Security expert warns computer hackers keeping up with technology
115533
Computer hackers are keeping up with the times and are putting an increasingly technology-dependent world at risk, the chairman of leading US-based IT security firm McAfee said.
352980
Apple&#8217;s iPhone is a tough target for hackers, but a security researcher warned Friday that there are ways the sleek device could potentially be compromised.
134112
Computer-security experts, including  former government officials, urged the George W. Bush  administration on Tuesday to devote more effort to  strengthening defenses against viruses, hackers and other  online threats.
711255
New PCs will ship with a chip designed to thwart hackers--a hardware approach that's said to be safer than software.
722409
A visiting scholar whose computer has been linked to a hacker attack at the University of California, Berkeley, released a statement late Friday saying she believed her equipment
758518
InfoWorld - A new hacking method is causing concern for the lengths it goes to avoid detection by security software and researchers.
310488
(InfoWorld) - Companies are losing the battle to secure their IT systems from attacks by hackers and other threats, warned Bruce Schneier, the founder and chief technology officer of Counterpane Internet Security. "I don't think, on the whole, we are winning the security war; I think we are losing it," Schneier said in a speech, which was webcast Wednesday at the Hack In The Box Security Conference (HITB) in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. As systems get more complex, they getÂ less secure, according to Schneier. Even as security technology improves, the complexity of modern IT systems has increased at a faster rate. "The Internet is the most complex machine ever built," Schneier said. "This explains why security is getting worse." In addition, the nature of the threat that companies face has changed in important ways. Where hacking was once considered a profession for hobbyists, a growing number ofÂ hackers are now criminalsÂ with a profit motive. "The nature of the attacks are changing because the adversaries are changing," Schneier warned. "They have different motivations, different skill sets and different risk aversions." Hobbyists now represent the minority of hackers, according to Schneier. This change means hackers pose an even greater threat to companies. "The hobbyist is more interested in street cred, the criminal wants results," he said. To turn the battle in its favor, the security industry must look beyond purely technical measures, according to Schneier. "Look for the economic levers," he said. "If you get the economic levers right, the technology will work. If you get the economics wrong, the technology will never work." Externalities, an economic term used to describe the effects of one person's actions on another, are central to building effective security, Schneier said. For example, U.S. banks do not spend heavily toÂ defend against identity theftÂ because they are not affected when such theft occurs. To the banks, this is an externality. However, when banks bearÂ liability for a security breach, such as an unauthorized ATM withdrawal, they make the investments necessary to prevent these incidents from taking place, he said. The same economic lessons can be applied to software vendors. To improve the security of software, Microsoft and others should be made liable for selling software that is not secure. "When you use buggy software and you lose data, that's your loss and not the software company's loss," Schneier said. That needs to change, according to Schneier. "The organization that has the capability to mitigate the risk needs to be responsible for the risk," he said HITB runs through Thursday, Sept. 21.
481118
Hi-tech criminals are turning away from viruses to mount the most serious attacks, warn security experts.
419308
Security experts say phishing attacks becoming more sophisticated, and outnumber e-mails infected with malicous software.
684295
Security specialists are now in great demand, thanks to a boom in malicious attacks on computer systems by hackers and viruses, and an array of new communications technologies that carry new security risks.
397382
A former security researcher who served time for hacking has been charged with new cybercrimes.
730777
Online criminals are getting better at targeting people's sensibility to hack into their computers.
507230
Computer security expert says Russia's infrastructure could be vulnerable to electronic warfare.
316372
Employee-owned consumer devices used at work present a threat that security professionals must manage, analysts say.
80208
A senior developer surveys the cultural chasm between suits and geeks, and says that communication is possible -- but that managers need to keep a few things about the hacker's worldview in mind.
63591
Your credit card information is coming under more frequent attack on the Internet than ever before. A study by Symantec Corp. says electronic commerce has become the favourite target of computer hackers.
56532
People have long been the weakest link when it comes to protecting computers. The same applies to mobile phones, a security expert says.