Security
Port
A Security Port Blog
Hotel Security |
09/29/2009
|
|
U.S.
security authorities have told local law enforcement agencies to be on
alert for possible attacks on luxury hotels, but said they had no
information on the timing, location or target of any planned attacks.
The note, sent by the Department of Homeland Security and the FBI to
local law enforcement agencies, was unrelated to a probe into a bomb
plot in New York and Denver made public in the last week, officials
said on Tuesday.
|
Beijing Students Lectured |
09/28/2009
|
|
After
at least 100 students this weekend protested the detention of a popular
lecturer and self-help guru, a number of them said Monday that they had
been visited by officials from their respective universities and
persuaded to sign statements promising not to make any more trouble.
|
McAfee, Inc. Wins Information Security Readers Choice Award |
09/27/2009
|
|
McAfee
Web Gateway has earned a Readers Choice Award from Information Security
Magazine and SearchSecurity.com. McAfee Web Gateway won the gold medal
in the Security Gateway Products category, placing above Trend Micro
and Websense for the top position.
|
Child Porn on the Internet |
09/27/2009
|
|
The
number of Web sites containing child pornography is increasing and more
images show serious abuses, a U.N. expert said Wednesday.
More than 4 million Web sites worldwide show images of children being
sexually exploited, said the U.N. investigator on the sale of children,
child prostitution and child pornography, Najat Mjid Maalla.
|
|
A
company owned by the founders of Skype has filed a copyright
infringement suit against the Internet phone service and parent eBay
Inc. — an action that could crimp eBays plans to sell Skype for about
$2 billion to a group of private investors.
Joltid Ltd., owned by Skype founders Janus Friis and Niklas Zennstrom,
filed the suit in the U.S. District Court of Northern California. The
complaint alleges Skype violated an agreement over the use of critical
peer-to-peer communication technology that Skype licenses from Joltid
for use in its software, which routes phone calls over the Web.
|
Right to Complain |
09/25/2009
|
|
A
group of prison guards dubbed the Facebook Five has gone to an
Australian court to fight for the right to complain about their boss on
the Internet.
The case has stirred debate in Australia about whether writing on
social networking sites amounts to a chat between friends or a form of
publishing.
|
Swine Flu Guide |
09/24/2009
|
|
A new federal guide for businesses on the H1N1 flu tells employers to quarantine sick workers and have them wear surgical masks.
The guide was released Monday by the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. If an employee does become sick while at work, place the employee in a separate room or area until
they can go home, away from other workers, the federal H1N1 guidebook says.
|
Security Firm for Embassy Searched |
09/23/2009
|
|
Police in Pakistan say they have raided the offices of a private security firm hired by the US embassy in Islamabad.
The offices of the Inter-Risk company were entered and around 70 weapons were seized and two personnel arrested.
Officials in Pakistan allege that the haul of 61 assault riffles, nine pistols and ammunition were unlicensed.
|
Border Security |
09/22/2009
|
|
Government
auditors reported Thursday that the effort to secure the Mexican border
with technology and fences has fallen years behind schedule, will cost
billions of dollars extra in maintenance costs and has no clear means
of gauging whether illegal crossings have been curtailed.
|
Net Neutrality |
09/21/2009
|
|
The
head of the FCC plans to propose new rules that would prohibit Internet
service providers from interfering with the free flow of information
and certain applications over their networks, an official at the agency
said Saturday.
The Federal Communications Commission chairman, Julius Genachowski,
will announce the proposed rules in a speech Monday at the Brookings
Institution, a Washington think tank, the official said on condition of
anonymity because news of the announcement had not been formally
released.
|
China Web Filtering |
09/21/2009
|
|
Senior
U.S. officials are pressuring the Chinese government to shelve a
proposed rule that would require all computers shipped in China to be
equipped with Web-filtering software, citing concerns that the order
may violate China's commitments to the World Trade Organization.
|
How Much is Your Identity Worth? |
09/18/2009
|
|
Symantec
has unveiled a new tool that gathers some basic information about you
and the links between your financial information and the Internet, then
calculates what the value of your identity would be on the black
market. The value it comes up with is sobering at best.
