Stories about: Avert

A recent string of high-profile ActiveX vulnerabilities caused the US Computer Emergency Readiness Team (US-CERT) to advise users to disable the ubiquitous Microsoft browser plug-in technology altogether. The vectors for these recent exploits include a third-party image uploading tool used on both the Facebook and MySpace social networking sites, and flaws found in Yahoo's Music Jukebox, Real Networks' RealPlayer, and Apple's QuickTime.

US consumers using an expanding array of broadband services, including movie downloads, video games, online backup, and streaming audio and video, are flooding the nation's broadband pipes with data--and it could cost them.

Hackers now mask virtually every Web browser exploit as part of their normal procedure to evade detection by security software, said IBM's X-Force research team Tuesday.

As Apple continues to grow its worldwide market share and the company's products find their way into more business environments, attackers are certain to follow and create greater volumes of exploits aimed at vulnerabilities in the company's software, security experts contend.

Within hours of the assassination of former Pakistani Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto, malware makers exploited the breaking news to dupe users into downloading attack code, security researchers said Friday.

The FBI on Thursday announced that eight individuals have been indicted, pled guilty or have been sentenced to prison over the last few months for crimes related to botnet activity.

If you think that the latest security suites afford complete protection against malware attacks, think again. Today's for-profit malware pushers use dedicated test labs and other increasingly professional techniques to improve their chances of infecting your computer. And the techniques they employ to outpace security software makers appear to be working.

Governments and allied groups worldwide are using the Internet to spy and launch cyberattacks on their enemies, targeting critical systems including electricity, air traffic control, financial markets and government computer networks, according to McAfee's annual report examining global cybersecurity.

Groundbreaking research undertaken by the Queensland University of Technology has led to the creation of systems that can detect invisible intruders on wireless local area networks.

Microsoft will face more than 40 vulnerabilities in Windows Vista next year, as the operating system climbs past the 10% market-share milestone and malware authors really start to find flaws, a McAfee analyst said.

In its "Top Ten Security Predictions for 2008," McAfee foresees the growth of virtualization opening up a huge attack surface. On the good-news side, the security vendor expects there will be less adware on the Internet to worry about. McAfee's list comes in the wake of archrival Symantec this week predicting its top five security threats for next year. Craig Schmugar and Dave Marcus, researchers at McAfee's Avert Labs, shared this list: