TrustMeSecurity.com

Apparently, researchers have found that Wi-Fi networks are vulnerable to attacks. In a story written by The Register, researchers say that communications could be compromised in less than 15 minutes. It’s something to think about.

“Martin Beck and Erik Tews - two graduate students at technical universities in Germany - found a combination of techniques that allow an attacker to decrypt limited communications protected with the lesser of two WPA security protocols, known as the Temporal Key Integrity Protocol or TKIP.”

 

Here’s something new, or at least new to me. Tomshardware has a story about USB or thumb drives (whatever you like to call them) being prime targets for virus infections. They’re very popular because you can move large amounts of data from one place to another. But, it’s their popularity that’s making them a target for attackers.

“Because thumb drives are so popular and generally get used to move data between multiple systems frequently, especially in the IT world, they are also a prime target for attackers as means to get infections spread around with you doing most of the work for them.”

It seems a couple of scientists have found flaws in the filters of Yahoo and Microsoft. Those filters were previously thought to be strong enough to check any abuse. I suppose they aren’t as iron-clad as once thought. The full story can be found at SpamFighter. com.

“News reports stated that Newcastle University’s PhD student, Ahmad Salah El Ahmad along with Dr Jeff Yan rendered their research discoveries directly to Microsoft and Yahoo for enhancing their systems security.”

They say when someone becomes famous that people will do anything to use that fame to support their own agenda. Well, I guess internet viruses are no different. According to a story by Zed Net, people are now getting emails to watch an amazing speech by American president-elect Barack Obama. But, as they go through the downloading steps to access it they’re actually downloading malware. It just goes to show you can’t trust anything.

“The email directs you to a site deemed America.gov, which apparently is meant to be a State Department site, and includes a message to download “Adobe Flash,” in reality a piece of malware, to view the speech. (Of course, the current State Department wouldn’t be hawking Obama speeches and any such PR would be the job of a White House site, not State.)”

According to a story by the Canadian-based publication the Vacouver Sun, North Americans need to better protect themselves online. And, here’s the really scary part, experts say that not only are terrorists learning to hack but they are also stockpiling people with strong computer science skills to unleash lethal attacks on communications systems in other countries.   

“This really represents the next battlefront,” said Cornelius Tate, director of Department of Homeland Security’s National Cyber Security and Communications Division.”

Well, the American presidential election might be over but the saga of Sarah Palin’s email breach is still lingering on. The man charged with hacking into her email account has apparently plead not guilty to the charges, according to CIOL. The justice system in general, regardless of the country, usually takes a while so don’t expect a conclusion to this story for some time.

“The accused had walked into Federal Court in handcuffs, shackles in ankles and tennis shoes to plead not guilty. The Federal Grand Jury, however, indicted him in the case and limited his access to computer to checking his own e-mail and doing class work.

Kernell was also restricted from having any contact directly or indirectly with the Alaska governor or her family. Kernell, the son of a Democratic state legislator, is an economics student at the University of Tennessee.”

It seems that text messaging might not be so safe after all. According to a story by ihotdesk, companies that text message their customers may be putting them at risk for identity theft. So, be careful who you text and what information you reveal to them.

“Companies that communicate with customers using text messages via their mobile phones could be leaving them open to identity theft, it has been claimed.”

Adobe has had to do a little patchwork lately. According to Secure Computing, Adobe released a new and improved version of their application. The older version had about nine flaws that could have made it a target for hackers.

“The update — which addresses nine flaws in version 8.1.2 and earlier — includes a fix for a stack buffer overflow issue that was reported by four security companies.”

TechRepublic has a handy article that might be useful to you. Just about everyone uses Microsoft programs either at home or at work. Well, the article has ten security tips that might help keep you safe online.

“There are general security tips that apply to all operating systems, of course, but each operating system platform provides its own security challenges.”

A bank is Dublin, Ireland is trying to reassure customers. According to a story by Silicon Republic, the bank suffered a data breach after a USB stick containing the information of close to 900 customers went missing. The bank is saying that the device didn’t contain financial information.

“It emerged this morning that a USB key with 894 customer account numbers, names and addresses has been mislaid.”