security | Breaking Cybersecurity News | The Hacker News

Several weeks ago we reviewed Incapsula , a Cloud-based Security service which can significantly enhance the security of your website, while also boosting its performance. Following this review we've received many responses from our readers who wanted to learn more about Incapsula protection services. Specifically, we were asked to explain more about Incapsula Enterprise plan features. To answer these questions, today we are going to take a look at Incapsula DDoS Protection services. Distributed Denial of Service attacks If your business has a web presence, chances are that you've already heard about Distributed Denial of Service attacks. In case you didn't, a Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack is a DoS attack that is usually carried out by a "botnet", a network of computers acting in concert to overwhelm the server by depleting all available resources. Recently we all witnessed a large DDos attacks on U.S. banks by Muslim hacker group , an attack which crippled th...

India is set to take steps to protect its cyber infrastructure and designate agencies for carrying out offensive cyber attacks on other countries. Indian Government announce the appointment of   first coordinator for The National cyber security agency. Mr. Gulshan Rai , who presently heads the Indian Computer Emergency Response Team (CERT-IN), will be the first coordinator. The move comes at a time when proof shows countries launching cyber attacks not only for intelligence gathering and many nations describing the attacks as an act of war. " The plan is in final stages with certain legal issues being clarified. Among the issues are some objections to the legal powers of the proposed National Critical Information Infrastructure Protection Centre (NCIPC), a command-and-control centre for monitoring the critical infrastructure. NCIPC is to be managed by the technical intelligence agency NTRO (National Technical Research Organisation), and...

Government eavesdropping and security agency GCHQ is developing new tools to sift through them for nuggets of useful data from Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google+, Pinterest. All of these are the source of valuable intelligence that the UK's intelligence agencies want to know about. During a visit to Bletchley Park, UK foreign secretary William Hague launched a 'spy drive' to recruit staff for GCHQ and other intelligence agencies, a National Cipher Challenge for schools, and a £480,000 grant to the home of WW2 code-breaking. " The work involves devising algorithms, testing them and general problem solving in the broad field of language and text processing. This pioneering research work is open to specialist in mathematical/statistics, computational linguists (eg speech recognition and/or language processing) and language engineering ." Job Description explains . " Using data-mining techniques, you will help us to find meaningful patterns and relationships in large ...

Late in August McAfee Labs discovered a Fake Antivirus program that claims to detect infections, and displays alerts to scare users into purchasing protection. On the contrary, this program is not genuine software and has nothing to do with reliable and effective AV tools. The truth is that this is another scam application developed to enter your PC through vulnerabilities in outdated programs. Trend Micro, which detects the threat as TROJ_FAKEAV.EHM said, " After infecting a user's system, this malware scares its victim into buying the "product" by displaying fake security messages, stating that the computer is infected with spyware or other malware and only this product can remove it after you download the trial version. As soon as the victim downloads Win 8 Security System, it pretends to scan your computer and shows a grossly exaggerated amount of nonexistent threats ". This sort of malware is commonplace, with examples existing for Windows XP, Windows Vista, Windows 7 and ...

Security researcher Andres Blanco from CoreSecurity discovered a serious vulnerability in two Wireless Broadcom chipsets used in Smartphones. Broadcom Corporation, a global innovation leader in semiconductor solutions for wired and wireless communications. Broadcom BCM4325 and BCM4329 wireless chipsets have been reported to contain an out-of-bounds read error condition that may be exploited to produce a denial-of-service condition. Other Broadcom chips are not affected. The CVE ID given to issue is  CVE-2012-2619 . In advisory they reported that this error can be leveraged to denial of service attack, and possibly information disclosure. An attacker can send a RSN (802.11i) information element, which causes the Wi-Fi NIC to stop responding. Products containing BCM4325 chipsets: Apple iPhone 3GS Apple iPod 2G HTC Touch Pro 2 HTC Droid Incredible Samsung Spica Acer Liquid Motorola Devour Ford Edge (yes, it's a car) Product...

This year we have seen some big Security breaches that expose millions of passwords like Yahoo! , LinkedIn , eHarmony and Last.fm , among others , SplashData Reveals Its Annual " 25 Worst Passwords of the Year " List. The three worst passwords haven't changed since 2011; they're password, 123456 and 12345678. The new worst passwords added to this year's list include welcome, jesus, ninja, mustang and password1. Have you ever used one of the most popular passwords of 2012 for your own personal accounts? SplashData CEO Morgan Slain stated " At this time of year, people enjoy focusing on scary costumes, movies and decorations, but those who have been through it can tell you how terrifying it is to have your identity stolen because of a hacked password ." " We're hoping that with more publicity about how risky it is to use weak passwords, more people will start taking simple steps to protect themselves by using stronger passwords and using different p...

