SecurityWeek

OpenDNS, the company best known for its DNS service that adds a level of security by monitoring domain name requests, has now launched a cloud-based security service to help protect users on iOS devices or Windows or Mac OS-based systems in any location.

Official Requests Up for Web data: In First half of 2012, Google Received 20,938 Requests for Data from Government EntitiesSAN FRANCISCO - Google said Tuesday the number of government requests to hand over data from users or to take down Web content rose in the first six months of 2012, extending a trend of recent years.

Palo Alto Networks is focusing on the virtualized data center to help IT administrators fight off threats targeting virtual environments.

Study Finds That While Application Security Testing Is Expanding to New Industries, The Software Supply Chain Is Still Vulnerable

Alexander Pope’s famous quote “To err is human; to forgive, divine” highlights the common flaw found within all of us – that we make mistakes. While insider risks are a real problem in organizations (whether copying data off unto unencrypted USB drives, clicking on malicious sites/links, etc.), the insiders carrying the greatest risk are the ones with all of the access - administrators. One set of risks is posed by a malicious and/or disgruntled administrator, or compromised administrator accounts.

Employees are becoming more aware of the risks of using personal devices to access corporate resources and are somewhat willing to grant IT some control over their personal devices, according to a recent mobility survey from Blue Coat Systems.

Risk I/O, a vulnerability intelligence platform, announced on Tuesday that it has secured $5.25 million in Series A funding. The money was raised from U.S. Venture Partners, with participation from Tugboat Ventures and Costanoa Venture Capital.

Return Path, an email intelligence and protection firm, announced two new additions to its Fraud Protection Services offerings on Tuesday.

DUBAI - The United Arab Emirates issued a new law toughening penalties for cyber crimes to include jail terms for anyone who calls for regime change or mocks its rulers, newspapers reported on Tuesday. Under the new law, which annuls one issued in 2006, the spreading of any material that calls for "toppling, changing the regime or seizing power" is punishable by a prison sentence, Emarat Alyoum reported, citing the text.

BELIZE CITY - John McAfee, founder of the eponymous anti-virus company, is on the run for killing another US citizen in a resort town, Belizean police said Monday. Police raided McAfee's mansion on the island of Ambergris Caye, in northeastern Belize, late Sunday to question him about the murder of American Gregory Faull. But McAfee was nowhere to be found, said the head of the country's anti-organized crime brigade, Marco Vidal.

Supporters of Anonymous have raided the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), accusing them of failing to hold up their end of a promise to keep an eye on the Ukrainian elections. The raid resulted in several hundred documents being leaked, most marked as classified or confidential, and covering everything from political memos and internal communications to phone records.

A cyber-espionage campaign at the center of recent reports about attacks targeting Israel has been underway for the past year, according to security vendor Norman ASA.

Network security firm Sourcefire has expanded and enhanced its line of FirePOWER appliances with advanced malware protection capabilities.

Anonymous, the loosely associative collective responsible for the Christmas-Eve hacking of Stratfor in 2011, is being linked to the recent resignation of CIA Director David Petraeus. The link comes from the fact that his alleged mistress’ email account was dumped and exposed during the Stratfor breach.

HootSuite, a social media management company, is apologizing to users and assuring them that they value their privacy more than they may realize. The apology comes after the company sent out emails over the weekend that included the names and email addresses of thousands of other users.

According to Reuters, citing a yet-to-be-released report and people familiar with the issue, staffers at the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission left sensitive documents vulnerable to attackers by failing to protect it properly. 

As our thoughts and prayers go out to those affected by Super Storm Sandy and the many who continue to deal with the aftermath of the storm, it seems timely to also reflect on the lessons learned from this natural disaster. What can we glean from Sandy that will help us deal with security events as disruptive in nature as Super Storm Sandy? Do we need a strategic shift in how we respond to incidents? What are key security observations...

Thoma Bravo Continues Its Security Firm Buying Spree With Acquisition of Crossbeam Systems On Friday, Private equity investment firm Thoma Bravo announced that it has acquired Crossbeam Systems, Inc., a Boxborough, Massachusetts-based maker of network security solutions.

Thousands of WordPress websites have been hijacked recently to redirect to a "work at home" scam, according to researchers at Zscaler ThreatLabz.

SAN FRANCISCO - Google on Friday reported unexplained disruptions to its service in China. "We've checked and there is nothing wrong on our end," a Google spokeswoman told AFP. An online tool that tracks outages or disruptions to the California-based Internet giant's services showed online traffic in China plummet mid-day.