HTTP
HTTP
HyperText Transfer Protocol (HTTP) is the method used to transfer or convey information on the World Wide Web. The original purpose was to provide a way to publish and receive HTML pages.
Development of HTTP was coordinated by the World Wide Web Consortium and working groups of the Internet Engineering Task Force, culminating in the publication of a series of RFCs, most notably RFC 2616, which defines HTTP/1.1, the version of HTTP in common use today.
HTTP is a request/response protocol between clients and servers. The originating client, such as a web browser, spider, or other end-user tool, is referred to as the user agent. The destination server, which stores or creates resources such as HTML files and images, is called the origin server. Inbetween the user agent and origin server may be several intermediaries, such as proxies, gateways, and tunnels.
Definitions provided by Wikipedia - The Free Encyclopedia
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The award-winning M86 Secure Web Gateway (M86 SWG) is a proactive, appliance-based solution that provides real-time Web security, increases productivity, ensures compliance and controls bandwidth. Using patented real-time malware detection technology, URL filtering and anti-virus scanning ,the M86 SWG protects organisations from crimeware, malware and other threats associated with Web 2.0 applications.
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Protecting customer and other confidential data from malicious and accidental leaks is one of the top business and IT security challenges facing organisations today. Compounding this problem, CIOs and CSOs must protect their data amid pressure from regulatory and corporate compliance requirements, customer and competitive pressures, and the rising cost and publicity of data leaks. Websense Data Security Suite is the leading solution for preventing data loss.
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Palo Alto Networks' next-generation firewalls enable enterprises to see and control applications, users, and content - not just ports, IP addresses, and packets - using three unique identification technologies: App-ID, User-ID, and Content-ID.
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HTTP Related Industry News
Internet attacks up 28 percent in 2002 The Internet is an increasingly dangerous place for companies with cyberattacks up 28 percent for the first half of 2002 over the last half of 2001, according to a new report released Monday by security services company Riptech.
The Riptech Internet Security Threat Report tracked security data from the firewalls and intrusion detection systems of over 400 companies in over 30 countries from January 1 to June 30. Seventy-four percent of the companies in......
[more] Comerica selects Cyber-Ark Valuting Solutions Companies to Deliver “User-friendly Security” that Automates and Safeguards Confidential Communications with Thousands of Treasury Management Customers over the Internet. Detroit and Dedham, Mass., — May 5, 2003 — Comerica Incorporated (NYSE: CMA) and Cyber-Ark® Software Inc. today announced that Comerica’s Treasury Management Services has selected Cyber-Ark’s Vaulting Technology™ to streamline and protect Internet-based communications with thousand......
[more] Fizzer Worm Wallops World Complex new virus spreading fast. The Fizzer worm, which first caught security experts' attention last Thursday, is hitting computer users across the globe early this week, spreading through email and popular file-swapping networks.
Tonight on "Tech Live," get the very latest news on Fizzer, and see how to get rid of this new menace.
Security firm MessageLabs says its scanners caught 18,000 email messages containing Fizzer on Monday alone. The virus spreads in m......
[more] Security Flaw Found in Firewall Software Two dangerous software flaws that could become attractive targets for hackers have been discovered in widely used computer-security software made by Check Point Software Technologies Ltd If hackers create programs to exploit the flaws, which security experts found in Check Point's firewall and virtual-private network software, they could wreak havoc on the corporate networks they're designed to protect.
Check Point's firewalls are used to control Inte......
[more] Security Flaw Found in Firewall Software Two dangerous software flaws that could become attractive targets for hackers have been discovered in widely used computer-security software made by Check Point Software Technologies Ltd If hackers create programs to exploit the flaws, which security experts found in Check Point's firewall and virtual-private network software, they could wreak havoc on the corporate networks they're designed to protect.
Check Point's firewalls are used to control Inte......
[more] Web Braces for Netsky.V's Attack Worm's latest variant exploits old vulnerabilities and spreads without an attachment. The latest variant of the hugely effective Netsky series of worms is causing trouble by spreading without the use of an attachment. Slipping past many e-mail gateways, it can launch simply by being viewed in an e-mail program.
Rather than attaching the worm's executable code to an e-mail message, Netsky.V uses two separate vulnerabilities in Microsoft software to download th......
[more] Cyberslacking pays handsomely for some Every time you shop online or download porn at work, you're helping build a $562m industry Cyberslacking, or using the boss's bandwidth for personal activities like e-shopping or porn downloading, isn't just a corporate vice. According to a new study, it's helping spawn a $562m industry known as employee Internet management, or EIM.
"EIM is big business," said Chris Christiansen, research director for IDC's Internet Security Division. And Christiansen sh......
