SecurityWeek

Earlier this week, SecurityWeek reported on news that Cambridge University researchers discovered a backdoor on a field-programmable gate array (FPGA) chip used by the U.S military. The news originally spread like wildfire, but shortly after, some began to doubt that the story was worth the hype.

Author David Sanger Says President Obama Ordered Wave of Cyberattacks Against IranAccording to a soon-to-be-released book by The New York Times' chief Washington correspondent, David Sanger, President Obama secretly ordered - and decided to accelerate - cyber attacks against systems that powered Iran’s prime nuclear enrichment facility, namely its Natanz plant. The famous attack, as we all know, was Stuxnet.

Apple has released a document that examines the security technology and features implemented within iOS, the platform that operates the consumer market’s most successful line of mobile devices. While none of the information is new or unknown, the guide is noteworthy, if only because it offers an official basic list of best practices to organizations wishing to deploy Apple devices.

CSIS Security Group researchers have discovered what they are calling the "World’s smallest trojan-banker," a piece of malware that proves dangerous things can come in small packages. Given the hype surrounding Flame and its massive size of 20MB, the discovery of something one thousand times smaller, and still quite dangerous, puts things in perspective.

New Security Acceleration Module Boasts 108 Security Cores for High Performance in Low Latency Environments

A new report from International Data Corporation (IDC) shows that small and medium business (SMB) spending on security technology continues experience strong growth and is expected to exceed $5.6 billion by 2015 in the United States.While overall SMB IT spending in the U.S. is forecast to grow at a rate of 5-6% per year over the period, IDC says security-specific products and solutions is expected to grow at nearly twice that rate.

FireMon Security Manager 6.0 Delivers Integrated Risk Analysis and Policy and Configuration Management Solution for Network Security FireMon, a provider of security management and risk analysis solutions, this week announced the latest version of its security policy and posture management solution, FireMon Security Manager 6.0.

Booz Allen Hamilton Establishes Operations in Kuwait to Enhance Technology and Cyber Defense Capabilities IT consulting services firm, Booz Allen Hamilton, announced on Wednesday that it has setup shop and established a new partnership in Kuwait in order to secure key government contracts related to both government and commercial projects in the Gulf state.

The IT world is quickly embracing Big Data. Huge data stores are the next big step in analyzing the massive amounts of data being collected in the name of analytics. For example, startups are using these systems to analyze trillions of DNA strips to gain an understanding of our genealogy. Well-established companies are adopting the technology to map and time transportation systems across the world to make our traveling cheaper and easier.

Simurgh, a privacy tool used in Iran and Syria to bypass Internet censorship and governmental monitoring, is being circulated with a backdoor. The compromised version has been offered on P2P networks and via web searches. Research conducted by CitizenLab.org has shown that malicious version isn’t available form the original software source, only through third-party access, so it appears that Simurgh has been repackaged.

McAfee Finds Nearly One in Every Six PC's Have Zero ProtectionAccording to a global study by McAfee, Intel’s security operation, one-in-six computers globally are running without any sort of cyber threat protection. The study ranks systems that were either running with no anti-virus, or those with anti-virus applications that were disabled.

Industry Botnet Group: A Collaborative Effort to Combat Botnets

Wave Systems has signed a 15-year software license and distribution agreement with Samsung, enabling Samsung to bundle Wave’s EMBASSY Security Center (ESC) and TCG Software Stack (TSS) technology with devices that include a Trusted Platform Module (TPM), an industry standard security chip embedded in the motherboard of a computer or other electronic device.

Continuing the series of protests conducted in an effort to support students in Quebec, where Anonymous targeted 13 government and police websites, the associative group has stated that they will wreck the FIA as they turn their sights on Formula 1’s Montreal Grand Prix.

As New Hacktivist Groups Join the Scene and Targets Change, We Could See Evolutions that May Prove to be More Fruitful Than Harmful.

Juniper Networks Updates Mykonos Web Security Software With Improved Protection, Simplified Management and Increased Scalability.

In an effort to help organizations responsible for maintaining the nation’s critical infrastructure address targeted cyber threats, ICS-CERT has published guidance addressing intrusion detection and mitigation strategies.

Hacker Faces Charges After Hacking Point-of-Sale Systems at More Than 150 Subway RestaurantsLast year, four Romanian nationals were charged for their role in an alleged scheme to hack point-of-sale (POS) systems and compromise credit and debit card transaction data. On Tuesday, one of the four men was finally extradited to the U.S. so that he could appear before a judge.

Metasploit is a powerful and popular tool for penetration testers and security experts. However, it’s also a goldmine for the darker side of the hacking community. Recently, Rapid 7 published a list of most popular Metasploit modules, offering an interesting look at the vulnerabilities that earned the most attention last month.

Access control vendor Centrify announced the availability today of a new product for to help manage mobile devices.Leveraging the new Centrify Cloud Service, Centrify DirectControl for Mobile is meant to address concerns related to the bring-your-own-device approach. The technology allows organizations to manage smartphones and tablets, including Apple iPads and Google Android devices, using existing Active Directory infrastructure, skill sets and processes.