ZDNet UK Security management Toolkit

Sloppy risk assessment raises web fear factor

editorial@zdnet.co.uk (Mary Landesman) — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 15:15:01 +0100

Web security experts must separate actual risk from theoretical risk, says Mary Landesman

Schmidt: Proprietary code is more securely written

editorial@zdnet.co.uk (Tom Espiner) — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 12:43:02 +0000

Ex-White House adviser Howard Schmidt says the open-source community needs to catch up when it comes to securing code

Microsoft finds no flaw in November security updates

editorial@zdnet.co.uk (Ina Fried) — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 08:57:02 +0000

The company's investigation found there is nothing in the latest Windows updates that should lead users to encounter a so-called 'black of screen of death'

US gov't agencies sued over Facebook surveillance

editorial@zdnet.co.uk (Elinor Mills) — Wed, 02 Dec 2009 08:43:01 +0000

After agencies failed to provide info requested on policies for using Twitter, Facebook and other social networks in investigations, the Electronic Frontier Foundation has sued

'Black screen of death' sparks Microsoft investigation

editorial@zdnet.co.uk (Ina Fried) — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 08:19:02 +0000

The software maker is looking into reports that some users' systems are not working properly after installing the latest Windows security updates

Authentication risks all too human

editorial@zdnet.co.uk — Fri, 27 Nov 2009 17:04:28 +0000

Risks to successful online banking identification and authentication using smartcards involve a mixture of human and technological factors, according to the European Network and Information...

Opera censors Chinese content

editorial@zdnet.co.uk — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 17:37:06 +0000

Opera has updated the Chinese version of its mobile browser to stop users accessing restricted content. Opera Mini was updated on Friday from an international to a Chinese version, the BBC...

Government starts building ID card database

editorial@zdnet.co.uk (Tom Espiner) — Wed, 25 Nov 2009 14:34:02 +0000

The National Identity Register, which underpins the ID card scheme, has added more than 500 people since going live in October

Manchester ID card registration date announced

editorial@zdnet.co.uk (Tom Espiner) — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 15:57:02 +0000

People with a home or work address in Greater Manchester can register for an ID card later this month, the government has said

Home Office introduces a dozen ID card readers

editorial@zdnet.co.uk (Kable) — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 15:39:02 +0000

The UK now has 12 identity card readers as part of a pilot scheme, having had none earlier this year

Schmidt: Users need more browser control

editorial@zdnet.co.uk (Tom Espiner) — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 11:57:01 +0000

As Web 2.0 apps become more prevalent, users need more control of how their browser interacts with operating systems, says Howard Schmidt

Zero-day flaw found in web encryption

editorial@zdnet.co.uk (Tom Espiner) — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 15:54:01 +0000

A security issue with underlying web encryption protocols TLS and SSL has left many authentication mechanisms open to attack, according to security researchers

South Korea plans to fingerprint visitors

editorial@zdnet.co.uk — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 17:35:00 +0000

The South Korean authorities could fingerprint and photograph foreign visitors from 2012, the Korea Times reported on Tuesday. Barring diplomats and government operatives, all visitors over the...

Government agency loses farmers' data

editorial@zdnet.co.uk (Kable) — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 09:48:02 +0000

The Rural Payments Agency lost two tapes holding encoded personal information on farmers earlier this year but only informed its minister last week

The simplest of ideas

editorial@zdnet.co.uk — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 08:44:39 +0000

I have been struck by how the simplest of ideas can make a substantial impact. I was using internet banking recently, and a couple of banks have started to submit the username and password from...

