Home · Security

Analysis: Cyber raids unlikely to stir faster global action

(Reuters) - A major new hacking attack underscores that governments and companies are losing the war against cyber thieves, but it's unclear if the disclosure will prompt quicker global action against online break-ins.

A U.S. report that intruders breached the computer networks of 72 organizations around the world over a five-year period in the biggest hacking campaign found to date will be seized on by Western states to call for tougher digital defences.

"This is the biggest transfer of wealth in terms of intellectual property in human history," said Dmitri Alperovitch, vice president of Threat Research at U.S. security company McAfee, which produced the report.

McAfee said it believed there was one "state actor" behind the attacks but declined to name it, though one security expert who has been briefed on the hacking said the evidence points to China. There was no comment from China on the report. More...

08-07-2011 17:50

U.S. Guidelines Aim to Bolster Software Security

The Homeland Security Department unveiled a new system of guidance on Monday intended to help make the software behind Web sites, power grids and other services less susceptible to hacking.

The system includes an updated list of the top 25 programming errors that enable today’s most serious hacks. It adds new tools to help software programmers eliminate the most dangerous types of mistakes and enable organizations to demand and buy more secure products.

The effort to improve software security has been three years in the making, according to Robert A. Martin, principal engineer at Mitre, a technology nonprofit organization that conducts federal research in systems engineering.

The costs of flaws or omissions that make software susceptible to attack was highlighted by a number of recent attacks that resulted in the theft of credit card information, user names and passwords from government and banking sites.

During an online news conference, government officials pointed out that a wide range of stakeholders had an interest in seeing the top 25 errors addressed, and they stressed the need for better training and education for people writing software. More...

08-01-2011 16:07

Hackers expose flaw in Apple iPad, iPhone software

(Reuters) - Hackers have disclosed a bug in software from Apple Inc that security experts said could be exploited by criminals looking to gain remote control over iPhones, iPads and iPod Touch devices.

The security flaw in Apple's iOS operating system came to light on Wednesday as the website www.jailbreakme.com released code that Apple customers can use to modify the iOS operating system through a process known as "jail breaking."

Some Apple customers choose to jail break their devices so they can download and run applications that are not approved by Apple or use iPhone phones on networks of carriers that are not approved by Apple.

Security experts warned that criminal hackers could download that code, reverse engineer it to identify a hole in iOS security and build a piece of malicious software within a few days. More...

07-07-2011 17:01

<< First < Previous [4 / 20] Next > Last >>