With Web applications remaining a popular target for attackers, Web app security sometimes seems like a digital version of the " Good, the Bad and the Ugly ." Vulnerabilities in web applications are now the largest vector of enterprise security attacks. Web application security is much more challenging than infrastructure. The top Web application vulnerabilities occur and re-occur time and again. Items such as Cross Site Scripting (XSS), SQL Injection (SQLi) and file inclusion are common vulnerabilities and show up frequently. In his view, the majority of Web application security problems can be solved by applying well known security technology approaches. According to survey results, only 51 percent of organizations currently have coders conduct security testing, and only 40 percent of organizations report they test during development. Vulnerabilities like these fall often outside the traditional expertise of network security managers. To help you understa...

The most common approach to protect data during communication on the Android platform is to use the Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) or Transport Layer Security (TLS) protocols. Thousands of applications in the Google Play market that are using these implementations. A group of researchers including Sascha Fahl, Marian Harbach, Thomas Muders, Matthew Smith from Distributed Computing & Security Group - Leibniz University of Hannover, Hannover, Germany and Lars Baumgärtner, Bernd Freisleben from Department of Math. & Computer Science - Philipps University of Marburg, Marburg, Germany, have presented a paper that  most of these applications contain serious mistakes in the way that SSL/TLS is implemented, that leaving them vulnerable to man-in-the-middle attacks that could compromise sensitive user data such as banking credentials, credit card numbers and other information. Tests performed on 100 selected apps confirmed that 41 of them were vulnerable to known atta...

The Internet has created many new global business opportunities for enterprises conducting online commerce. However, the many security risks associated with conducting e-commerce have resulted in security becoming a major factor for online success or failure. Whether you are an individual or a company, you should approach online security in the same way that you would approach physical security for your home or business. Not only does it make you feel safer but it also protects people who visit your home, place of business, or website. It is important to understand the potential risks and then make sure you are fully protected against them. In the fast-paced world of technology, it is not always easy to stay abreast of the latest advancements. For this reason it is wise to partner with a reputable Internet security company. Here we have a very cool guide from  Symantec , This guide will de-mystify the technology involved and give you the information you need to ...

Eugene Kaspersky is working with his engineers at Russian security firm Kaspersky Lab to create a secure-by-design OS for ICS. In an interview Kaspersky said " It's true no one else ever tried to make a secure operating system. This may sound weird because of the many efforts Microsoft, Apple and the open source community have made to make their platforms as secure as possible. With all respect, we should admit they were developing a universal solution for a wide range of application and various kinds of users. And security and usability is always a matter of compromise! With a universal OS a developer inevitably sacrifices security for usability ." Companies that maintain ICS are forced to try to patch them on the fly in the event of a malware attack, a process usually easier said than done. Instead, Kaspersky suggests that the solution lies in a secure operating system, one in which ICS can be installed. Such an OS could help ensure that industrial systems stay healthy ...

Over 2011-2012 we've seen an increase in distributed denial-of-service (DDoS) attacks and other web attacks on SME's websites. Incapsula is one of the companies whose service is useful to protect your website from all threats and mitigate DDoS attacks which affect your websites, servers, databases, and other essential infrastructure. Incapsula is a cloud-based website security and performance service, including a PCI-certified cloud web application firewall and a content delivery network (CDN) for small and medium-sized businesses. We at ' The Hacker News ' got the chance to review the service using an Enterprise plan account. Really it takes I think 1-2 minutes to join the service and add this extra layer of virtual shield around your Website. You have to make a simple DNS settings change in your domain panel. Your site traffic is then routed through Incapsula's global network of high-powered servers. Incoming traffic is analyzed and a security layer is a...

Russian anti-virus company Doctor Web is warning users about the malicious program which is helping attackers carry out mass spam mailings and allow attacker to use victim's PC as slave of his DDOS Army. According to researchers from the company they have discovered a Trojan " Trojan.Proxy.23012 " application that uses a rare method of distribution through peer networks. " The botnet, consisting of Trojan.Proxy.23012-infected computers, is used by criminals to control proxy servers for the purpose of using them to send spam upon command ". An example of such a spam message is shown in the screenshot below. This Malware work as: 1.) Using peer to peer network it will download the executable file and that will be a encrypted malicious module. A very interesting algorithm used by the Trojan to download the infected computer other malware. 2.) After successfully decrypt it launches another module that reads the image in computer memory or other malicious applica...

Computer hacking is truly an epidemic. It's not enough to apply the latest patches to your servers and workstations or otherwise defend yourself reactively. If you're in charge of your network's security, you must understand how hackers minds work and what tools they're using for their attacks.  Also one of the best ways to protect yourself is to think like a hacker. Evil hackers aren't just a threat to national security. They're a threat to your privacy and even your livelihood. Your personal information? Nothing more than a commodity in their billion-dollar black-market enterprise. There's no product that can prevent hackers from plastering passwords and usernames on the Web. But some white hat hackers are not only chasing these cybercriminals but also thwarting the attacks before they can be launched. Vulnerabilities appear in your environment every day. For example, everyone wants to use their tablet or smart phone to conduct business. A...

