Top 10 Stories

The UPnP Forum has launched its UPnP+ Certification level for improved device and open source implementations.   For enablement of mobile connected computing, cloud-based service delivery, smartphone content sharing and the Internet of Things (IoT), the new certification recognises enhanced UPnP capabilities for existing UPnP device specifications and uses new and existing UPnP device control protocols and UPnP architecture enhancements to provide protocols focused on delivering new technical capabilities for improved functionality and increased customer...

Cloud security company CensorNet has been acquired by a group of industry veterans to accelerate the company’s product development efforts to boost innovation in the sector.   Led by new CEO and chairman Ed Macnair, the acquisition will accelerate product development, which includes a new cloud security offering which will go live in April 2015.   CensorNet's solutions give greater visibility to senior management and much better control to IT over company-wide internet access, and...

PwC has launched a new service to give emergency help to organisations facing cyber attack.   Named “BreachAid”, the service encompasses immediate help to organisations facing a security breach, including identifying and responding to a breach or leak, to crisis management in the event of an incident, tackling the aftermath and handling any legal requirements.   Stewart Room, PwC Legal data privacy and protection partner, said that the new service, joins up PwC's multi-disciplinary teams...

WhatsApp has added strong end-to-end encryption by default to its Android app.   The strongest security any major texting app has offered, it was enabled by WhatsApp partnering with Open Whisper Systems using open source code to build in the new features.   Open Whisper Systems, best known as the developer of the Signal, Redphone, and TextSecure apps, were approached by WhatsApp via TextSecure, as it has published its source code and withstood numerous public...

38 per cent of employees deliberately went around IT in adopting applications because of IT approval process in their companies is reportedly to slow.   According to research by CipherCloud, 81 per cent of respondents admitted to using unauthorised SaaS applications, while the most common requested cloud applications were those related to communications, file-sync-and-share and disaster recovery followed rapidly by CRM and other sales automation tools.   Security is the number one cloud adoption concern,...

Intel is likely to sell off its enterprise security software division in the next few years.   According to CBR, a source said that Intel is separating the security software components from its primarily business of making chips, and will one day create a separate unit and "put it to one side".   "Intel made the tragic mistake of believing they could suddenly integrate security into their chips," they said. "They're a good company and very well managed,...

Police have revealed that they are battling more than 200 organised crime groups engaged in cyber fraud in London.   A new Met cyber taskforce is investigating plots ranging from online dating fraud to mortgage scams involving million pound properties and Scotland Yard said that they are facing an caseload of around 54,000 reports of cyber fraud in the capital each year.   Detective Chief Superintendent Jayne Snelgrove, the head of the Met’s new cyber...

The Reform Government Surveillance coalition, including Facebook, Google, Twitter, Microsoft and Apple, has added its support for the race to pass a bill through the US Senate to curb mass data collection from emails and internet metadata.   In an open letter to the Senate, the group said that the Senate has an opportunity this week to vote on the bipartisan USA Freedom Act, and urged them to pass the bill, which both protects national security and reaffirms America’s...

Virtually any USB device can be reprogrammed, while some might be reprogrammable under certain conditions.   According to Kasten Nohl, of the 60 or so chip families it looked at from eight vendors, not a single one consciously disabled the ability to be reprogrammed. Nohl, who presented this summer on the BadUSB malware, said that this was because of a design decision made to conform with a particular purpose and not for security reasons.  ...

Enterprise and cloud security expert Andrew Wild has joined Lancope as the company's new CISO.   With over 25 years developing effective, customer-driven information security, incident response, compliance and secure networking programs for IT and security organisations including Qualys and EMC, Wild is a recognised expert in building and securing cloud and SaaS environments.   Wild said: “In today’s environment, organisations cannot expect to effectively secure their infrastructure without collaborating with other experts, especially their...