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GitHub is a source code repository which lets developers work on programs together as a team, even when they are in different locations. Each repository on the site is a public folder designed to hold the software code that a developer is working on. This Tuesday GitHub announced a major upgrades to the site's search engine, " Finding great code on GitHub just got a whole lot easier, ". Yesterday few twitter users pointed out that there is no shortage of embedded private SSH keys and passwords that can easily be found via GitHub new feature. If you upload security information (keys/passwords etc) to a public repository, new search feature will allow anyone to find them. Today, GitHub's search function stopped working , though the site didn't acknowledge the cause. Updated message is " Search remains unavailable. The cluster is recovering slowly and we continue to monitor its progress. We'll provide further updates as they become available...

NASK the domain registrar that operates the " .pl " Polish top-level domain registry has seized multiple domains used for cyber crime activities by spreading Waledac malware distributed by the Virut botnet. According to Poland's Computer Emergency Response Team, Virut was first detected in 2006 and became a serious threat with an estimated size of more than 300,000 compromised computers. NASK said that on Thursday it began assuming control over 23 .pl domains that were being used to operate the Virut network. Virut was responsible for 5.5% of infections in Q3 2012, making it the fifth most widespread threat of the time. They determined that botnet consists of more than 308,000 uniquely compromised machines and that its primary function is to pump out spam and other malicious emails. The most recent take down effort was in December 2012. Unfortunately, the Virut botnet gang managed to get the malicious botnet domain names moved to a new registrar ca...

The banking Trojan known as Shylock has been updated with new functionality, including the ability to spread over Skype. The program was discovered in 2011 that steals online banking credentials and other financial information from infected computers. Shylock, named after a character from Shakespeare's "The Merchant of Venice". Shylock is one of the most advanced Trojans  currently being used in attacks against home banking systems. The code is constantly being updated and new features are added regularly. According to security researchers from CSIS Security Group , the Skype infection is based on a malicious plugin called msg.gsm and allows the malware to send messages and transfer files, clean messages and transfers from Skype history and even bypass the Skype warning for connecting to servers. Beside the new ability to spread through Skype, Shylock can also spread through local shares and removable drives. Infection by the Trojan a...

Today I decided to remove Microsoft Security Essentials Antivirus from my system because Security Essentials failed another certification test by independent testing lab, AV-Test Institute. Microsoft's Security Essentials antivirus for Windows XP, Vista, and Windows 7 is a free add-on to Windows Defender, which blocks adware and spyware on Windows. In its review , AV-Test revealed that 22 of the 25 programs that were tested passed the test, but Security Essentials came up short. The lab tested all programs across three areas: protection, repair ability and usability of the whole computer based on the impact of the software. " We always used the most current publicly-available version of all products for the testing. They were allowed to update themselves at any time and query their in-the-cloud services. We focused on realistic test scenarios and challenged the products against real-world threats. Products had to demonstrate their capabilities using all ...

We continues to recommend users disable the Java program in their Web browsers, because it remains vulnerable to attacks that could result in identity theft and other cyber crimes and less than 24 hours after Oracle Sunday released a security update that addresses two critical zero-day vulnerabilities in Java that are being actively exploited by attackers, an online vulnerability seller began offering a brand-new Java bug for sale. According to a report , a Java exploits was being advertised for $5,000 a piece in an underground Internet forum and the new zero-day vulnerability was apparently already in at least one attacker's hands. The thread has since been deleted from the forum indicating a sale has been made, something sure to bring more concern to Oracle.Oracle can't predict the future, and its engineers obviously can't predict what exploits are going to be found in its software. The most recent hold Java fixed allowed hackers to enter a computer by using compro...

Every day we read about an incredible number of successful attacks and data breaches that exploited leak of authentication mechanisms practically in every sector. Often also critical control system are exposed on line protected only by a weak password, in many cases the default one of factory settings, wrong behavior related to the human component and absence of input validation makes many applications vulnerable to external attacks. Today I desire to focus the attention of a report published by the consulting firm's Deloitte titled " Technology, Media & Telecommunications Predictions 2013 " that provide a series of technology predictions, including the outlook for subscription TV services and enterprise social networks. The document correctly express great concern of the improper use of passwords that will continue also in 2013 being causes of many problems, it must to be considered that value of the information protected by passwords continues to grow attracting il...

The US Department of Homeland Security's Cyber Emergency Response Team has released a report , which stated that two American electrical power plants were compromised late last year and has identified a number of glaring electronic vulnerabilities. Some unknown malware infected two power plants control systems using unprotected USB drives as an attack vector. The tainted USB drive came in contact with a handful of machines at the power generation facility and investigators found sophisticated malware on two engineering workstations critical to the operation of the control environment. The report did not say if the computers did or did not have up-to-date antivirus software, but it did say that current software would have found the malware.  The other infection affected 10 computers in a turbine control system. It was also spread by a USB drive and resulted in downtime for the impacted systems and delayed the plant restart by approximately three weeks. ICS-C...