[more] Bookie reveals $100,000 cost of denial-of-service extortion attacks "Our first attack was in November last year. We got a demand for $50,000 from an unidentified source." These are the words of a UK-based online bookmaker who has agreed to speak to silicon.com, on condition of anonymity, to reveal the full scale of the denial of service extortion threats that betting sites have been battling against for nine months.
The above scenario will be familiar to anyone involved in online betting. S......
[more] Future Windows component could spur old-school viruses A planned component for Microsoft Corp.'s next version of Windows is causing consternation among antivirus experts, who say that the new module, a scripting platform called Microsoft Shell, could give birth to a whole new generation of viruses and remotely exploitable attacks.
Microsoft Shell, code-named "Monad," is still in development and is planned for release with the next version of Windows, known as "Longhorn." Monad will allow deve......
[more] Windows XP SP 2 - Helps control malware... but watch out for that firewall! The dust is finally settling after Microsoft's long-anticipated release of Windows XP Service Pack 2. This gargantuan set of patches and new features, which weighs in at a whopping 270 megabytes, is chock-full of new security fixes and capabilities. In fact, this release is more security-centric than any Service Pack we've seen from Microsoft ... ever! Of the myriad security features built into XP SP 2, including softwa......
[more] Noomy.A virus spreading via chat rooms IRC users hoodwinked with promise of software cracks and Kournikova screensavers Security experts have warned internet users to update their antivirus systems to protect against a newly discovered worm dubbed Noomy.A, which "could represent a new trend in malicious code techniques".
PandaLabs said that, although this sophisticated and dangerous worm has not yet spread significantly in the wild, it has a series of unusual but potentially effective character......
[more] Microsoft Probes Flaw in ASP.NET A glitch in the platform's processing of URLs could allow intruders to access password-protected sections of a Web site simply by altering a URL. Microsoft Corp. is investigating a reported security flaw in its ASP.NET technology that could allow intruders to access password-protected sections of a Web site simply by altering a URL.
The hole involves a glitch in ASP.NET's processing of URLs, a process known as canonicalization. According to an advisory posted Tu......
[more] Aladdin Identifies Potential Mega Virus Related to JPEG Vulnerability Aladdin Knowledge Systems, Ltd. today announced it has identified a potential \'mega virus\' stemming from the recent JPEG vulnerability. Aladdin content security specialists based in Haifa, Israel have pinpointed three scenarios that could lead to a wide-spreading virus affecting organizations around the globe.
Mr. Shimon Gruper, vice president of technologies for the Aladdin eSafe Business Unit, outlines three possible sce......
[more] Spyware: Is it clogging up your network? The cause of intermittent network connectivity problems can be hard to pin down in complex modern systems, but checking for spyware is a good place to start Organisations frequently ask me for assistance in diagnosing and resolving Internet problems. After a bit of detective work, I usually find that the problems are not really an Internet security issue. There's so much complexity in the corporate network these days, and so many places where a problem ca......
[more] Virus writers claim Blair's email account was hacked The Prime Minister's email account is the subject of a spam scam that can infect computers with Trojan horses. Don't fall for it Cybercriminals claimed on Friday that the Prime Minister's email account has been hacked, in the latest attempt to attack PCs with malware.
On the same day Tony Blair won a third term in government, a spam message was sent out stating that malicious hackers had penetrated his email account.
The email contains a l......
[more] eSafe 5 Targets 'Drive-By' Spyware Sites A new version of Aladdin Knowledge Systems Ltd.'s eSafe gateway security software promises to protect users from a host of Internet ills, including so-called drive-by download Web sites used to place spyware on vulnerable systems, the company said.
Aladdin, of Tel Aviv, Israel, announced the availability of eSafe 5 at the Information Security Decisions conference here Monday. The addition of anti-spyware features comes as companies are struggling to def......
[more] Spyware creeps into Adobe reader A company called Remote Approach is using a feature in Adobe's PDF Reader to track how many times a PDF document has been accessed, according to a report in the Linux Weekly News.
For the feature to be used, a PDF had to be created, uploaded to the company's server to be tagged, and then distributed, the report said.
The tracking failed when the PDF was viewed by other readers such as Xpdf and Kpdf, and version 5 of Adobe Reader.
However, when the document wa......
[more] Gmail, MSN, Flikr... struck by security hole A security hole in a popular development tool has severe implications for a number of the Internet's most popular applications, including Gmail, Flikr and MSN Virtual Earth.
Tens of thousands of companies including AOL, Google, Microsoft and Yahoo are likely to be affected by the flaw in CPAINT - a toolkit used to create applications using an approach known as AJAX - short for Asynchronous JavaScript and XML. Rather than a technology in itself, AJAX......