Are you running Linux just because you think it's safer than Windows? Think again. Sure, security is a built-in   feature and extends right from the Linux kernel to the desktop, but it still leaves enough room to let someone muck about with your /home folder. Linux might be impervious to viruses and worms written for Windows, but that's just a small subset of the larger issue. Attackers have various tricks up their sleeves to get to those precious bits and bytes that make up everything from your mugshot to your credit card details. Computers that connect to the internet are the ones most exposed to attackers, although computers that never get to see online action are just as vulnerable. We have a small and enough very fast solution for Hardning the security of your Linux machine in few seconds using  Server Shield , It is a lightweight method of protecting and hardening your Linux server. It is easy to install, hard to mess up, and makes your server instantly and effortl...

With over 140,000 known computer viruses and 85,000,000 spam emails sent out each day, the likelihood of your PC coming into contact with malware such as viruses, worms, and spyware is almost guaranteed. It is very important to secure your computer just like you would secure your house or car. Your computer can be completely taken over without your permission or knowledge if it is vulnerable and connected to the Internet. Hackers constantly scan the Internet looking for vulnerable hosts, and a computer can be infected by a worm or virus within 15 minutes of connecting to the Internet if certain precautions are not taken. You can avoid most common infections by taking just a few steps, Here is an overview of PC security best practices and tips - " HackerProof : Your Guide To PC Security " This 53 page guide provides an objective, detailed, but easily understood walk through of PC security. By the end of this guide, you will know exactly what PC security means an...

Users should be aware that Cyber criminals are finding new ways to install malicious software on devices. The latest threat to Android phone users, according to the FBI , is a "work-at-home opportunity that promises a profitable payday just for sending out email." The IC3 has been made aware of various malware attacking Android operating systems for mobile devices. Some of the latest known versions of this type of malware are Loozfon and FinFisher .  Loozfon is an information-stealing piece of malware. Criminals use different variants to lure the victims. One version is a work-at-home opportunity that promises a profitable payday just for sending out email. A link within these advertisements leads to a website that is designed to push Loozfon on the user's device. The malicious application steals contact details from the user's address book and the infected device's phone number . FinFisher is a spyware capable of taking over the components of a mobile device. Whe...

Do your ever use YouTube Instant Search engine (a really fast way to search YouTube) ? That was developed by a 21 years old developer name - Feross Aboukhadijeh in 2012. Chad Hurley, CEO and co-founder of YouTube, was so impressed that he immediately offered him a job at YouTube. He a web developer, designer, computer security researcher. Recently he has developed an attack concept that exploits the fullscreen application programming interface in HTML5 in order to carry out advance phishing attacks. The HTML5 "Fullscreen API" allow web developers to display web contents in full-screen mode, that is, filling-up the display screen completely. Fullscreen API is perhaps known for its spoofing potential, leading to major browser vendors canvassing for the implementation of an overlay to notify users when full-screen is activated. Feross demonstrated how the Fullscreen API can aid phishing attack portals appear rather innocuous to the end users, by utilizing t...

Windows 8 is the first operating system from Microsoft to support alternative non-biometric authentication mechanisms such as Picture Password and PIN. A vulnerability discovered by a password security vendor - " Passcape " in Microsoft's Windows 8 operating system that it saves a log on password in plain text and allows any user with admin rights to see the password details. In September, though, some drawbacks of the new authentication method were reported by Passcape Software. The picture password had seemed invulnerable, because whoever tries to guess it must know how and what parts of the image to choose, and in addition, the gesture sequence. However, security experts from Passcape discovered that such a unique password is based on a regular account. A user should first create a regular password-based account and then optionally switch to the picture password or PIN authentication. Notably, the original plain-text password to the account is still stored in ...

Last week, Mozilla announced it will prompt Firefox users on Windows with old versions of Adobe Reader, Adobe Flash, and Microsoft Silverlight, but refused to detail how the system will work. Finally today  Firefox 17 is now in beta and with it is a very cool feature, click-to-play plugins. When a user lands on a site that requires the use of a plugin, say Adobe Flash, if the version running in the user's browser is on the list of known vulnerable applications, Mozilla will disable it and show the user a message saying that she needs to update the plugin. " By combining the safety of the blocklist with the flexibility of click-to-play, we now have an even more effective method of dealing with vulnerable or out-of-date plugins. " Mozilla wrote on blog. Mozilla is still working on implementing the controls, which would allow you to block all plugins by default and then pick where you want them to run. As already mentioned, this feature will be enabled by ...

The latest version of Mozilla's Firefox browser has been taken offline after a security vulnerability was discovered. Mozilla's Firefox 16 web browser got its regular six-weekly update yesterday but the organisation decided to pull the browser hours after the release. The outfit claimed it became aware of a security vulnerability in Firefox 16 and that updates are expected to ship at some point today. According to the Mozilla Security Blog , Firefox 16 features a security vulnerability that allows " a malicious site to potentially determine which websites users have visited and have access to the URL or URL parameters. " " As a precaution, users can downgrade to version 15.0.1 " - Firefox 16 offers several new features, most of which are aimed at developers. One such feature is the Developer Command Line, which provides keyboard control over the Developer Tools. Other features include CSS3 Animations, Image Values, IndexedDB, Transitions, and Transforms. ...