News

• Mobile leads in malware resurgence for 2012

  By Taylor Armerding | 30 May, 2012 13:38

  McAfee finds PC malware back after hiatus, but mobile malware shows biggest percentage gain -- and Android is the target

• Romanian authorities dismantle hacker group targeting government websites

  By Lucian Constantin | 29 May, 2012 15:55

  Twelve individuals were detained by Romanian authorities on Tuesday, suspected of being members of a cybercriminal group that hacked into the websites of various Romanian and foreign public institutions and government agencies.

• Mayor of New Jersey town arrested on hacking and conspiracy charges

  By Lucian Constantin | 25 May, 2012 15:45

  The mayor of West New York, New Jersey, was arrested together with his son on Thursday, for allegedly hacking into a website that criticized him and his administration.

• Bredolab botnet author sentenced to 4 years in prison in Armenia

  By Lucian Constantin | 23 May, 2012 15:50

  The creator of the Bredolab malware received a four-year prison sentence in Armenia on Monday for using his botnet to launch DDoS (distributed denial-of-service) attacks that damaged multiple computer systems owned by private individuals and organizations.

• Thwarted by security at enterprises, cyber criminals target SMBs

  By Taylor Armerding | 16 May, 2012 06:12

  Big business - at least a significant percentage of it - has apparently heeded the decades-long mantra from information security experts, and invested enough in security to make it difficult, expensive and risky for cyber criminals to attack them.

• U.S. seeking to build international unity around cyberdefense for industrial control systems

  By Ellen Messmer | 11 May, 2012 07:26

  SAVANNAH, Ga. -- In the interests of thwarting cyberattacks on critical infrastructure such as energy, water and manufacturing, the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) is quietly reaching out to other governments around the world to find what problems may exist elsewhere and what research can be shared to improve industrial control systems (ICS).

• New York City agency pushes plan to prevent cyberattacks on elevators, boilers

  By Ellen Messmer | 11 May, 2012 03:47

  SAVANNAH, GA. -- Imagine what would happen if an attacker broke into the network for the industrial control systems for New York City's elevators and boiler systems and decided to disrupt them, imperiling the lives of hundreds of thousands of residents relying on them. Think it could never happen? Think again.

• Security of industrial control systems questioned at DHS conference

  By Ellen Messmer | 10 May, 2012 01:31

  SAVANNAH, GA. -- Operators of America's vital power, water and manufacturing facilities use industrial control systems (ICS) to manage them, and the security of these systems, increasingly linked with Microsoft Windows and the Internet, is now under intense scrutiny because of growing awareness that they could be attacked and cause massive disruptions.

• Commercial enterprises are putting our critical infrastructure at risk

  By Sean Martin, a CISSP and the founder of imsmartin consulting | 05 May, 2012 07:33

  Cybercriminals have already figured out how to hack into enterprise infrastructure, and the critical infrastructure that controls our nation's supply of water, gas, oil and electricity just might be next.

• Hottest IT skill? Cybersecurity

  By Carolyn Duffy Marsan | 04 May, 2012 00:33

  Embattled by hactivists, cybercriminals and foreign rivals seeking to steal proprietary information, U.S. corporations are ramping up their hiring of cybersecurity experts, with open jobs reaching an all-time high in April.

• How to land a cybersecurity job

  By Carolyn Duffy Marsan | 04 May, 2012 00:33

  Cybersecurity jobs are plentiful, from government, financial services and utilities to manufacturing and retail. But what skills do IT professionals need to qualify for these high-paying jobs?

• Privacy advocates slam Google Drive's privacy policies

  By Lucas Mearian | 26 April, 2012 23:29

  Privacy advocates voiced strong concerns today over how data stored on Google Drive may be used during and after customers are actively engaged in using the cloud service.

• Free Tools to Wipe Your Drives Securely

  By Alex Wawro | 26 April, 2012 23:29

  Your PC's hard drive is packed with your personal data. So when you want to get rid of your system or drive, you should permanently erase your storage device drives before you get rid of them. If your drives are encrypted and you trust the encryption protocol (full disk encryption is pretty safe), all you have to do is delete your encryption keys. If you want to safeguard your privacy further--and prevent data theft down the road--here are a few cheap and simple tools designed to wipe your hard drive, solid-state drive, or USB flash drive thoroughly before you dispose of it.

• White House threatens veto of CISPA bill

  By Jaikumar Vijayan | 26 April, 2012 23:29

  The White House today threatened a veto of the controversial Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA) if the bill reaches President Obama's desk in its present form.

• Nuke the box: Push underway to clean up 300,000 PCs with DNS virus

  By Tim Greene | 25 April, 2012 06:24

  A PR campaign is underway to clean up as many as 300,000 computers infected with DNSChanger viruses that divert victims' traffic to sites that can further exploit the machines and their owners, but it's not clear that goal can be accomplished without drastic measures.