Aurora Report: Around The Horn vol.1,155

Ars Technica - Security

AntiVir, 10 others, fail Virus Bulletin's latest tests

By emil.protalinski@arstechnica.com (Emil Protalinski) on Virus Bulletin

Virus Bulletin (VB) conducted its latest test in August, posting the results this month. The security research company evaluated 26 anti-malware products (product submission deadline was August 22) for the 32-bit version of Windows Server 2008 SP2. The basic requirements for a product passing the test is detecting, both on demand and on access, in its default settings, all malware known to be "In the Wild" at the time of the review, and not detecting any false positives when scanning a set of clean files. The products were pitted against about 3,000 unique samples of malware that fall into four categories: WildList viruses, worms and bots, polymorphic viruses, and Trojans.

Report: Thousands of Hotmail passwords posted

By emil.protalinski@arstechnica.com (Emil Protalinski) on Windows Live Hotmail

Password details for Windows Live Hotmail accounts, including @hotmail.com, @msn.com, and @live.com e-mail addresses, were posted by an anonymous user over at pastebin.com, a site that allows users to paste snippets of text and then share it privately or publicly. On October 1, there were over 10,028 account user names and passwords posted as a result of either some type of "hack" or phishing scheme, most of which appear to be based in Europe, according to Neowin, which first reported this story. Pastebin has since removed the link in question, though the issue may not have such a simple solution.

"Over the weekend Microsoft learned that several thousand Windows Live Hotmail customers' credentials were exposed on a third-party site due to a phishing scheme," a Microsoft spokesperson confirmed with Ars. "As always, upon learning of the issue, we immediately requested that the credentials be removed and launched an investigation to determine the impact to customers. As part of that investigation, we determined that this was not a breach of internal Microsoft data and initiated our standard process of working to help customers regain control of their accounts."

CGISecurity - Website and Application Security News

All things related to website, database, SDL, and application security since 2000.

WASC Honeypots - Apache Tomcat Admin Interface Probes

By Robert A. on WASC

The WASC Distributed Open Proxy Honeypots project has published an entry on people performing brute force attacks against tomcat administrative interfaces through WASC's open relay proxies. Tomcat Brute Forcing: http://tacticalwebappsec.blogspot.com/2009/10/wasc-honeypots-apache-tomcat-admin.html

CNET News - Security

Podcast: Symantec exec on how to avoid being a phishing victim

By Larry Magid

Phishing attacks have been around for a while and you might think that most people are savvy enough to avoid them. But, as CNET's Elinor Mills discovered, even FBI Director Robert Mueller finds it hard to distinguish a rogue phishing site from a legitimate bank website.

Symantec Internet safety

...

Originally posted at For the Record

Wife bans FBI head from online banking

By Elinor Mills

Robert Mueller

(Credit: James Martin/CNET

SAN FRANCISCO--No one is immune from cyberthreats, not even the head of the FBI.

FBI Director Robert Mueller was banned by his wife from doing online banking after he nearly fell for a phishing scam, he said on Wednesday during a talk at the ...

Originally posted at InSecurity Complex

Oops! Hack lets anybody join the MySpace network on Facebook

By Caroline McCarthy

I'm not an employee of MySpace, but I was able to join its Facebook network.

(Credit: Facebook

I do not work for MySpace. But my Facebook profile now says I do, thanks to what appears to be a sneaky little flaw in MySpace's recently launched e-mail client....

Originally posted at The Social

Q&A: Amit Yoran talks cybersecurity

By Elinor Mills

Amit Yoran

(Credit: Amit Yoran

West Point graduate Amit Yoran went from security work in the Air Force, the Defense Department, and private industry before being tapped as director of cybersecurity for the Department Homeland Security.

He joined DHS in September 2003 and left about a year later, the first ...

Originally posted at InSecurity Complex

Avoid being a victim of an e-mail phishing scam

By Larry Magid

A recent phishing scam resulting in usernames and passwords of Microsoft's Hotmail, Google's Gmail, and possibly accounts of AOL and Yahoo users being posted online is cause for concern for anyone who uses any of those services. Rather than panic, though, there are simple ways to avoid becoming ...

Originally posted at Safe and Secure

Gmail also hit by e-mail phishing scheme

By Don Reisinger

Hotmail users aren't the only ones who've been hit by a phishing scheme over the past week. Google told BBC News on Tuesday that Gmail users have also been affected by the hackers who posted passwords online.

The problem is far more widespread than was disclosed on Monday, ...

