The spy agency that ran the Bush administration’s warrantless eavesdropping program may get more responsibility for securing U.S. computer networks, President Barack Obama’s intelligence chief told Congress on Wednesday. Director of National Intelligence Admiral Dennis Blair said the National Security Agency, which is responsible for codebreaking and electronic spying, should assume a greater role in [...]
A new variant of the Conficker/Downadup worm has been detected. The worm opens a backdoor on an infected machine and allows hackers remote control of infected PCs. Dubbed Conficker B++ (and not to be confused with Conficker B), the new variant of the worm opens a backdoor with auto-update functionality, allowing a hacker to distribute [...]
Over the New Year’s holiday, however, it looked like a second – and very different – model for information warfare was emerging. It came from Israel, and its battle against Hamas. And rather than ease back on the control, Israel tried to exert it more tightly than any military in a long time. [Wired]
Attackers are attempting to exploit an unpatched security hole in Excel that could allow someone to take control of a compromised computer, Microsoft said in a security advisory on Tuesday. The attack exploiting the Excel Unspecified Remote Code Execution Vulnerability requires a computer user to open an attachment sent via e-mail that has a maliciously [...]
A new research report delving further into the current epidemic of online SQL injection attacks maintains that over a half million sites were victimized by the threats during 2008 alone. According to the Web Hacking Incidents Database (WHID) 2008 Annual Report issued by security appliance maker Breach Security on Tuesday, SQL threats that dropped malware [...]
In the past 10 years, Beijing-based Venus Info Tech has become the dominant provider of information technology (IT) network security to the Chinese intelligence and military community. It also has been accused of providing hacker services that help the Chinese government penetrate foreign government computer networks. Sources also accuse Venus of helping Beijing build the [...]
It is being called one of the largest data breaches ever reported — one that may have compromised millions of credit and debit card transactions. New Jersey based Heartland Payment Systems is the nation’s sixth largest payment processor used by more than 175,000 businesses, including many in Hawaii. Thousands of Hawaii residents recently received advisory [...]
A group of federal agencies and private organizations, including the National Security Agency and the Department of Homeland Security, has released a set of guidelines defining the top 20 things organizations should do to prevent cyberattacks. The Consensus Audit Guidelines (CAG) describe the 20 key actions, referred to as security controls, that organizations should take [...]
The Institute for Information Infrastructure Protection (I3P) has released recommendations that included improved coordination for cybersecurity research and development efforts. The I3P, a consortium of cybersecurity institutions that include academic research centers, government laboratories and nonprofit organizations, made those recommendations in a report to Sens. Joe Lieberman (I-Conn.) and Susan Collins (R-Maine), the chairman and [...]
That was fast. Chinese hackers collaborating with the Chinese Hacking Union, a two-years old training community for wannabe hackers, hacked and defaced the official web site of the General Consulate of the Russian Federation in Shanghai, PRC in response to the recent accusations that a Russian navy vessel has sank a Chinese cargo ship. [ZDNet]