Tories: ID cards need 28m sign-ups to break even

editorial@zdnet.co.uk (Tom Espiner) — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 17:27:02 +0000

Half the British population would need to pay ID card fees before the government scheme becomes self-financing, according to the Conservatives

Project aims to devise Euro e-ID platform

editorial@zdnet.co.uk (Tom Espiner) — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 17:31:02 +0100

Chipmakers and smartcard manufacturers have joined forces to provide identity card technologies that conform to European standards

Attackers could steal crypto keys from mobile devices

editorial@zdnet.co.uk (Elinor Mills) — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 11:11:02 +0100

Security researchers have found a way to steal keys used for encryption and authentication on mobile devices by analysing electromagnetic signals and radio frequency emissions

IT managers told: Don't block social networking

editorial@zdnet.co.uk (Stephen Shankland) — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 09:06:02 +0100

Analysts at the Gartner Symposium advised attendees that trying to lock down communications with the outside world is futile and not to be recommended

SonicWALL TZ 210

editorial@zdnet.co.uk (Alan Stevens) — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 10:19:01 +0100

SonicWALL's feature-packed TZ 210 gateway security appliance is capable of protecting all kinds of networks at a very affordable price. It's easy to setup and manage, and sets a new price point in the UTM market.

Windows 7 holes plugged in record Patch Tuesday

editorial@zdnet.co.uk (Elinor Mills) — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 08:18:02 +0100

In its biggest Patch Tuesday ever, Microsoft issued fixes for two Windows 7 vulnerabilities plus a number of zero-day flaws elsewhere

Authorities reach agreement on travel card spec

editorial@zdnet.co.uk (Kable) — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 08:55:01 +0100

The move means councils can plan and implement additional services, following a period of uncertainty caused by changes to the accreditation requirements for cards

Firewalls failing to protect banks, says security expert

editorial@zdnet.co.uk (Manek Dubash) — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 08:13:02 +0100

Banks are spending more than they need on technology they would not miss, according to network security pioneer Nir Zuk

Government changes tack on ID card tech

editorial@zdnet.co.uk (Tom Espiner) — Thu, 08 Oct 2009 13:50:02 +0100

The Identity and Passport Service will not use the DWP database to store biographical data for ID cards, at least in the short term

Banks use Facebook despite security concerns

editorial@zdnet.co.uk — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 12:41:36 +0100

According to a recent report, over half of CIOs reckon that users shouldn't be using social networking sites such as Facebook. The rationale is apparently that workers should be working not messing...

Police hunt down IT forensics expertise

editorial@zdnet.co.uk (Kable) — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 08:16:02 +0100

The Metropolitan Police Service is setting up a £32m framework to buy forensic analysis of electronic devices

Coders to hold Bletchley fundraiser

editorial@zdnet.co.uk — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 12:13:50 +0100

A developer body is to hold a conference at Bletchley Park to raise money for the home of British WWII code-breaking. ACCU, which up until 2006 was known as the Association of C and C++ Users,...

XP Nerd Trick 2

editorial@zdnet.co.uk — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 17:29:18 +0100

DANGEROUS TECHNIQUE DESCRIBED BELOW. THIS WILL MODIFY YOUR DESKTOP OR LAPTOP COMPUTER TO THE EXTENT THAT IT WILL BE EXTREMELY DIFFICULT IF NOT IMPOSSIBLE TO RECOVER CONTROL OF THE SYSTEM. MAKE an...

Gov't says scrapping ID cards won't save it £3bn

editorial@zdnet.co.uk — Fri, 14 Aug 2009 17:35:19 +0100

The Identity and Passport Service has said that getting rid of ID cards won't save the taxpayer £3bn over 10 years - as the costs are to be met by people who apply for passports and ID cards....

HP darknet 'not for dissidents'

editorial@zdnet.co.uk — Tue, 28 Jul 2009 16:52:10 +0100

Technology developed by HP to enable secure communications networks to be set up via a web-browser should not be used by dissidents, HP has said. One of the co-developers of HP's browser-based...

MP in Twitter security shocka

editorial@zdnet.co.uk — Wed, 15 Jul 2009 15:55:40 +0100

Tom Watson MP, Labour's first blogger and Twitterer-in-chief, recently left an Apple store. We know this because, at 3:47pm, his Twitter account broadcast the message: "I've forgotten to log out...

PM calls on Berners-Lee in open-government drive

editorial@zdnet.co.uk — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 14:46:28 +0100

Gordon Brown is bringing in the inventor of the web, Sir Tim Berners-Lee, to help open up government data. Brown made the announcement in Prime Minister's Questions on Wednesday, during a speech...

