Security Breaking News

Apple patches 25 Mac OS X security vulnerabilities
Apple Tuesday issued its fourth security Mac OS X update of the year, patching 25 vulnerabilities, nearly half of them considered critical. The company also updated Safari for the Mac to plug a hole already fixed in the Windows version of the browser and released an update to bring the OS to version 10.5.4. More..

Microsoft to sell Office 'value pack' for $70 per year
Microsoft has chosen the name "Equipt" for a forthcoming package of products that includes its Office suite, Internet security software and other services, and will sell it for an annual subscription fee of US$69.99. More..

Sybase iAnywhere bolsters mobile device security
Sybase iAnywhere is beefing up its Afaria mobile-device management software by adding antivirus and firewalling capabilities. More..

ACLU, EFF sue US gov't over mobile phone tracking
The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) and the Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) are asking a federal court to order the U.S. Department of Justice to turn over records about the agency's tracking of mobile phone users. More..

F-Secure warns against new, efficient malware
Watch out for the newest generation of malware that is difficult to crack and efficient, warns anti-virus firm F-Secure. More..

Japanese military loses data again
Japan's Self Defense Force lost sensitive data pertaining to a joint U.S.-Japan military exercise last year, the Ministry of Defense said Tuesday. More..

Kaspersky adds anti-keylogger keyboard
The new version of Kaspersky's security suite, Internet Security 2009, features a novel but simple defense against keylogging malware -- a virtual keyboard. More..

Study: Unpatched Web browsers prevalent on the Internet
Only 59.1% of people use up-to-date, fully patched Web browsers, putting the remainder at risk from growing threats from diligent hackers, according to a new study published by researchers in Switzerland. More..

Hands on: 12 quick hacks for Firefox 3
Firefox 3 has been out for two weeks now, so get with the program: It's time to hack it. The newest version of Mozilla's browser has plenty of new features, including the site identification button, the Bookmarks Library and what has become known as the "Awesome Bar" -- and I'll show you how to hack them all. More..

Nigeria aims to end mobile phone theft
Mobile phone theft in Nigeria could become a thing of the past by the end of the year, according to the Nigerian Communications Commission (NCC). More..

Report: Tech giants forming 'patent troll' alliance
Patent trolls beware: some of the tech industry's biggest names are banding together to run you out of court. More..

Microsoft scrutinizes WSUS patch snafu
Microsoft Monday confirmed it is investigating two-week-old reports from users unable to update client PCs using Windows Server Update Services (WSUS), but said that it is "premature" to assume the snafu had the same source as another patch glitch the company has grappled with since mid-June. More..

Unstructured data at risk in most firms, survey finds
Corporate information stored on file servers and network-attached storage (NAS) devices is in danger of compromise because IT governance policies and access rules in many companies are incapable of dealing with a massive growth of unstructured data, according to a Ponemon Institute report issued Tuesday. More..

Trojan lurks, waiting to steal admin passwords
Writers of a password-stealing Trojan horse program have found that a little patience can lead to a lot of infections. More..

Verizon data breach investigations report, Part 1
The Verizon Business RISK Team recently published a valuable analysis of four years of data on security breaches among their clients entitled "2008 Data Breach Investigations Report." Today I want to draw readers' attention to the methodology of this landmark study. More..

Marshal automates e-mail encryption
Secure e-mail and web gateway provider Marshal has introduced an e-mail encryption system it claims takes the pain out of enforcing secure communications rules. More..

MySpace users struggle to overcome cybervandalism
One of the first social networking upstarts, MySpace, is facing continuing security problems that threaten to spoil many of the innovative features that make the site useful. More..

Creator of Nugache worm reaches plea agreement
The teenage creator of a botnet who used a clever worm to infect PCs and then steal users' personal data has agreed to a plea deal with federal prosecutors in California. More..

Laptops lost like hot cakes at US airports
Keep laptops close at airports, because they have a startling tendency to disappear in the blink of an eye, according to a new survey. More..

iAntiVirus launches for Mac
PC Tools on Monday announced the launch of iAntiVirus Beta Edition, an antivirus and antispyware software application designed especially for the Mac. It's free to download, though $29.95 nets you full support and updates for one year. More..

Breeze makes mobile apps easy
Anyone who can build a Web page can build a mobile application using a J2ME development tool called Breeze, according to the tool's maker, Cascada Mobile. More..

Good Virtual Security Requires Better IT Teamwork
Virtualization security is not just about securing the virtual network, nor is it just about securing the virtualization server operating system. More..

Catalyst keynote speaker: 'We need to think differently'
Last week was the annual Burton Group Catalyst Conference and, like last year, the announcements came fast and furious. There were new products, new companies and even a new organization. It's going to take a few newsletters to cover them all, so I better get started. First, though, I want to capture the overall theme and tone of the conference. More..

Using log event management to combat insider threats
Previously we wrote about CERT and the "13 best practices for preventing and detecting insider threats." Now we'll dig deeper into best practice No. 5: "Log, monitor, and audit employee online actions," and we'll look at the operational challenges you might face when implementing this best practice. More..

Microsoft repairs PCs crippled by XP SP3 update
Nearly three weeks after security vendor Symantec released a free tool to clean up PCs crippled by the Windows XP Service Pack 3 (SP3) update, Microsoft issued a fix that should reestablish lost Internet and wireless connections. More..