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Top News

The H Roundup for the week ending 19 May

The H Roundup icon In the last seven days: a beta for PostgreSQL 9.2 arrived, Chrome 19 was declared stable, and Oracle changed its mind about damages in the Android case. Also, The H provided some tools and tips for the systemd Linux init system, and Andrew Back took a practical look at the Internet of Things more »

Top Feature

Microsoft's struggle against bugs

Microsoft's struggle against bugs It has been ten years since Bill Gates famously emailed all Microsoft's employees declaring that data protection and system security should be the company's top priorities. Uli Ries describes the subsequent progress Microsoft has achieved in making its software more secure more »

IT security news and features

News & Features

18 May 2012
Twitter refines tracking, adds Do Not Track support

Twitter logo Do Not Track is based on the idea that user changes to default browser settings related to privacy should have an effect on the way service providers online handle personal data more »

18 May 2012
Global Payments breach reportedly worse than expected

Padlock broken icon According to a report, the security breach at credit card processing company Global Payments extends back even further than was previously believed and may affect more than seven million accounts more »

18 May 2012
British hackers get jail terms

Scales icon One hacker took over a Facebook account and received 12 months in jail while the other ran keylogging trojans and sold stolen credentials as a sideline to committing a series of burglaries; this earned 18 months in jail more »

17 May 2012
DoS vulnerability in Bitcoin

Bitcoin logo The developers of the Bitcoin software have fixed a problem in the client that allowed users to perform DoS attacks on other user's nodes. Details of the nature of the vulnerability have not yet been disclosed more »

17 May 2012
Apache details OpenOffice 3.4 security fixes

Apache OpenOffice logo Following the release of 3.4.0 last week, the Apache Software Foundation has now detailed the security fixes in the new version of the open source productivity suite and said that it has already been downloaded more than one million times more »

17 May 2012
The Pirate Bay and WikiLeaks recover from DDoS attacks

The Pirate BAy logo The Pirate Bay fell under a DDoS attacks for which, an ex-Anonymous member has claimed responsibility while in an apparently unrelated DDoS attack Wikileaks was down for over 72 hours more »

17 May 2012
Alert!Security vulnerability in sudo's netmask function patched

Sudo logo The sudo developers have fixed a bug in the privilege elevating utility that would allow an attacker, under certain circumstances, to execute commands that they should not be able to access on the machine in question more »

17 May 2012
RealPlayer update fixes security vulnerabilities

RealPlayer logo RealNetworks is warning users about multiple security vulnerabilities in its RealPlayer media player application for Windows, one of which could be exploited by an attacker to remotely execute arbitrary code on a victim's system more »

16 May 2012
Avira update puts behaviour recognition on hold

Avira logo When Avira's behaviour recognition module disabled important system processes after a Service Pack, the company issued an update to fix the problem. The catch: the update completely removes the behaviour recognition feature for the time being more »

16 May 2012
.secure domains require proof of security

Padlock icon Under the .secure gTLD, Artemis plans to create a form of high security zone on the internet that will offer trustworthy and secure services. Potential .secure services must meet various conditions more »

16 May 2012
Chrome 19 released with tab syncing

Chrome logo The headline feature of the new stable chrome is tab synchronisation, but Google has also slipped in an experimental version of Web Intents more »

16 May 2012
Alert!QuickTime for Windows update plugs security holes

QuickTime logo Version 7.7.2 of QuickTime for Windows addresses a total of 17 security vulnerabilities in the media player, all of which could be could exploited by an attacker to crash the application or execute arbitrary code on a victim's system more »

16 May 2012
Avira update fixes Service Pack bug

Avira logo Avira has fixed the problem in this week's Service Pack which resulted in the software blocking harmless processes. Affected users need to manually install an update to implement the fix more »

15 May 2012
Alert!Avira AV update hangs systems - Update

Avira logo Avira's paid-for anti-virus software product is currently hanging users' computers and, in some cases, causing them not to boot. Users who have not yet installed the latest update should refrain from doing so more »

15 May 2012
Fraunhofer Institute finds security vulnerabilites in cloud storage services

Cloud icon The Fraunhofer Institute for Secure Information Technology has tested the security of several cloud storage services. It identified security problems in several areas, including encryption and data protection more »

15 May 2012
Flashback removal tool arrives for Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard

Apple icon Even though the operating system is no longer officially supported, Apple has published a standalone Flashback malware removal tool for computers running Mac OS X 10.5 Leopard, as well as a Security Update that disables older versions of the Adobe Flash Player more »

15 May 2012
Kickstarter security vulnerability exposes projects

Kickstarter logo A security vulnerability on crowd-funding platform Kickstarter means that outsiders have been able to access details of unpublished projects. Kickstarter has reassured project backers that their personal data has not been affected more »

14 May 2012
Notepad++ web site compromised

Notepad++ logo The web site of the text editor was breached last week. The attackers tried to harvest the Facebook account credentials of visitors and defaced the site. Downloads of the software do not seem to have been affected more »

14 May 2012
Alert!Skype for Linux hotfix plugs security hole

Skype logo Nearly one year after the last update arrived, Skype has issued a new hotfix release for Linux that includes a newer version of libpng, which closes a security hole more »

14 May 2012
Bitcoinica Bitcoin site breached

Bitcoin logo Virtual bank robbery with real-world damage: criminals have stolen 18,547 virtual currency coins from the Bitcoinica Bitcoin site - valued at approximately £55,000. The attackers also managed to access the entire database including user data more »

14 May 2012
Fifth Debian 6.0 "Squeeze" update released

Debian logo The developers at the Debian Project have announced the release of the fifth update to version 6.0 of their popular Linux distribution more »

14 May 2012
Worth Reading: Confessions of a botnet operator

Botnet icon A self-confessed operator of a Zeus botnet has hosted a Q&A session on his personal motivations, his area of operations and computer security in general more »

13 May 2012
Sniffer tool displays other people's WhatsApp messages

WhatsApp logo An Android app is able to display messages from WhatsApp users connected to the same network. Since WhatsApp transfers messages in plain text format, this is no great feat more »

12 May 2012
The H Roundup for the week ending 12 May

The H Roundup logo In the last seven days: Apache OpenOffice 3.4.0 made its debut, Adobe put a price on security updates for Photoshop, and Dell and Red Hat signed an OEM partnership. Also, The H took a look at the systemd Linux init system and provided more details about what's coming in Linux 3.4 more »

12 May 2012
Adobe backs down, will release patches for critical holes

Adobe logo Adobe says it is now developing patches for its Photoshop, Illustrator and Flash Professional CS5.x products to close critical holes that it told users could be closed by buying the just-released CS6 versions of the applications more »

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