Yahoo Testing ‘Six Degrees of Separation’ Theory on Facebook

Yahoo Research launched an online study this week to test the well-known social theory that says any two people can be linked through six degrees of separation.

To pull off the Small World Experiment, Yahoo is asking for help from the the nearly 750 million Facebook users.

Any Facebook user can…

Australian Government Agencies Susceptible to Social-engineering Scams

More than a dozen West Australian government agencies lack adequate systems to detect or respond to a cyber attack, the state’s auditor general revealed in a recent report.

The Office of the Auditor General hired a university to launch external attacks on 15 government agencies, including the health, transport, mine and gas departments.

While these intrusions were “deliberately hostile,” only one of the agencies detected the attacks.

“In some…

Mobile Malware Report Predicts ‘Significant’ Uptick in Cellphone Attacks

On the heels of a recent study warning about mobile malware emerging as the new frontier of cyber crime comes another report that discusses the evolution of both smart devices and the threats that target them.

The “Smartphone Malware Report,” by Panda Security and Spain’s National Cyber-Security Advisory Council, follows…

QinetiQ NA Unveils Social Engineering Detection Product

Your organization’s network and systems may be hacker proof, but are your employees? QinetiQ North America today unveiled a security solution designed for government customers to detect  social engineering attacks, through the use of Email Intent Analysis, real-time URL, link analysis and high-value …

Two New Malware Strains Attack Facebook, IM

New scams conducted via Facebook and Twitter have been wreaking havoc on users in the last several days, PandaLabs reported.

The first one, Asprox.N, has been identified as a Trojan sent via email informing users their Facebook account is being used to distribute spam. For that reason, the user’s login credentials have been changed. The email includes a bogus Word document attachment, tricking the user into believing it…

Cyber Experts: Espionage, APTs, Malware among Most Dangerous Cyber Threats

Although cybersecurity experts have their separate ideas on what the most pressing Internet security concern is, they generally agree on one thing: The threat landscape is evolving into more attacks of increasing sophistication.

Here, 10 industry insiders offer their insight into what they believe are the most dangerous cyber threats, ranging from social engineering to cyber espionage.

Simple Economics is the Answer to Cyber Attacks

Carefully crafted targeted attacks using social engineering can be extremely difficult for users to detect. However, despite the rise in the use of social engineering, most people are still receiving generic spam campaigns instead. Why? Economics provides the answer, according to a Microsoft researcher speaking at the at the WEIS 2010 workshop.

“The profit is far higher for…