SecurityWeek

Network security firm Palo Alto Networks announced new capabilities in its WildFire malware analysis sandbox, saying that the technology can now analyze Android applications in the APK file format to detect threats embedded within Android applications.

For many victims of an information security breach, prioritization of vulnerabilities becomes an act forced upon them a priori. “Ooops, that one was serious, we should have prioritized it!”, is the lament heard afterwards.

WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama pledged to overhaul US secret surveillance on Friday, promising greater oversight and transparency and insisting he had no interest in snooping on ordinary citizens.

I remember an old exercise, designed to make you consider what is truly important to you, in which you had to answer the question, “Your house is on fire. Every person and pet is safe, but you have time to go into your house and save exactly ONE thing. What would that ONE thing be?”

BERLIN - Germany's three biggest email providers announced Friday a partnership to bolster the security of messages sent between them in the wake of revelations of US online surveillance. Telecommunications giant Deutsche Telekom as well as GMX and Web.de, both subsidiaries of Germany's United Internet, will automatically encrypt their email traffic from now on.

WASHINGTON - US President Barack Obama met with leaders of IT and telecoms giants, including Apple, Google and AT&T, to discuss controversial electronic surveillance programs, Politico reported Friday.

Silent Circle, a startup providing private encrypted communications solutions, has shut down an encrypted email service that it offered as part of its secure communications offerings.

Proofpoint, a Sunnyvale, California-based provider of cloud-based security and compliance solutions, announced that it has agreed to acquire Armorize Technologies, a maker of cloud-based anti-malware products for roughly $25 million in cash.

Security software maker ESET this week launched the latest version of its mobile security solution for Android. Completely rebuilt and redesigned, the new ESET Mobile Security for Android brings improved scanning, an anti-phishing module and a redesigned user interface, the company said.

SAN FRANCISCO - An encrypted email service believed to have been used by US leaker Edward Snowden shut down on Thursday apparently as a result of pressure from US authorities.

Microsoft is prepping eight security bulletins for next week's Patch Tuesday release.

The federal government is planning to offer critical infrastructure companies incentives to join a voluntary program designed to improve cybersecurity.

Modern networks have expanded. Their components constantly evolve and spawn new attack vectors including endpoints, mobile devices, web-enabled and mobile applications, virtual infrastructure, data centers, social media, web browsers and home computers. These networks are complex to deploy, manage and secure. Any gap in protection across this extended network can have a ‘ripple effect’ across your entire IT environment, exposing your organization to greater security risk.

In a much-anticipated move, FireEye has filed an S-1 registration statement with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) for a proposed initial public offering (IPO) of its common stock.

Smartphone maker BlackBerry announced on Thursday that the U.S. Defense Information System Agency (DISA) has given its BlackBerry Z10 and BlackBerry Q10 smartphones with BlackBerry Enterprise Service 10, the “Authority to Operate” (ATO) on Department of Defense (DoD) networks.

MOSCOW - The last Soviet leader Mikhail Gorbachev was forced to deny rumors of his death after hackers planted a false report on Twitter accounts of a state news agency. "I'm alive and well," Gorbachev late Wednesday told the website of Novaya Gazeta newspaper, using a blanked-out Russian expletive to describe his ill-wishers who he said were "hoping in vain".

SAN FRANCISCO - Nintendo said Wednesday that it has filed a lawsuit against a US website with a business model built on hacking into the company's videogame hardware. Nintendo is suing HackYourConsole.com in federal court in the operation's home state of Florida.

Researchers from RSA have uncovered a new banking Trojan designed to steal information from machines running the Linux operating system.  Dubbed “Hand of Thief”, the Trojan is reportedly being sold in closed cybercrime communities for $2,000 with free updates.

Most large organizations are not quite ready to accept the security implications of renting unknown machines from public cloud providers, but transforming data centers to private clouds is in full speed and showing no sign of slowing down. While private clouds are under the control of the corporate IT department, it does not mean that migrating a data center to a private cloud is free of security implications.

BeyondTrust has released a free tool designed to give organizations the ability to track and understand configuration changes and administrative activities for security and compliance reporting for Google Apps.