[more] Thanksgiving will bring a Sober hangover The largest virus outbreak this year will gain new momentum when the US comes back from its Thanksgiving break, say experts. IT managers should brace themselves The latest outbreak of the Sober worm will accelerate as US computer users turns the PCs back on after the Thanksgiving holiday, security firm MessageLabs warned on Friday.
Business users will return from the break and open mail that has been sitting in their inbox since the first hours of the a......
[more] AppGate Network Security Launches version 7.1 of the AppGate Security Server This latest version of the AppGate server provides new and improved features to support wireless and mobile working.
The ability to synchronize calendar and contacts on mobile devices with MS Exchange over the AppGate secure tunnel has been added. The Exchange synchronization has been tested on the Nokia 9300/9500 and Sony Ericsson P800/P900/P910.
Many companies use VLAN tagging on their networks to segment off wire......
[more] Browsers face triple threat Polish security researcher Michael Zalewski has highlighted three bugs in the handling of cookies that he says could be used to carry out attacks on commercial websites.
The bugs, for which Zalewski has coined the term "cross site cooking", are fundamental to the design and implementation of cookies - and one was first disclosed eight years ago, but still hasn't been fixed in the major browsers.
"These shortcomings make it possible (and alarmingly easy) for malici......
[more] Websense Honored by SC Magazine The Websense Web Security Suite is named the winner of the 2006 SC Magazine Reader Trust Awards for 'Best Web Filtering' product. Websense, a provider of web security and web filtering productivity software, recently announced that their Websense Web Security Suite has been named the winner of the 2006 SC Magazine Reader Trust Awards for 'Best Web Filtering' product.The SC Awards, an award program for the information security industry, took place in San Jose, Cali......
[more] Forgotten password clues create hacker risk Security flaws in the "forgotten password" feature of ecommerce websites leave half the UK's online retailers open to attack, according to security consultancy SecureTest.It warns that the log-in process of many transactional websites can be subverted by a "brute force" or enumeration attack. In a survey of 107 popular online retail websites in the UK, SecureTest found that 54 of the sites (or 50.5 per cent) are potentially vulnera......
[more] Zombie builders send out phone texts Hackers are trying to lure people to a malicious Web site using cell phone text messages, a security company has warned. The blended attack uses social engineering techniques in its attempt to trick people to the site, security vendor Websense said in an advisory. An SMS text message is sent to the targets' cell phones, thanking them for subscribing to a fictitious dating service. The message states that they will be automatically charged a fee of $2.00 per......
[more] Phone phishing attack hits US Criminals are trying a new approach to try to dupe people into downloading a Trojan horse program Criminals have launched a blended attack which attempts to lure users to a malicious Web site via text message. IT managers have been warned to alert their staff to the attack, which uses social engineering techniques to try to trick users to the phishing site, according to security vendor Websense.Users are sent an SMS text message to their mobile phone, thanking them......
[more] Beware fake Google Toolbar trojan Researchers warned PC users this week to be on the lookout for a trojan in the wild disguising itself as Google Toolbar. n the scam, affected users receive an email claiming to be from Google and advertising the latest version of the toolbar, according to web security vendor SurfControl. However, when PC users click on the email, they're taken to a fake Google Toolbar website that looks similar to the real thing - but with a download option for the fake toolbar.......
[more] Trojan data-stealer hijacks ICMP traffic A Trojan has been discovered that attempts to evade detection by sending stolen data back to its criminal creators using the ICMP (Internet Control Message Protocol) back channel. Detected by security company Websense, the unnamed Trojan is a relatively conventional data-stealer up to the point it communicates back to its host. Once a PC has become infected, the Trojan installs itself as an Internet Explorer browser helper object (BHO), and then waits qu......
[more] Microsoft patch can cause IE trouble Microsoft's security update from Aug. 8 to Internet Explorer is causing browser trouble for some systems. After people apply the MS06-042 update, rated "critical" by Microsoft, IE may crash when certain Web sites are viewed, the company said in a notice on its customer support Web site. The problem affects IE 6 with Service Pack 1 on Windows XP and Windows 2000 systems, it said. "Microsoft has identified an issue with the security update MS06-......
[more] Microsoft finally re-issues botched IE patch Two days later than expected, Microsoft has re-issued a critical security update for its Internet Explorer (IE) browser. The re-issued patch is important because it "fully resolves" a serious security bug Microsoft introduced with the original update, released Aug. 8. Microsoft acknowledged that there were problems with its update soon after it was issued. Web sites that used HTTP 1.1 compression to speed up the downloading of images could......