Originally posted at Webware

Hotmail passwords leaked online

By Don Reisinger

Update October 6 at 11:25 a.m.:This was later discovered to be an industrywide problem that has affected users of Gmail and possibly other e-mail services as well. See more details here.

Thousands of Windows Live Hotmail passwords have been leaked online, ...

Originally posted at Webware

AVG: Version 9 faster, includes ID protection service

By Seth Rosenblatt

The feature-rich versions of popular security program AVG have been updated, with AVG Technologies claiming faster scan times, faster boot times, and other under-the-hood improvements. While version 8 introduced a consolidated product line, making those features work better together takes the attention of AVG Internet Security 9 and AVG Anti-Virus 9. ...

Originally posted at The Download Blog

CounterMeasures

Rik Ferguson blogs about security issues.

Stolen email accounts, 90 bucks and some Chinese spam.

By Rik Ferguson on spam

In the news over the past couple of days, much has been made of the tens of thousands of stolen email account credentials that have been posted on publicly visible websites. There is no positive indication of how these accounts were obtained or really even whether they were obtained as a result of one single [...]

Darknet%20-%20Hacking,%20Cracking%20%26%20Computer%20Security

Darknet - The Darkside

Ethical Hacking, Penetration Testing & Computer Security

AVG Stepping Up Consumer Anti-Virus Offerings

By Darknet on malware

AVG used to be THE anti-virus software a few years ago, especially with it being the first major vendor offering a free solution for home users. If you asked any techie back in 2002 which AV should you use, the answer would invariably be AVG free (or perhaps Panda). After that AVG just got bloated, slow and [...]

Samhain v.2.5.9c – Open Source Host-Based Intrusion Detection System (HIDS)

By Darknet on tripwire

We’ve only mentioned one HIDS before, that was OSSEC HIDS, so I thought I’d do some updates on the others. Samhain has always been one of my favourites, before that of course I was using Tripwire like everyone else. The Samhain open source host-based intrusion detection system (HIDS) provides file integrity checking and logfile monitoring/analysis, as well [...]

DarkReading - All Stories

DarkReading

SSL Still Mostly Misunderstood

Even many IT professionals don't understand what Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) does and doesn't do, leaving them vulnerable, new survey shows

Tens Of Thousands of Email Usernames and Passwords Posted Online By Phishers

Hotmail, Gmail, Yahoo, and other email users' accounts exposed

Bankers Gone Bad: Financial Crisis Making The Threat Worse

70 percent of financial institutions in the last 12 months have had cases of insider fraud, new survey says

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DarkReading - Security News

DarkReading

WD(R) Introduces High-Performance My Book(R) Studio(TM) External Hard Drives With Innovative E-Label Display

Compound Profit(R) Is Hiring

Zoovy, Inc. Brings Seamless Mobile E-Commerce to Existing Zoovy Merchants at No Extra Cost

eWeek Security Watch

Malware Distributors Mastering News SEO

In Virus and Spyware

Malware purveyors are having a great deal of success in getting their news-driven attacks to the top of search engine results, often beating their legitimate peers.

IDC: DLP Adoption to Continue as Businesses Fear Insider Threat

In Products

In a new survey by analyst firm IDC, nearly 60 percent of respondents said they plan to invest in data loss prevention technology.

Asprox Botnet Attacks Come Back

In Virus and Spyware

The Asprox botnet campaign may not be as savvy as some of its newer counterparts, but it's still finding plenty of opportunities to infect end users.

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Federal Computer Week: Security News

Panel recommends improvements to E-Verify

A panel of experts recommends improving the E-Verify electronic employment verification system to reduce false reports and to use it in immigration reform efforts.

Judge sends Deepwater false claims lawsuit to trial

A U.S. District Court judge refuses to dismiss the False Claims Act lawsuit against the Deepwater contractors and sets trial for next year.

Air Force activates new cyberspace defense unit

Combat communications wing supports new Space Command

Pentagon authorizes outside firm to manage access to some DOD systems

Exostar is now permitted to issue digital certificates and smart cards on its own behalf

SSA needs better information security, IG says

SSA has not followed through on key cybersecurity recommendations, according to a new report.

Commerce neglects its IT security workforce: inspector general

The department’s management has not devoted enough resources to training its IT security workers as the threat of cyber attacks increase in number and sophistication, IG says.

DHS falling short on small vessel security, IG says

The Homeland Security Department does not have an effective strategy or technologies in place to counteract the threat of attacks by terrorists who arrive on small boats, according to a new report.