Best Of The Web

CSO
I Was Wrong: There Probably Will Be An Electronic Pearl Harbor
Security expert Ira Winkler says growing smart grid makes attack more likely

NETWORK WORLD
FTC Slams Spam Gang Boss With $15 Million Fine
Spammer sent billions of junk emails, Commission says

COMPUTERWORLD
Latest Microsoft Patches Cause Black Screen Of Death
Microsoft's latest round of security patches is causing some PCs displays to go black, according to Prevx

NETCRAFT
24 Of The 100 Top HTTPS Sites Now Safe From TLS Renegotiation Attacks
Nearly one-fourth of the top HTTPS Websites are safe from the recently disclosed TLS renegotiation flaws

THE GUARDIAN
Navy To Investigate Security Breach
Royal Navy investigators flew to Belfast last week after a memory stick containing sensitive information on naval maneuvers and U.K. personnel was reported missing

EXPRESS BUZZ
The Top 10 Most Famous Hackers
A look at Kevin Mitnick, Robert T. Morris, Kevin Poulson, and the "homeless hacker"

ZSCALER BLOG
Twitter Follower Scams
How Twitter follower services actually take control of your Twitter account to further promote itself

SC MAGAZINE
Raunchy Spam Targets Online Gamers
Troj/Agent-LVF is a World Of Warcraft password-stealing Trojan spreading right now that lets the bad guys monetize virtual assets

MICROSOFT TECHNET BLOG
Do's And Don'ts For Passwords
Use a combination of letters, numbers, and special characters, and a combination of upper and lowercase letters, for instance

BBC
Computer Hacker Gary Mckinnon 'Is Facing A US Trial'
McKinnon's request to block his extradition due to medical reasons was refused by the Home Office

REUTERS
Cyber Breaches Are A Closely Kept Secret
"Only a handful" of the thousands of cases investigated have been made public, FBI official says

GOVERNMENT EXECUTIVE
GAO: Defense Lost Track Of 72,000 Medical Records
Health questionnaires still missing after database search

OFFICE OF INADEQUATE SECURITY
Former United Way Worker Sentenced For Damaging Charity's Computer Network
Former computer specialist gets 18 months in jail for sabotaging systems

SC MAGAZINE
Two Australian IT Forums Breached
Experts uncertain if attacks on Whirlpool, Overclockers are related

PC WORLD
New Banking Trojan Horses Gain Polish
As banks' defenses improve, attacks become more sophisticated, Finjan researchers say

WSMV-TV
Farmers Insurance Clients' Info Hacked
Former employee may be responsible; Secret Service is investigating

eWEEK
Commercial E-Banking Fraud: No Withdrawal
Smaller banks are a growing target, researchers say

FORBES
The Year Of The Mega Data Breach
In 2009, a small number of breaches exposed more personal information than ever before

INTERNET SECURITY CONSORTIUM
DNSSEC Flaw Discovered
Validating recursive nameserver may incorrectly cache records from a query response, CERT says

WASHINGTON POST
Spam 'Godfather' Gets 51 Months In Prison
Ralsky pleads guilty to role in selling counterfeit high-tech computer parts to U.S. military

CNET
E-tailers Snagged In Marketing 'Scam' Blame Customers
A look at the top threats of 2009, and what to watch out for in the coming year

SUNBELT SOFTWARE BLOG
Why IT Managers Drink: Ten Issues That Drive Them To The Bottle
Breaches, compliance, and patch deployment make are key headaches, report says

BANK INFO SECURITY
Former Texas Credit Union Employee Convicted In Insider Fraud Case
VP of operations transferred money from customers' accounts, and then withdrew it via unauthorized ATM cards operations

CIO
Hacks Of Chinese Temple Were Online Kung Fu, Abbot Says
Fake message on Shaolin Temple Website was a "mean joke," temple official says

JAVELIN STRATEGY
Banks Achieve Milestones In Prevention And Debt Card Guarantees
But many still fall short in alert offerings, according to identity safety scorecard fall

HELP NET SECURITY
Online Financial Security Threats: What Can We Expect In 2010?
A look at the top threats of 2009, and what to watch out for in the coming year

EWEEK
Older Microsoft Internet Explorer Vulnerable To Security Flaw
Zero-day vulnerability found in IE 6 and 7, Symantec says

CHINA DAILY
Chinese Antivirus Authorities Warn Of New Worm Virus
Worm_Piloyd.B infects documents and may make them difficult to restore

AVG BLOGS
New Facebook Worm -- Don't Click Da Button, Baby!
Alluring Facebook message can lead to CSRF attack

SILICON VALLEY MERCURY NEWS
Cybercriminals Lurk On Social Networking Sites
End users should be careful about what they reveal, expert says

THE REGISTER
Symantec Japan Website Bamboozled By Hacker
Plain text passwords revealed, well-known hacker reports

SC MAGAZINE
Report: Cyberattacks Against the U.S. 'Rising Sharply'
Many attacks emanate from China and state-sponsored sources, report says

ZDNET
East Anglia: One Hacked U.S. Scientist Is Hacked Off
Climate scientists finds more than 100 of his own emails posted online

SOPHOS
Another iPhone Worm -- And This Time, It's Malicious
New vulnerability is further proof the iPhone isn't ready for business, expert says

THE REGISTER
IE8 Bug Makes 'Safe' Sites Unsafe
A bug in a feature in Internet Explorer 8 browser that is supposed to prevent cross-site scripting attacks can actually be exploited to introduce these errors on Websites

NETWORK WORLD
Cyberattacks On U.S. Military Jump Sharply In 2009
Attacks on DoD networks -- mainly from China -- will rise 60 percent this year, according to a congressional committee report

COMPUTERWORLD
Microsoft Denies It Built 'Backdoor' In Windows 7
In response to a senior National Security Agency official's congressional testimony that his agency worked on Windows 7, Microsoft says NSA was involved only in compliance, and there's no backdoor in the OS

THE WASHINGTON POST
Experts: Smart Grid Poses Privacy Risks
More personal information will be available online as well as the collection, use, and disclosure of personal information, the Ontario Information and Privacy Commissioner and the Future of Privacy Forum (FPF) said in a new report

THE WALL STREET JOURNAL
Some Courts Raise Bar on Reading Employee Email
Legal experts say some court cases are showing more consideration for employees who feel their employer has violated their privacy

HELP NET SECURITY
Zero-Day Vulnerabilities In Firefox Extensions Discovered
Researchers say Mozilla doesn't have a security model for extensions, and there are no security boundaries between extensions Researchers say Mozilla doesn't have a security model for extensions, and there are no security boundaries between extensions extensions