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Microsoft has released advanced notification for the November 2013 security updates that are scheduled to be released on November 12, 2013. The company plans to deliver eight security bulletins for Windows 8.1, three of them are rated critical and five are important. But there's no relief in sight for a zero-day vulnerability ( CVE-2013-3906 ) in how Office handles .TIFF graphics files . The bulletins listed in Microsoft's advanced notification as critical are for remote code execution vulnerabilities in Windows operating system and the remaining vulnerabilities listed as important are said to be remote code execution, elevation of privilege, information disclosure and denial of service flaws affecting Windows operating system, as well as Microsoft Office. A malicious zero day attack capable of hijacking your PC via a vulnerability found in Windows, Office, and Lync is being exploited more widely than originally thought. Some new reports of the security resea

On Tuesday, the Washington Post revealed a few more NSA slides released by Edward Snowden, which revealed that the spy agency NSA was infiltrating the private data links between Google and Yahoo data centers as part of a program called MUSCULAR . Chairman and former CEO of Google Eric Schmidt says the company's executives are shocked by allegations that the National Security Agency has been collecting data from the search engine's servers. " It's really outrageous that the NSA was looking between the Google data centers, if that's true ," he said. Overnight, Two Google's Security engineers -  Mike Hearn and   Brandon Downey expressed reasonable anger about the news on Google+, said " Fuck these guys ", where these represent NSA and GCHQ. I've spent the last ten years of my life trying to keep Google's users safe and secure from the many diverse threats Google faces. Fuck You to the people who made these slides. I am not American, I am a Brit, but i

The US Federal Bureau of Investigation has added five new hackers to its Cyber most wanted list and is seeking information from the public regarding their whereabouts. The men are wanted in connection with hacking and fraud crimes both within the US as well as internationally. Rewards ranging from up to $50,000 to $100,000 are being offered for information that leads to their arrest. Two of them are Pakistani, Farnhan Arshad and Noor Aziz Uddin , who caused the damage of over $50 million after hacking business telephone systems between 2008 and 2012. Arshad and Uddin are part of an international criminal ring that the FBI believes extends into Pakistan, the Philippines, Saudi Arabia, Switzerland, Spain, Singapore, Italy, Malaysia, and other locations. Syrian national Andrey Nabilevich Taame , wanted for his alleged role in Operation Ghost Click , a malware scheme that compromised more than four million computers in more than 100 countries between 2007 and October 2011

Staying Sharp: Cybersecurity CPEs Explained Perhaps even more so than in other professional domains, cybersecurity professionals constantly face new threats. To ensure you stay on top of your game, many certification programs require earning Continuing Professional Education (CPE) credits. CPEs are essentially units of measurement used to quantify the time and effort professionals spend on maintaining and enhancing skills and knowledge in the field of cybersecurity, and they act as points that demonstrate a commitment to staying current. CPEs are best understood in terms of other professions: just like medical, legal and even CPA certifications require continuing education to stay up-to-date on advancements and industry changes, cybersecurity professionals need CPEs to stay informed about the latest hacking tactics and defense strategies. CPE credits are crucial for maintaining certifications issued by various cybersecurity credentialing organizations, such as (ISC)², ISACA, and C

Yesterday at Stanford University in the United States, Cyber Security Experts and Leaders from more than 40 countries gathered to talk about the cyberspace security problems and cooperation among countries. The need for international cooperation in cybersecurity is evident, due to the nature of cyberspace itself. Cyberspace or the Internet is "borderless" in nature. Cai Mingzhao , Minister of the State Council Information Office of China said that China is keen to continue working with other countries to deal with cyber security Challenges. Interesting! When China is itself the culprit in major Cyber Threats and attacks. " To maintain cyber security, we need to strengthen international cooperation, " and " We are ready to expand our cooperation with other countries and relevant international organizations on the basis of equality and mutual benefit, " he said . He said that the China is a victim of cyber security breaches, where more than 80% of Chinese i

The use of mobile devices in government environments concerns the secret service of any states, cyber espionage more often exploits the mobile platforms. Mobile devices are reason of great concern for governments, they have a great computational capability, huge memories to store our personal data, GPS to follow our movements and are equipped with a camera and microphone to increase our experience in mobility. The advent of monitoring apps like Mobistealth has already brought the possibility of using the aforementioned features to keep tabs on a target device irrespective of the geographic distance to light. However, it has also raised red flags over the possibility of exploitation of such features by attackers for cyber espionage . The problem is well known to governments that are adopting necessary countermeasures especially following the recent revelations about the U.S. Surveillance program . The UK Government has decided to ban iPads from the Cabinet over foreign e

Microsoft has issued a temporary fix for a 0day vulnerability that can be exploited to install malware via infected Word documents. A Zero-day Remote code execution flaw, which has been dubbed CVE-2013-3906 , exploits a vulnerability in a Microsoft graphics component, to target Microsoft Office users running Windows Vista and Windows Server 2008. " The vulnerability is a remote code execution vulnerability that exists in the way affected components handle specially crafted TIFF images ," it said in the post .  Vulnerability was reported to Microsoft by McAfee Labs senior security researcher Haifei Li. A successful infection can give an attacker complete control over a system. Users whose accounts are configured to have fewer user rights on the system could be less impacted than users who operate with administrative user rights. Currently the company is only aware of targeted attacks mostly in the Middle East and South Asia, with attackers sending unsuspecting v