ZDNet UK Security threats Toolkit

Politicians should stay out of internet policing

editorial@zdnet.co.uk (Axel Pawlik) — Wed, 22 Jul 2009 07:17:02 +0100

The law cannot hope to keep up with the internet, and just hampers innovation, says Axel Pawlik

IE 6 and 7 hit by zero-day bug

editorial@zdnet.co.uk (Tom Espiner) — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 12:07:01 +0000

Exploit code is available for a memory corruption flaw in Internet Explorer 6 and 7, which could allow an intruder to crash the browser or send a user to a malicious web page

Small Business?

editorial@zdnet.co.uk — Sat, 21 Nov 2009 18:38:49 +0000

Why would a small business have any interest in this at all? The company I work for backs up all it's dynamic data daily on a series of 2G USB sticks (one per day). There is then a more detailed...

Climate research centre compromised

editorial@zdnet.co.uk — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 17:12:27 +0000

One of the UK's leading climate change research centres has had a security breach. The Climate Research Unit at the University of East Anglia (UEA) suffered a compromise of information, a UEA...

Beware business cloud dangers, says EU agency

editorial@zdnet.co.uk (Tom Espiner) — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 16:46:02 +0000

Organisations should be wary of vendor lock-in, according to the European Network and Information Security Agency

Cisco targets security professionals with iPhone app

editorial@zdnet.co.uk (Elinor Mills) — Fri, 20 Nov 2009 09:49:02 +0000

The company's new App Store entry features customised alerts and threat information delivered to the handheld device

UK police make Zeus Trojan arrests

editorial@zdnet.co.uk (Tom Espiner) — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 15:06:01 +0000

Two people were arrested in Manchester earlier this month on suspicion of distributing the Zeus banking Trojan

'Cloud vendors unprofessional', says analyst

editorial@zdnet.co.uk — Thu, 19 Nov 2009 02:24:35 +0000

An analyst has launched a broadside at cloud computing vendors, accusing them of being immature, and offering few real protection for their data. Camille Mendler, VP of research at Yankee...

Government web-monitoring plans on hold

editorial@zdnet.co.uk — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 17:39:47 +0000

Government plans to compel ISPs to process and store details of all web communications have been put on hold until after the next election. The Home Office told ZDNet UK on Wednesday that the...

T-Mobile workers accused of selling customer data

editorial@zdnet.co.uk (Tom Espiner) — Wed, 18 Nov 2009 13:55:02 +0000

The Information Commissioner's Office is investigating accusations that T-Mobile employees sold millions of customer details

Police right to hand over seized hardware, says judge

editorial@zdnet.co.uk (Tom Espiner) — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 17:26:02 +0000

The police were acting within the law when they handed evidence to a private company after the CPS declined to pursue a public prosecution, a judge has ruled

McAfee: Countries gearing up for cyber war

editorial@zdnet.co.uk (Elinor Mills) — Tue, 17 Nov 2009 09:27:02 +0000

The US, Israel, Russia, China and France are preparing for cyber offensives, according to a new McAfee report

Microsoft working on fix for Windows 7 SMB hole

editorial@zdnet.co.uk (Elinor Mills) — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 14:59:01 +0000

The company has warned customers that exploit code for the Server Message Block hole is available, and has suggested a workaround until a patch is ready

VeriSign: Major internet security update by 2011

editorial@zdnet.co.uk (Tom Espiner) — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 05:00:00 +0000

The organisation has said it will close a major attack vector in internet addressing in under two years

UK cybersecurity centre starting operations in March

editorial@zdnet.co.uk (Tom Espiner) — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 17:01:02 +0000

The agency responsible for UK cyberdefence will recruit people who 'understand the teenage hacker mentality' from within UK intelligence and law enforcement

MPs urge Nasa hacker clemency

editorial@zdnet.co.uk (Tom Espiner) — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 18:44:02 +0000

Home secretary Alan Johnson should use his discretion in deciding whether extradition to the US would breach Gary McKinnon's rights, according to the Home Affairs Select Committee

MoJ consults on £500k data breach fines

editorial@zdnet.co.uk (Tom Espiner) — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 16:51:02 +0000

Under government plans, organisations could be fined up to half-a-million pounds for serious data breaches

DNA details of innocent will be kept for six years

editorial@zdnet.co.uk — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 17:23:49 +0000

The government has announced that it plans to keep innocent people's DNA details for up to six years. In response to a consultation it launched last December, the government said in a statement...

