Microsoft beefs up Windows Azure with two-factor authentication
In an effort to beef up the security of its cloud platform, late-yesterday, Microsoft introduced two-step authentication for Windows Azure. The new feature is available through a service called Active Authentication and, according to the software giant, is mostly aimed at enterprises.
"Companies can enable multi-factor authentication for Windows Azure Active Directory identities to help secure access to Office 365, Windows Azure, Windows Intune, Dynamics CRM Online and many other apps that are integrated with Windows Azure AD", says Windows Azure director Sarah Fender. "Developers can also use the Active Authentication SDK to build multi-factor authentication into their custom applications and directories".
Yahoo email is like a box of chocolates
You never know who you are going to get.
Yahoo has announced that starting mid-July, it is going to begin recycling email addresses. All Yahoo email addresses that have been inactive for 12 months or longer, will be made available again. Users will be able to stake claims on desired and expired Yahoo email addresses on a first-come, first serve basis. This sounds like a fun thing for Yahoo users who want a shorter or easier email address.
ACLU joins the party, files challenge against the NSA and Verizon
The National Security Administration may prefer to blend into the shadows, but that is a position no longer available to it thanks to the recent PRISM story. Yesterday Mozilla made headlines by launching a campaign against what has been termed a threat to citizens' privacy and security. Google also responded, assuring customers it had nothing to hide and asking for permission to publish information requests it receives.
Now the American Civil Liberties Union has taken the next step, filing against both the NSA and Verizon, the wireless carrier at the center of the scandal. The organization announces that it has filed a constitutional challenge to a surveillance program under which the National Security Agency grabs information about every phone call placed within, from, or to the United States.
Norton warns of summer festival smartphone risks
A new survey by Symantec reveals that people are more and more reliant on their smartphones at concerts, events and music festivals. But as usage of phones increases so do the security risks.
According to the research when people are out at live events phones are now more common than lighters (only 7 percent carry those anymore) and cameras (42 percent). This has led to the rise of some new phenomena such as "phone hogging" where audience members hold phones above their heads to take photos and video. Some 51 percent send texts or make calls to brag about the show and 38 percent take to social media to do the same.
ESET releases new betas for NOD32 Antivirus and Smart Security
ESET has unveiled the first public betas of its NOD32 Antivirus 7 and Smart Security 7 products.
The Smart Security suite now includes a Vulnerability Shield to better protect your PC from known network issues, while its Anti-Theft service gains the ability to track what’s happening on your stolen hardware via regular screen captures.
Google wants you to know it has nothing to hide
Google was one of numerous tech companies implicated in last week’s PRISM scandal, and despite issuing a carefully worded denial, many people still believe the search giant provides the NSA with unfettered access to its servers.
Unhappy with the situation, Google has written a letter to the offices of the Attorney General and the Federal Bureau of Investigation, asking them to give the company permission to publish in its transparency reports at least some information about the FISA national security requests it receives. This will prove, Google hopes, that it complies with legal requests, but no more.
McAfee Mobile Innovations helps you hang onto your devices
The public beta of McAfee's newest mobile security app becomes available to download for Android devices today. Its leading feature is something called Smart Perimeter which addresses one of the key concerns of users, losing your device.
Smart Perimeter works by allowing devices to track each other and alert the user if they stray more than 30 feet apart. If a device goes outside the perimeter an alarm sounds and it's also locked so you have to enter a PIN to re-enable it.
Stop watching us! Mozilla takes on the NSA
The repercussions of last week's PRISM story continue to ricochet around the web. The latest domino to fall is that belonging to Mozilla, maker of the popular Firefox browser and Thunderbird email client. The organization announces sweeping actions against this news with a campaign designed to raise awareness on perceived privacy intrusions.
Mozilla's Alex Fowler, leader of privacy and public policy, announces "last week, media reports emerged that the US government is requiring vast amounts of data from Internet and phone companies via top secret surveillance programs. The revelations, which confirm many of our worst fears, raise serious questions about individual privacy protections, checks on government power and court orders impacting some of the most popular Web services".
Sourcefire boosts network security with greater FirePOWER
Security specialist Sourcefire has announced enhancements to its FirePOWER network security platform. It provides a firewall, intrusion prevention, and an anti-malware solution in a single hardware-based package that aims to deliver protection without harming performance.