[more] Microsoft's BrowserShield Shows Promise Microsoft wants to "save people," and a research project called BrowserShield is designed to do just that. Helen Wang and John Dunagan are in charge of the project, which offers "vulnerability-driven filtering of network data." "We basically intercept the Web page, inject our logic and transform the page that is eventually rendered on the browser," Wang explained to eWEEK's Ryan Naraine. "We're inserting our layer of code at run-time to mak......
[more] Malicious Code is More Covert, Websense Report The Websense® Security LabsTM 2006 Semi-Annual Web Security Trends Report, which summarizes findings for the first half of 2006 and presents projections for the remainder of 2006. The report shows that the volume of attacks increased and malicious code became more covert, less recognizable and more targeted toward financial gain. Not only has malicious code become more sophisticated, but the infrastructure supporting its creation and spread has......
[more] AppGate Launches MindTerm version 3.1, with many new features and faster operation AppGate today announced the launch of an upgrade to its highly popular Java-based SSH, secure remote access client, MindTerm. MindTerm is the most commercially used Java-based SSH client in the world. MindTerm is used by some of the world's leading manufacturers of communication equipment, integrating it into their products to provide secure encrypted communication. It is also available in a freeware version for......
[more] Microsoft develops new tunneling protocol Microsoft is working on a new tunneling protocol for Vista and Longhorn that will provide secure network access from anywhere on the Net. The Secure Socket Tunneling Protocol (SSTP) creates a VPN tunnel that travels over Secure-HTTP, eliminating issues associated VPN connections based on the Point-to-Point Tunneling Protocol (PPTP) or Layer 2 Tunneling Protocol (L2TP) that can be blocked by some Web proxies, firewalls and Network Address Translation (NA......
[more] Cisco routers at risk from 'drive-by pharming' Cisco has warned its customers that many of its routers are vulnerable to a new malware tactic. Drive-by pharming, a technique identified by researchers from Symantec and Indiana University, involves luring users to malicious sites where a device's default password is used to redirect them to bogus sites. Once they are at those sites, their identities could be stolen or malware could be force-fed to their computers. In an advisory, Cisco listed 77......
[more] Business fails to keep up with IM spyware threat Instant Messaging (IM) software in the workplace is running under the radar of IT and most security measures, a new study shows. It suggests many businesses are leaving themselves open to a flood of spyware by failing to manage their employees' use of IM. Many businesses are leaving themselves open to a flood of spyware by failing to manage their employees' use of instant messaging (IM).A survey of over 200 UK organisations in the private and pub......
[more] News site hit by trackback spam Companies have been warned of potential difficulties with trackbacks on their websites after an outbreak of trackback spam — which pointed to adult sites — hit a Filipino news site late last week. The Newsbreak.com.ph site was targeted on Friday, prompting staff to disable the site for nine hours. "The spammers used the trackback feature to flood our site with links to various porn sites," said a Newsbreak.com article. "We found over 27,000 trackbac......
[more] Variants of Rinbot worm attack Windows Server DNS flaw Variants of the Rinbot worm are exploiting the Windows Server DNS Service vulnerability, researchers said today. The worm exploits the flaw by sending a specially crafted Remote Procedure Call (RPC) packet to targeted PCs, analysts said.Ron O'Brien, senior security analyst at Sophos, told SCMagazine.com today that the worm has made the vulnerability much more than just a DNS-related headache for administrators because it can also use ot......
[more] Consumer-tech use threatens corporate security The use of consumer-based technology such as web email, instant messaging, smartphones and games consoles by employees is one of the most significant threats to corporate IT security. Analyst companies Forrester and Gartner have both warned this week that the entrance of consumer technologies into the enterprise is impossible to eliminate and challenges traditional security models.Consumer-based communications tools such as Hotmail, instant messagin......
[more] iPhone, Gmail and blogs - a corporate security nightmare The use of consumer-based technology such as web email, instant messaging, smart phones and games consoles by employees is one of the most significant threats to corporate IT security.Analyst companies Forrester and Gartner have both warned this week that the entrance of consumer technologies into the enterprise is impossible to eliminate and challenges traditional security models.Consumer-based communications tools such as Hotmail, insta......
[more] Adobe Flash exploit could log keystrokes Adobe has issued three critical security updates, one of which is designed to stop a problem in the way the Flash player interacts with browsers, which could result in users' keystrokes being transmitted to attackers. Adobe Flash Player 9.0.45.0, 8.0.34.0 and 7.0.69.0, as well as their earlier versions running on all platforms, are affected.Users loading a malicious vector graphics file format (SWF) in their Flash Player may find attackers exploiting secu......
