SecurityWeek

Shamoon is still busy infecting computers throughout the world, this time with an updated variant, according to new findings by Symantec. The new version of the malware – detected by the firm as W32.Disttrack – wipes files by overwriting them with 192KB blocks of randomly generated data as opposed to the previous version, which used a 192KB block filled with a partial image of a burning U.S. flag.

Congress is interested in speaking to China’s top telecommunications firms as part of an ongoing investigation in to their organizational structures, history, and potential ties to China’s PLA.

In Network Security We are Always in a Battle of Wits Against the Attackers...This week marks the official start of a new school year and all that comes with it. Personally, I was always in that strange group of kids that looked forward to the beginning of school.

Researchers at Kaspersky Lab have discovered financial malware in Brazil that are signed with valid certificates from Comodo. To make matters worse, the certificates were using false registration details.

According to state media in Iran, the nation has teamed with North Korea in order to cooperate on science and technology. The joint effort will include student exchanges, as well as labs where scientists on both sides can conduct research.

Sophos, with dual headquarters in Boston, MA and Oxford, UK, today said that Kris Hagerman has been appointed as chief executive officer of the company, effective immediately. Hagerman, who will also join the company's board, succeeds Steve Munford who will become non-executive chairman of the board.

STOCKHOLM - Several Swedish official websites were knocked offline Monday, although no one has claimed responsibility for the attacks. "I can confirm that the government site had problems today, but for security reasons, I cannot say more," Anna Dahlen, a government spokeswoman, told AFP adding that she did not know when the site would be back online.

Late last week, SecurityWeek reported on a new Trojan Key Logger named “Admin.HLP” that captures sensitive user information and attempts to export it to a server in a remote location.

JERUSALEM - (AFP) - A reporter with Israel's Haaretz newspaper, Uri Blau, was sentenced to four months of community service under a plea bargain for possessing classified military documents, the court said on Monday. "I accept the the plea bargain reached by the parties, and sentence the accused to a single term of four months' jail which may be served by means of community service... starting from 11 September 2012," wrote the judge at Tel Aviv Magistrates Court.

Adobe has released a security update for Adobe Photoshop CS6 (13.0) for Windows and Mac OS X to address two security vulnerabilities that, if exploited, could let an attacker take over a system. Both flaws (CVE-2012-4170 and CVE-2012-0275) stem from buffer overflow vulnerabilities that could lead to code execution. At the time of publishing, Adobe said they have not seen any exploits in the wild related to the issues addressed in this security fix.

I made a mistake the other day, a horrible mistake. I let my kid use my computer.My once perfect computer now has a life of its own, a malware bot that nests firmly in a place that I not only can’t see, but never even suspected until it took up with a malware handler that taught it some very bad habits.

PHNOM PENH - (AFP) - A co-founder of top Swedish filesharing site The Pirate Bay, who is on an international wanted list, has been arrested in the Cambodian capital at Stockholm's request, police said Sunday.Gottfrid Svartholm Warg was handed a one-year prison sentence by a Swedish court in 2009 for promoting copyright infringement but failed to show up to serve his term at the start of this year. He was detained in Phnom Penh on Thursday, Cambodia's national police spokesman...

Taipei - (AFP) - Taiwan plans to beef up its cyberwar capabilities to counter a perceived threat from Chinese hackers targeting government and security websites, local media reported Sunday. Taiwan will expand its cyberwar units next year while scaling back military spending due to budget constraints, the Taipei-based Liberty Times reported, citing a 2013 budget plan submitted by the National Security Bureau to parliament for approval.

SAN FRANCISCO - (AFP) - Facebook ramped up efforts Friday to get rid of "Likes" that aren't from people genuinely interested in giving a virtual thumbs up to pages at the world's leading social network. "We have recently increased our automated efforts to remove Likes on pages that may have been gained by means that violate our Facebook terms" of service, the Facebook security team said in a blog post.

I was talking with a coworker a couple weeks back, and in the course of our conversation one of us mentioned the concept of perimeter security. That simple statement struck me then, and strikes me even more now: What is perimeter security?