Looking to clamp down on the escalation of malicious apps on its popular social network, Facebook will now require that every developer to verify their Facebook account by providing a mobile phone number or adding a credit card to their account.
While this is clearly a step in the right direction, this won’t stop rogue apps from wreaking havoc on the social network.
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.
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]
Originally expected for today, Mozilla has confirmed that it is delaying the the release of
version 3.6.4 of its open source Firefox web browser, the next security
and stability update to the 3.6.x branch of Firefox. Instead, Mozilla
has announced the availability of a release candidate for public
testing. Read the full article. [The H Security]
Microsoft has released an open-source Web Protection Library (WPL) to help developers protect web sites from cross-site scripting attacks.
The WPL, which is a set of .NET assemblies, is being offered as part of a defense in depth strategy to add an extra layer to any validation or secure coding practices.
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]
With news swirling that Google is ditching the internal use of Windows over security concerns, Microsoft moved swiftly to counter-attack and defend the security posture of its flagship operating system.
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.
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