Facebook denies mass hijack was down to flaw

editorial@zdnet.co.uk (Tom Espiner) — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 16:39:02 +0000

The social-networking site has said no user data was in danger when almost 300 user groups were taken over by privacy campaigners

Home secretary considers Nasa hacker plea

editorial@zdnet.co.uk (Tom Espiner) — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 13:25:02 +0000

The home secretary says he will decide 'quickly' whether psychiatric evidence regarding Nasa hacker Gary McKinnon is enough to keep him in the UK

Eastern Europeans charged with RBS WorldPay hack

editorial@zdnet.co.uk (Elinor Mills) — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 12:34:01 +0000

The defendants are accused of hacking into the payment processor network and running 'one of the most sophisticated computer hacking rings in the world'

Microsoft patches critical hole in Windows kernel

editorial@zdnet.co.uk (Elinor Mills) — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 09:59:02 +0000

November's Patch Tuesday features fixes for holes in Windows, Excel and Word, including a critical bug affecting the Windows kernel

Gov't stands firm on web-monitoring plans

editorial@zdnet.co.uk (Tom Espiner) — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 16:16:01 +0000

The government has said it wants ISPs and telecoms companies to retain records of all internet communications, despite fierce criticism in a consultation paper

Apple update tackles domain spoofing, other attacks

editorial@zdnet.co.uk (Elinor Mills) — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 08:28:02 +0000

The security update for Mac OS X addresses 43 specific issues, including holes that could allow an attacker to take over the computer

Google fixes risky Chrome bugs

editorial@zdnet.co.uk (Matthew Broersma) — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 16:42:02 +0000

A flaw in Gears could allow a malicious website to take control of a user's system, according to Google

Rickroll virus attacks iPhones

editorial@zdnet.co.uk (Liam Tung) — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 09:27:02 +0000

The 'ikee' worm replaces the infected device's background picture with an image of Rick Astley

Facebook checks where you're logging in from

editorial@zdnet.co.uk — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 11:43:39 +0000

Here's something I didn't know: Facebook keeps track of where you normally log in from, and uses this information to increase the security of your account. If you try to log in from an unusual...

Guardian UK Jobs site hacked, user data breached

editorial@zdnet.co.uk — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 00:12:37 +0100

The Guardian Jobs website has come under attack from a 'sophisticated and deliberate hack' that has exposed sensitive data, according to an email sent to affected users on Saturday. The breach...

Natwest systems failure causes outage

editorial@zdnet.co.uk — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 13:05:15 +0100

Natwest's computer systems experienced problems that lead to service outages, according to reports by bloggers and Twitter users. Dan Stuchbury, a developer who lives in Wiltshire, blogged on...

RSA: Resistance is futile

editorial@zdnet.co.uk — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 12:21:53 +0100

Companies need to embrace consumer and Web 2.0 technologies, rather than ban them, according to security vendor RSA. Christopher Young, RSA senior vice president of products, told an audience at...

CIA-backed firm invests in social media monitoring

editorial@zdnet.co.uk — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 11:59:40 +0100

A CIA-sponsored investment company called In-Q-Tel has bought into Visible Technologies, a company that provides a social media monitoring technology called truCast. TruCast powers services that...

