Who knew that keeping the LulzSec website operational would lead to a technology award? [......]
You might recall that Facebook launched a security bug bounty a few weeks back in which the social networking service promised to "pay for undiscovered security bugs that are responsibly disclosed to us." The social service wasn't just paying lip service, and in fact has shelled out more than $40,000 since launching the program three weeks ago. Facebook didn't say how many bugs were discovered, but did reveal the program's been especially lucrative for one unnamed bug hunter in particular who's raked in over $7000 for flagging six different issues. The way it works is anyone is free to sign up at Facebook's whitehat security page and begin submitting bug reports[......]
Ever since security giant RSA was hacked last March, anti-virus researchers have been trying to get a copy of the malware used for the attack to study its method of infection. But RSA wasn’t cooperating, nor were the third-party forensic experts the company hired to investigate the breach. This week Finnish security company F-Secure discovered that the file had been under their noses all along . [......]
The folks over at Lavasoft, not to be confused with Lavalys, makers of the defunct Everest utility that was picked up by FinalWire and rebadged as AIDA64, just released Ad-Aware 9.5 Free Internet Security and Ad-Aware 9.5 Pro Internet Security. Lavasoft's software mechanics stripped the core program of its bloat and tweaked the scan engine. [......]
Acer isn't pitching its new TravelMate Timeline 8481T as an Ultrabook, but maybe that's because Intel is still finalizing its list of qualifications. As it stands, the 8481T is a 14-inch ultraportable that weighs just 3.7 pounds and struts around with a 0.87-inch profile, and that's with the 8-cell battery Acer says will provide up to 13 hours of run time[......]
Security researchers have spotted a new strain of malware that targets Bitcoin, the peer-to-peer virtual currency that exploded onto the tech scene earlier this year. In a report issued last week, Symantec researchers described a Trojan that uses the user's computer to mine Bitcoins on behalf of the intruder. They estimate that, at current exchange rates, a fast computer could generate as much as $150 worth of Bitcoins per month[......]
When Canada's Conservatives took the most votes in the May 2011 federal election, Prime Minister Stephen Harper said that an "omnibus" security/crime bill would be introduced within 100 days. The bill would wrap up a whole host of ideas that were previously introduced as separate bills—and make individual ideas much more difficult to debate. A key part of the omnibus bill will apparently be "lawful access" rules giving police greater access to ISP and geolocation data—often without a warrant—and privacy advocates and liberals are up in arms. [......]
Following a recent victory against Apple over claims that iPhone location data collection violated user privacy, a South Korean law firm has now[......]
Rather than provide security alerts when suspicious messages arrive in employee inboxes, Pennsylvania-based Wombat Security Technologies trains employees by actively trying to phish them. Tuesday, Wombat announced the second version of its PhishGuru anti-phishing training service now extends to mobile devices including iOS and Android-based devices. [......]
Security software is not something that is generally associated with mobile devices such as phones, but the open nature of the Android platform means that viruses are a real threat, just as for desktop computers. [......]
The PC world is packed with tools that promise to optimize your system, but most do little or nothing useful. And so the news that Kingsoft Security had released another, their free PC Doctor, didn't exactly fill us with anticipation. The reality was much better than we expected, though. PC Doctor is far more interesting than most of the competition, and while the program is currently flawed, it could already be useful for many people[......]
When we woke up this morning, we had no idea that the security of backup data would be the trend of the day, but here we are anyways (and to be fair, we don't think so clearly in the morning). We've already told you about the supposedly invincible M-Disc , so let's talk external drives; Seagate's new GoFlex Turbo HDD hit store shelves today, and it comes with the company's SafetyNet Data Recovery Service included. [......]
If you manage a website that has anything more than basic personal details, then it's vital to make sure it's secure. There are plenty of free tools around that promise that they can help, but which really delivers? Netsparker's Community Edition is one popular solution, as it offers a strong core set of features with minimal restrictions (you can use it on as many sites as you like, for instance)[......]
The busy bodies at Support.com didn't waste any time putting their stamp on SUPERAntiSpyware, a popular spyware scanner they purchased earlier this summer. Support.com overhauled the real-time scan engine and shoveled every new feature the company could think of into SUPERAntiSpyware 5, the latest version released earlier this week and the first major update in two years[......]