[more] Net criminals shun virus attacks Hi-tech criminals have found novel ways to carry out web-based attacks that are much harder to spot and stop, warn security experts. Some cyber criminals have exploited file-sharing networks and popular webpages to attack targets. The malicious hackers have turned to these methods instead of going to the trouble of hijacking home PCs. Using these methods the hi-tech criminals have staged some of the biggest attacks security experts have ever seen. Attack pa......
[more] Web security glitch derails TheTrainline.com TheTrainline.com, a UK website for buying train tickets, has a security bug, which means customers could be invited to submit credit card details over an insecure link. The bug kicks in only when users make an error with their credit card details, so it won't affect the majority of customers.The bug remains unresolved more than three weeks after the issue was first flagged up to the firm.Customers will see a confirmation that they are submitting info......
[more] Firefox 3 Beta 2 Arrives Early In the modern world of software development it's a rare day when a release actually comes out ahead of schedule. But that's the case with Mozilla's Firefox 3 Beta 2 release, which came out this morning some three days ahead of schedule. In the latest version, Mozilla developers have improved security and performance as well as functionality. In total, Mozilla boasts in its release notes that some 900 improvements were made in Beta 2 over the Beta 1 release, which......
[more] Five security truths to protect your critical systems Anyone who tells you that your IT network is “100% secure” is either a fool, or greatly mistaken. Security is a moving target, and unfortunately, this target is being manipulated by the bad guys. With 2007 almost behind us, I reflect on the struggle enterprises and governments face in cyber security. This is not a holiday wish list, or resolutions for 2008, but read through these 5 notions and I can guarantee: you will wonder if you are doin......
[more] Et tu, Gmail? Simple hack defeats last barrier to decades-old attack In the morass of Web 2.0 insecurity, Gmail and other Google-hosted services stood out as a beacon of hope. That's because they were believed to be the only free destination that offered protection against a decade-old vulnerability that enabled hackers to steal sensitive authentication details as they pass over Wi-Fi hotspots and other types of public networks...Now, we know better. According to security researcher Rob Graham,......
[more] The threat of the Ajax Super-Worm The rapid evolution of “Web 2.0” has sparked the convergence of social networking on a massive scale and the adoption of new combinations of technologies that significantly increase the so-called ‘attack-surface’. This combination offers irresistible opportunities to organised crime. In recent years, malware attacks have been targeted and mass worms have been quiet. The days of blockbuster headlines about mass infections such as Slammer are long gone. Or are th......
[more] 30 years of Spam - and we ain't finished yet Spam celebrates its 30th birthday on Saturday (3 May). On that day in 1978, 393 Arpanet subscribers were sent what's reckoned to be the first ever spam email in history (the message itself was written on 1 May 1978). DEC marketing rep Gary Thuerk came up with the wheeze which produced a fierce backlash from Arpanet (military) administrators, as well as a small number of sales.After first appearing on Arpanet, unsolicited bulk commercial ads moved ove......
[more] Is it possible to ban chat programs on an enterprise LAN? Q: How do I ban MSN Messenger, Yahoo Messenger, Skype and other chat programs on an enterprise LAN? My network connects to the Internet through a hub, and from the hub it connects a wireless router/modem to the Internet. I've tried blocking URLs and outgoing ports, but to no avail. I can't install any blocking software because I don't have a server in between the router and the network PCs. A: As you have discovered already, imposing con......
[more] Cyberattacks knock out Georgia's Internet presence Hackers, perhaps affiliated with a well-known Russian criminal network, have attacked and hijacked Web sites belonging to Georgia, the former Soviet republic now in the fourth day of war with Russia, a security researcher claimed on Sunday. Some Georgian government and commercial sites are unavailable, while others may have been hijacked, said Jart Armin, a researcher who tracks the notorious Russian Business Network (RBN), a malware and crimi......
[more] Scotland's oldest newspaper exposes readers' smalls in public Scottish newspaper The Aberdeen Press and Journal inadvertently made it easy to harvest sensitive information about registered users from its site as a result of a basic information security mistake. Registered users are presented with stories an a URL along the lines of:http://www.pressandjournal.co.uk/Article.aspx/815191?UserKey=xxxx By altering the UserKey number it was possible with only one further click of a mouse button to see......
[more] CookieMonster nabs user creds from secure sites Websites used for email, banking, e-commerce and other sensitive applications just got even less secure with the release of a new tool that siphons users' authentication credentials - even when they're sent through supposedly secure channels. Dubbed CookieMonster, the toolkit is used in a variety of man-in-the-middle scenarios to trick a victim's browser into turning over the authentication cookies used to gain access to user account sections of a......