Gotcha!

editorial@zdnet.co.uk — Wed, 10 Jun 2009 11:26:29 +0100

Maybe it's my eyes. Maybe it's my age. Maybe, like the motorcycle test, they're just harder. Whatever it is, captcha has now turned into gotcha. The captcha above caught me out, locked down...

Home Office in DNA mixed bag

editorial@zdnet.co.uk — Thu, 07 May 2009 17:19:51 +0100

The Home Office has come up with a mixed bag of proposals to get around the inconvenient fact that holding innocent people's DNA details indefinitely has been ruled illegal. Jacqui Smith and her...

Samsung has SSD with full encryption

editorial@zdnet.co.uk — Fri, 17 Apr 2009 17:19:20 +0100

Using technology from Wave Systems, Samsung on Thursday launched a solid state disk (SSD) with a capacity of up to 256GB and full-disk encryption. Available in a 1.8in and 2.5in form factors the...

Pulling together UK ID card privacy threads

editorial@zdnet.co.uk — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 17:40:33 +0000

Reading a paper by the European Network and Information Security Agency (Enisa) last week on privacy guards in EU ID card schemes raised some interesting questions for me. The thing that jumped...

SSL certificate crack threatens e-commerce sites

editorial@zdnet.co.uk — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 11:30:10 +0000

A group of security researchers has demonstrated that it is possible to create a "rogue" SSL certificate allowing them to impersonate "any website on the Internet, including banking and e-commerce...

India takes step on ID Card road

editorial@zdnet.co.uk — Tue, 11 Nov 2008 13:18:55 +0000

India has taken a step towards provision of biometric ID Cards for all citizens. According to The Hindu, a group of Indian ministers has approved the establishment of a Unique Identity Authority...

ID Card on track says government

editorial@zdnet.co.uk — Thu, 06 Nov 2008 14:03:15 +0000

This just in on the ongoing ID Card issue. (BTW Bruce Schneier says we shouldn't get all hot and bothered over ID cards as they are just a temporary technology before unseen biometrics take over...

And the data loss goes on...

editorial@zdnet.co.uk — Tue, 04 Nov 2008 17:35:29 +0000

This time it's a memory stick lost by Atos Origin with usernames and passwords for the government Gateway site. According to the Financial Times, the stick was encrypted, and turned up fairly...

UK ID card fuss is only temporary

editorial@zdnet.co.uk — Wed, 29 Oct 2008 11:00:22 +0000

That was the warning from security guru and BT chief security office Bruce Schneier who said that in five years or so, people won't have to worry about ID cards anymore. Not because...

Passport needed for mobile phone purchases?

editorial@zdnet.co.uk — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 14:16:34 +0100

The Sunday Times reported (on Sunday) that passports will be needed to register mobile phones, after which mobile users' details will be collated on a centralised government database. This would...

Toshiba developing quantum repeater

editorial@zdnet.co.uk — Wed, 15 Oct 2008 17:15:26 +0100

Toshiba is developing a device it hopes will allow for global quantum key distribution. The company is developing a quantum repeater, a device to regenerate a quantum key once quantum...

Toshiba touts Quantum Key Distribution

editorial@zdnet.co.uk — Thu, 09 Oct 2008 17:24:45 +0100

Toshiba research scientists have developed a method of distributing quantum keys more efficiently, the company has claimed in a statement: "[Quantum Key Distribution -- ] QKD -- relies on...

Government releases more details of UK ID Card

editorial@zdnet.co.uk — Thu, 25 Sep 2008 14:00:49 +0100

Not got time to digest this at the moment but here's the information from the government press office on the trial of the ID Card scheme which happened a couple of hours ago: (Home Office) First...

The funniest press release ever

editorial@zdnet.co.uk — Fri, 19 Sep 2008 17:07:12 +0100

A representative of a certain consulting group will soon be speaking at a "network sharing strategy forum" on the subject of "Getting the terms and framework right to ensure successful and...

