As Microsoft prepares to pull the plug on support for Windows XP SP2, a move that stops the release of security updates for that operating system, research firm Gartner is urging businesses to start planning and testing Windows 7 this year with a plan to completely eliminate Windows XP by the end of 2012.
Joanna Rutkowska’s Qubes OS project will include a feature to create one-time use-and-discard virtual machines.The idea behind Disposable VMs is to have very lightweight virtual machines that can be created and booted quickly with a sole purpose of hosting only one application. “Then, once you’re done, you just throw it away,” Rutkowska explained.
LIMASSOL, CYPRUS–When an unknown attacker compromised three domains belonging to the U.S. Bureau of Engraving and Printing last month, it became big news, mainly for the brazenness of the attack against a federal Web site. The bigger news, however, turned out to be that the attack involved the use of the Eleonore exploit kit, a sophisticated and well-developed toolkit for attackers.
Jose Nazario of Arbor Networks gives a talk at the Kaspersky Lab Security Analyst Summit in Cyprus about the hype around cyberwar and the roots of politically motivated DDoS attacks and what they mean in today’s climate.
Online criminals are scanning the Internet and attacking Windows 2000
machines that haven’t had a recent Windows Media Service patch
installed, but the damage is limited, said researchers. Read the full article. [IDG News Service]
Guest editorial by Steve ManzuikYesterday while some of us in the USA were enjoying a day off Google made the news with this article in the Financial Times stating that they are moving away from Microsoft Windows due to security concerns. My first reaction was to question why a company with as many smart brains as Google would make such a misguided decision. That was, of course, before I actually read the entire article.
Botnets increasingly are creating phony
online accounts on legitimate websites and online communities in order
to steal information from enterprises. Merrick
Furst, botnet expert and distinguished professor of computer science at
Georgia Tech, says bots are showing up “en masse” to customer-facing
websites — posing as people. Read the full article. [Dark Reading]
LIMASSOL, CYPRUS–The scareware and rogue anti-virus epidemic that has been earning attackers millions of dollars for the last few years has spawned a devious new offspring: SMS blockers. This class of malware, which demands that users send SMS text messages to premium numbers, has recently taken off in huge numbers in Russia and parts of Asia, experts say.
A spyware application that surreptitiously scans chat logs and hard
drives of unsuspecting Mac users has found its way onto three of the
more popular download sites, said security researchers. Read the full article. [The Register]
The Accoria web server, also known as Rock Web Server, contains several
cross-site scripting (XSS) and cross-site request forgery (XSRF)
vulnerabilities. Read the full advisory. [Department of Homeland Security]
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