Editor's News

Kaspersky Lab has detected a banking Trojan that specifically targets online banking sites. It creators claim can that Neverquest can attack “any bank in any country” and several thousand attempts to infect computers used for online banking have been recorded. To date there have been posts made in hacker forums about buying and selling databases to access bank accounts and other documents, which are used to open and manage the accounts to which stolen funds...

Hacktivist group Anonymous claimed to have launched a distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) against Japanese Microsoft domains, which took down global websites. In a pastebin statement, it said that the attack was launched a couple of days ago at “Japanese Microsoft (domain) websites and servers” and while they “did not go down as planned”, it did take “pretty much the entire Microsoft domains down”. It said that this included sites such as: Hotmail.com; MSN.com; Live.com; Outlook.com; and Microsoft.com. It...

Microsoft has said that it is investigating new reports of a vulnerability in a kernel component of Windows XP and Windows Server 2003. Saying in an advisory that it is aware of limited, targeted attacks that attempt to exploit this vulnerability, it confirmed that the flaw is exclusive to users of XP and Server 2003 and that the vulnerability is an elevation of privilege. “An attacker who successfully exploited this vulnerability could run arbitrary code in kernel...

The European Parliament disabled its public WiFi network following the detection of a suspected hack. Linked to the exposure of weak security practices at the institution by EurActiv, the Register reported that the private network is thought to be secure but administrators are advising users to avoid the public network following a possible man-in-the-middle attack that has allowed a (white-hat) hacker to capture a number of email passwords. Users have been advised to change their passwords...

According to science minister David Willetts, the UK’s largest companies are failing to take IT security into account in their decision making. In a report by the Telegraph, a survey conducted by the Department for Business, Innovation and Skills found that only 14 per cent of FTSE 350 firms are regularly considering cyber threats, despite the increasingly high level of online crime. Science Minister David Willetts said: "The cyber crime threat facing UK companies is...

Latin American malware infections have increased in 2013, as new malware rapidly emerges.   According to PandaLabs' report for the third quarter of 2013, there has been 10 million new strains of malware detected in 2013, matching the total figure for 2012.   The most infected country was China, while the Latin America region featured highly, with Peru, Argentina, Brazil and Chile all among the top ten infected nations.   Europe has the lowest infection...

Chris Gibson has been named as the head of the UK’s national Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT). Gibson took up his post on 11th November of CERT-UK, which is expected to launch in the New Year. As part of his duties, the new CERT will provide a core incident management response, lead international CERT engagement and provide cyber situational awareness and information sharing for the benefit of the UK as a whole. Gibson was previously been the director of e-crime...

Data relating to private contractors to the US government and a satellite networking manufacturer has been breached and published by a group claiming to be Anonymous. What is claimed to be a legitimate hack and post, the pastebin post features a number of links to backups of data dumps. In its statement, the hacktivists said that “that this is truly a real official legitimate trademarked op used by none other than the registered members of the group”....

Betting bible the Racing Post is to implement stringent new security measures after suffering an aggressive attack that saw customer details stolen. According to a statement, the website “is completely safe to use” after it removed all log-in and registration functionality. It confirmed that it suffered a security breach after its site was “the subject of a sophisticated, sustained and aggressive attack on Friday and Saturday, in which one of our databases was accessed and customer details...

The most dangerous time to use a smartphone is after 11pm after drinking and using the London Underground’s central and district lines. Research by Trend Micro of 2,500 adults throughout the UK, found that 26 per cent had lost their device on the tube, while 25 per cent was on the central and district lines. Also, 22 per cent said that they had lost a device in a bar, while 18 per cent lost a...