SecurityWeek

On Friday, Microsoft announced that it has reached a settlement with Andrey N. Sabelnikov, a Russian software programmer, after naming him in the lawsuit surrounding the takedown of the Kelihos botnet. Friday’s announcement marked the close of the Kelihos case, which was initiated earlier this year, after last September’s takedown actions against the botnet itself.

BEIJING - US security fears over two China telecom firms have spotlighted Western suspicions Chinese companies are state-influenced, a culture clash analysts say could loom larger as the country's businesses look overseas.

PARIS - Middle Eastern oil and gas companies have been targeted in massive attacks on their computer networks in an increasingly open cyber war where a new virus was discovered just this past week. The United States and Israel, believed to behind the first cyber sabotage campaign that targeted Iran's nuclear program, are now worried about becoming targeted themselves.

Teach Someone to Phish and They Can Feed Themself Forever… Or maybe, we work harder to avoid phishing.

MOSCOW - The Russian protest movement Saturday launched an online vote for a 45-member council to spearhead the drive against President Vladimir Putin, but an online attack scuppered the polling. In the two-day vote to elect a "shadow parliament", more than 200 candidates fielded by diverse anti-Putin forces -- from ex-chess king Garry Kasparov to regular students and activists -- are vying for a spot on a so-called Coordinating Committee.

WASHINGTON - The US National Weather Service computer network was hacked this week, with a group from Kosovo claiming credit and posting sensitive data, security experts said Friday. Data released by the Kosovo Hackers Security group includes directory structures, sensitive files of the Web server and other data that could enable later access, according to Chrysostomos Daniel of the security firm Acunetix.

IT supply chain integrity issues are real, and will have mainstream enterprise IT impact within the next five years, Gartner analysts wrote in a report examining recent incidents affecting the supply chain.

Seculert this week unveiled a new cloud based analysis engine that takes advantage of big data analytics to identify advanced threats and malware.

The makers of the notorious Citadel Trojan continue to innovate, this time adding a new feature designed to help botmasters have smoother interactions with their victims.

Protecting Smart Grids From Cyberattacks and Compromises Should Be a Top Priority for any Utility, as Failure Could Cripple the Nation's Way of Life.

TOKYO - Japan's most senior policeman began an embarrassing climbdown Thursday after his officers arrested four people over cyber threats issued when their computers were apparently hacked. Emails containing threats to attack targets including a school and a kindergarten attended by Emperor Akihito's grandchildren were sent from infected computers in different parts of the country.

Defense contractor Northrop Grumman said Wednesday that it has been awarded a contract to build a cyber test range for the University of New South Wales (UNSW), Canberra campus at the Australian Defence Force Academy (ADFA) in Australia.

SAN FRANCISCO - Google on Wednesday gave its users a first-ever view of its data centers, with a virtual visit of its server farms around the world from the US heartland to Finland. The Internet giant posted a series of photographs and "street views" of a half-dozen data centers on a page called "Where the Internet Lives".

Adobe Systems beefed up the security capabilities of its Reader and Acrobat software with a more robust sandbox and new security mitigation features.

Network security firm Fortinet has updated its FortiOS operating system that powers its FortiGate security platform, the company said Wednesday.