Cyber Security

Mobile and network security company AuthenTec Inc announced this morning that it has been acquired by Apple for $8 a share, which equates to $356 million (in cash). News of the deal comes from a 8-K filed by AuthenTec, which says that it has entered an Intellectual Property and Technology Agreement with Apple yesterday, allowing Continue Reading →

A major spam botnet that inundated email inboxes around the world with emails promoting fake prescription drugs is gone. So says the security firm that helped kill it. “The Grum botnet has finally been knocked down. All the known command and control (CnC) servers are dead, leaving their zombies orphaned,” wrote Atif Mushtaq of FireEye Continue Reading →

Redmond’s console gaming network may not have suffered a breach of security comparable to last year’s PSN fumble, but that doesn’t mean it hasn’t braced for impact. According to Xbox Live General Manager Alex Garden, Microsoft has made great strides in account security by taking legal action against sites who share phished usernames and passwords, Continue Reading →

Over the past day, Dropbox users have reported receiving spam in email accounts created exclusively for the service. The company has confirmed the reports and says it’s investigating. Are our Dropbox passwords safe? TechCrunch reports that users in the Dropbox forums pointed out the weird spam email about a day ago. The users, most of Continue Reading →

A Russian hacker appears to have defeated Apple’s in-app purchase security and processing checks, allowing iPhone and iPad owners to potentially rack up thousands of purchases within apps for no charge. 9to5mac reports that (via i-ekb.ru) that developer ‘ZonD80′ has developed a technique that uses an in-app proxy method to bypass the payment processing features Continue Reading →

First, change your Yahoo! password.  This really is not optional.  Yahoo! has been compromised.  And, until Yahoo! says that they have found and corrected the security bug that allowed the hackers to access the username and password files, be ready.  You may need change your password more than once. As you know, I am an Continue Reading →

Yahoo today confirmed that 450,000 unencrypted usernames and passwords were stolen Wednesday from one of its services, although it downplayed the threat. “We confirm that an older file from Yahoo! Contributor Network, previously Associated Content, containing approximately 450,000 Yahoo! and other company usernames and passwords was compromised yesterday, July 11,” Yahoo said in a statement Continue Reading →

The passwords to 432,000 email accounts were leaked earlier today. They were leaked from an older Yahoo file associated with the Yahoo! Contributor Network. Yahoo claims that only about 5 percent of the accounts had valid (current) passwords, but here’s how to check if your ancient account is one of them. Read the full story Continue Reading →

Yahoo has reportedly been hacked after the plaintext credentials for 400,000 logins were found to have been posted online, according to security expert Trusted Sec. The report — via Ars Technica — suggests that the user data is from the company’s Yahoo Voices content network, and the security firm has expressed its concern that it Continue Reading →

hile we are busy worrying about Kim Kardashian, sound bite politics and banning 64 oz cups of sugary soft drinks, the first super-cyber weapon has been quietly spying on and attacking things it doesn’t like.  Huge stealthy computer viruses with capabilities that sound like the stuff of science fiction have been hard a work, collecting Continue Reading →