SC Magazine

As cybercriminals more heavily rely on targeted attacks, the amount of spam this year fell to the lowest levels since 2007, according to Cisco. The volume of unsolicited email dropped dramatically, from 379 billion messages daily in August 2010 to 124 billion last month, according to Cisco's "2011 Annual Security Report," released Wednesday. One reason for the change – mass mailing campaigns are simply not as lucrative as targeted malware efforts. While the latter requires just one or a few...Read Full Story

pbr / /p pDefending the perimeter increasingly is becoming an ambiguous concept. The hard, knife-edge perimeter of the past is dead and gone. Long live the sort-of-fuzzy, kind-of-gray area, not-quite-a-DMZ perimeter of the future. This notion begs the question: “Who cares about the perimeter anyway?” After all, it's all about the data, and we are interested in sharing a lot with the world at large, so why not just protect the data and let the rest go?/p pWell, that's barking up the right tree...Read Full Story

Microsoft on Tuesday pushed out 13 patches, one fewer than anticipated, to address 19 security vulnerabilities, including a bug that allows the data-stealing Duqu trojan to spread. Duqu, the so-called "son of Stuxnet " trojan, contains a dropper program that exploits the vulnerability, located in the Windows kernel, Microsoft revealed in early November. The software giant subsequently issued a workaround, and the issue now is corrected with bulletin MS11-087, rated "critical." “The most...Read Full Story

Attackers over the weekend uploaded malware-laden copies of a number of popular apps, such as Angry Birds , to Google 's official Android Market, researchers warned. A rogue developer with the handle “Lagostrod” uploaded trojanized versions of at least a dozen popular games, including Cut the Rope, Need for Speed: Shift , and Assassin's Creed: Revelations , Sean Sullivan , security adviser at anti-virus firm F-Secure , said in a blog post Monday. If installed, the apps attempted to send SMS...Read Full Story

»The hacktivist group bAnonymous/b made good on its promise of digital retaliation against the Oakland Police Department for the force it used against protesters following the clearing of an Occupy Oakland encampment. Members of the collective launched a denial-of-service attack that took down the department's website, and also released employment details on a number of police officers. p»bDuqu/b, the so-called “son of Stuxnet ” trojan, contains a dropper program that exploits a previously...Read Full Story