IBM said it found surprising improvements in Internet security such as a reduction in application security vulnerabilities, exploit code and spam, but it also noted that those improvements come with a price: Attackers have been forced to rethink their tactics.

Online criminals are scanning the Internet and attacking Windows 2000 machines that haven't had a recent Windows Media Service patch installed, Symantec said Wednesday.

Just five days after a Google researcher published information of an unpatched Java bug, a compromised song lyrics site is sending users to a Russian attack server exploiting the flaw to install malware, an antivirus firm said today.

Apple today patched a critical Mac OS X vulnerability used by a security researcher three weeks ago to win $10,000 for hacking Safari at the Pwn2Own contest.

Microsoft took the unusual step today and skipped patching one of the vulnerabilities addressed in its monthly security update, saying that crafting a fix was "infeasible."

Symantec has posted a software fix after hundreds of users reported problems with a buggy update of the company's flagship Norton AntiVirus software.