government. On Tuesday, the FTC said it filed complaints against three spam operations accused of violating CAN-SPAM, and said Canadas, Competition Bureau and Attorneys General in […]

Oracle Corp. said in a statement that the company will use static code analysis technology from Fortify Software Inc. to hunt for bugs in its products as part of a program to improve checking for security holes during development. The deal will integrate Fortifys Source Code Analysis product into the development process for Oracles server […]

People may remember 2005 as the year that corporate America woke up to the problem of data breaches and the importance of data privacy. Data leaks at Bank of America Corp., LexisNexis Seisint division, ChoicePoint Inc. and CardSystems Inc. fed headlines for months, spawned countless lawsuits on behalf of aggrieved consumers and provided the impetus […]

Multifunction devices that combine printing, copying, faxing and other features are a major source of data leaks, but few enterprise IT managers recognize the threat, according to security experts from Xerox Corp. Hackers, malicious insiders and even foreign governments are harvesting data from insecure printers and copiers, accounting for as much as 80 percent of […]

The SANS institute has been granted approval by the state of Maryland to create a college and plans to begin accepting candidates for its master of science program in information security. SANS will offer master of science degrees in two subjects: information security engineering and information security management. Students will have to prove technical mastery […]

TextWhale Communications said on Monday that it is partnering with Microsoft Corp. to combine Microsofts Internet Security and Acceleration (ISA) Server with Whales Intelligent Application Gateway. The deal, which is the first of its kind for Microsoft, will combine Whales SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) VPN technology with Microsofts IP Sec VPN, and put the ISA […]

Malicious hackers are targeting U.S. credit unions with phishing e-mails that try to take advantage of a recently patched Internet Explorer browser hole to compromise systems used by the bank, according to CUISPA, an association of IT professionals who work at credit unions. The attacks use e-mail messages that are being sent to CEOs and […]

Anti-spyware software companies are adding features to their products that spot rootkits and other malicious programs that operate at the Windows “kernel,” or core processing center. The new kernel-mode features are a response to new, sophisticated spyware. However, they have raised warnings from security analysts about instability in Windows and conflicts with anti-virus programs that […]

Microsoft Corp. released software updates in two security bulletins Tuesday, MS05-054 and MS05-055. The updates include fixes for critical new holes in IE, and code to remove a program from Sony BMG that introduced a vulnerability onto customers Windows machines, according to Stephen Toulouse, security program manager with Microsofts Security Resource Center. The cumulative patch […]