Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.
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AV-Comparatives unveils latest on-demand results
20 products rated in large-scale detection tests. Testing organization AV-Comparatives has revealed the results of its latest on-demand test. Top-rated products include Trustport , F-Secure , Bitdefender , Avira , eScan , Kaspersky and McAfee , all rated ‘Advanced+’, with G Data , Avast , Panda , ESET , Microsoft , Symantec and Sophos rated…
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RSA gives insight into anatomy of attack on its systems
Publicly available information used to spear phish employees. Security company RSA has released some information about how hackers gained access to its systems, giving a good insight into how such attacks take place and providing some useful lessons for the industry as a whole. The first step taken by the hackers was to obtain publicly…
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Major email service provider suffers data breach
Financial institutions among affected customers. Email service provider Epsilon , which carries out email marketing for many major companies, has admitted it has fallen victim to a targeted attack where hackers obtained some customer data. In a press release on its website, the Dallas, TX, based company plays down the attack, saying it affected approximately…
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Keylogger on Samsung laptops proves to be false alarm
AV product wrongly flags malware based on existence of directory. A number of security bloggers raised concern yesterday about the apparent presence of a keylogger on Samsung laptops – only to realise it was, in fact, a false positive. A Network World reporter discovered the ‘keylogger’ on two different makes of Samsung laptops. Reminded of…
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South Korea proposes to make security software mandatory
Law enables government to search PCs of those who do not comply. A bill, proposed by a number of South Korean MPs, would make the use of security software mandatory for computer users in the country. The ‘Zombie PC Prevention Bill’ is currently pending in the Culture, Broadcast and Communications Committee of the National Assembly.…
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Rogue SSL certificates issued for popular websites
Certificates revoked, but browsers still need to be updated. Comodo , a major vendor of SSL certificates, has admitted to one of its affiliates’ servers being hacked, leading to nine rogue SSL certificates for popular domains to be issued. SSL (secure socket layer) allows for traffic over the Internet that can not be intercepted by…
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Cutwail botnet sent 1.7 trillion spam messages
Operators made several million through botnet. Researchers from The Last Line of Defense and universities in Bochum and Santa Barbara have shared some insight into the workings of the Cutwail botnet (also known as Pushdo) after having managed to gain access to its command and control (C&C) servers. Using the logs of the C&C servers…
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Spam levels take a nose dive as Rustock apparently taken down – update
Eerie silence from Rustock botnet. Microsoft reported to have co-ordinated take down. Spam levels have taken a nose dive over the last 24 hours – apparently as a result of a take down operation by unknown anti-spam activists. The Rustock botnet has been responsible for enormous amounts of spam over the last few years –…
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Increase in use of mobile anti-malware protection
Poll shows smartphone users more likely to use anti-malware protection on their phones than three years ago. In a poll of visitors to the VB website, 57% of smartphone users said they had no anti-malware protection on their phones – compared to 70% three years ago. While this is still a large number of unprotected…
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Taking Brain home
Short film features Mikko Hyppönen returning first PC virus to its birthplace. Anti-malware vendor F-Secure released a short documentary film this week to mark the 25th anniversary of the first PC virus, Brain. In the film, Chief Research Officer Mikko Hyppönen – a natural in front of the camera – tells the story of the…
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