|
Al Qaida Website Down |
09/17/2009
|
|
A
U.S.-based group monitoring militant Web sites said Friday that
jihadist forums have been experiencing technical problems on the eve of
Sept. 11, finally going offline a day before the 8th anniversary of the
al-Qaida attack on the U.S.
|
Cyblerlaw Cases |
09/16/2009
|
|
Two
University of California at Berkeley professors are teaming up with
colleagues to launch Cyberlaw Cases, a blog covering what they consider
the top 10 most-important pending U.S. legal cases involving issues
that impact the Internet, databases, and software programs.
The blog focuses on an evolving list of cases on issues such as network
neutrality, privacy, copyright, trademark, and patent issues, and
includes analytical postings about each case and the authors
assessments of potential impacts.
|
Microsoft Security Fixes |
09/15/2009
|
|
Microsoft
pushed out software updates to plug at least eight critical security
holes in computers powered by its various Windows operating systems.
The patches are available through Windows Update or via Automatic
Updates. The flaws were addressed in a bundle of five patches, each of
which earned Microsofts most dire critical rating, meaning they are serious enough that attackers could break into systems without any help from users.
|
Nuclear Internet Use |
09/14/2009
|
|
A
spokesman for the Bruce Power nuclear generating station northwest of
Toronto said dozens of contract employees were fired over inappropriate
internet use, adding that none of their activities posed a security
threat to the plant.
|
Security Affecting Social Media |
09/13/2009
|
|
Social
Medias rise in popularity has created some very real problems for the
Internet and its users. Social networks like Facebook and Twitter have
seemingly opened the floodgates to security troubles, and over the past
few weeks, this has been accentuated by a number of issues and studies.
As WebProNews recently reported, based on a study from Russell Herder
and Ethos Business Law, time on social networking sites has increased
by 73% in the past year. Without even taking security into
consideration, 51% of executives surveyed said they fear social media
could reduce employee productivity, while 49% said that using social
media could damage a company's reputation.
|
Privacy and Google Books |
09/12/2009
|
|
Google
has been battling accusations of copyright violations and monopolistic
behavior in relation to its book-scanning program, but the search
engine giant switched gears this week to address privacy.
In response to a request from the Federal Trade Commission, Google on
Thursday posted an official privacy policy as it relates to Google
Books.
|
Security Company Selling Childrens Data |
09/10/2009
|
|
Parents
who install a leading brand of software to monitor their kids' online
activities may be unwittingly allowing the company to read their
childrens chat messages — and sell the marketing data gathered.
Software sold under the Sentry and FamilySafe brands can read private
chats conducted through Yahoo, MSN, AOL and other services, and send
back data on what kids are saying about such things as movies, music or
video games. The information is then offered to businesses seeking ways
to tailor their marketing messages to kids.
|
China Tightens Security Controls on Music |
09/10/2009
|
|
Online
music sites, as well as search engines that provide links to songs,
will have to obtain approval from the Chinese government for songs
recorded outside the country, according to the newspaper.
|
Chinese Tech Startups |
09/09/2009
|
|
Kai-fu
Lee, Google Incs former China chief who quit the search giant this
week, said on Sunday he will launch his own business next week to fund
Chinese technology start-ups.
|
UK Lacks Security |
09/08/2009
|
|
Brits are lax at updating their security software, compared to their European counterparts, says PC Tools.
Worldwide research by the security firm revealed that a third of Brits
never update their security software, compared to just five percent of
German and seven percent of French web users.
Nearly one in ten Brits also admitted they do not use any form of
security software when surfing the web, compared to five percent of
French and four percent of Germans.
|
|
When
rail cars idle on side tracks in Mexico to be loaded with legitimate
cargo and shipped to the United States, drug smugglers scan for places
to hide their own loot — and if no good place is apparent, they make
one.
