SecurityWeek

Qualys, the soon-to-go-public provider of cloud-based risk security and compliance solutions, announced this week that former cybersecurity czar Howard Schmidt will join the company’s Board of Directors. 

The latest version of Apple’s Mac OS X, Mountain Lion, due in just a few short weeks, will come with a rather important security feature – automatic updating.The news comes from those testing the newest developer preview. Apple has included a new system called OS X Security Update Test 1.0, which will check Apple’s servers daily for the latest security patches.The auto checking can also be set to run each time a Mac restarts, and any updates that are available...

Bitdefender, a Bucharest, Romania-based provider of antivirus and PC security software, this week officially launched its line of 2013 security products, bringing new enhancements and security features to help keep users safe.

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is suing hotel company Wyndham Worldwide and three of its subsidiaries for security failures that resulted in three data breaches in less than two years.

Research from security firm Trusteer shows that when it comes to crime, sometimes criminals prefer to build things from scratch, taking a Lego-type of approach to crime kit development. Expanding on research from Trend Micro, Trusteer says that this type of approach is present in the development and sale of custom malware designed to harvest banking data.

Apple has adjusted their marketing strategy after the Flashback malware ruined their “it doesn’t get viruses” promotional pitch when comparing the OS X to Windows. The change was noticed by Sophos, after the OS X website had a bit of a facelift recently.Flashback, the Mac-based malware that struck in April, led to the creation of a 550,000 node botnet comprised of all Macs. In the end, the malware wasn’t nearly as harmful as some suggested, as it only displayed advertisements...

Researchers at McAfee and Guardian Analytics have uncovered a heavily automated, sophisticated fraud operation that may have attempted to steal at least $78 million from bank accounts around the world.

Last Friday, the Gioconda Law Group, a New York-based brand protection and anti-counterfeiting law firm, filed a suit against Arthur Wesley Kenzie, a self-styled cyber security expert living in Canada.Kenzie is accused of trademark infringement and Cybersquatting – the act of intentionally registering a domain with a deliberate misspelling of a protected name for the purpose of personal gain or misdirection. In addition, he used the misspelled domain to acquire emails intended for the law-firm.

F5 Networks has launched a cloud-based service that will detect and stop IP addresses associated with malicious activities from accessing the network. Powered by Webroot’s IP Reputation Service and integrated into F5's Traffic Management Operating System (TMOS), F5’s newest offering is designed to merge with their other subscription-based solutions.

Two members of LulzSec, Ryan Cleary (19), and Jake Davis (18), appeared in a London court on Monday. During their appearance, Cleary and Davis each admitted to being members of LulzSec and pled guilty to launching DDoS attacks against the CIA and Sony Corp websites.

U.S. Director of National Intelligence James Clapper plans to implement new measures designed to stop the leaks of classified information, according to a news report.

HTML5 brings with it the promise of increased functionality. More functionality however, as usual, comes with a price – an increased attack surface.

Invincea Gets $21.4 Million Contract to Harden Android OS for U.S. Army

Qualys, the soon-to-go-public provider of cloud security and compliance solutions, today said that its flagship QualysGuard Web Application Scanning (WAS) service will be able to help customers identify Web application cookies in order to help organizations comply with the European Union (EU) Cookie Directive that will be enforced in the United Kingdom (UK) effective on May 26, 2012.

Each year, security experts and IT experts take a hard look at the threats that dominated in years past in an effort to prepare for the future. While hacker groups and technology are evolving faster than ever, there are still trends we can spot if we take a far and wide enough step back to see the whole picture. The annual Verizon Data Breach Investigations report shines some holistic light on what’s been happening in the world of cybercrime. Here’s...

Cisco Addresses Code execution and DoS Vulnerabilities Cisco has issued three security advisories that address vulnerabilities within Cisco ASA and ASASM, their AnyConnect Secure Mobility Client, and Application Control Engine (ACE). According to their warnings, Cisco says that the issues could lead to code execution in some cases, or denial of service in others.

Michael Barrett, PayPal's CISO, was initially against the idea of paying people who reported security problems properly. However, after seeing the success of the bug bounty programs launched by Mozilla, Google, and Facebook, he’s had a change of heart. So on Thursday, PayPal officially launched a bounty program of their own, becoming the first financial firm on the Web to do so in the process.

For the last two weeks, based on reports to and observations made by Symantec, an established family of malware has been launching print jobs that do nothing but waste paper.

A Russian security firm, using a combination of TCP scans and Google, found that nearly a quarter of the organizations running vulnerable versions of SAP are tempting fate by leaving them exposed to the Internet. This discovery, the research says, dispels the myth that SAP systems are only available from the internal network, leading to the misconception that they are protected by design.

LinkedIn Law Suit Seeks $5M In Damages Over Lax Security Practices