security

When Vista experienced problems on takeoff, it resulted in a huge media debate that continues to this day. However, when Apple launches an update that experiences growing pains of its own, the media jabber is at an all time low. What gives? ... Proponents of the infallibility of Macs might be surprised to know that the new Mac OS X 10.5.3 Leopard update has a host of problems to combat. From simple issues like USB devises not showing up in the finder (Mac's version of My Computer) to ensuring that the airport wireless detector is reliable, the upgrade has a long list of small to large problems to ... (view more)

A security researcher won $10,000 for hacking a MacBook Air in just two minutes. Rubbing salt in the wound, he said Apple's operating system was the easiest of targets. The competition, held at Vancouver security conference CanSecWest, challenged ... entrants to break into one of three laptops: a MacBook Air running the latest version of Macintosh's Operating System, a Fujitsu running the latest edition of Windows Vista, and a Sony Vaio running Ubuntu, an operating system based on the open-source Linux system. All three machines were protected with the latest security patches offered by the ... (view more)

Reports are now suggesting that Microsoft's highly-anticipated series of updates for Windows Vista, called Service Pack 1 (SP1), will be available for download and shipping, today and tomorrow, respectively. The news keeps with previous estimates ... that the company would be releasing a series of fixes by the middle of March. First word of the release comes to us via Amazon.com, whose web site recently revealed that users can begin downloading the free SP1 upgrade Tuesday. By Wednesday, Amazon will begin shipping boxed copies of Windows SP1. Preorders can be made now. In a statement sent to the ... (view more)

A New Zealand-based security consultant has released a tool that can unlock a Windows computer in seconds without a password. The hack, which involves Windows XP computers but has not been tested with Windows Vista, was first demonstrated by Adam ... Boileau at a security conference in Sydney in 2006. Microsoft has not developed a fix for it yet. (Source: com.au ) The tool released by Boileau can unlock Windows machines or login without a password by plugging in a Firewire cable and running a command. Boileau did not release the tool in 2006 because Microsoft was cagey about whether Firewire ... (view more)

The annual "X-Force" report, recently released by Internet Security Systems ( ISS ), part of IBM Corp., says 6,437 security flaws were acknowledged in 2007 by network and software vendors, down 5.4 percent from 2006. (Source: com.au ) While computer ... security vulnerabilities decreased last year, security researchers are cautioning that there has been no improvement in web safety. ISS Chief Technology officer Chris Rouland said that in at least 10 years of counting he had not seen that figure drop. Rouland suggests that the 2007 number of vulnerabilities reported would have been higher if a ... (view more)

If you think the government doesn't listen to people, you're in for a shock. The Transport Security Administration (TSA), which sets the rules for airport security, changed its policy as a direct result of comments on its new blog. The blog, titled ... 'Evolution of Security', aims to explain changes in policy and explain confusing procedures, such as the rules about carrying liquids in hold baggage. It also answers common questions such as why military personnel and veterans have to go through screening, and even includes videos of staff explaining policies to passengers. The site invites ... (view more)

Trying to sway public opinion about a flailing product, Microsoft has reportedly once again boasted about the security of Windows Vista, claiming that the operating system had 36 vulnerabilities in its first year compared to the 65 found in Windows ... XP during that same period. Analysts remain skeptical. "I think that it's fair to say that Windows Vista is proving to be the most secure version of Windows to date. Our investments in the SDL (Security Development Lifecycle) and our defense in depth approach to building Windows Vista seem to be paying off," wrote Austin Wilson in a recent ... (view more)

Scary: A recent survey sponsored by Deloitte ... (view more)

Updates are supposed to help us, aren't they? Not always. In this case, a recent security update from Microsoft has completely blocked a number of users from accessing the web with the company's own browser, Internet Explorer. For those who are ... reading this in Explorer after downloading update MS07-069, consider yourselves lucky. The bulletin was released December 11th, and since that time users have been flooding Microsoft's support forums with complaints that they can no longer regularly connect to the Internet. In some cases, the browser shuts down about 50-60% of the time, displaying an ... (view more)

Security experts have found a way to intercept information from Microsoft's wireless keyboards, and warn that other brands could also be at risk. The affected keyboards don't use the popular Bluetooth technology, but instead broadcast on a very ... short radio frequency. Most surprisingly, the encryption appears to be shockingly weak. It turns out that much only the keystrokes themselves are encrypted, not any of the background information such as that used to synchronise the keyboard and computer. Shockingly, the same encryption key (the code needed to decipher the data) is used for the entire ... (view more)