SecurityWeek

The More We Understand About How the Bad Guys Operate, The Better off We Will Be...

Internet security software maker AVG Technologies, on Friday said that it has moved its United States headquarters to San Francisco, California. Previously, the Netherlands-based company maintained its U.S. headquarters in Chemlsford, Massachusetts, just outside of Boston.

In late May, ICS-CERT published a security guide for organizations responsible for maintaining the nation’s critical infrastructure. The guide focuses on intrusion detection and mitigation strategies, but on Thursday it was updated to include additional information.

A telecommunications company in California, believed to be Credo – a company that resells wireless spectrum – is being sued after they challenged one of the FBI’s ultra-secret National Security Letters (NSL) and its accompanying gag order.

As an interesting follow up to a recent columm by Alan Wlasuk on on Cyber Extortion last week, comes this recent news out of Maine. John Bryan Villegas, 21, of Kittery, Maine, was arrested Tuesday and appeared in federal court in New Hampshire. Villegas is charged with one count of engaging in computer intrusion involving extortion and one count of making extortionate interstate threats.

On Thursday, the U.S, Department of Justice announced the arrest of Dmitry Olegovich Zubakha, 25, of Moscow. Zubakha was arrested in Cyprus on an international warrant, issued after he was indicted last year for a series of DDoS attacks against three of the Web’s largest online retailers.

How many times have you seen a vendor site or proposal say that someone supports “best of breed” security, or that a company honors “best practice”?I see it all the time, and most of the time it makes me question the integrity and wisdom of the organization.

Palo Alto Networks IPO Prices Above Range, Company Rasies $260 Million at $2.8 Billion Valuation

Approximately 14 percent of home networks were infected with malware from April through June 2012, according to a recent report from Kindsight Security Labs, a majority-owned subsidiary of Alcatel-Lucent.

Last month, a spotlight was put on a MySQL authentication bypass vulnerability that gave hackers a one out of 256 chance to gain access to the database regardless of whether or not they entered the wrong password. Versions of MariaDB were also affected by the bug, which Rapid7's HD Moore at the time called "tragically comedic." However, application firm Coverity said the situation also presents a learning opportunity for developers.

A researcher specializing in smart grids has released an open-source tool designed to assess the security of smart meters.

Apple Pulls Bitdefender's 'Clueful' Privacy App From The App Store

Oracle unveiled Oracle Identity Management 11g Release 2 today, the latest version in its Identity Management platform. With Oracle Identity Management 11g, organizations can securely make the shift to cloud computing and rolling out mobile and social infrastructures, Oracle said. With so many applications living on mobile devices and in the cloud, it's important these applications get the same kind of management and security tools as the on-premise systems do.

By Including The Counterattack in IT Security Strategy Planning, Security Teams Can Quickly Change The Dynamics of a Cyber Attack...Any competent military commander knows that when put in a defensive position, defense forces are never be able to withstand long and sustained offensive attacks. The assumption that the front line of defense will eventually be breached is also true in the realm of the information security battle of defense.

What Should Financial Services Firms Look for to Ensure a Security Technology Can Address Their Needs?Perhaps no industry has a greater need for network and data security than the financial services industry. Widely considered to be ‘critical infrastructure,’ not only are banking and financial market networks handling the life savings of individuals, but the lifeblood of the global economy.