Customer data found on eBay server highlights people as weak...

editorial@zdnet.co.uk — Thu, 28 Aug 2008 14:33:41 +0100

The recent news about customer details being retrieved from a server sold on eBay is yet another story about the sorry state of information security in the electronic age (see:...

Colchester University Hospital sacks manager over lost lapto...

editorial@zdnet.co.uk — Tue, 12 Aug 2008 16:03:05 +0100

An unnamed senior manager has been sacked by Colchester University Hospital after losing a laptop. The manager had his laptop stolen from a car in Scotland in June. The laptop contained the...

Insider security threat not exaggerated

editorial@zdnet.co.uk — Tue, 29 Jul 2008 12:01:00 +0100

I was reading recently some research claiming that the insider security threat had been exaggerated: (http://www.verizonbusiness.com/resources/security/databreachreport.pdf). The report said that...

Trades Unions against ID Cards

editorial@zdnet.co.uk — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 17:08:05 +0100

The Trades Union Congress (TUC) has backed up airport workers protesting against ID cards, the Financial Times reports. In a letter to Home Secretary Jacqui Smith, the TUC said it had...

MoJ sends out hacks email details on data protection invite

editorial@zdnet.co.uk — Wed, 09 Jul 2008 13:33:47 +0100

I find this very ironic. The Ministry of Justice has just sent me an invitation to a press briefing with Information Commissioner Richard Thomas on Thursday. Thomas will be discussing the results...

The GoDaddy saga continues...

editorial@zdnet.co.uk — Thu, 03 Jul 2008 14:52:46 +0100

I've been trying to sort out an incident with registrar GoDaddy since last week. I blogged on Tuesday and Thursday about the situation, but in a nutshell I found out that I was registered as the...

Caught in the GoDaddy red tape

editorial@zdnet.co.uk — Thu, 26 Jun 2008 19:35:44 +0100

This is one of those situations that would be funny if I wasn't the one caught up in it. I blogged on Tuesday that I'm listed on WHOIS as the administrator of a charming site called...

Security through annoyance

editorial@zdnet.co.uk — Tue, 10 Jun 2008 13:03:24 +0100

A close personal friend reports a bloody annoyance. The place where he works decided to tighten up its network security, by forcing all users to change their passwords every three months. As...

The Myth Of Fingerprints - biometrics, schmiometrics

editorial@zdnet.co.uk — Mon, 12 May 2008 12:56:12 +0100

A short (thank you!) press release has just arrived. It says: How Finger Prints Never Lie The high street chain Budgens has just introduced biometric technology, (which finger prints all its...

Data Security Standards Baffle Local Authorities

editorial@zdnet.co.uk — Mon, 14 Apr 2008 22:59:04 +0100

Earlier today - in between my Crunchy Nuts and smoked bacon sandwich - I read a few reports which indicate that personal data about members of the public has been lost or wrongly revealed by...

What is the MPS (Main Protection System) ?

editorial@zdnet.co.uk — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 19:36:37 +0000

What is the MPS? MPS is a new method to find threats on computer systems, this method uses by a security model to analyze software resources on windows. This security model is analyzing the...

Passport chief comments on ID Card security

editorial@zdnet.co.uk — Tue, 14 Nov 2006 17:31:23 +0000

James Hall, the new CEO of the UK Identity and Passport service, has just said in a web chat that the National Identity Register will be part of the national critical infrastructure and be...

EU body slams biometric ID cards

editorial@zdnet.co.uk — Fri, 10 Nov 2006 17:41:44 +0000

In a great article on an EU body's report on biometric ID Cards, "Biometric ID cards an insecure menace, says EU ID outfit", Reg veteran John Lettice concludes: "Could we all be going to wake up...

Rupert Goodwins' Diary

editorial@zdnet.co.uk — Fri, 06 Oct 2006 18:55:03 +0100

Thursday 5/10/2006 The big question about DRM is not whether it'll lock us into a grey, corporate future where every speck of creative freedom is crushed beneath a leaden mass of leech-like...