Ryan Naraine

How Do You Secure 100 Million Laptops?

If the plan is perfectly executed, Nicholas Negropontes One Laptop Per Child project will deploy 100 million laptops in the first year. In one fell swoop, the nonprofit organization will create the largest computing monoculture in history. Wary of the security risks associated with a computing monoculture—millions of machines with hardware and software of identical […]

Fathi Reshuffled Out of Microsoft Security Chief Role

For the second time this year, a major management reshuffle at Microsoft has sent ripples through the software makers security unit. Just seven months after tapping Ben Fathi to head up the newly formed STU (security technology unit), the Redmond, Wash. company announced that Fathi would move over to manage a Windows Core System development […]

Expert: Hackers Will Break Vistas PatchGuard

MONTREAL—A computer security expert is predicting that hackers will crack the controversial PatchGuard kernel anti-tampering technology coming in Windows Vista within one year of its release. Alexander Czarnowski, chief executive of Avet, in Warsaw, Poland, said he believes its inevitable that the technology will be broken once the final version of Windows Vista is released […]

OpenDNS Fills the PhishTank

Can a small startup in San Francisco play a big role in the fight against the phishing scourge? OpenDNS, a 10-employee company with technological expertise in the domain-name-resolution field, is betting that a mix of social networking, Web services and user-generated submissions can power a valuable, freely available anti-phishing database. Phishing, which has emerged as […]

Crime Ring Targets IE Setslice Flaw

In-the-wild exploits against the latest unpatched Windows vulnerability have started circulating, using Internet Explorer as the attack vector to load identity theft Trojans and rootkits on infected machines. The exploits target a Windows Shell vulnerability that was first released during the Month of Browser Bugs project in July. The project was kicked off by security […]

Firefox Zero-Day Code Execution Hoax?

A public claim by hackers that Mozillas Firefox browser is vulnerable to multiple code execution vulnerabilities may be an overblown hoax. On the heels of a ToorCon presentation where two security researchers—Mischa Spiegelmock and Andrew Wbeelsoi—warned that Firefoxs implementation of JavaScript was badly flawed and could allow PC takeover attacks, Mozillas engineers say the risk […]

Third-Party Patching Conundrum

The emergence of a high-profile group of security professionals promising third-party software fixes during zero-day attacks has rekindled a debate on the merits—and risks—associated with deploying unsupported product updates. The Zeroday Emergency Response Team, or ZERT, stepped out of stealth mode Sept. 22 with a stopgap patch for a VML (Vector Markup Language) flaw that […]

Crime Rings Target IE SetSlice Flaw; ZProtector Released

In-the-wild exploits against the latest unpatched Windows vulnerability have started circulating, using Internet Explorer as the attack vector to load identity theft Trojans and rootkits on infected machines. The exploits target a Windows Shell vulnerability that was first released during HD Moores Month of Browser Bugs project in July and is being launched by a […]

Inside the Third-Party Patching Conundrum

The emergence of a high-profile group of security professionals promising third-party software fixes during zero-day attacks has rekindled a debate on the merits—and risks—associated with deploying unsupported product updates. The Zero Day Emergency Response Team, or ZERT, stepped out of stealth mode on Sept. 22 with a stopgap patch for a VML (Vector Markup Language) […]

Apple Wi-Fi Flaw Disclosure Takes Bizarre Turn

SAN DIEGO, Calif.—The drama surrounding the discovery and disclosure of Wi-Fi driver flaws in Apple products just got a little more bizarre. First came the Black Hat conference disclosure from SecureWorks researcher David Maynor that the MacBook was vulnerable to a code execution flaw; then came Apples patch that conspicuously nixed SecureWorks from the reporting […]