threats

Facebook is working with prison officials to delete accounts that belong to inmates that are found to be updated while they are incarcerated.

The California Department of Corrections and Rehabilitation said the cooperative effort is designed to crackdown on inmates using social networking or cell phones to deliver threats or unwanted sexual advances.

"Access to social media allows inmates to circumvent our monitoring process and continue to engage in criminal activity," CDCR Secretary Matthew Cate said in a statement. "This new cooperation between law enforcement and Facebook will help protect the community and potentially avoid future victims.&… Read more

Google is trying to have its finger in every pie, and it's this trying to be "all things to all people" that venture capitalist Jean-Louis Gassée derides as the "spray and pray" approach in a column headlined "Google's SOE (Strategy of Everything)."

"We'll shoot arrows in the dark and when the sun rises, we'll paint a target around the one that lands in a good spot," he says, mimicking how a strategist might explain the approach. "We'll declare victory and raise a second round … Read more

External attacks from cybercriminals will soon pose a greater risk to the corporate world than insider threats, according to the results of a Cyber-Ark survey (PDF) released yesterday.

Polling more than 1,400 IT staffers and top-level executives around the world, Cyber-Ark Software's fifth annual "Trust, Security and Passwords" report tried to get a sense of the security dangers that concern the corporate world for now and in the near future. The survey found that 57 percent of the executives believe that over the next one to three years, cybercriminals will present more of a security risk … Read more

The breach at RSA that could compromise the effectiveness of the firm's two-factor authentication SecurID tokens was accomplished via phishing e-mails and an exploit for a previously unpatched Adobe Flash hole, RSA has revealed.

The attacker sent two different phishing e-mails over a two-day period last month with a subject line of "2011 Recruitment Plan" to two small groups of employees who weren't considered particularly high-profile or high-value targets, Uri Rivner, head of new technologies in consumer identity protection at RSA, wrote in a blog post. Attached to the e-mails was an Excel file that contained … Read more

RSA warned its customers yesterday that its network had been breached and data had been stolen that could affect customers using its popular SecurID token authentication technology. Although details are scarce, here's what we know so far.

What happened? Someone launched an "extremely sophisticated cyberattack" on RSA in the form of an Advanced Persistent Threat and data was stolen related to the SecurID technology, the company said in a statement on its Web site. APT attacks are often used for espionage, targeting source code and other information within a company or government agency. They typically involve knowledge … Read more

Information about RSA's SecurID authentication tokens used by millions of people, including government and bank employees, was stolen during an "extremely sophisticated cyberattack," putting customers relying on them to secure their networks at risk, the company said today.

"Recently, our security systems identified an extremely sophisticated cyberattack in progress being mounted against RSA," Executive Chairman Art Coviello, wrote in an open letter to customers, which was posted on the company's Web site.

"Our investigation has led us to believe that the attack is in the category of an Advanced Persistent Threat. Our investigation … Read more

LAS VEGAS--With CES winding down, I'm still in Nevada--and I'm suddenly worried about the state's education system. Specifically, a school a few hours up the road in Carson City.

The Associated Press solemnly informs me that six teenage girls at Carson Middle School have been arrested after one of them allegedly sent a Facebook invite to about 100 of her closest schoolmates.

The event to which they were invited--scheduled for yesterday and that 18 students cheerily agreed to attend--was called "Attack A Teacher Day."

Carson Middle School Principal Dan Sadler told the AP that the … Read more

Spam may be down but malware marches merrily on.

That's the message from the "November Threat Landscape Report" released yesterday by security vendor Fortinet.

Global spam levels ultimately fell 12 percent in November after Dutch authorities took down a large Bredolab network made up of 140 different servers. The Bredolab botnet was typically used by cybercriminals to send out spam selling fake drugs, according to Fortinet. Spam had actually fallen as much as 26 percent the week after the network was dismantled but was able to stage a bit of a recovery afterward.

The ever-present Koobface botnet, … Read more

The British are renowned for their sense of humor. It is, indeed, one of the only reliable British exports over the last 40 years. Together with airlines, Carey Mulligan, Cadbury's chocolate.

So you might have thought that even judges in a dreary place like Doncaster, U.K. have the ability to estimate when something might be intended to be a joke.

It seems not. As Paul Chambers, the man who tweeted his frustration about the possibility of a canceled flight, has lost his appeal against what some might think is one of the more putrid convictions of recent times.… Read more