In this episode, Sophos experts John Shier and Paul Ducklin tackle the week’s interesting security stories. John and Duck get stuck into: a high-profile cybercrime arrest; how mainstream brands help phishers; and why macro malware is making a comeback.
Monthly Archives: July 2014
What would make you quit Facebook? Here’s what you said …
Last week we asked our readers to take a poll about Facebook’s controversial social experiment on thousands of unknowing users. Lots of you responded – more than 1,000 – and we received a lot of great comments on our post and Read more…
DARPA dissects Twitter, Facebook, Reddit to extract propaganda how-to’s
The internet found out last week that Facebook’s been dissecting us. Now, it looks like DARPA’s been at it too, with research on users of Facebook, Twitter, Reddit, Pinterest, Kickstarter and Digg. 
Google Drive security hole leaks users’ files
The flaw, which Google recently patched, was giving out original documents to unauthorized users via embedded links. It’s yet another example of how storing documents “in the cloud” means “heaven knows with whom”. 
Google lawsuit highlights why every business needs to manage its online presence
Virginia restaurant owner Rene Bertagna is suing Google, claiming that his business’ listing was sabotaged by a competitor and that the web giant turned a blind eye. 
Patch Tuesday wrap-up, July 2014 – Adobe fixes “Rosetta”, plus a new risky file type on Windows…
Patch Tuesday for July 2014 is just behind us in the case of Microsoft and Adobe, and just ahead of us in the case of Oracle. Paul Ducklin tells you what you need to know…
US arrests Russian MP’s son for PoS hacking; Russia calls it kidnapping
The Russian man’s father conjectures that, for all he knows, this may be a ploy for the US to get bait to exchange for Snowden. 
Australian police using tower dumps to slurp mass phone data
Australian federal and state police have joined the ranks of mega-data slurpers – namely, the US, where 1 in 4 law enforcement agencies have reportedly used a “tower dump” – ordering phone providers to hand over personal information about thousands of mobile phone users, regardless of whether or not those people are under investigation.
Google’s Android security chief: Don’t bother with anti-virus. Is he serious?
Google’s chief security engineer for Android, Adrian Ludwig, claims that most users shouldn’t bother with anti-virus and that security companies are overstating the problem of Android malware. Can he be serious? …
How not to tell your customers how much you care about their security
We’ve written before about “what not to do” when sending emails to your customers. Here’s another example, with an explanation of why doing the right thing will be better for everyone – including your marketing team! – in the long run.