CNET News - Security

Symantec's Ramzan on solving the antivirus puzzle

Elinor Mills — Fri, 03 Jul 2009 08:00:00 PDT

Zulfikar Ramzan, tecnical director and architect at Symantec

(Credit: Symantec)

As technical director and architect at Symantec, Zulfikar Ramzan spends his time trying to outsmart the virus writers responsible for the onslaught of malware that infects millions of computers on a daily basis.

Ramzan, 33, talked with CNET News this ...

Apple fixing iPhone SMS security hole

Elinor Mills — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 14:03:00 PDT

Apple expects to have a fix later this month for a vulnerability in the iPhone that could allow an attacker to gain control of the device remotely via SMS, a security researcher said on Thursday.

An attacker could exploit a weakness in the way iPhones handle SMS (short message service) ...

Waledac worm targeting July 4 spam offensive

Elinor Mills — Thu, 02 Jul 2009 10:49:00 PDT

The Waledac worm is gearing up for a spam campaign related to the July 4 holiday, a security researcher warned on Thursday.

Researchers analyzing the code of the worm, which has been deploying updates to previously compromised PCs, have discovered that at least 18 domain names have been registered related ...

ATM vendor gets security talk pulled from conferences

Elinor Mills — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 12:30:00 PDT

(Credit: Black Hat)

Last year it was smartcards and this year it's ATMs.

It's almost security conference season in Las Vegas and with one month to go, a presentation has been pulled from Black Hat and Defcon.

Juniper Networks says it pulled a talk about a flaw in ...

Postini: Google's take on e-mail security

Elinor Mills — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 08:00:00 PDT

MOUNTAIN VIEW, Calif.--The computer security industry historically borrows military defense concepts to combat digital threats, literally creating war rooms where experts follow attacks in progress on huge screens with phones ringing off the hook.

Not so at Google's Postini e-mail security service ...

Botnets lead the way for spam

Vivian Yeo — Wed, 01 Jul 2009 06:35:00 PDT

Spam made up 90.4 percent of all e-mail traffic in June, with botnets accounting for the vast majority of those unsolicited messages, according to a new report from Symantec's MessageLabs.

Spam sent out from botnets, or networks of zombie PCs, made up 83.2 percent of unsolicited e-mail ...

Stallman warns of Mono 'risk'

Matthew Broersma — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 12:03:00 PDT

Richard Stallman, speaking at MIT in 2006.

(Credit: CNET)

GNU project founder Richard Stallman has called on developers to pull back from Mono, arguing that increasing use of the open-source toolset could prompt legal action by Microsoft.

Mono is a .Net-compatible set of tools designed to allow applications based on ...

China delays rule for Net-screening software

Stephen Shankland — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 07:58:00 PDT

China has indefinitely delayed enforcement of a requirement that PC makers preinstall Green Dam-Youth Escort software that experts believe would have screened not just Internet pornography but also some online political content.

Green Dam allows users to specify categories of sites to block.

(Credit: University of Michigan)

The reprieve, announced ...

Originally posted at News - Politics and Law

Swedish company to buy Pirate Bay

Tom Espiner — Tue, 30 Jun 2009 07:25:00 PDT

The Pirate Bay, a file-sharing site entangled in a court case over pirated music, will be bought by a Swedish software company.

Global Gaming Factory X (GGF) announced the deal Tuesday. The company, which provides digital distribution tools for Internet cafes, will buy The Pirate Bay for cash and shares ...

'Iceman' pleads guilty in credit card theft case

Elinor Mills — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 16:24:00 PDT

Max Ray Vision, formerly Max Butler.

(Credit: Santa Clara County Sheriff)

Max Ray Vision, aka "Iceman," pleaded guilty on Monday to two counts of wire fraud stemming from the theft of nearly 2 million credit card numbers and $86 million in alleged fraudulent purchases.

Vision faces up to 60 years ...