Sale of ICQ Could Leave Individuals Open to FSB Spying

Digital Sky Technologies has closed a deal with AOL to buy the ICQ instant messaging service for $187.5 million, according to Russian news agency RIA Novosti.

Jeff Carr, of GreyLogic, says the deal has interesting implications from an espionage standpoint.

As part of the deal, the servers will be moved from Israel to Russia, which RIA Novosti says will…

Crimeware Hosting ISP Taken Out

Ukrainian PegasusHosting, a crimeware friendly ISP, has been partially taken-down by one of its upstream providers.

The ISP, known for hosting phishing mule scams and other crimeware, has had a significant portion of its IP addresses null routed, according to dynamoo.com, a security blog.

“Hosted web sites include fake pharmacies, fake job sites, hacking, porn and what appear to be fake dating sites,” according to dynamoo. “Blocking the…

Malware Warnings on Facebook Prove to be False

A series of warnings making the rounds on Facebook regarding a Trojan worm called “Knob Face” are actually inaccurate, according to security researchers at Sophos. The actual malware, however, is much more serious and has nothing to do with the alleged warnings.

The warnings are actually likely to cause more harm than good, according to Sophos, which advises only sharing threat warnings after double checking the information with…

Cyber Coordinator Schmidt Calls Meeting to Discuss Cyber Agenda

White House Cybersecurity Coordinator Howard Schmidt will host a meeting today to discuss President Barack Obama’s cyber agenda as outlined in May 2009. The meeting is expected to include industry experts and such heavyweights as Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano and Gary Locke, Secretary of Commerce, according to Computer World.

The goal of…

Air Force Begins Training Officers in Cyber War

The United States Air Force is moving to rapidly increase its cyber capabilities by training cyber warriors to provide defensive and offensive cyber capabilities. Airmen in training as cyber warfare officers are learning to provide dynamic defense against cyber attacks on critical infrastructure. Once the art of defense has been mastered, the training…

Naval Academy Looks for Cyber Training Center

The United States Naval Academy is looking to build a $100 million cyber education center to train midshipmen in conducting cyber warfare, officials announced recently.

While Academy officials have yet to submit a formal proposal to the Navy’s top leaders, the Navy’s demands for trained and skilled cyber professionals coming…

Featured Job- Cyber Database Administrator with BAE

Job Number: IT100602-0446 Location: Herndon, VA Category: Other Security Clearance Status: Active Security Clearance Type: TS/SCI with Polygraph Job Level: Regular Travel Required: 0% Shift: 1st US Citizenship Required: Yes Posting Date: 6/9/2010

BAE Systems is looking for a Cyber Database Administrator to work with a team of experts on high profile data sets for a customer. The DBA candidate will be the focal point for information extractions and manipulation of a large scale SQL database. Ongoing activities …

NIST Developed Software to be Used to Protect Health Data

Security software patented by the National Institute of Standards and Technology a decade ago looks poised for use the help protect health data, according to a statement by NIST.

The program, an algorithm that can be placed in larger software, controls access to information systems and has been looked into by a company operating in the health care field.

“We think…

Password Reuse Could Hold Key to iTunes Hack

Following recent revelations regarding Apple apps developers using hacked accounts to boost ratings, speculation has increased surrounding just how the accounts were compromised. Researchers at F-Secure view the matter as relatively simple, as figuring out the password to iTunes could be as simple as accessing the email password of the target.

According to a recent F-Secure survey, 20 percent of people use the same password for everything. A majority…

Software Vulnerability Numbers Increase Dramatically in 2010

The number of vulnerabilities recorded in the first half of 2010 is almost equal to the total number of vulnerabilities recorded in 2009, according to a report by Secunia, a security notification firm.

Apple, Oracle and Microsoft topped the list with the most recorded vulnerabilities. The company sees the threat landscape as shifting from targeting operating system vulnerabilities to hitting…