79 percent of companies have blamed network problems on the wrong IT group
With today's increasingly complex network environments it's often hard to pinpoint the exact cause of problems. According to a new survey by network specialist Emulex this often leads to incorrect reporting to management.
The study of 547 US and European-based network and security operations professionals found that 45 percent of IT staff monitor network and application performance manually, instead of implementing network monitoring tools.
Wilson's Weekend Whine: Snowden's call for online encryption is sad but necessary
It was quite a coup for HOPE (Hackers On Planet Earth). At the 2014 hacker event, Hope X, in New York City this weekend, Edward Snowden delivered a speech to those in attendance, advocating the use of encryption online. The former NSA analyst was not at the event himself -- he's still holed up in Moscow -- but he called on those present to help to protect privacy online. Speaking via a video link Snowden said: "You in this room, right now have both the means and the capability to improve the future by encoding our rights into programs and protocols by which we rely every day".
It was a great piece of work keeping the presentation a secret. There were, of course, fears that Snowden's appearance would somehow be thwarted: "We had to keep this bombshell quiet til the last minute since some of the most powerful people in the world would prefer that it never take place." There were certainly risks involved, but it was a risk worth taking. "[Snowden's] revelations of the massive NSA surveillance programs confirmed the suspicions of many and shocked those who haven’t been paying attention".
Snowden: Facebook is allowing the government to see your messages
In a lengthy interview with the Guardian, NSA whistle blower Edward Snowden spoke with editor Alan Rusbridger about his extraordinary rise to infamy. Currently in exile in Russia, he talked about how he disseminated documents about the activities of the NSA to numerous countries: "Once you start splitting them over jurisdictions and things like that it becomes much more difficult to subvert their intentions. Nobody could stop it". He remains defiant. He may be an outlaw but "it’s been vindicating to see the reaction from lawmakers, judges, public bodies around the world, civil liberties activists who have said it’s true that we have a right to at least know the broad outlines of what our government’s doing in our name and what it’s doing against us".
He explains how during his time working as an NSA analyst, he learned about previous surveillance programs run under George W Bush. Programs that were deemed unconstitutional and, having been closed, forced the US government to assume new executive powers that were then used "against the citizenry of its own country". For Snowden the power of the state is worrying:
New Android ransomware pretends to be FBI porn warning
The large number of devices out there means that Android is becoming an increasingly popular target for malware writers. Ransomware which has previously been a mainly Windows problem is becoming an issue too.
The latest piece of malware discovered by mobile security specialist Lookout attempts to extort money with a scary message claiming to be from the FBI. It claims the user has broken the law by visiting pornography and child abuse websites.
US Secret Service warns of keyloggers at hotel business centers
Hotel operators were warned in a non-public advisory from the US Secret Service to be alert to the possibility of maliciously planted malware in their business center PCs.
Brian Krebs of KrebsOnSecurity reports that an advisory had mentioned the arrest of several suspects accused of infecting several major hotel computers in the Dallas area. In the above-mentioned case the criminals used stolen credit cards to register at the hotels, whereupon they made use of the business centers and downloaded key logger software which captured log-in information for services used by other guests -- including online banking data.
Google does a 180 and allows fake names on Google+
Google is no stranger to upsetting people, and it certainly managed to do this back when Google+ launched three years ago. The social network that finds itself the butt of many jokes has long been criticized for forcing users to reveal their real names. But this policy is no more.
As well as reversing the real name requirement, Google has also apologized for the restrictions that have been in place over the past three years. The change of heart was announced, of course, in a Google+ post, and has been welcomed by the + community.
Choose bad passwords and reuse them often says Microsoft
Conventional security wisdom says that you should use complicated passwords which are impossible to remember and have a different one for each and every website that you visit.
However, a new paper published this month by Microsoft Research says we should go back to having a bad, easily remembered, password and using it on lots of sites. Okay, that's a bit of a simplification, but what the researchers are saying is that in order to be able to remember the difficult passwords for your bank, etc it's better to reuse simpler passwords on low-risk sites.
Google announces Project Zero, aims to protect users from attack
Not many days pass without security being in the news in some form or another. Most of that news isn't good either. Services being attacked through vectors like DDoS, gaping holes in software that many people use everyday -- hello, Adobe and Java.