Kaspersky: Security not part of Microsoft's identity

editorial@zdnet.co.uk — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 15:55:38 +0100

Eugene Kaspersky, co-founder and CEO of anti-virus firm Kaspersky Lab, has criticised Microsoft's brand image after the launch of its Security Essentials. In an interview with ZDNet Asia on Friday,...

NASA Hacker McKinnon gets appeal extension

editorial@zdnet.co.uk — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 13:37:49 +0100

Home Secretary Alan Johnson has agreed to delay the final deadline on Gary McKinnon's fight against extradition, after being presented with new medical evidence on McKinnon's psychiatric condition....

Geany unresponsive

editorial@zdnet.co.uk — Wed, 14 Oct 2009 09:36:04 +0100

One of the features I love the best in Ubuntu linux is the Connect to Server... option, which allows you to mount an FTP server so that it appears as a normal folder on your desktop. ...

Businesses unaware of dangers of online crime

editorial@zdnet.co.uk — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 11:12:39 +0100

A report published by CIFAS on Monday has revealed that one in five businesses has been a victim of an internet scam. According to the report, a recent survey of 44 UK businesses carried out by...

Wales to adopt mobile average-speed cameras

editorial@zdnet.co.uk — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 17:23:10 +0100

The Welsh government is moving towards adopting the use of mobile average speed cameras, according to Kable. The cameras, which use automatic numberplate recognition (ANPR) to gauge the average...

High Court injunction served via Twitter

editorial@zdnet.co.uk — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 14:44:50 +0100

The High Court has granted an injunction that will be served via Twitter. The injunction was granted to self-styled Thatcherite blogger Donal Blaney. It calls for a person who is allegedly...

Malware and the moral compass

editorial@zdnet.co.uk — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 08:43:40 +0100

Theres no such thing as bad news. All publicity is good publicity. These are widely held beliefs by those involved in self promotion for good or for bad. Weve known for a long time...

McKinnon fight goes to Brighton

editorial@zdnet.co.uk — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 17:30:49 +0100

Campaigners against the extradition of Nasa hacker Gary McKinnon have garnered more support at the Labour Party conference in Brighton. McKinnon's mother Janis Sharp told ZDNet UK on Tuesday...

Security? It's the wetware, stupid!

editorial@zdnet.co.uk — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 10:49:29 +0100

Forget the technology: when it comes to security, here's a salutary reminder that it's the wetware that's the problem. So there I was this morning, nipping down to out to get a pint of milk,...

Malware industry going open source

editorial@zdnet.co.uk — Fri, 18 Sep 2009 17:39:29 +0100

Malware writers are turning to the open source model in an attempt to squeeze more life out of old Trojans, according to the security firm Symantec. Many virus writers are now giving away...

Official apology for Alan Turing

editorial@zdnet.co.uk — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 22:40:02 +0100

Prime Minister Gordon Brown has made an apology to Alan Turing, the mathematician and cryptographer whose work at Bletchley Park had profound consequences in shortening World War II. Turing, whose...

Turing apology campaign: "public announcement shortly"

editorial@zdnet.co.uk — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 20:07:04 +0100

It may be bad form to flag a news story based on a single tweet, but this one warrants it: It's from @jgrahamc - John Graham-Cumming, instigator of the petition to get an official apology for...

MoD pays £150m for soldier tech

editorial@zdnet.co.uk — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 17:35:55 +0100

The Ministry of Defence has announced that it will pay contractor Thales £150m for the first wave of the Future Infantry Soldier Technology (Fist) programme. The money will pay for thermal...

Windows 7 zero-day reported

editorial@zdnet.co.uk — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 15:41:56 +0100

A security researcher has said there is a zero-day vulnerability affecting Windows 7 and Vista. The flaw in Windows 7 could allow an attack which would cause a critical system error, or "Blue...

