Purveyor of High-Quality Verbiage

Mac Malware Targeting Unpatched Office Running on OS X

Lisa Vaas — Tue, 08 May 2012 16:12:17 +0000

Posted May 5, 2012

Microsoft is reporting that malware is exploiting unpatched versions of its Microsoft Office Word 2000 suite to compromise Apple Macintoshes running Snow Leopard or earlier versions of Mac OS X. You go, girl.

Android Malware Spreading for First Time via Hacked Sites

Lisa Vaas — Tue, 08 May 2012 16:08:33 +0000

Posted May 3, 2012

Lookout Mobile Security is seeing the first Trojan that’s coming over as a drive-by download, which hopefully won’t spread far, given the compromised sites’ relatively low traffic. Read the story.

Mac OS X Lion Update Exposes Clear-Text Passwords

Lisa Vaas — Tue, 08 May 2012 16:03:51 +0000

Posted May 7, 2012

Even if it’s patched soon, Mac users should be aware that original, plain-text passwords might be retrievable from Time Capsule backups. The story’s on eWEEK.

US man confesses to part in $1.3M bank and payroll phishing scam

Lisa Vaas — Tue, 08 May 2012 16:00:59 +0000

Posted May 8, 2012

A 31-year-old US man from Atlanta, Georgia, admitted last week that he and his gang stole more than $1.3 million USD by phishing confidential account information from e-commerce sites. Be careful, particularly if you do your banking at a large online bank, because those are now scammers’ favored phishing grounds. The Anti-Phishing Working Group’s latest survey shows that PayPal, after years of being phishers’ fav, is no longer No. 1 It’s ecommerce sites (and BANKS!) they’re after, since there’s more coinage to be had. Read it.

13 million US Facebook users not using, or oblivious to, privacy controls

Lisa Vaas — Tue, 08 May 2012 15:58:30 +0000

Posted May 4, 2012

We already knew that people weren’t doing enough to protect their privacy on Facebook, but a new report has looked into this in more detail, and the numbers make for alarming reading. Consumer Reports also put out a bunch of good tips on how to use FB privacy controls, which we obviously need. Read more on Naked Security.

Skype knew about IP address security flaw since November 2010

Lisa Vaas — Tue, 08 May 2012 15:55:49 +0000

Posted May 3, 2012

Skype learned about a security hole that reveals users’ IP addresses about 18 months ago, according to the security researchers who discovered the vulnerability. Here’s the story.

64% of people think cloud storage is risky, but 45% still go right ahead and use it

Lisa Vaas — Tue, 08 May 2012 15:53:37 +0000

Posted May 2, 2012

Sophos polled people at their InfoSec Europe booth last week to find out their views on security in the workplace. Here’s what they found.

Intruder compromises user database for Star Trek Online and other MMORPGs

Lisa Vaas — Tue, 08 May 2012 15:51:48 +0000

Posted April 30, 2012

The studio behind Star Trek Online, City of Heroes, City of Villains, and Champions Online suffered a user account database breach 16 months ago… and is only warning users about it now. Read it.

Mobile phone carriers oppose law requiring warrants for location data

Lisa Vaas — Tue, 08 May 2012 15:49:45 +0000

Posted April 27, 2012

The proposed US bill doesn’t stop the carriers from handing over location data, but it does require that police get a warrant first. So what is CTIA’s problem with it? Read it and weep.

11 Questions to Ask CMS Job Seekers

Lisa Vaas — Fri, 27 Apr 2012 16:36:37 +0000

Hiring someone to do your web development? I pulled together a bunch of interview questions intended to help hiring managers (and businesspeople who are not necessarily techie) find the dream CMS pro.They should help, whether you’re looking to hire somebody to function in out-of-the-box template land or you need a content management system integrated-with-everything-but-the-septic-system kind of specialist. No, no, don’t thank me, just a) send cash or b) read the story or c) both.