Now Google is taking its own steps to try and protect users. The company has already implemented SSL for many of its services, but the latest push is against zero-day vulnerabilities.
The new technologies IT departments need to embrace
In the past IT departments have always been about crunching numbers and processing data. But emerging technologies are beginning to take IT into unfamiliar areas that in turn have an impact on the wider operation of the business.
Research specialist Gartner has identified six areas that it sees as potentially being adopted by business and which CIOs need to consider.
Wilson's Weekend Whine: Snowden is right to be disgusted at UK 'emergency surveillance bill'
When we talk about surveillance online, it is almost always with reference to the NSA and activities in the US. But US citizens are far from being the only web users affected by surveillance. The NSA has long arms, but there are also similar activities going on in plenty of other countries. This week in the UK, the government is pushing through legislation that requires phone and internet companies to store information about customers' communication, and to hand it over to authorities on request. What made this particularly unusual was the fact that this was classed as emergency surveillance legislation with little to no debate and, more importantly, no public consultation whatsoever. Edward Snowden has plenty say on the matter, likening the British government to the NSA.
The legislation covers not only UK-based companies, but also those based in other countries who have gathered data about UK customers. It is in direct opposition to a recent European court ruling that said retention of data was a violation of European law. This in itself would be reason for any surveillance-related laws to be debated, but the government chose instead to use emergency measures -- usually reserved for times of war or disaster -- to push through laws it knows will prove unpopular. As we are now used to hearing, the surveillance is not about recording phone calls, or storing individual emails and text messages, but about retaining the related metadata -- who contacted who, when, for how long, from where, and so on.
Gmail app vulnerability leaves iOS users at risk
Mobile security specialist Lacoon has released details of a new vulnerability in the Gmail app for iOS that may allow hackers to view or modify encrypted communications.
It allows attackers to use a Man-in-the-Middle (MitM) technique to impersonate a legitimate server using a spoofed SSL certificate.
Selling a smartphone? Here's how to securely wipe your personal data
As a test, Avast purchased 20 used and supposedly wiped Android phones and discovered that it was able to recover vast amounts of personal user data. My colleague Brian Fagioli reported the story here.
Google responded to the news, stating "This research looks to be based on old devices and versions (pre-Android 3.0) and does not reflect the security protections in Android versions that are used by the vast majority of users". It went on to offer users advice on how to make sure when selling an old mobile phone you aren’t also gifting your personal data to buyers.
Law enforcement and industry combine to prevent Shylock taking its pound of flesh
An international operation involving law enforcement and private sector organizations has been set up to combat the Shylock banking trojan. Shylock, which gets its name because the code contains lines from Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice, is thought to have infected at least 30,000 Windows computers worldwide.
To date Shylock has targeted the UK more than any other nation so the country's National Crime Agency (NCA) is coordinating the international effort. This also includes the FBI, Europol, BAE Systems Applied Intelligence, GCHQ, Dell SecureWorks, Kaspersky Lab and the German Federal Police.
New private cloud allows invite only sharing
Cloud storage is an increasingly popular way of storing and sharing data, but when using public services there's always a concern about how safe your information is.
But now a new startup aims to provide controlled sharing of data via an intelligent private cloud network. Sher.ly integrates your existing hard drives into a private, tightly controlled cloud network. Rather than have to send out open links to files or share copies across a public cloud, organizations and individuals can have the security of invite-only, limited-access file-sharing that keeps data on the devices that produced it.
Keep business data safe from inside threats
The ability to print directly from the cloud or a mobile phone or tablet creates obvious advantages, helping to make everyday business activities much more efficient. Ease of access, however, also creates security challenges that businesses must overcome in order to help keep sensitive information safe.
In a recent Dell global security survey, nearly three quarters of the organizations questioned said that they had suffered a security breach at some point. And security isn't just an issue for large corporations; no matter how big or small your business is, you'll definitely have information on file that needs to be kept safe. This could be personal data, bank details, or even a simple contacts database.
© 1998-2026 BetaNews, Inc. All Rights Reserved. Privacy Policy - Cookie Policy.