Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.
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AOL quietly drops free-to-all AV offering
Gratis software now for members only, old users may be at risk. A month ago we reported on AOL ‘s switch of providers for its free anti-virus software offering, from the Kaspersky -powered Active Virus Shield to a special version of McAfee ‘s VirusScan . It now appears that the McAfee -based product is only…
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Minor flaws patched in Sophos AV
Security vulnerabilities found and fixed. Two separate flaws have been reported in Sophos ‘s anti-virus engine, affecting most of its product range and allowing security bypass and possible cross-site scripting. The more serious flaw, which involves passing possibly dangerous content into the product’s log file via a specially crafted filename, is labelled ‘Moderately Critical’ by…
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Cybercrime rivals real-world crime rates
Researchers estimate 3 million online crimes committed in UK last year. A research group has issued a report estimating levels of cybercrime in the UK during 2006, finding that an online crime occurs every 10 seconds on average, with over 3 million separate incidents thought to have taken place over the year. Several types of…
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Spamhaus $11 million fine thrown out
Appeal court quashes earlier e360 compensation ruling. Anti-spam operation Spamhaus , previously ordered to pay $11 million to mass-mailing firm e360 Insight after refusing to contest a case accusing it of falsely labelling those behind e360 as spammers, has had the fine thrown out in an appeal court. The case was first brought last autumn…
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Kaspersky-Zango case heralded as groundbreaking
Judge sets precedent upholding users’ rights to block badware. A lawsuit brought by adware-pusher Zango against Kaspersky Lab was dismissed last week, with the judge in the case finding that software could offer users the option to block anything that could be considered inappropriate or undesirable. The decision could set an important precedent for the…
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China denies Pentagon hacking claims
‘Hacked by Chinese’ row rumbles on. The Chinese government has vigorously denied accusations, made in a report in UK newspaper The Financial Times on Monday, that Chinese hackers were behind a security breach in US computer systems in the Pentagon. The penetration, into an unclassified network used by the staff of Defense Secretary Robert Gates,…
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MS gaining fast in AV-Comparatives tests
Detection rates up 7% in six months, more improvement predicted. AV-Comparatives have released the results of their latest test of detection rates, pitting 17 scanners already known to perform well against their huge collection of malware. The most improvement over the previous run, which took place in February, was shown by Microsoft , whose score…
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APWG and FTC combine to fight ID fraud
Agencies join forces to release safety guidance documents. The Anti-Phishing Working Group (APWG) and the US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) have pooled their resources and experience of combating identity theft and fraud, releasing two guidance documents with advice on avoiding the risk of phishing and ID crime. Released as part of a country-wide campaign currently…
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Sender authentication checks on the rise
SPF records creep into top ten content triggers checked by ISPs. A report by email marketing software provider Lyris has revealed that use of the Sender Policy Framework (SPF) email authentication check is on the rise among ISPs. The company conducts quarterly research studies of deliverability rates for permission-based email marketing messages, and the Q2…
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