Malware


New PHP Maintenance Release Fixes 60 Bugs

A now available second maintenance release for PHP 5.3 fixes more than 60 bugs and closes several security holes which were already corrected in version 5.2.13, from the 5.2 branch, last week. Read the full article. [The H Security]

RSA 2010: BlackEnergy 2 Botnet Revealed

Like the sequel to a successful movie, the botnet behind the distributed denial of service attacks that hit the country of Georgia during its conflict with Russia in 2008 has been updated. This time though, the idea isn’t hacktivism—it’s stealing financial data and, unlike in the case of other Russian botnets, the targets are the operators’ own countrymen. Read the full article. [eWEEK]

Software Patch Needed on Windows Every 5 Days

The average Microsoft Windows user has software from 22 vendors on her PC, and needs to install a new security update roughly every five days in order to use these programs safely, according to an insightful new study released this week. Read the full article. [KrebsonSecurity]


Economic pressures are driving more businesses and governments to nervously eye cloud computing, despite
myriad unanswered questions that swirl around a single central concern: security. This was backdrop for a panel discussion
between CISOs at this week’s RSA Conference. Read the full article. [Network World]

Computer scientists say they’ve discovered a “severe vulnerability” in the world’s most widely used software encryption package that allows them to retrieve a machine’s secret cryptographic key. The bug in the OpenSSL cryptographic library is significant because the open-source package is used to protect sensitive data in countless applications and operating systems throughout the world. Read the full article. [The Register]

Microsoft has announced plans to ship two security bulletins next week to fix a total of eight vulnerabilities affecting Windows and Office products.Both bulletins are rated “important” because of the risk compromising the confidentiality, integrity or availability of user data.