Top 10 Stories

Symantec's Enterprise Vault.cloud was down due to a "service disruption" in one of its US data centres.   Affecting its Enterprise Vault.cloud, AdvisorMail, and Hosted Exchange customers, a Symantec spokesperson told ZDNet that during routine maintenance, Symantec identified a hardware fault that required emergency repair.   Symantec also said that while system access is temporarily down, the company continues to receive and store all incoming data on all systems. ZDNet understood that the system was down for...

Disruptive action by a collective of vendors has resulted in the removal of 43,000 instances of malicious tools.   Installed by “Axiom” attackers, 180 infections were instances of Hikit, a malware program used by Axiom for data exfiltration and persistence during the last stages of its attacks, according to Novetta, who led the coalition.   The clean-up effort was done through Microsoft's Malicious Software Removal Tool (MSRT), which is updated and distributed through Windows Update...

North Korea has created malicious smartphone games and posted them on South Korean websites, which may have infected up to 20,000 devices.   According to a report from the South Korean National Intelligence Service (NIS), it alleged that the smartphone games were posted on South Korean websites between 19th May and 16th September and the NIS said it had worked with website owners to remove the offending games, but didn't reveal what damage had already been done...

ASUS wireless routers from the RT-series are vulnerable to a man-in-the-middle attack.   According to a blog post by David Longenecker, they download updates via HTTP without an encryption protocol in clear-text.   The ASUS RT router series update flow contains two simple steps. The first downloads a clear-text file list with the latest firmware builds. Then it parses the downloaded file to check for a newer available firmware update. If a new firmware update is available,...

F5 Networks has announced that John McAdam, the company’s President and CEO, has informed the board that he plans to retire at the end of 2015.   Al Higginson, Chair of F5’s Board of Directors, said it is the Board’s current intention that following McAdam’s retirement from his role as President and CEO, McAdam will remain on the board and serve as non-executive board chair. Mr. McAdam will continue to work closely with the board...

ForeScout has announced a partnership with McAfee to provide a new and enhanced interoperability between ForeScout CounterACT and McAfee solutions.   ForeScout CounterACT will leverage the McAfee Threat Intelligence Exchange (TIE) to make enforcement and remediation decisions based on relevant security information shared between endpoints, gateways and other security products.   Scott Gordon, CMO of ForeScout, told IT Security Guru that “threat intelligence is really hot” at the moment, and said that threat analytics and...

The FBI office in Seattle created a fake news story on a bogus Seattle Times webpage to plant software in the computer of a suspect.   The target, accused of a series of bomb threats to Lacey’s Timberline High School in 2007, had a link sent to his MySpace account and when they clicked on the link, the hidden FBI software sent his location and Internet Protocol information to the agents. A juvenile suspect was...

Micron Technology, Wave Systems, Lenovo and American Megatrends have announced their intention to create a new industry standard to meet heightened global security requirements.   Together, the companies will collaborate to develop advanced enterprise-class security offerings to address the escalating concerns of governments and multinational businesses. The solutions will strengthen the Core Root of Trust for Measurement (CRTM) to offer best-in-class protection against current and emerging pre-boot threats within the supply chain.   The companies...

Organised criminal gangs are increasingly targeting high-end cars with keyless security systems, according to the Society of Motor Manufacturers and Traders. As the popularity of keyless systems has increased, criminals have been buying equipment online that is able to re-programme keys. A statement from Jaguar Land Rover sent to BBC News said that it is taking this issue very seriously, and its engineering teams are actively working in collaboration with insurance bodies and police forces to solve...

Personal information relating to around 44,000 retired people in Arizona may have been compromised in a security breach.   According to AZcentral, the Arizona State Retirement System began notifying affected retirees, all of whom were enrolled in the ASRS dental plans. Spokesperson David Cannella said that the problem began last month when two unencrypted discs containing the first and last names and Social Security numbers of members enrolled in ASRS dental plans were sent to a...