O2 to remotely fix router vulnerability

editorial@zdnet.co.uk — Thu, 03 Sep 2009 17:09:07 +0100

O2 has come up with a fix for a flaw that affects some of its home broadband routers. The cross-site request forgery (CSRF) vulnerability could allow someone to gain unauthorised access to a...

McKinnon suffered breakdown, says hacker's mother

editorial@zdnet.co.uk — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 17:59:02 +0100

Gary McKinnon, the man accused by US prosecutors of "the biggest military hack of all time", has suffered a severe deterioration in his mental health, according to his mother. McKinnon, who has...

Online banks vary in security levels, survey finds

editorial@zdnet.co.uk — Fri, 28 Aug 2009 16:00:31 +0100

Some major UK banking websites offer only 'basic security', a survey has found. The survey, conducted by Which? Computing, found a large disparity in the levels of security offered by banks....

Snow Leopard may contain antivirus

editorial@zdnet.co.uk — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 11:58:44 +0100

The next version of Apple's OS X, which is due out on Friday, may bundle antivirus capabilities. Mac security firm Intego said that the latest version of Snow Leopard would have an antimalware...

HSBC home banking web site trojan "false report",says bank

editorial@zdnet.co.uk — Sat, 15 Aug 2009 14:11:18 +0100

A report on the UK Crypto security mailing list this morning claims that HSBC's Personal Banking website had been infected by malware. However, the bank says that the fault lies in the AV software...

Chinese gov't in further Green Dam concessions

editorial@zdnet.co.uk — Thu, 13 Aug 2009 17:54:01 +0100

PC makers will no longer have to pre-install Green Dam censorware on PCs in China, the government has announced. The official Xinhua news agency reported on Thursday that Li Yizhong, China's...

Cybercops score against football fraudsters

editorial@zdnet.co.uk — Tue, 11 Aug 2009 15:03:43 +0100

The Police Central e-Crime Unit, which launched earlier this year, has notched up a series of wins against websites aimed to defraud sports fans. The success could play well for the unit, which...

Twitter suffers denial of service attack

editorial@zdnet.co.uk — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 18:10:05 +0100

Popular micro-blogging site Twitter has suffered a denial of service attack. The site was inaccessible from approximately 3pm BST for over an hour. The site is now back up and running, but...

Twitter Goes Down Just After Iran Election Ceremony

editorial@zdnet.co.uk — Thu, 06 Aug 2009 17:37:07 +0100

A coincidence - very possibly. But it is odd that someone would choose to launch a DDOS attack at Twitter just after Mahmoud Ahmadinejad was voted in as president. Twitter was very useful to...

US VoIP wiretapping legality hazy, says EFF

editorial@zdnet.co.uk — Wed, 05 Aug 2009 13:13:28 +0100

The Electronic Frontier Foundation has said the legality of US law enforcement wiretapping foreign internet telephony providers is unclear. US wiretapping law, called the Communications...

Gary McKinnon loses latest appeal

editorial@zdnet.co.uk — Fri, 31 Jul 2009 10:05:03 +0100

Gary McKinnon, the hacker accused of accessing nearly 100 US government computers from his home in North London, has had his latest judicial appeal against extradition denied in the High Court this...

Labour MP to step down over Nasa hacker

editorial@zdnet.co.uk — Mon, 27 Jul 2009 17:25:19 +0100

Labour MP Andrew MacKinlay will not run at the next election after becoming disillusioned with the government over the extradition of Nasa hacker Gary McKinnon. The Times reported on Friday that...

Nasa hacker judgement day set

editorial@zdnet.co.uk — Fri, 24 Jul 2009 15:17:12 +0100

The high court judges that are deciding the outcome of two concurrent judicial reviews of the case of Gary McKinnon will give their decisions next week, on Friday 31 July. The date was revealed...

Blacklister fined £5,000

editorial@zdnet.co.uk — Thu, 16 Jul 2009 17:30:52 +0100

Ian Kerr, who operated a blacklist of construction workers, has been fined £5,000 at the behest of the Information Commissioner's Office. Before being caught by the ICO in May, Kerr had operated...

