Naked Security

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What can secure software development learn from Shakespeare, Roosevelt and Nehru?

by Michael A Schmidt on May 21, 2012 | Leave a comment

Do you know what William Shakespeare, Eleanor Roosevelt and Jawaharlal Nehru have in common with the data security expert community (and possibly you)?

The Security Development Conference held in Washington DC provides the answer.

Doctors shouldn't buddy up with patients on Facebook or Twitter, hospitals warn

by Lisa Vaas on May 21, 2012 | 1 Comment

Hospitals, worried about lack of professionalism and inadvertent leaking of confidential data, are warning doctors not to set up relationships with patients on Facebook and Twitter.

Anatomy of a security hole - the break that broke sudo

by Paul Ducklin on May 21, 2012 | 12 Comments

A recently-patched bug in the widely-used sudo command makes for interesting reading.

The patch reminds us of some important points in security-related programming.

State of Utah outlines mistakes made allowing theft of 780K records

by Chester Wisniewski on May 19, 2012 | Leave a comment

After losing nearly 800,000 residents personal information the State of Utah admits to not encrypting the data, leaving default passwords in place and not performing regular audits to find the mistakes.

Should jailbreaking gaming consoles, mobile phones and tablets be legalized?

by Lisa Vaas on May 18, 2012 | 22 Comments

Yesterday, US copyright regulators opened up the floodgates for a public hearing of proposals to change copyright law, including authorizing the cracking of tablets, DVDs, gaming consoles and mobile phones. Tell us what you think...

Cyber romance scams cost US victims $50 million in 2011

by Lisa Vaas on May 17, 2012 | 6 Comments

Who doesn't love a good romance story? Oh, probably those who have ended up losing out on a lot of money.

Backups are good - but don't forget to check your backups work [VIDEO]

by Graham Cluley on May 17, 2012 | 7 Comments

The "Toy Story 2" movie was nearly lost forever because of failing backup software.

Watch the video to find out the story, and how the classic animated movie was recovered.

Call of Duty Trojan horse creator ends up in jail, after drunken college raid

by Graham Cluley on May 17, 2012 | 1 Comment

A British man who spread a spyware Trojan horse posing as a patch for the popular video game "Call of Duty", has ended up with an 18 month jail sentence.

Selena Gomez's Facebook account hacker jailed for one year

by Graham Cluley on May 17, 2012 | 16 Comments

After hacking into the Facebook account of Justin Bieber's girlfriend, and accessing private messages, a 21-year-old British man is jailed.

Technical paper - Fake anti-virus: The journey from Trojan to a persistent threat

by Anna Brading on May 16, 2012 | 1 Comment

Fake anti-virus is one of the largest families of malware in recent history. In this technical paper, Jagadeesh Chandraiah takes a look at how scareware has evolved over the last three and a half years into what it is today.

Free Sophos Anti-Virus app for your Android

by Carole Theriault on May 16, 2012 | 38 Comments

To help you better safeguard your Android phone and tablet, Sophos just published Sophos Mobile Security for Android in Google Play. Oh, and it's free!

Fake anti-virus disguises used by Android malware

by Graham Cluley on May 16, 2012 | 1 Comment

The Android malware threat is growing.

And it's no surprise to see similar social engineering tricks that have worked on other operating systems in the past also being used on the Android platform.

Magic mirror on the wall, what's the best smartphone of all?

by Carole Theriault on May 16, 2012 | 13 Comments

Until last week, iPhone's Siri would respond to "What is the best smartphone?" with - gulp - iPhone's competitor Nokia Lumia 900. This "bug" has now been fixed by Apple, but Nokia are making sure everyone is aware that Apple is overriding the software.

Global Payments breach continues to bewilder, accusations abound

by Chester Wisniewski on May 16, 2012 | 3 Comments

The fallout from the breach of payment card processor Global Payments continues to widen, yet more information does not bring more clarity. Banks are uncovering more fraud related to the incident, but information about the theft is not being released by Global Payments.

Judge ordering blocks to Pirate Bay is corrupt, says Pirate Party founder

by Lisa Vaas on May 15, 2012 | 4 Comments

The judge who ordered blocks to Pirate Bay sites is alleged to have 1) a history of handing down verdicts that violate free speech and 2) been making some cash on the side by teaching alongside the plaintiff in an anti-piracy course.