security

If you get a direct message on Twitter telling you to click a link to watch a video of President Barack Obama punching a guy, don't do it.

Spammers are using the idea of the president retaliating against someone for calling him the n-word to steal Twitter passwords and deliver malware to computers, security company PandaLabs noted today.

It's a scheme that uses the names of Twitter, Facebook, and YouTube for nefarious purposes, with spammers creating fake pages to dupe unsuspecting Twitter users.

The scam involves sending a Twitter direct message that reads "Check out Obama punch … Read more

First there was e-mail spam clogging up your in-box. Now there's social malware making its way into your Facebook newsfeed.

If you've ever seen a spammy message from a friend promising a "Free iPad" or "Free" airline tickets, chances are it's socware (pronounced "sock ware") -- a phrase coined by engineering professors and graduate students at the University of California, Riverside, in a new study.

Their study analyzed 12,000 users of MyPageKeeper, a free app they developed to identify suspicious posts and help protect Facebook users from them. Of that … Read more

In an effort to cover a trail of messages between him and his mistress, former CIA Director Gen. David Petraeus reportedly used a tactic favored by terrorists and teenagers -- communicating via draft e-mail.

Petraeus and Paula Broadwell, the co-author of Petraeus' biography and the woman he was having an affair with, set up private Gmail accounts in order to communicate, the Associated Press reported today. In addition to creating the e-mails under false identities, Petraeus and Broadwell decided to exchange some messages using the draft function, as an added precaution.

Instead of actually e-mailing each other, they would compose … Read more

Cybercriminals gangs are creating a surge in ransomware, says a new report from Symantec.

Ransomware is a type of malware best described as an online extortion racket. Malware locks or disables your PC in some way and then demands payment in the form of a "fine" to render your PC usable again. Like most scams, the ransomware message claims to come from a legitimate organization, such as the government or a public corporation, to try to convince victims that they did something wrong to incur the fine.

But paying the fine does nothing since the initial malware remains … Read more

Staffers in the SEC's Trading and Markets Division left their computers totally unprotected from possible security attacks, forcing the organization to scramble to determine if any sensitive data was stolen, Reuters reported, citing unidentified sources with knowledge of the situation.

As it turns out, the trading and markets division is charged with ensuring that markets don't fall victim to cyberattacks.

Reuters also reports that the staffers attended the annual Black Hat Conference for hackers and brought the unprotected computers with them.

Soon after the security issues were identified, the SEC hired a third-party company and paid it "… Read more

Windows 8 and Windows RT will receive their first security fixes when next week's Patch Tuesday rolls around from Microsoft.

The patches are designed to prevent "remote code execution," which means they'll plug holes in the OS that could let someone remotely run malicious code on a PC.

Beyond securing Windows 8, the fixes cover just about every other version of Windows, including XP, Vista, and Windows 7 as well as Server 2003, 2008, and 2012.

The rollout includes six security patches, four of which are considered critical, one important, and one moderate. Most of the … Read more

Many Web sites collect data about you on each visit. This data is used for serving ads that meet your interests, or finding out which demographic is frequenting a specific type of content. In an effort to help you protect your online privacy, Google has added a new feature to Chrome: Do Not Track.

It's important to remember that this option is not going to protect you from Web sites that ignore the Do Not Track request, but it is a small step in the direction of protecting your personal details online. Read on to find … Read more

China poses the largest threat in cyberspace, with its hackers increasingly targeting U.S military computers and defense contractors, according to a draft of a Congressional report obtained by Bloomberg.

The report, produced by the U.S.- China Economic and Security Review Commission, found that China's persistence and its advances in hacking activities over the past year poses an increasing threat to information systems and users.

The risks include attempts to blind or disrupt U.S. intelligence and communications satellites, weapons targeting systems, and navigation computers, Bloomberg reported, citing an anonymous U.S. intelligence official.

While the attacks … Read more

The FBI has tried to bolster its case for expanded Internet surveillance powers by gathering finger-pointing examples of how communications companies have stymied government agencies, CNET has learned.

An internal Homeland Security report shows that a working group convened by an FBI office in Chantilly, Va. requested details about "investigations have been negatively impacted" by companies' delays, partial compliance, or inability to comply with police surveillance requests.

One of the claims in that report: A police arm of Homeland Security's Immigration and Customs Enforcement, which conducts investigations into immigration, drug, computer, and copyright crimes, reported that no-contract … Read more