Hard & Soft: Information Security
Mandiant releases Intelligent Response discovery tools
Mandiant introduced new incident response automation technology that promises to perform the first set of post-breach analysis tests the IT security company would provide via its breach investigation services. Read more…
Update: Court bars company from online sale of phone records
A U.S. court in Wyoming has ordered a Web-based information broker to stop selling telephone records without owners' consent and to turn over nearly $200,000 in profits from the operation, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission announced Monday. Read more…
PayPal buys Fraud Sciences for $169M
PayPal, eBay's online payments division, will pay $169 million for an Israeli security company specializing in detecting online fraud, the companies said Monday. The deal should close within 30 days. Read more…
Hackers hit Scientology with online attack
A group of hackers calling itself "Anonymous" has hit the Church of Scientology's Web site with an online attack. Read more…
Security lessons from the top
The importance these days of protecting your business from security threats is clear. But how to do it well often remains a vexing problem. Major IT vendors have faced this challenge like everyone else -- but with a twist. As providers of security technology and IT systems vulnerable to threats, they've had to stay a step ahead of everyone else. That's why CIOs of technology stalwarts IBM and Intel and security technology provider Symantec have taken on security management as one of their key functions. All three companies have shared their lessons learned with InfoWorld. Read more…
700MHz auction update: High bids total $3.2 billion
The high bids totalled $3.2 billion in the U.S. Federal Communications Commission's auction of wireless spectrum licenses in the 700MHz band after three rounds and a day and a half of bidding. Read more…
Software group: U.S. needs foreign workers
The U.S. software industry is larger than the food processing industry in terms of revenue, according to an IT trade group that wants Congress to raise the annual cap on H-1B visas, give permanent residency to foreign nationals who graduate from U.S. colleges, and back trade policies that give companies unfettered access to global markets. Read more…
FCC auction reaches $2.8B for 700MHz wireless licenses
At the close of the first full day of bidding for 700MHz wireless spectrum Thursday, the Federal Communications Commission reported nearly $2.8 billion in provisional winning bids. Read more…
M&S ordered to encrypt all laptops
Or face criminal charges.Marks & Spencer has been given two months to encrypt all its laptop hard drives. Read more…
Domain Tasting Not Just For Speculators
Criminal spammers using fast-flux and rockphish techniques to hide their machines from investigators also acquire and release thousands of domains in the five-day grace period allowed for domain registrations.Since mid-2005, security vendor McAfee claims the Add Grace Period allowed for refunding domain purchases has grown dramatically in its abuse. Though traditionally used by domain speculators to find potentially high-trafficked domains, criminals use the technique to keep an unending supply of essentially free domains available for their scams. "People who use the fast-flux and rockphish techniques now use it in proportions that would be interesting to measure," said McAfee's Francois Paget. An illustration of gross deletes of domain names at Verisign demonstrated the big change in domain tasting, which Paget said definitely ties in to criminal usage. The negligible number of deleted domains in March 2005 increased to nearly 60 million in March 2007. "Undoubtedly hiding behind this multitude of names, there are blatantly criminal people that create and use random names, registered using more or less automated methods, to then be used a few days, or even a few hours, as temporary sites for selling products offered through spam campaigns or as mirror sites tied to phishing campaigns," said Paget. Read more…