About
Dennis Fisher is a journalist with more than 13 years of experience covering information security.
There’s a newer version of the MacDefender scareware program that’s now showing up on various Web sites, and this one no longer requires a user to enter her administrator password during the installation process in order to complete the infection routine.
Google on Wednesday pushed out a new version of its Chrome browser to users, a release that fixes four security bugs, including two critical vulnerabilities.
Timing attacks have been a problem for designers of cryptosystems–as well as for people implementing those systems–for a long time. They’ve plagued just about every popular system, and although practical attacks have been demonstrated many times, the problem and what can be done to defend against it are well understood. As a result, researchers have for the most part focused their efforts on other side-channel attacks on cryptosystems of late. However, a new paper by a pair of researchers at a Finnish university shows that timing attacks still can be used to completely compromise some cryptosystems.
Apple is planning to release an update specifically designed to protect users against the MacDefender malware that has been circulating for the last couple of weeks. The update for Mac OS X will automatically find and remove the malware on an infected machine and also will warn users if another infection attempt is detected.
Never ones to be left behind as progress marches on, attackers are beginning to develop more and more tools aimed specifically at exploiting 64-bit machines. The latest entry into the field is an x64 version of the ZeroAccess rootkit, a nasty piece of malware that’s been circulating for some time and has a number of interesting capabilities, including anti-forensics and kernel-level monitoring.
Just a couple of weeks after the source code for the Zeus crimeware kit turned up on the Web, the Black Hole exploit kit now appears to be available for download for free, as well. Black Hole normally sells for $1,500 for an annual license, and is one of the more powerful attack toolkits on the market right now.
Security researchers have come across a new rootkit that is designed specifically to infect 64-bit Windows systems and steal users’ online banking credentials. It’s believed to be the first piece of malware of its kind that is capable of compromising x64 systems.
Microsoft has released a new version of its Enhanced Mitigation Experience Toolkit, a free download that gives IT staffs the ability to better defend against exploit attempts. The EMET now includes support, as well.
Dennis Fisher and Paul Roberts talk about the data breach of the Sony PlayStation Network, Sony’s response to the attack and whether the recent legislation proposed by the White House and its new cyberspace strategy will have any effect.
Philip Reitinger, the top information security official at the Department of Homeland Security, is going to step down from his post at the beginning of June, just a couple of weeks after the Obama administration laid out the details of its latest strategy to improve the country’s online defenses and plans to work with foreign nations to reduce cybercrime.
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