The Last Watchdog

on Internet security by Byron Acohido

Chinese government might not be behind Google attack
January 26, 2010

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Talk has begun percolating that Google’s threat to pull out of China could precipitate a Cyber Cold War.

But while all the marbles seem to be rolling in the direction of castigating China, there is an equally plausible perpetrator: garden-variety, profit-motivated cyber thieves out to amass industrial secrets which they can sell to the highest bidder.

“It is certainly a possibility that someone is doing this …More

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Google-China affair shows how China does business
January 25, 2010

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USA TODAY

25Jan2010

By Byron Acohido, Calum MacLeod and Kathy Chu

Original online posting here.

BEIJING — Zhang Nanting enjoys text messaging acquaintances while he’s at the Golden Fortune Internet café here. Lately, the 28-year-old insurance salesman has been meticulous about keeping his texts squeaky clean.

“I rarely send rude, short messages,” says Zhang, citing the government’s recent crackdown on pornographic texting. “I think it’s excessive management, …More

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SQL injection attacks exacerbated by work of ‘grey hat’ researchers
January 24, 2010

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In this LastWatchdog guest blog post Phil Neray, vice president of database security vendor Guardium, which was  acquired by IBM last November, focuses attention on SQL injection vulnerabilities and attacks — and why they remain a substantive threat.

by Phil Neray

VP of Security Strategy, Guardium, an IBM Company

We’ve recently seen a series of SQL injection cyber-attacks conducted by “gray-hats” — including the recent  attack …More

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Microsoft hustles out IE patch for zero-day vulnerability implicated in Google hack
January 19, 2010

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The blowback from Google’s threat to leave China  continues to escalate like a hyper-ventilated episode of Law & Order.

Microsoft has just announced that it will issue an emergency patch — something it rarely does – to staunch the Internet Explorer security hole implicated in recent data-stealing cyberattacks against Google, Adobe, Jupiter and dozens of other companies.

UPDATE: Microsoft has just announced that the patch will be …More

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China’s cyberspies aren’t the only ones prowling Internet
January 15, 2010

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Google’s taking umbrage over Chinese cyberattacks has security experts talking about just how vast and rich the world of cyber espionage has quietly become.

“It isn’t just China,” says Matt Moynahan CEO of applications security firm Veracode. “They are the most aggressive. But all large governments are doing this, as are organized non-government actors.”

Indeed, China, Russia, North Korea, Iran, Israel, France, the United States and the …More

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Google yanks suspect banking apps from Android Marketplace
January 11, 2010

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A programmer who calls himself  09Droid has illuminated security concerns sure to come into sharper focus  as the tech giants and the  financial services industry make their move to  extend Internet banking to mobile devices.

Antivirus supplier F-Secure says 09Droid offered more than 50 mobile banking applications for sale through the Android Marketplace. But Google on Monday pulled the apps. It seems several banks for whom 09Droid took …More

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Spread of fake Microsoft Outlook alerts highlights rising use of DIY malware kits
January 8, 2010

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Email filtering company Red Condor has been intercepting an email phishing attack that’s spreading faked Outlook alerts at a phenomenal rate.

More on that below.

But first let’s take this to the 30,000 foot level. This Outlook ruse is most likely  being  conducted by attackers using a Do-It-Yourself malware kit that has amazing functionality, which anybody can buy right now for less than a grand.

Over the course of 2009, …More

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