GoDaddy’s WordPress, PHP Sites Hacked Again
WordPress users whose websites are hosted on GoDaddy servers have been
targeted by fake AV peddlers yet again. Read the full article. [Help Net Security]
Donald Sears
Active Directory Install at DHS Questioned
An audit of the Department of Homeland Security’s Microsoft Windows
Active Directory at its headquarters revealed that its implementation
failed to fully comply with the department’s security guidelines, and no
mechanism was in place to ensure its level of security, DHS’s inspector
general said in a report. Read the full article. [GovInfoSecurity]
SMS Crime Ring Busted in Malaysia
Malaysian cops have busted an alleged text message spam scam ring
thought to have fleeced locals for hundreds of thousands of dollars. The group are suspected of raking in RM6.4m ($1.9m) between 2006 and April 2010
using fictitious lottery winnings as a bait for an advanced fee fraud. Read the full article. [The Register]
Unsuspecting users looking for videos on recent events like the Gulf of
Mexico oil spill and the NBA playoffs are being directed to maliciously crafted websites with
videos that appear to be identical to YouTube postings. Read the full article. [InfoSecurity]
A pair of academic researchers have analyzed the use of
passwords by many prominent online sites, and found that many sites
require passwords as a sort of security theater, requiring them in
contexts that are superfluous and failing to do their part to secure the
information on their end. The end result, they argue, is a tragedy of
the commons, with the commons being the finite memory of the average
user. Read the full article. [Ars Technica]. Read the study.
Google has paid out its highest sum yet, $2,000, for the discovery of a
high-risk vulnerability found in its Chrome browser. The recipient is developer
Sergey Glazunov, who found a DOM method-related means of circumventing
the same origin policy. Read the full article. [The H Security]
Scareware has become such an indomitable economic force that the take
down of perhaps the largest, most vertically-integrated scareware
purveyor, Innovative Marketing, has had a negligible deterrent effect. Read the full article. [The Last Watchdog]
A Bank of America call center employee has pleaded guilty to charges
that he stole sensitive client information and then tried to sell it for
cash. Read the full article. [IDG News Service]
The number of malware and spyware programs found
on smartphones like the Android, BlackBerry and Windows Mobile devices has more than doubled in the past six months, and some
types of malware are more prevalent on certain smartphone platforms than
others. Read the full article. [Dark Reading]
According to a survey of 242 IT
professionals, 1 in 10 admitted that either they or a colleague have cheated
to get an IT audit passed. However, it isn’t all bad news; compared to a
similar survey conducted in 2009 the number of people admitting to
cheating has halved in number. Read the full article. [Help Net Security]
