Slideshow: Five Security Predictions for 2012
VIEW SLIDESHOW Five Security Predictions for 2012What will 2012 bring? We can’t know for sure. Recent years have taught us that, when it comes to computer security, one should expect to be surprised.
Malware
2011: Wait, What?
The security industry can be a giant repetitive, follow-the-loser echo chamber of unoriginal thoughts, familiar flaws and copycat theories. But if ever there was a year in which folks could stand back and look at what’s gone on and say, what in the hell just happened, 2011 was it. So rather than going in for the typical year-in-review or top stories shtick, let’s just have a look back at some of the more absurd, unexpected and amusing twigs and berries from the last 12 months, shall we?
Slideshow: Threatpost Top Security News Stories of 2011
VIEW SLIDESHOW Threatpost Top Security News Stories of 2011We’ve compiled our list of the Top Security Stories of 2011, presented here in no particular order. These are the issues that shook the world’s markets and kept us awake at night.
The creators and maintainers of exploit kits often rely on public reports of new exploits and proof-of-concept exploit code in order to be able to add new exploits to their software. And in many cases, the exploits included in kits such as Black Hole and Eleonore and others will be for vulnerabilities that are older and have long since been patched. But, if recent events are any indication, that could be changing.
USAA is warning its members about a sophisticated phishing scam that attempts to install a malicious banking Trojan on members computers.
Investigations by the BBC suggest a widening probe into alleged computer hacking by UK newspapers. In all, the computer hacking may have been as widespread as now-notorious voicemail hacking conducted by reporters at Rupert Murdoch’s News of the World, and may have compromised classified British intelligence from government officials, the reports say.
Peddlers of ransomware are increasing their effectiveness by tailoring region-specific versions of a scam that impersonates local police.
A new version of the REMnux specialized Linux distribution has been released, and it now includes a group of new tools for reverse-engineering malware. The new additions include a tool for memory forensics as well as one for analyzing potentially malicious PDFs.
Adobe on Tuesday released a patch for a vulnerability affecting versions of its ColdFusion Web application development platform. A company spokeswoman said the company still hasn’t set a date for an emergency patch for a critical and previously unknown hole in both the Adobe Reader and Adobe Acrobat applications, after promising to issue a fix this week.
In the wake of the hack of water and sewer infrastructure operated by a Texas community, the Department of Homeland Security is again warning owners and operators of critical infrastructure to take note of SCADA and industrial control systems that may be accessible from the Internet.
