Latest Computer and PC Security News

Track, locate and recover your lost or stolen computer AND your missing USB devices
posted on 03/04/2012

Creator of MacPhoneHome and PC PhoneHome, Brigadoon Software, launches its latest version of PC PhoneHome and MacPhoneHome version 3.5. This new version offers several new security and communication upgrades required by recent changes in internet protocol. The company's PC PhoneHome and MacPhoneHome is the number one stand-alone computer tracking and recovery software in the world to both the Windows and Mac communities. Soon they will release PhoneHome protection for iPods,iPhones, iPads, Android Tablets, Android Phones and USB Devices. This will be available as a FREE Upgrade to all customers... Also Brigadoon Software is going to launch USB PhoneHome, a brand new application that will protect and provide PhoneHome protection to all your USB devices such as: Thumb Drives, External Hard Drives, External Backup Disks & Firewire External Storage Devices. Currently, over 1,500,000 computers worldwide are protected. Unlike OTHER computer tracking products, PC PhoneHome and MacP... [more]

A call to action on cybercrime
posted on 30/03/2012

With two reports this week having shown the effects of fraud and cybercrime on both the FS industry and the UK economy as a whole, Pat Carroll, ValidSoft CEO, calls for commerce and financial services to ensure that fraud strategy is robust enough to deal will changing criminal methodologies. "Two interesting stats have caught my eye this week: - Fraudsters are costing the UK an estimated £73billion a year (National Fraud Authority, NFA) - Cybercrime has now become the second most commonly reported economic crime affecting companies in the financial services sector (PWC) While counter-fraud groups such as the NFA’s ‘Fighting Fraud Together’ and Get Safe Online are a positive step, and while it’s good to hear that the European Commission is going ahead with plans for a Cyber Crime Centre, what’s striking to me is the sense of “c’est la vie” that was picked up by PWC when it conducted the research. There still seems to be a certain acceptance amongst commerce and financ... [more]

IT security lessons that Australia can teach us (1/2)
posted on 22/03/2012

Paul Kenyon, COO of Avecto, on how the Australian Defence Signals Directorate could teach IT security professionals a thing or two when it comes to operating system and application whitelisting plus privilege controls ... The Australian economy - under the respected guidance of its 27th Prime Minister Julia Gillard and her federal team - is carving out a name for itself in the IT security arena. Whilst this may sound surprising, it comes against the background of Australia's (as a country) relative youth and the fact that the country has around 22 million citizens: big enough to make its weight felt in international terms, but small enough to be flexible in the modern world of IT matters. A key example of this is the country's Defence Signals Directorate (DSD) - Australia's equivalent to the US Department of Homeland Security - which has analysed some of the attack techniques used by cybercriminals and come up with four main methods of blocking them. And the Australian governmen... [more]

IT security lessons that Australia can teach us (2/2)
posted on 22/03/2012

This fully-embedded firmware approach is fairly unique to SCADA-based operating systems, but helps one to understand that a highly controlled operating system and software environment – as mandated under the Australian DSD’s diktat - has a far lower risk of subversion than the free-for-all software approach see in the cost-cutting UK public sector. Here at Avecto, whilst we understand the impetus behind moving to open source software that a growing number of UK government departments and allied public sector agencies are moving towards as part of their cost-cutting strategy, this does not mean that the Australian ideas enshrined in the DSD report cannot also be applied here in the UK. This is because the principle on which our security offerings are built is Windows privilege management - namely the control over who has access to specific applications running on the corporate IT platform, as well as the underlying data. This means, for example, that if the admin team only run their... [more]

Barracuda NG Firewall 5.2.3 simplifies IPSec VPN tunneling for iPads and iPhones
posted on 21/03/2012

Several key features have been added by Barracuda Networks to the latest release of its Barracuda NG Firewall product including: supportforiOSmobile devices; integration to the Mac OS Keychain and support for Citrix Xen and open source Xen hypervisors. In addition, many components of the Barracuda NG Firewall graphical user interface (GUI) have been simplified to allow customers to get up and running faster than ever before. Klaus Gheri, vice president of product management Europe for Barracuda Networks, said: “Every new firmware release is a result of listening closely to our customers. This latest release reflects the fact that mobile devices and virtualisation have become ubiquitous across the enterprise. NG Firewall can help businesses of any size embrace these trends more easily while improving management, reducing costs, and consolidating their security.” Full details of all the new features of Barracuda NG Firewall 5.2.3 are available at www.barracuda.com/doc. Key hig... [more]

Other Security news and resources