More details follow the news of the Spanish botnet Mariposa and its owners being caught. The Mariposa Working Group infiltrated the command-and-control
structure of Mariposa to monitor the communication channels that
relayed information from compromised systems back to the hackers who
run the botnet. Read the full article. [The Register]
For years, leaders of the security industry have warned that
passwords have outlived their usefulness. Users pick easy-to-crack
passwords like the name of a dog or a favorite movie. They’re written
on post-it notes and left sticking to the monitor for all to see. Multi-factor
authentication — using more than one form of authentication to verify
the legitimacy of a transaction via smart cards, tokens or biometrics,
for example — is often held up as the alternative; an end to insanity. The reality is far less simple. Read the full article. [CSO]
An estimated 1.42 million adults in this country may have experienced
some type of fraud involving theft of their medical identification
information, a report from the Ponemon Institute claims. “The National Study on Medical Identity Theft” is based on findings
from 156,000 people who agreed to discuss identity theft in general.
Among those surveyed, 5.8% provided specific details about how they had
been hit by medical ID theft. Read the full article. [Computerworld]
The nation’s new cybersecurity czar in a Town
Hall meeting session here today mapped out his top priorities in the
post and provided a glimpse at how the Obama administration may handle
security issues with other countries. National cybersecurity coordinator Howard Schmidt also announced that the White House was
releasing an unclassified version of its plan for securing government
and private industry networks. Read the full article. [Dark Reading]
Authorities have smashed one of the world’s biggest networks of
virus-infected computers (known as the Mariposa botnet), a data vacuum that stole credit cards and
online banking credentials from as many as 12.7 million poisoned PCs. Read the full article. [Associated Press]
Microsoft today said it had restarted distribution of a security update
that had crippled some Windows PCs last month with reboot problems and
Blue Screen of Death error screens. Read the full article. [Computerworld]
A top Microsoft executive is floating the idea of creating mandatory quarantines for computers with malware infections that pose a risk to internet users.The informal proposal, made Tuesday by Microsoft Vice President of Trustworthy Computing Scott Charney, was short on specifics, such as who would be responsible for monitoring and isolating malware-riddled machines. But he laid out his case for keeping them away from the general populace, comparing such a move to laws that have gone into effect over the past 20 years banning cigarette smoking in public. Read the full story [The Register]
Apple has hired former Microsoft and Mozilla security specialist Window Snyder to help secure its Mac ecosystem.Snyder, who last worked as Mozilla’s security chief, confirmed she is joining Apple as senior product manager for security.
Innovations in botnet technology threaten the usefulness of honeypots, one of the main ways to study how bot herders control networks of zombie PCs. Computer scientists led by Cliff Zou and colleagues at the University of Central Florida warn that bot herders can now avoid honeypots – unprotected computers outfitted with monitoring software – set up by security firms. Read the full article. [The Register]
A new report shows malware attacks through Web 2.0 applications continue to be the largest
concern for IT professionals with 69% of organizations reporting at least
one Web 2.0-related attack. Fourteen percent report data leakage over social networks and 18%
indicate incidents occurring over social networks where disciplinary
action was required. Read the full article. [Help Net Security]
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