It’s about to get tougher for hackers and virus writers, or at least for those who get caught. TechNews.com reports that those convicted will soon will face significantly harsher penalties under new guidelines which focus on the harm caused. Hackers, for example, will face up to a 25 percent increase in their sentences if they hijack… Read More »
Virus writers are getting smarter. It’s official. The latest bi-annual Internet Security Threat Report from Symantec found that 64 per cent of all new attacks targeted vulnerabilities less than one year old. The Blaster worm, for example, appeared only 26 days after the vulnerability it exploited was announced, according to The Register. Symantec’s study… Read More »
Fridrik Skulason, founder of anti-virus maker FRISK, has fired off a broadside about a problem I looked at in recent postings and my last Dow Jones column (sorry, subscribers only…): that some anti-virus companies are partly to blame for the recent e-mail flood generated by the Sobig.F worm. In an open letter, he wrote: “What… Read More »
Further to my earlier post about the rising virus conflict, one option to consider is a non-mainstream Anti Virus program. There are some out there, and they might just do a better job of saving your hide: They may work better, and they may put out updates faster. One is the unfortunately named NOD32, from… Read More »
This from the guys at Information Security Magazine, a warning about some new, and serious vulnerabilities in Microsoft software. The most critical vulnerability is titled ?Flaw in Visual Basic for Applications Could Allow Arbitrary Code Execution? (MS 03037). Microsoft provided few details about the actual vulnerability, but says the flaw is dangerous and users of… Read More »