Top 10 Stories

PC World: Like a crowbar, security software tools can be used for good and evil. Bootleg versions of a powerful tool called ”Card Recon” from Ground Labs, which searches for payment card data stored in the nooks and crannies of networks, have been appropriated by cybercriminals. This month, the security companies Trend Micro and Arbor Networks published research into point-of-sale malware, which has been blamed for data breaches at retailers such as Target and Neiman...

Tweaktown: The owner and operator of BlackShades has plead not guilty to computer hacking charges, for his role in selling malware software. Alex Yucel, 24, was arrested last November and extradited to the United States, and now faces up to 15 years if convicted of conspiring to commit access device fraud and access to device fraud, among other charges. The group reportedly sold its Remote Access Tool (RAT) to thousands of customers across the world...

Reuters: A team of security experts may seek to restore and improve a popular computer encryption system after its developers mysteriously shut it down, claiming "unfixed security issues," a leader of the effort told Reuters on Thursday. TrueCrypt, one of a number of programs that encrypt all of a user’s hard drive, had gained popularity after fugitive former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden praised it and law enforcement officials complained of their inability to...

Belfast Telegraph:The hackers are winning, according to a survey of 500 US business executives, law enforcement services and government agencies. The 12th annual survey of cyber crime trends found that online attackers determined to break into computers, steal information and interfere with business are more technologically advanced than those trying to stop them.

CIO:  A suspected Iranian hacker group seeded Facebook and LinkedIn with bogus profiles of attractive women and even created a fake online news organization to get digitally closer to more than 2,000 people whom it wanted to spy on. Once they had befriended their targets through fake profiles, the people were emailed malicious links designed primarily to steal email account credentials, according to a report titled "The Newscaster Threat," released Thursday by iSight Partners, a security...

Krebs on Security: The anonymous developers responsible for building and maintaining the free whole-disk encryption suite TrueCrypt apparently threw in the towel this week, shuttering the TrueCrypt site and warning users that the product is no longer secure now that Microsoft has ended support for Windows XP. Sometime in the last 24 hours, truecrypt.org began forwarding visitors to the program’s home page on sourceforge.net, a Web-based source code repository. That page includes instructions for helping Windows users transition...

Time: A new report finds that American businesses and institutions are failing to meet the cybersecurity threat posed by hackers at home and abroad. “One thing is very clear: The cybersecurity programs of U.S. organizations do not rival the persistence, tactical skills, and technological prowess of their potential cyber adversaries,” finds the 2014 U.S. State of Cybercrime Survey. “Today, common criminals, organized crime rings, and nation-states leverage sophisticated techniques to launch attacks that are highly...

The Register: Victoria Police's top brass have criticised Australian banks for a rise in contactless credit card fraud arising from stolen tap and go cards. Chief commissioner Ken Lay told reporters theft of the cards - which did not require proof of ownership for purchases under $100 - had contributed to a 48 percent rise in disception crime over the last twelve months across the Garden State.  

Tweaktown: The increasing number of connected devices accessing the Internet has revealed enterprise security holes that companies are struggling to solve, according to Internet security company BlueCat Networks. As shown by recent point-of-sale (POS) attacks targeting retailers, the number of security issues that security experts must deal with continues to increase at a rapid pace. Sophisticated malware often circumvents traditional defense-in-depth, with many anti-virus software solutions unable to defend against malware attacks. As more devices continue...

The Register: National security boosters have just taken a kick to the ego, with revelations that hackers can access exactly the kind of wiretap kit they believe should be deployed in every ISP and telco around the world. The zero-day that's turned up in kit from New Jersey outfit NICE would give attackers access to wiretapped voice recordings along with names and email addresses for suspects monitored by police.