[SecurityRatty] tag: up-and-comer

Antivirus programs unreliable during critical coverage gap

Mon, 01 Dec 2008 22:00:02 +0000

Antivirus companies typically bill themselves as offering critical protection when you need it most, but the timeliness of the protection is a matter of concern. There's some reason to suspect AV companies may be moving too slowly on this one, with a majority of scanners failing to detect malware up to three days after it's seen on the web.

Links for 2008-12-01 [del.icio.us]

Mon, 01 Dec 2008 21:00:00 +0000

Last In - First Out: Janke’s Official 2009 Technology Predictions
Prediction 6: There will be a major security panic over some widely used but inherently insecure Internet protocol. The problem will not get resolved. Prediction 9: Web Apps will continue to be deployed with a 1:1 ratio of new web applications to applications that are vulnerable to SQL injection, XSS or XSRF. A few new applications will not be vulnerable. The rest will make up for those few with multiple vulnerabilities, keeping the overall ratio constant.

Challenges await Obama in bid to build up federal IT security

Mon, 01 Dec 2008 02:00:00 +0000

As Barack Obama prepares to become president in January, the task of upgrading the security of federal computer systems is still a work in progress despite several initiatives begun by the Bush administration.

Hacking Airport Wi-Fi

Mon, 24 Nov 2008 17:10:02 +0000

Richard Farina booted up his computer on an American Airlines flight in October from New York to San Francisco. It was one of the first commercial flights to offer wireless Internet service. Within a couple minutes of reaching 10,000 feet, Farina was snooping the airwaves with the ability to see what his fellow pass

News Report on Non Vulnerability in Windows Vista

Thu, 20 Nov 2008 15:41:16 +0000

Are editors so excited to use the headline “Vulnerability in Windows Vista” in their SEO URLs that they will have their reporters write a story on a non-issue?

IDG News has published a news report titled, “Researchers find vulnerability in Windows Vista“. The report says:

An Austrian security vendor has found a vulnerability in Windows Vista that it says could possibly allow an attacker to run unauthorized code on a PC.

The problem is rooted in the Device IO Control, which handles internal device communication. Researchers at Phion have found two different ways to cause a buffer overflow that could corrupt the memory of the operating system’s kernel.

In one of the scenarios, a person would already have to have administrative rights to the PC. In general, vulnerabilities that require that level of access somewhat undermine the risk since the attacker already has permission to use to the PC.

Somewhat undermine the risk? If you need admin rights to exercise a bug it is not a security issue since you could already run any code with whatever privilege you wanted. Microsoft is not issuing a patch, but creating a bug fix in a service pack, yet this is newsworthy? This story has no comment from anyone but the finder of the bug. Let’s see if other news outlets pick up on this one.

Startup offers rootkit protection, partitioning

Thu, 20 Nov 2008 02:00:00 +0000

Start-up Integrity Global Security is coming out with a version of technology used in the military that can provide the features of virtual machines but with built-in security.

Cybersecurity is focus of new start-up incubator

Wed, 19 Nov 2008 02:00:00 +0000

The University of Texas at San Antonio Tuesday announced a technology incubator aimed at fostering IT security-based start-ups within the state.

Fortinet beefs up midrange FortiGate security appliance

Wed, 19 Nov 2008 02:00:00 +0000

Fortinet has announced availability of a new FortiGate unified threat management device that will eventually replace an older model for midsize businesses.

How much does spam cost you? Google will calculate

Wed, 19 Nov 2008 02:00:00 +0000

How much is spam costing your company? Google unveiled a nifty little calculator Wednesday to help you add it up.

Fortinet beefs up midrange FortiGate security appliance

Tue, 18 Nov 2008 21:00:00 +0000

Fortinet has announced availability of a new FortiGate unified threat management device that will eventually replace an older model for midsize businesses.