A "worrying number" of Facebook users are sharing a link to a malware-laden fake CNN news page reporting the U.S. has attacked Iran and Saudi Arabia, security firm Sophos said Friday.

PHP 5.3.10 fixes critical remote code execution vulnerability

The PHP Group released PHP 5.3.10 on Thursday in order to address a critical security flaw that can be exploited to execute arbitrary code on servers running an older version of the Web development platform.

The vulnerability is identified as CVE-2012-0830 and was discovered by Stefan Esser, an independent security consultant and creator of the popular Suhosin security extension for PHP.

Google won't delay new privacy policy despite E.U. concerns

Google does not plan to delay its new privacy policy despite calls from Europe's data protection watchdog.

Microsoft researchers say anonymized data isn't so anonymous

Data routinely gathered in Web logs -- IP address, cookie ID, operating system, browser type, user-agent strings -- can threaten online privacy because they can be used to identify the activity of individual machines, Microsoft researchers say.

At the same time, analysis of such data when anonymized can help detect malicious activity and so improve overall Internet security, they add.

Symantec warns of Android Trojans that mutate with every download

Researchers from security vendor Symantec have identified a new premium-rate SMS Android Trojan horse that modifies its code every time it gets downloaded in order to bypass antivirus detection.

This technique is known as server-side polymorphism and has already existed in the world of desktop malware for many years, but mobile malware creators have only now begun to adopt it.

Apple updates Lion, patches 51 bugs in Mac OS X

Apple this week patched 51 vulnerabilities in Mac OS X, most of them critical, in 2012's first security update.

Both Mac OS X 10.7, aka Lion, and 10.6, better known as Snow Leopard, were updated with fixes. The two operating systems were last updated in mid-October 2011.

Google finally scans malware-ridden Android Market

In an effort to improve security in its Android Market, Google has been using a service providing automated scanning of applications submitted to the mobile application store, Google revealed on Thursday afternoon.

Code-named Bouncer, the service scans the market for potentially malicious software without disrupting the user experience or requiring developers to submit to an application approval process, said Hiroshi Lockheimer, vice of engineering for Android, in a blog post:

Security slackers risk Internet blackout on March 8

Companies and home users whose computers or routers are infected by the DNSChanger Trojan risk being unable to access the Web come March 8, 2012, when the FBI unplugs the legitimate DNS servers it set up to replace the rogue DNS servers that were forwardi

VeriSign hacked several times, won't reveal the details

In October 2011, Internet infrastructure firm VeriSign released its usual quarterly report. Buried in the 50-page filing to the SEC was the revelation that the company had been breached multiple times the previous year.

Microsoft team discovers malicious cookie-forwarding scheme

Microsoft researchers checking how easy it is to identify users by analyzing commonly collected Web-log data incidentally discovered a cookie-forwarding scheme that can be used to aid session hijacking.

HTC Android phones can leak Wi-Fi passwords

A group of HTC Android phones is susceptible to an exploit that can steal Wi-Fi credentials and passwords and send them to attackers.

The IT certs that no longer pay extra -- and the new skills that do

Premium pay for those hard-earned IT certifications continues to decline, despite an overall surge in high-tech employment. The latest quarterly survey by Foote Partners found that pay premiums (not overall pay) declined by 1.2 percent in the last three months of 2011. Although that doesn't sound like much, the loss is part of a long-term trend, as it was the sixth straight quarter in which premium pay declined.

Symantec recants Android malware claims

Symantec has backtracked from assertions last week that 13 Android apps distributed by Google's Android Market were malicious, and now says that the code in question comes from an aggressive ad network that provides revenue to the smartphone programs.

End-to-end encryption: The PCI security Holy Grail

With groups like Anonymous actively looking to embarrass your company, laptops thefts occurring every second, and the recent poor U.S. District Court ruling on fifth amendment password protection rights, it is time you actually encrypt your data properly.

Business is booming for 'malware as a service' merchants

They are well organized. They pay close attention to product quality, working hard to make it effective and scalable. They are all about customer service, providing after-sales support. They even solicit the help of their customers in product development.

All admirable qualities. But all in the service of theft.

Kelihos botnet, once crippled, now regaining strength

A botnet that was crippled by Microsoft and Kaspersky Lab last September is spamming once again and experts have no recourse to stop it.

The Kelihos botnet only infected 45,000 or so computers but managed to send out nearly 4 billion spam messages a day, promoting, among other things, pornography, illegal pharmaceuticals, and stock scams.

Symantec drops don't-use advice, gives pcAnywhere all-clear

Symantec has retracted its don't-use-pcAnywhere recommendation to owners of the remote access software.

Last week, the company took the highly unusual step of telling pcAnywhere users to disable the program based on a 2006 source code leak and this month's claims by members of Anonymous that they were mining the stolen code for vulnerabilities.

Hackers infect WordPress 3.2.1 blogs to distribute TDSS rootkit

Hackers are compromising WordPress 3.2.1 blogs in order to infect their visitors with the notorious TDSS rootkit, according to researchers from Web security firm Websense.

It's not clear how the websites are being compromised, but there are publicly known exploits for vulnerabilities that affect WordPress 3.2.1, which is an older version of the popular blog publishing platform.

Cyber security report: All countries lag behind the bad guys

The U.S. and U.K. are relatively well prepared for cyber attacks, compared to many other developed nations, but everyone has more work to do, according to a new cyber security study from McAfee and Security & Defence Agenda (SDA).

Book review: 'Liars and Outliers: Enabling the Trust that Society Needs to Thrive'

I've always considered anything written by Bruce Schneier to be part of my ongoing education about IT security. Like Warren Buffet of the financial world, Schneier has a special talent for simplifying complex IT concepts by stripping away the fat. Each book is like its own little graduate course on whichever subject he happens to be discussing.

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About Us

The RDV Group Inc. is a New York-based security consulting services firm, providing information systems training and consulting. We offer packaged seminars and custom certification training solutions, and provide computer and information systems security consulting services to government and private organizations.

Russell Dean Vines, CISSP, CISM, Security +, CCNA, MCSE, MCNE, is the president and founder of The RDV Group Inc., a New York-based security consulting services firm, and the author of seven best-selling information system security books published by John Wiley and Sons.

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