[more] Hackers prevent research on malicious code Cybercriminals are randomizing content served from malicious web pages so that they can prevent security researchers from doing proper analysis. According to Websense Security Labs, malware tracking is becoming more difficult because IP addresses and user-agents are being tracked rigorously and often, when pages are served, the content is randomized.Following analysis of malicious Flash files, the company investigated a situation where upon receiving a......
[more] Who has your data? Businesses not only need to be focused on their intranets but they also need to be vigilant to their outsourced data flow. The security team of a client had recently happened upon an application that one area of the company had been using for a few years, and felt that it warranted testing. This should have been run-of-the-mill. The application provided access to key data, over the internet, enabling what had previously been a complex paper-based process to be slimmed down to......
[more] Mozilla fixes 11 new flaws in Firefox, six critical Mozilla Corp. on Wednesday patched 11 vulnerabilities in Firefox 3.0 -- and 12 bugs in the older Firefox 2.0 -- that could be used to compromise computers and steal information. Yesterday's update patched virtually the same number of vulnerabilities as the last security update seven weeks ago. Firefox 3.0.4, the fourth update since Mozilla launched the browser in June, fixes six flaws rated "critical," two "high," two &quo......
[more] Gmail exploit may let attackers forward email A security vulnerability in Gmail may allow attackers to set up filters on users' email accounts without their knowledge, according to a proof-of-concept exploit posted on the Geek Condition website on Sunday. The post states that the vulnerability has caused some people to lose their domain names registered through GoDaddy.com. The post explains that the exploit relies on obtaining the variables that represent the username and 'at': "......
[more] Websense predicts the future of web security The cloud will become dangerous, good sites will be used to hide bad data, and rich internet applications will turn on their users. These are some of the predictions from Websense Security Labs, which has compiled a security forecast for 2009. First, Websense Country Manager for A/NZ, Phil Vasic, predicts that the cloud will increasingly be used for malicious purposes.“Cloud-based services, such as Amazon Web Services (AWS), Microsoft Azure, an......
[more] Flaw exposes Chrome, Firefox to clickjacking Security researchers have discovered a flaw affecting Google's Chrome browser that exposes it to clickjacking — where an attacker hijacks a browser's functions by substituting a legitimate link with a link of the attacker's choice. Google has acknowledged the flaw and is working towards a patch for Chrome versions 1.0.154.43 and earlier when running within Windows XP SP2 systems, according to SecNiche security researcher Aditya K Sood. Sood......
[more] Man-in-the-middle attack sidesteps SSL A combination of poorly educated users, fewer security warnings in browsers, and sites that mix secured and unsecured content allow man-in-the-middle attacks that can sidestep the ubiquitous secure sockets layer (SSL) encryption used to pass login credentials, a researcher told attendees on Wednesday at the Black Hat Security Briefings. Using a proxy server sitting between the victim and the Internet, security researcher Moxie Marlinspike — his real......
[more] How secure is the cloud? Recent incidents of data leaking from cloud-based applications have given many organisations pause when it comes to launching their own information into the ether. Andrew Collins asks: what are the vendors doing to secure your data? Google recently ran into trouble when a bug in its cloud-based office suite, Google Docs, compromised the privacy of some users’ data. The bug inadvertently exposed some documents hosted on the service to other Docs users, who should n......
[more] IIS 6 attack could let hackers snoop on servers Security vendors are warning users of Microsoft's Internet Information Services 6 Web-server software that a new online attack could put their data at risk. The flaw was made public Thursday, when security researcher Nikolaos Rangos posted details of the vulnerability to the Full Disclosure security mailing list. By sending a specially crafted HTTP request to the server he was able to view and upload files on the machine. The attack takes advantag......
[more] Tiny-traffic DoS attack spotlights Apache flaw Security guru Robert "RSnake" Hansen has released a novel DoS attack tool that points to a significant flaw in Apache and other webservers. Hansen calls his creation "Slowloris - the low bandwidth yet greedy and poisonous HTTP client." Unlike an old school Denial of Service attack, which ties up a website by bombarding the thing with epic amounts of traffic, Slowloris achieves the same result with a handful of packets. "A typical request-flood......
[more] Twitter Malware Attack Targets Both Mac and PC Why hit one OS with malware when you can hit two? That is the question. The situation is this: The Twitter account of well-known venture capitalist Guy Kawasaki was hacked and used to send out tweets luring users to a site hosting malware. According to Trend Micro, the malware changes the DNS settings of Windows and Mac machines. If Mac users attempt to view the promised pornographic video on the site, they will download a malicious file. "Fo......
[more] Inside Korea's Cyber Attack Details are emerging from the massive cyber attack that hit South Korea and the U.S. earlier this month -- showing security researchers what went right in stemming the tide. Initially, the South Korea government blamed North Korea for the attack, though no solid evidence has yet been put forth to support that claim. In the meantime, researchers are learning precisely how large the attack had been and how it had been achieved. As it turns out, South Korea, which is......
