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Detecting and removing the Flashback malware in OS X

Detecting and removing the Flashback malware in OS X

Recently a new variant of the Imuler/Revir Trojan malware for OS X was found being distributed disguised as erotic images that, if installed on a Mac system, would attempt to steal personal information then upload them to remote servers. The malware's initial variants included offensive political material, but in its recent iteration has been distributed disguised among a collection of cover girl images in an obvious attempt to trick people into opening the application.

While these attempts are relatively easy to avoid, security company F-Secure has been monitoring a more serious threat from the Flashback malware for OS more

Vint Cerf: Google may not always be top search dog

Vint Cerf: Google may not always be top search dog

Google is seen by many as the de facto standard for Internet search. But the company may not always be king of the castle, says famed Internet pioneer Vint Cerf.

Speaking at the Life Online exhibition at the the National Media Museum in the United Kingdom, Cerf downplayed any potential danger in Google's Web dominance, according to blogging site Pocket-Lint. The father of the Internet, who's also a VP and Chief Internet Evangelist at Google, pointed to healthy competition from Bing and other search engines.

But Cerf said that Google's role as top dog in the search more

Facebook: Don't reveal your password to snooping employers

Facebook: Don't reveal your password to snooping employers

Has an employer or potential employer ever requested access to your Facebook account? If so, Facebook itself advises you to just say no.

Responding to growing complaints from employees over the practice, Facebook made its own position quite clear in a post published today. Noting an increase in the number of such requests from employers, the social network said they undermine both the security and the privacy of the user and the user's friends.

And the practice can put employers themselves at risk.

Companies making such requests may not have the right policies or training in place to deal more

Safari bug could lure iOS 5 users to malicious Web sites

Safari bug could lure iOS 5 users to malicious Web sites

iOS 5 users, beware a security flaw in Safari that can be used to trick you into visiting potentially malicious Web sites.

Discovered earlier this month by Germany security firm MajorSecurity, the vulnerability could allow cybercriminals to spoof the URL displayed in the browser, trapping users at the wrong sites.

"The weakness is caused due to an error within the handling of URLs when using javascript's window.open() method," explained David Vieira-Kurz of MajorSecurity. "This can be exploited to potentially trick users into supplying sensitive information to a malicious Web site, because information displayed in the address bar can more

Google users sue over changes to privacy policy

Google users sue over changes to privacy policy

California and New York residents have filed two separate lawsuits this week against Google alleging that changes to the company's privacy policy violate users' privacy rights. The suits seek class-action status.

The New York lawsuit, the text of which is available on The Los Angeles Times Web site, says the change in Google's guidelines enacted March 1 "violates Google's prior privacy policies, which deceived and misled consumers by stating that Google would not utilize information provided by a consumer in connection with his or her use of one service, with any other service, for any reason, without more

Facebook fans flames with privacy policy tweaks

Facebook fans flames with privacy policy tweaks

Privacy advocates in the U.S. and the European Union are on edge over changes Facebook is enacting in its language governing its terms of service.

Their upset comes as Facebook is proposing modifications to its Statement of Rights and Responsibilities (PDF) that, at least on the surface, seem fairly minor and don't indicate any radical shift in thinking or practice in terms of privacy.

Specifically, the revised document says that the "Privacy Policy" is now called "Data Use Policy," wording that was changed in the company's actual privacy guidelines more than a year ago, spokesman Barry Schnitt more

Dude, where's your phone? Lookout knows... and tells

Dude, where's your phone? Lookout knows... and tells
It's no surprise that the most common place to lose a smartphone in many cities is a cafe. In New York, though, it's a fast food restaurant; in Brussels, a dentist's office; in Seoul, a martial arts dojo; and in Moscow, an auto shop.

That's according to new data released today by mobile security firm Lookout, whose service includes a feature that helps people locate lost or stolen smartphones. The company, which boasts 15 million users worldwide, located nine million lost iPhones or Android-based devices for people last year, or one phone every 3.5 more

Verizon: Hacktivists stole 100 million+ records in 2011

Verizon: Hacktivists stole 100 million+ records in 2011
Financially motivated criminals were behind most of last year's data breaches, but hacktivists stole almost twice as many records from organizations and government agencies, according to the Data Breach Investigations Report being released by Verizon today.

While more than 80 percent of the data breaches in 2011 were due to organized criminal activity, the number of records pilfered from activist groups represented 58 percent of the total, the report finds.

In particular, hacktivists targeted corporations and big agencies, and consumer data. Activist groups accounted for more than 22 percent of the data breaches targeting large organizations. Meanwhile, 95 percent more

Google hands over $5 credit to Wallet customers, report says

Google hands over $5 credit to Wallet customers, report says

After an embarrassing snafu that left Google Wallet prepaid card users in a potentially worrisome situation, the search giant has reportedly given customers an extra $5 to bring them back.

According to The Verge, Google Prepaid Card customers recently had all their funds restored and received an additional $5 for all their trouble. The Verge says Google sent e-mails to Wallet customers updating them on the move, but the company has not publicly said that it has, in fact, given customers $5 for its mobile-payment service's recent issues.

Researchers last month discovered a way to hack Google Wallet and potentially steal a user's financial information. more

Phone scammer or trustworthy solicitor? Software calls it

Phone scammer or trustworthy solicitor? Software calls it

Should you trust that official-sounding guy on the phone trying to talk you into transferring cash from your account to his? Well, we're going to go out on a limb here and say no, but in case that's not so obvious, new voice analysis technology out of Japan promises to help spot the scammers for you.

Nagoya University and Fujitsu have created software they say can automatically identify situations in which one party might "overtrust" the other. It does so by detecting changes in voice pitch and volume level that can occur under psychological duress.

By combining this technology with keywords such as "indebtedness" or "compensation" that are characteristic to a specific type of remittance-soliciting phone-phishing scam called furikomesagi, the researchers have developed a setup now being tested in collaboration with the National Police Agency of Japan and the Bank of Nagoya.

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