Ryan Naraine

Looking to streamline the collection of malware samples, two of the biggest honeypot projects—mwcollect and nepenthes—have merged operations. The two projects, which passively trap viruses, spyware and other forms of malicious software by emulating known vulnerabilities, will combine operations to develop a single malware collection tool, according to an announcement my mwcollect head developer Georg […]

The Washington Posts online arm has apparently been caught in a metadata gaffe that exposed the whereabouts of a 21-year-old hacker who confessed to controlling thousands of compromised PCs for malicious use. The hacker agreed be interviewed by Washington Post reporter Brian Krebs on the condition that he not be identified by name or home […]

Microsofts Windows defender anti-spyware tool has hit the Beta 2 milestone with a major user interface facelift and integration with Windows Vista. The revamped Windows Defender Beta 2, which has been expanded to scan for rootkits, keystroke loggers and other forms of malware, has shed the former Giant AntiSpyware look and feel in favor of […]

Security intelligence outfit iDefense Labs is offering a $10,000 reward to any hacker who finds a worm hole in Microsofts products, but the software maker isnt exactly thrilled by the gambit. One day after iDefense, of Reston, Va., announced the bounty as part of a newly implemented quarterly hacking challenge, a spokesperson for Microsoft, based […]

SAN JOSE, Calif.—Microsoft has found an unlikely backer for its ambitious InfoCard online ID management system. At the RSA Conference here, Verisign dispelled the notion of a rivalry with Microsoft over identity management and announced that its new VIP (Verisign Identity Protection) network—which is backed by Yahoo and eBay—will work seamlessly with InfoCard in Windows […]

Sony BMG is not the only company to dabble in using copy-protection technology that resembles rootkits. According to anti-virus vendor F-Secure, based in Helsinki, Finland, the German DVD release of “Mr. & Mrs. Smith”—a recent movie starring Brad Pitt and Angelina Jolie—contains a DRM (digital rights management) protection scheme that uses rootkit-like cloaking technology. Rootkits […]

SAN JOSE, Calif.—Microsoft chairman Bill Gates, speaking on Feb. 14 at the RSA Conference here, acknowledged that weaknesses in the “trust ecosystem” could put a damper on the future of secure digital computing. Gates pointed to the tangled state of password management as one area that needs desperate improvement and issued a call for partners […]

SAN JOSE, Calif.—Microsofts Windows Defender anti-spyware application has hit the Beta 2 milestone with a major user interface facelift and complete integration with Windows Vista. The revamped Windows Defender Beta 2, which has been expanded to scan for rootkits, keystroke loggers and other forms of malware, has shed the old Giant AntiSpyware look and feel […]

Exactly one year after the introduction of the Common Vulnerability Scoring System as a vendor-neutral standard to get around the confusion of measuring the severity of security flaws, the ambitious initiative appears stalled by the indifference of some of its own heavyweight backers. The standard, which was unveiled at last years RSA Conference, has largely […]

A high-profile privacy watchdog group has a terse warning for business and consumer users: Do not use the new version of Google Desktop. The nonprofit Electronic Frontier Foundation said a new feature added to Google Desktop on Feb. 9 is a serious privacy and security risk because of the way a users data is stored […]