Marijuana and cocaine can be concealed above rail car axles or behind
false undercarriages made of plywood. Bolder smugglers sometimes weld a
false wall into a car or sabotage trains to stop them and quickly stow
their contraband on board before the train moves on. Cars are then
tagged with graffiti or other markings so the dealer in the U.S. can
spot his delivery.
|
Presentation Primer |
09/03/2009
|
|
Many
individuals are called upon to give presentations, but many have no
formal instruction on how to deliver the most effective presentations.
So for the benefit of those who might need a bit of help, we have put
together a primer for presenters...
Presentation Primer
|
Financial Security |
09/02/2009
|
|
An
industry group representing some of nations largest banks sent a
private alert to its members last week warning about a surge in
reported cybercrime targeting small to mid-sized business.
The advisory, issued by the Financial Services Information Sharing and
Analysis Center, recommends that commercial banking customers take some
fairly rigorous steps to secure their online banking accounts.
|
Another Security Breech |
09/02/2009
|
|
Fresh
details of large-scale cyber attacks against data processor Heartland
Payment Systems Inc and supermarket chain Hannaford Brothers show the
challenges facing the efforts of the U.S. credit-card industry to
upgrade security measures.
While both companies say their computer networks met the tough new
standards meant to prevent data breaches, Visa Inc. said Heartland at
least may have let its guard down.
The positions reflect broader disagreements in the industry, as
squabbling between merchants and financial firms over technology and
the cost of systems upgrades continues to impede progress, said Robert
Vamosi, an analyst for California consulting firm Javelin Strategy
& Research.
|
|
Merely
hours after a Swedish court ordered to have The Pirate Bay taken down,
the sites bandwidth supplier is claiming it has been sabotaged, the
TorrentFreak blog reports.
As the peer-to-peer community was preparing to put to rest their
favorite file sharing site The Pirate Bay, their vigil has been
disturbed. Black Internet, the ISP that supplied much of the sites
bandwidth, says it has been sabotaged.
|
China Jails Software Pirates |
08/29/2009
|
|
A
Chinese court sentenced four people to prison and imposed about $1.6
million in fines for distributing pirated versions of Windows XP and
other software.
|
Illegal EBay Software Seller Charged |
08/28/2009
|
|
A
U.S. judge has ordered a Delaware man who sold copies of software
packages on an Internet auction site to pay US$210,563 in damages and
court costs, the Business Software Alliance (BSA) announced Monday.
|
Radisson Secuirty Breach |
08/27/2009
|
|
Radisson
Hotels & Resorts said Wednesday its computer systems were accessed
without authorization, affecting an unknown number of people between
last November and May. Radisson said in a statement it has informed
customers of the situation and that guest information may have been
accessed, including credit card numbers. Social Security numbers were
not included.
|
Subsidized Housing for Sex Offenders |
08/27/2009
|
|
Investigators
projected that the Housing and Urban Development Department subsidizes
roughly 2,100 to 3,000 households that include a serious sex offender.
The HUD inspector generals office conducted the review.
Congress banned subsidized housing for the most serious sex offenders
after a 1997 case when a convicted sex offender was charged with
assaulting and molesting a 9-year-old neighbor girl who lived in the
same public housing building. The legislation said that housing
authorities must not admit any household that includes a person subject
to the lifetime registration requirement, typically reserved for the
most serious offenders.
|
Current Blog
2009 Securty Blog Archive
September Archive
August
Archive
July Archive
June
Archive
May Archive
April
Archive
March
Archive
February
Archive
January
Archive
2008 Security Blog Archive
December
Archive
November
Archive
October
Archive
September
Archive
July-August
Archive
May-June
Archive
April
Archive
March
Archive
February
Archive
January
Archive
2007 Security Blog Archive
December Archive
November Archive
October Archive
September Archive
August Archive
July Archive
June Archive
May Archive
April Archive
March Archive
February Archive
January Archive
2006 Security Blog Archive
December Archive
November Archive
October Archive
September Archive
August Archive
July Archive
June Archive
May Archive
April Archive
March Archive
February Archive
January Archive
|
|
 |

Security Alerts
Locate security alerts, and security feeds via a security rss feed
directory.
|