This separate-box approach makes it simple to add protection to an existing network and is easily scalable to adapt to various sizes of organizations. Enhancements in the latest version include firewall and intrusion prevention systems that have better IPv6 support and product awareness. Network address translation (NAT) policy can now be set centrally rather than by device, allowing for a consistent approach across the organization. The product's threat protection uses cloud intelligence in order to stay up to date.
iCloud Keychain -- Will Apple hand your keys to the NSA?
Yesterday at WWDC, Apple announced iCloud Keychain. This is a password management service that utilizes Apple’s iCloud. It will allow users to sync their website login credentials, Wi-Fi passwords and credit card information across multiple devices (iOS and OS X) using 256-bit AES encryption. On the surface, it sounds like a great feature that would be very convenient for Apple users. However, the world has changed much since the PRISM scandal.
Ever since we learned that the US Government has allegedly infiltrated Apple, such a service is problematic. By storing all of your passwords with an NSA infiltrated company, you could be potentially compromising the security of all of your accounts. It could be especially bad to expose your Wi-Fi passwords as you could be compromising entire networks. While 256-bit encryption is a wonderful thing, it makes no difference if the NSA has direct non-encrypted access -- it would be understandable for users to be suspicious.
Trojans continue to top virus chart
Dr Web Anti-virus has released its latest report on malware activity showing that Trojans continue to be the most common threat.
New threats found in May include Trojan.Mods.1 which replaces the contents of webpages loaded in a browser. This is part of a premium rate SMS fraud that puts up a page asking for a mobile number and then sends a text message asking for a reply. Almost 16,000 copies of this Trojan were detected by Dr Web during the month of May.
PRISM -- It's the end of the Internet as we know it
…And I don’t feel fine. Tyranny has replaced liberty in the United States. Our rights are slowly being eroded. Not a day goes by without a new government scandal breaking in the news. As my colleague Mark Wilson reported yesterday, the National Security Agency (NSA) has been secretly spying on Verizon customers since April. The public was outraged -- and rightfully so. There was worry that this was just the tip of the iceberg. Unfortunately, according to a new report, it was just the tip. The rest of the iceberg is much larger -- and we are the Titanic heading right for it.
While the public was still wrapping their heads around the Verizon scandal, they were informed by The Guardian of a far more devious and tyrannical program dubbed ‘PRISM’. According to the report, this program has been in effect since 2007. In that 6+ year span, the following companies have allowed themselves to be infiltrated:
Microsoft and FBI take down major botnet
Working with the FBI and authorities in 80 other countries, Microsoft's Digital Crimes Unit has disrupted a major cybercrime ring. The operation has targeted 1,400 systems involved in running the Citadel botnet.
Citadel is thought to have infected as many as 5 million PCs worldwide and has been used to steal from major financial institutions including American Express, Bank of America and PayPal, accounting for losses of up to half a billion dollars to companies and individuals worldwide. The Citadel botnet is hosted using pirated versions of XP. Once the virus -- which first appeared in early 2012 -- infects a user's machine it blocks access to legitimate antivirus sites and disables installed antivirus applications making it hard to detect and remove.
Around the world in 5 types of mobile threat
Mobile security company Lookout has released a report breaking down the types of threat encountered by users around the world. It takes data from the Lookout app in the US, UK, Germany, India and Japan to spot the key dangers in each region.
Threats are broken down into five categories -- adware, chargeware, spyware, surveillance and Trojans. Adware dominates around the world thanks to grey areas surrounding what's acceptable in mobile advertising. However, users in India are almost four times more likely to encounter mobile adware than those in the US. Indian users have a greater chance of encountering any kind of threat with a 5.49 percent likelihood of infection compared to only 1.66 percent in the US and 2.16 percent in the UK.
Mistakes cost millions says data breach report
Symantec in conjunction with the Ponemon Institute has released a new study into the cost of data breaches. What it reveals is that whilst most of us worry about malware and hackers, it’s actually mistakes and system errors that cause the majority of breaches.
According to the survey, glitches and negligence between them accounted for 64 percent of last year’s data breaches. This includes employees leaking or mishandling information, violation of regulations, accidental data dumps and stolen or lost laptops.
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