[more] Breach Security unveils two new ModSecurity Rules Breach Security has announced two new ModSecurity Rules developments, the ModSecurity Core Rule Set (CRS) and the commercial Enhanced Rule Set (ERS). Breach Security said that the CRS is now an official OWASP project that facilitates community collaboration. The ERS has been enhanced to address the attack vectors such as cross-site request forgery (CSRF), remote file inclusion (RFI) and HTTP parameter pollution. The company said that ModSecurity......
[more] Using software updates to spread malware Two researchers from Israeli security firm Radware have figured out a way to trick computers into downloading malware or take over a computer by hijacking the communications during the update process for Skype and other applications. About 100 applications, many among the most popular on CNET's Download.com, can be targeted, said Itzik Kotler, team leader of Radware's security operations center, before his presentation here at the Defcon conference. K......
[more] Top websites using Flash cookies to track user behavior Users often delete HTTP cookies to enhance their privacy, but some of the most popular websites are circumventing these efforts by utilising little-known Flash cookies, researchers at the University of California have found. The UC Berkeley research, which was submitted to the federal government for consideration as part of a new policy on the use of tracking technologies, found that Flash cookies were used on 54 of the top 100 websi......
[more] How to verify that an email was opened by the intended recipient To complete registration, several websites send users an email message that contains an HTTPS secured link. However, if that email is intercepted, an impersonator may complete the registration process without accessing the recipient's email account. Is there to set up a server to confirm the email was opened by the intended recipient? Unfortunately, email protocols don't really include a check point to detect whether the original......
[more] Are YouTube and Facebook guzzling your company bandwidth? Figures uncovered by managed network provider Network Box between July and November of 2009, reveal the enormous impact YouTube and Facebook are having on corporate bandwidth. Surveying 19 billion URLs visited by 30,000 end users from among the company's customer base, the top application turned out to be YouTube, which consumed an astounding 7.8 percent of all available bandwidth.
Behind this came Facebook with 4.4 percent, Yimg (Yahoo'......
[more] The State of Web Security Issues While security vulnerability research can expose technical weaknesses that may be exploited, incident research provides in-depth information about the most common targets, motives and attack vectors of modern hackers. And where better to turn for a sense of where we stand today than the Web Hacking Incidents Database (WHID). Analysis of WHID reveals that in 2009 social networks were at the greatest risk, malware and defacement remained the most common outcome of......
[more] Security tips for large and small businesses Whether your business is a big fish or a small-fry home office, you can get hacked just the same, and the stakes are higher than a few canceled credit cards. Here are a few tips to protect your users and your networks--steps that even enterprise-class security specialists may slip up on. Know Who Might Be Targeted - and How and Why
With the recent news of attacks on US companies including Google, many business owners might be thinking, "That wouldn't......
[more] Researcher shows new clickjacking methods at Black Hat A computer security researcher has released a new browser-based tool that can be used to experiment with next-generation "clickjacking" attacks along with details of the four new techniques. Clickjacking is a style of attack where a user is tricked into clicking on certain parts of a Web page with hidden buttons that perform malicious actions. The hidden buttons are delivered by an invisible iframe, which is a window that brings other cont......
[more] Cloud computing: Privacy and trust up in the cloud Fifteen years ago people carried their documents around on floppy discs, then many people switched to memory sticks, and now a few are turning to the cloud. Cloud computing means the ability to access, change and interact with data on any platform with a net connection, including on smartphones.These online services require no software purchase and installation and most run via a browser. Users can pick from the growing number of cloud-based of......
[more] How to make the web work in real-time When you do pretty much anything on the web it involves your browser asking for data from another source. Refresh a webpage and your browser will go away and ask if there is a updated version you should be seeing. This gentlemanly approach works well most of the time. Want to find out when the Battle of Trafalgar was fought? No problem. Ask a search engine and it will tell you because it checked earlier.However, its shortcomings are becoming apparent as the......
[more] The biggest botnets: Is your PC part of one? There are hundreds of botnets, ad hoc networks of Windows PCs that are infected with one or more programs to let them do the bidding of their controllers, some are far more trouble than others. While you can't afford to ignore any botnet threat, here are some of the worst of the worst. "When it comes to botnets, size does matter," said Scott Emo, head of endpoint solutions at Check Point, a network security company. That's because "the......
