SecurityWeek

For those purists within the auditing and network exploration community, there is good news this week – Nmap version 6.0 has been released to the public. Nmap is the standard for security audits and exploration, and the latest version has some useful improvements.Version 6 includes improvements to the Nmap Scripting Engine (NSE), which includes a bump in script count. Nmap 5 included a script count of 59, where version 6 has grown to 348, and each one has been documented and...

The popularity of the Android platform, combined with the openness that it represents, has created model that allows developers of all shapes and sizes to create unique works. Yet, this same openness has allowed criminals to create works with malicious intent. Thus, a North Carolina State University researcher has sat out to map the Android Malware Genome in an effort to spread information and combat the malicious side of Android development.

Building on their previous initiative to warn users who display symptoms of infections, Google said on Tuesday that they would start notifying users who are impacted by DNSChanger malware.

Startup Launches With Goal of Transforming Device Authentication Device authentication startup NetAuthority is pulling the covers off its technology today and unveiling a beta version of its authentication technology.

SAP Acquires Ariba for $4.3 BillionSAP AG (NYSE: SAP) today said it would acquire cloud-based business commerce solutions provider, Ariba, Inc. for approximately $4.3 billion.The German software giant said that its subsidiary, SAP America, Inc., has entered into an agreement to acquire Ariba for $45.00 per share.

A survey of IT pros and executives from Brazil, Germany, U.K., Hong Kong and the United States, respondents paints a bleak picture of security.

Although security and networking professionals aren’t officially fortune tellers, being able to predict issues -- and then alleviating them before they happen -- is a large part of the job. One particular issue is the ongoing confusion that users have in understanding the Internet’s Domain Name System (DNS) and its translation of Internet Protocol address numbers into easy-to-remember names. For example, IP address “173.203.107.14” is better known and more easily remembered as SecurityWeek.com.

UK-based IT solutions firm, NCC Group, today anounced a new service that lets organizations simulate the world’s most common form of cyber attack – DDoS attacks.The new “DDoS Assured” service helps companies understand how their IT security systems hold up to DDoS attacks, through an offering that emulates a DDoS attack in a secure, controlled environment.In addition to offering the simulation service, the NCC Group provides security recommendations to clients based on the attack simulation results.

Sophisticated, Multi-faceted Attack Uses an Man in the Browser Attack to Bypass Transaction Authorization Measures Researchers at Trusteer have recently observed a new strategy being deployed by the Tatanga Trojan, which uses multiple attack methods in a single scheme. The attack mixes traditional social engineering with browser hijacking in an attempt to fool the victim into legitimately approving wire transfers.

In an effort to gauge how IT Security professionals are thinking about “Big Data”, Varonis Systems surveyed attendees at the recent Infosecurity Europe 2012 conference on the topic.According to the company, over 180 attendees at the London conference responded, answering questions about whether they thought the definition of big data itself was clear, whether it is or will be a priority for their organizations, and how they could see their organization taking advantage of it.

In an effort to spread information, associates of Anonymous targeted the U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics’ website on Monday, compromising nearly 2GB of data before the server was taken offline.The 1.7GBs worth of stolen data was compressed into a single file and uploaded to Pirate Bay. The Torrent’s information page explains that Anonymous is releasing the data in order to “spread information, to allow the people to be heard and to know the corruption in their government.”

N.R.C. Chairman Gregory Jaczko Resigns After Being Criticized by Peers Gregory Jaczko, the Chairman of the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC), said on Monday that he would be resigning from his post, but remain in his position until the administration approves his successor. News of his resignation comes after nearly eight years with the agency.

MasterCard Proposes Cross-Industry Group to Help in Migration of EMV Technology in United StatesIn an effort to spur collaboration between stakeholders that could benefit from the adoption of EMV technology in the United States, MasterCard on Monday proposed the formation of a cross-industry group that it believes would help issuers, merchants, acquirers, processors, terminal and card manufacturers, and others push the technology forward.

The application, which has been taken down by Google, allowed attackers to steal SMS messages from infected devices. Researchers at Trend Micro said they discovered a beta version of a spying tool targeting Google Android devices circulating on Google Play.

Unless you were hiding under a rock, you know that Facebook made its debut as a public company on Friday, listing on the NASDAQ and closing the day valued at approximately $104 billion. Following the historic IPO, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg got married in a surprise wedding that took place just a day after. So for the world’s largest social network, there is plenty to talk about this week, which means that enterprising criminals may want a piece of the action.