Matt Hines

LAS VEGAS—AJAX technology is rapidly being adopted by online businesses to help boost the interactivity of their Web sites, but a long list of potential vulnerabilities introduced by inexperienced programmers could create a troubling security landscape for Web 2.0 technologies. Speaking at the ongoing Black Hat security conference being held here July 31 – Aug. […]

It’s the call that no IT manager wants to receive, but one that’s clearly ringing bells across the world of enterprise security: An employee’s laptop computer has been stolen, and it may contain sensitive data. As a spate of recent incidents make clear, laptop computer thefts and the related data exposure are a serious issue, […]

Government officials in New York are warning 540,000 injured state workers that an outside contractor has lost a computer containing their personal data, including the employees’ names, addresses and social security numbers. State officials have sent letters warning the individuals affected by the data loss to be on the lookout for potential identity fraud, based […]

Attacks aimed at lightly protected instant messaging systems and spam that replaces text with images in an effort to dupe filtering software are growing in popularity, according to new research released by Postini. As indicated in Postini’s Message Security and Management Update for June, hackers and spammers continue to become more sophisticated in response to […]

Chief financial officers continue to rank information security as their top priority as compliance auditors and the fear of public humiliation over data leaks drive new levels of IT security scrutiny, according to a new survey. The study, conducted by IT services giant Computer Sciences in collaboration with FERF (Financial Executives Research Foundation), FEI (Financial […]

Security researchers at software maker MessageLabs contend that malware writers, hackers and other cyber-criminals are combining multiple forms of IT threats in an attempt to amplify their efforts. In the company’s latest IT security intelligence report, MessageLabs experts said that criminals are converging their attacks across multiple communications channels, such as e-mail, instant messaging networks […]

Security software maker McAfee contends that IT threats are growing in volume at a significantly faster pace than at any previous era through which it has tracked the propagation of malware code. McAfee’s Avert Labs reported that it recently passed what researchers consider to be a significant milestone, recording into its threat database the 200,000th […]

Security researchers have identified a worm virus masked to appear as Microsoft’s Windows Genuine Advantage anti-piracy program, while end users have filed a second lawsuit against the software giant’s use of the actual program. Workers at anti-virus specialist Sophos were among the first to unearth the worm disguising itself as WGA. Dubbed by the firm […]

Researchers have discovered two new vulnerabilities present in Microsoft’s dominant Internet Explorer browser, one of which has been rated by security experts as critical. Both vulnerabilities affect the Version 6.0 iterations of the browser. According to virus watchers at the SANS Institute’s Internet Storm Center, the flaws were reported to its Full-Disclosure mailing list along […]

A California man has filed a class action lawsuit against Microsoft that charges the company with violating spyware laws with its Windows Genuine Advantage anti-piracy features. Filed in the U.S. District Court in Seattle by Los Angeles resident Brian Johnson on June 26, the suit claims that Microsoft failed to properly disclose all the details […]

RSA Security confirmed on June 29 that it may be close to reaching a deal to sell its operations to another company. While RSA officials refused to comment on the specific details of a potential buyout, it is well known that the authentication technology specialist has been aggressively shopping itself to other companies over the […]

The United States Department of Veterans Affairs is reporting that it has recovered the stolen laptop computer believed to be carrying the personal records of 26.5 million former and current servicemen that touched off a firestorm of debate over the government’s data handling policies. A Veterans Affair spokesman confirmed to eWEEK on June 29 that […]