Nasa hacker 'more hopeful'

editorial@zdnet.co.uk — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 18:15:21 +0100

Nasa hacker Gary McKinnon is still under pressure, but is becoming more hopeful that he may avoid extradition due to growing support from celebrities, politicians, and the press. McKinnon told...

Tories to force McKinnon debate in Commons

editorial@zdnet.co.uk — Tue, 14 Jul 2009 13:54:13 +0100

The Conservative Party has introduced a debate over the UK/US extradition treaty to Wednesday's parliamentary agenda. The move was announced in a statement issued on Monday by the leader of the...

McKinnon judicial review application on Tuesday

editorial@zdnet.co.uk — Mon, 13 Jul 2009 17:26:58 +0100

Nasa hacker Gary McKinnon's application for a second judicial review will happen on Tuesday. The review, at the Royal Courts of Justice, is to apply for a decision as to whether McKinnon could...

Met will not reopen phone hack investigation

editorial@zdnet.co.uk — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 18:31:06 +0100

The Metropolitan Police will not reopen its investigation into alleged phone hacking by the News of the World. In a press statement delivered outside Scotland Yard on Thursday, Assistant...

Feds take DDoS in their stride

editorial@zdnet.co.uk — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 18:18:43 +0100

The US Department of Homeland Security has said that a series of distributed denial-of-service attacks began on US government networks on 4 July. However, Amy Kudwa, deputy press secretary for...

TalkTalk and Virgin Media still evaluating Phorm

editorial@zdnet.co.uk — Mon, 06 Jul 2009 17:36:57 +0100

Service providers TalkTalk and Virgin Media are continuing to evaluate Phorm's ad-serving technology. The companies have been reviewing the technology for approximately 18 months. Following BT's...

Nasa hacker petition presented to Number 10

editorial@zdnet.co.uk — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 17:27:34 +0100

Sting's wife Trudie Styler and Janis Sharp have presented a petition to Number 10 calling for Nasa hacker Gary McKinnon not to be extradited to the US. Styler, and Sharp, who is McKinnon's...

UK to appoint cyber-sec tsar?

editorial@zdnet.co.uk — Wed, 24 Jun 2009 12:00:39 +0100

The UK is to appoint a cyber security tsar along the lines of the US, according to a story in the Telegraph this morning. The story is similar to one that appeared in the Guardian ten days ago....

Nokia Siemens denies Iran web snoop

editorial@zdnet.co.uk — Mon, 22 Jun 2009 17:32:52 +0100

Nokia Siemens has denied providing deep packet inspection capabilities to the Iranian authorities, following an article in the Wall Street Journal on Monday. The WSJ published the article which...

Nasa hacker petition tops 4,000

editorial@zdnet.co.uk — Mon, 15 Jun 2009 15:17:26 +0100

Over 4,000 people have now signed a petition that people with Asperger's Syndrome should not be extradited, directed at the Prime Minister's Office. The petition directly refers to Gary...

BSA launches two-month crackdown

editorial@zdnet.co.uk — Wed, 03 Jun 2009 16:02:42 +0100

The Business Software Alliance is to launch a two-month campaign against businesses in London that haven't paid software licence fees. BSA will be phoning 1,000 businesses at random, to ask them...

Reports: Smith to resign as home secretary

editorial@zdnet.co.uk — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 13:55:03 +0100

There are various reports that Jacqui Smith is to resign as home secretary in the wake of the MPs expenses scandal. Smith, who has presided over Home Office-led IT projects, including the plan...

Google: People will get used to Street View

editorial@zdnet.co.uk — Fri, 15 May 2009 17:28:26 +0100

Google's privacy counsel Peter Fleischer has told ZDNet UK that people "will get used" to Street View. Last month, villagers in the Buckinghamshire town of Broughton surrounded a Street View car...