A method that anyone can use to hijack a massive multipurpose botnet called Sality was described in detail on a public mailing list on Tuesday.

The prevalence with which hackers are handing out headaches to IT security pros will have a big upside for vendors in the coming year, according to new figures from Canalys.

“Criminals have been stunningly successful at compromises, what they haven’t been so efficient at, which they will improve at over time by the way, is exploiting the information that they’ve compromised.

AVG has launched AVG Mobilation for Android which the company is promoting as the world's first security app specifically designed for Android tablets.

Security vendor, AVG (AU/NZ), is trialling a new commission system for resellers that allows them to get a 15 per cent commission if a customer upgrades from a trial to a paid version of the software.

AVG says up to 50,000 Android users a day are downloading its free security application, as the smartphone OS gains popularity.

Antivirus company AVG has had to issue roll-back instructions to users of the free edition of its AVG 2011 program after 64-bit versions of Windows fail to reboot correctly after a mandatory update.

AVG Internet Security 2011, which shipped on Tuesday, offers the full complement of tools you'd expect in an all-in-one security suite, packaged in a simple-to-use interface and offering integration with popular browsers and Outlook. But the software is marred by annoying attempts to upsell you to other products, and a scanning engine that may slow down your system.

AVG (AU/NZ) managing director, Peter Cameron, is in charge of one of Australia’s fastest growing niche distributors. He speaks to MATTHEW SAINSBURY about starting as a youth worker, travelling for work, and what he thinks of Amazon’s Kindle.