Top 10 Stories

Facebook has been accused of violating the privacy of its users by collecting their facial data.   According to a class-action lawsuit filed last week, the data-collection programme helped Facebook create “the largest privately held stash of biometric face-recognition data in the world,” Courthouse News Service reports.   The lawsuit alleges that this facial-recognition program violates the privacy of its users, citing an Illinois law called the Illinois Biometrics Information Privacy Acts, which requires companies to get...

Google is cracking down on ad-injecting extensions for its Chrome browser, after finding that almost 200 exposed users to deceptive practices or malware.   Researchers from the University of California at Berkeley uncovered 192 deceptive Chrome extensions that affected 14 million users. Google officials have since killed those extensions and incorporated new techniques to catch any new or updated extensions that carry out similar abuses.   The study found widespread use of ad injectors for...

Sites hosted on Tor, known as Hidden Services, have been targeted by denial of service (DoS) attacks, where large amounts of traffic is sent to a web server, making access slow or impossible. Narcotics bazaars were just some of many to have suffered.   Owners of Hidden Services started complaining about accessibility issues last week. On 23 March, Darren Martyn, a researcher and former LulzSec member running his own Hidden Services, said Tor relays, which...

The security of computers at Bradley University in Illinois has been breached, according to officials.   They said that the breach possibly compromised social security and other identity information of employees, former employees and retirees. Officials announced that an internal investigation found malware on two university computers containing personal identifiable information, this was later deactivated.   Bradley officials say the university has received reports from employees indicating fraudulent tax return filings. A team of staff...

Netwrix has announced the release of an Effective Permissions Reporting Tool, a freeware solution designed to monitor privileged accounts by reporting on effective permissions in Active Directory and file shares. The company said that the tool helps professionals to see who has access to what, assess the performance of their security policies and detect insider misuse at an early stage to minimise the risk of data breaches.   It collects individual employee or group permissions...

The Australian Department of Immigration has announced a set of measures to strengthen its control over the personal and private information it holds.   The new approach centres around an External Accountability Task Force that has been established within the department's Integrity, Security and Assurance Division. Assistant secretary Stephen Wood will head up the task force, which will focus on strengthening the privacy protections and information management of the department, and liaise with the Office of the Commonwealth Ombudsman, the...

A Trojan which is targeting the global energy sector hit its targets throughout January and February.   Named Laziok, it is part of a wider campaign primarily focused on the Middle East. Christian Tripputi, security response manager at Symantec, wrote on the firm's blog: "The detailed information enables the attacker to make crucial decisions about how to proceed further with the attack, or to halt the attack.   “During the course of our research, we...

“Disappearing malware” has been detected by researchers from ESKNZ Security, which affects computers physically.   Researchers believe cyber criminals are using this to target computers at banks, global enterprises and Governments. Unlike other security threats, the ‘disappearing malware’ puts a virtual cloak on machines which then renders them completely invisible to the human eye.   It is believed cyber criminals are targeting their victims via phishing scams and, once their target clicks on the malicious...

Palo Alto Networks and VMware have announced an expansion of their partnership to address mobile security needs.   The two companies will integrate their enterprise security and mobile management technologies to give organisations a rich and unique combination of mobile device management (MDM) with advanced threat prevention for secure enterprise BYOD support.   Lee Klarich, senior vice president of product management at Palo Alto Networks, said: “Employees love the flexibility that using their mobile devices...

Major film studios are embracing new cyber security measures following the Sony hack.   Hollywood executives are becoming more comfortable with a suite of cyber tools that protect access to files and encourage stronger passwords. Lulu Zezza, the head of physical production for New Regency studio, was concerned about cybersecurity prior to the Sony hack but said getting colleagues on board used to be difficult.   “Nobody wanted to use it,” Zezza told the New...