Category: IA News

While still not great, the operating systems behind Apple desktops, laptops and phones are getting more secure, researchers at Black Hat  say. While not recommended for corporate use unless it’s in islands within larger networks, the OSX operating system has made strides, says Alex Stamos, who lead a team of researchers from iSec Partners that…

After Black Hat, DefCon, and the recent McAfee report, you are probably tired of all of the hype around APTs. I agree that the industry has co-opted and obfuscated but these “low-and-slow” attacks are something we need to understand and address before more of our private information and intellectual property flies out the IP-connected door.…

Microsoft today warned that multiple gaping security holes in its Internet Explorer browser could expose millions of Web surfers to hacker attacks via rigged web pages. As part of this months’ Patch Tuesday release, Microsoft shipped a “critical” IE bulletin MS11-057 with fixes for total of 7 security flaws.   Two of the vulnerabilities were…

Only five nations would be capable of sponsoring a massive cyber-espionage campaign that infiltrated governments, international organizations, and high-tech companies, persisted over years, and stole billions of dollars’ worth of intellectual property—like the operation unveiled by security firm McAfee this week. The United States and the U.K. can be removed from the equation because they…

As part of a new initiative, called Cyber Fast Track, described Thursday at the Black Hat confernce in Las Vegas, the U.S. Defense Department will fund small hacker groups and independent researchers in the development of cutting-edge solutions that can be created in short intervals for a low cost. via Black Hat: New DARPA program to…

It relies on the fact that due to the “dispute” between Adobe and Apple, Apple’s latest Mac OS X version “Lion” comes without any flash player, enhancing the odds people do not find it strange to have to install it separately. via ISC Diary | New Mac Trojan: BASH/QHost.WB.

McAfee published an interesting report yesterday about what they called Operation Shady RAT, focusing on a series of what some may call “advanced persistent threat” attacks. The attacks were dubbed in some quarters as “one of the largest series of cyber attacks ever.” While quite a bit of data was presented regarding the potential scale…

Apple has shipped a high-priority QuickTime update to fix at least 14 security holes that expose computer users to hacker attacks. The QuickTime 7.7 update, available for both Windows and Mac OS X, addresses flaws that could be exploited via rigged image, audio and movie files. via Apple QuickTime flaws haunt Windows users | ZDNet.

Corporate cybercrime costs skyrocket Security threats such as malware, insider attacks, phishing, botnets and a host of other problems are costing large corporations more money to handle. via Corporate cybercrime costs skyrocket.

Their conclusion: Macs provide good protection against the initial phases of the attack, but once the bad guys are on the network, it’s a whole different story. “They’re pretty good for [protecting from] remote exploitation,” Stamos said. “[But] once you install OS X server you’re toast.” via Does the Mac have an edge against state-sponsored…