[more] Firefox among first browsers to fix DLL load hijacking bug Mozilla on Tuesday patched 15 vulnerabilities in Firefox, 11 of them labeled critical. One of yesterday's patches addressed a problem found in scores of Windows applications, making Firefox one of the first browsers to be patched against the DLL load hijacking bug that went public three weeks ago. Nearly three-quarters of the vulnerabilities in Firefox 3.6 were rated "critical," Mozilla's highest threat ranking, representing bu......
[more] Five ways to defend against a DDoS attack The economics of the Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack tend to work in favour of the aggressor and not those attempting to protect online assets. Most DDoS attacks, which most commonly involve a group of attackers flooding a web site with excessive amounts of requests in an effort to prevent it providing service, tend to be small-scale and short-lived. But in rare cases such attacks have brought server clusters - and sometimes entire companies......
[more] Lazy Hackers Unite: Firesheep Boasts +104,000 Downloads In 24 Hours Well, that was fast. In roughly 24 hours, Firesheep has been downloaded more than 104,000 times, as would-be-hackers - or the merely curious- downloaded the Firefox extension to test the exploit. As we reported on Sunday night, Eric Butler's Firesheep allows users on a public Wi-Fi network to effectively spy on others, by giving Firesheep users access to sensitive information (via cookies) that lets them log into their victim's......
[more] Blue Coat PacketShaper gets smarter at traffic management Blue Coat has announced an update to its PacketShaper appliances that provides finer-grained control of web traffic through the ability to discriminate between business applications and less important traffic that can have stricter bandwidth restrictions imposed. Available from today, the PacketShaper 8.6 platform is designed to address the issue that HTTP traffic is increasingly business related, but existing traffic management systems a......
[more] Carberp banking malware upgrades itself A piece of banking malware that researchers have been keeping an eye on is adding more sophisticated capabilities to stay hidden on victims' PCs, according to the vendor Seculert. Carberp, which targets computers running Microsoft's Windows operating system, was discovered last October by several security companies and noted for its ability to steal a range of data as well as disguise itself as legitimate Windows files and remove antivirus software. It has......
[more] 'Mark-of-the-Beast' bug topples Java apps A bug in Oracle's Java programming framework causes computers to freeze when they encounter certain numerical values with large numbers of decimal places, a flaw that makes websites susceptible to highly efficient denial-of-service attacks. The vulnerability in the latest version of Java is similar to a flaw discovered last month that plagued the PHP language. It is trigged when applications attempt to process values such as 2.2250738585072011e-308. Syst......
[more] ENISA warns on cookie security threats ENISA, the European Union's security agency, is warning about a new breed of computer cookie that could present a serious threat if not tackled quickly. So-called 'Bittersweet' cookies are one of the main threads in the agency's latest report, and are a new type of advertising tool which could be ripe for exploitation and subversion if left unchecked. The ENISA Privacy, Accountability and Trust report said that the advertising market has led and supported a......
[more] Twitter adds option to always use HTTPS connection With the rising awareness and concern over the stealing of passwords and other sensitive data from unsecured Wi-Fi networks, Twitter is the latest online services company to boost its use of encrypted website connections. Twitter announced on Wednesday that it will give its users the option to always automatically connect to Twitter.com using HTTPS, which encrypts communications between users' computers and Twitter servers. HTTPS reduces the cha......
[more] Pointing fingers over outsourced data The issue of outsourcing and the risks that it poses has been raised following the Epsilon breach this week. In a similar vein, I recently asked several companies about outsourcing and risk and if outsourced data was breached, who would be responsible for it? There are two sides to this, firstly if you choose to outsource then it could be interpreted that it is your provider's responsibility as they were breached so they should take the blame, then again it......
[more] Mitigating DDoS attacks is not an easy task According to statistics released by the Web Hacking Incident Database (WHID) project DDoS attacks have become so popular that they are currently leading charts such as the top Web Application Risks and top Attack Methods, with downtime being the top Attack Outcome. LiveJournal has been the latest blogging platform targeted by multiple DDoS attacks. LiveJournal have been targeted a number of times in the past with DDoS attacks, mostly due to conflicting......
[more] 99% of Android phones leak secret account credentials The vast majority of devices running Google's Android operating system are vulnerable to attacks that allow adversaries to steal the digital credentials used to access calendars, contacts, and other sensitive data stored on the search giant's servers, university researchers have warned. "We wanted to know if it is really possible to launch an impersonation attack against Google services and started our own analysis," the researchers......
[more] Google plugs Wi-Fi sync security hole in Android Google today confirmed that it's starting to roll out a server-side patch for a security vulnerability in most Android phones that could let hackers snatch important credentials at public Wi-Fi hotspots. "Today we're starting to roll out a fix which addresses a potential security flaw that could, under certain circumstances, allow a third party access to data available in Calendar and Contacts," said a Google spokesman. "This fix re......
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