Verizon to Hold Webinar Offering Tips to Reduce Authentication Risks

Verizon is to hold  a webinar this Thursday (Aug. 25) entitled “Strengthen Your Security Infrastructure with Universal Identify Services,” discussing the continued need for strong second-factor authentication and available options.

According to the Verizon “2011 Data Breach Investigation Report,” authentication and credential exploits are responsible for almost half of data breaches involving hacking.

With an increase of second-factor authentication…

Hackers Hit Hong Kong Stock Exchange

Trading in seven Hong Kong stocks was suspended today after hackers infiltrated the exchange’s website for the second day in a row and launched “sustained and systematic” distributed denial-of-service attacks.

The attacks made the site temporarily unavailable. It is not yet clear whether the attack overwhelmed the site with data, making it unreachable, or whether hackers gained unauthorized access to it.

While the exchange does not know who the hackers are,…

DHS Provides Internet Safety Tips for Parents

As part of the Stop. Think. Connect. campaign, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security outlined yesterday several tips parents can use to protect their children from Internet predators. 

“Cyber predators are real,” DHS wrote in a blog post. “They use the anonymity of the Internet to target victims, especially today’s youth, with unwanted solicitations, harassment, and fraud. It’s…

Panetta: ‘We Have to Continue to Focus on the Threat of Cyber Attacks’

U.S. Defense Secretary Leon Panetta spoke to service members about national cybersecurity concerns during a visit last week to U.S. Strategic Command headquarters in Nebraska.

In his address, he discussed key security threats, achievements in the war against terrorism and the future of the defense budget. He warned the soldiers that the largest…

Hackers Take to the Skies

Researchers Richard Perkins and Mike Tassey unveiled a new drone that takes cyber snooping to new heights — literally.

During this week’s Black Hat Security Conference in Las Vegas, the two security consultants for Wall Street presented their remote-controlled spy plane, which can steal information from vulnerable…

California Adopts First Cybersecurity Plan for Household Energy Meters

The California Public Utilities Commission recently adopted privacy rules for household smart meters to protect consumers from cyber intrusions that could compromise the security of energy use data and other private information. The decision marks the first of its kind for ensuring security measures.

As part of its efforts to build a smart grid…

DARPA Taps Raytheon for Cybersecurity Research Program

Raytheon announced today it has been selected by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency to support its Anomaly Detection at Multiple Scales program, a cybersecurity initiative that will use algorithms to better detect anomalous behaviors and insider threats. Raytheon will create, adapt and apply technology to the problem of anomaly characterization and detection in large…

Microsoft Announces Cybersecurity Technologies Competition

Microsoft Corp.’s Trustworthy Computing Group announced today a competition for the development of new computer security protection technologies. The contest includes more than $250,000 in cash and prizes.

The BlueHat Prize competition is designed to generate new ideas for cybersecurity and mitigation technologies to prevent the exploitation of memory safety vulnerabilities.

“As the risk of criminal attacks on private…

IT Experts Prepare for 2011 Hacktivity Conference

Experts in the information technology industry are gearing up for this year’s Hacktivity conference, a two-day event in Hungary that highlights innovations and developments in IT security. The event features prominent representatives of the IT security industry, as well as presentations, workshops and the Central and Eastern European finals of the “Global…

Microsoft Offers $250K Reward for Rustock Information

Microsoft recently announced it is offering a $250,000 reward for any information leading to the identification, arrest and conviction of those involved with the Rustock spamming botnet. The bounty is part of Microsoft’s ongoing campaign against the authors of the infamous malware.

Rustock, which is known as one of the Internet’s most damaging botnets, was responsible for sending around 30 million emails per day and infiltrating computers when users…