French agency caught minting SSL certificates impersonating Google: Rekindling concerns about the system millions of websites use to encrypt and authenticate sensitive data, Google caught a French governmental agency spoofing digital certificates for several Google domains. The secure sockets layer (SSL) credentials were digitally signed by a valid certificate authority, an imprimatur that caused most […]

The ‘must haves’ to make the Framework for Cybersecurity useful: This month, the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) is scheduled to release the first official draft of the Cybersecurity Framework. NIST produced the guidelines in response to President Obama’s executive order issued February. The Framework consists of standards, methodologies, procedures, processes and guidelines […]

Blackhole Exploit Kit creator ‘Paunch’ in custody, Russian police confirm: As previously reported, now confirmed by Russian police, the still unnamed 27-year old man is said to be ‘Paunch’ (his nickname), arrested on 4 October with a dozen others in the city of Togliatti, accused of programming the hugely successful Blackhole Exploit Kit used in […]

Anonymous hackers plead guilty to 2010 PayPal cyberattack: The hacktivist collective claimed responsibility for engineering the December 2010 distributed-denial-of-service attack in retaliation for the online payment processing companys suspension of an account linked to WikiLeaks after the document-leaking organization released a large number of classified documents.”Citing violations of the PayPal terms of service, and in […]

Nymi Is A Heartwave: Passwords could be passé if this Toronto-based startup has its way. Bionym, which was founded in 2011 and closed a $1.4 million (CAD) seed round last month, has devised a biometric recognition system in the form of a wearable wristband — called Nymi, just launched as a pre-order for $79 for early […]

Russia prosecutes suspected BlackHole author and 12 cohorts: Russia’s Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA) has revealed that the author of the infamous BlackHole exploit kit is being prosecuted in the country. The news came via an MIA press release posted online Friday, two months after Troels Oerting, the head of the European Cybercrime Centre, confirmed […]

Microsoft, law enforcement team up for ZeroAccess botnet takedown: Microsoft announced on Thursday that its Digital Crimes Unit – in conjunction with the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Europol’s European Cybercrime Centre (EC3) and technology companies such as A10 Networks – has disrupted a botnet that targets search engines and browsers. “The ZeroAccess botnet has […]

AT&T: We dont have to disclose NSA dealings: AT&T, under fire for ongoing revelations that it shares and sells customers communications records to the National Security Agency and other U.S. intelligence offices, says it isnt required to disclose to shareholders what it does with customers data. In a letter sent Thursday to the Securities and […]

Alleged Blackhole author and gang prosecuted in Russia: Paunch, the creator of the infamous Blackhole exploit kit, is being prosecuted along with 12 other individuals involved in a Russia-based cybercrime ring, the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs has confirmed (via Google Translate). The crime ring specialized in a “massive embezzlement of funds from the accounts […]

Credit card fraud comes of age with advances in point: Underscoring the growing sophistication of Internet crime, researchers have documented one of the first known botnets to target point-of-sale (PoS) terminals used by stores and restaurants to process customers’ credit and debit card payments. The botnet remained active at the time of writing and had compromised […]