Security – Page 763 – Computer Security Articles

IBM Security plans to buy San Francisco-based Agile 3 Solutions, which makes software for visualizing data risk for analysis by senior executives.

The deal is expected to close within weeks, but the financial terms were not released. It will include the purchase of Ravy Technologies, an Agile 3 subcontractor based in India.

Agile 3’s software identifies risks to business programs and assets, and enables actions to head off possible exploits that could affect business processes. It provides a dashboard for measuring compliance with regulations and legislation.

IBM Security customers will be able to buy Agile 3 technology as a service through IBM Data Security Services or as features rolled into IBM Guardian, the company’s data-protection software. The company says the addition of the software will help identify and protect critical data.

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ComputerWorld Independent

January 25, 2017 admin

Researchers propose a way to use your heartbeat as a password

Researchers at Binghamton State University in New York think your heart could be the key to your personal data. By measuring the electrical activity of the heart, researchers say they can encrypt patients’ health records.

The fundamental idea is this: In the future, all patients will be outfitted with a wearable device, which will continuously collect physiological data and transmit it to the patients’ doctors. Because electrocardiogram (ECG) signals are already collected for clinical diagnosis, the system would simply reuse the data during transmission, thus reducing the cost and computational power needed to create an encryption key from scratch.

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ComputerWorld Independent

January 25, 2017 admin

Lavabit developer has a new encrypted, end-to-end email protocol

The developer behind Lavabit, an email service that noted leaker Edward Snowden used, is releasing source code for an open-source, end-to-end encrypted email standard that promises surveillance-proof messaging.

The code for the Dark Internet Mail Environment (DIME) standard will become available on Github, along with an associated mail server program, said its developer, Ladar Levison, on Friday.

DIME will work across different service providers and perhaps crucially will be “flexible enough to allow users to continue using their email without a Ph.D. in cryptology,” said Levison.

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ComputerWorld Independent

January 25, 2017 admin

Spanish police nab suspect behind Neverquest banking malware

Spanish police have arrested a Russian programmer suspected of developing the Neverquest banking Trojan, a malware targeting financial institutions across the world.

The 32-year-old Russian citizen known as Lisov SV was arrested at the Barcelona airport, Spain’s law enforcement agency Guardia Civil said on Friday.

The FBI had been working with Spanish authorities to track down the suspect through an international arrest warrant, according to a statement from the agency. The FBI, however, declined to comment on the man’s arrest.

Neverquest is designed to steal username and password information from banking customers. Once it infects a PC, the malware can do this by injecting fake online forms into legitimate banking websites to log any information typed in. It can also take screenshots and video from the PC’s desktop and steal any passwords stored locally.

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ComputerWorld Independent

January 25, 2017 admin

7 (more) security TED Talks you can’t miss

(Insider Story)

ComputerWorld Independent

January 25, 2017 admin

Google pushed developers to fix security flaws in 275K Android apps

Over the past two years, Google has pressured developers to patch security issues in more than 275,000 Android apps hosted on its official app store. In many cases this was done under the threat of blocking future updates to the insecure apps.

Since 2014, Google has been scanning apps published on Google Play for known vulnerabilities as part of its App Security Improvement (ASI) program. Whenever a known security issue is found in an application, the developer receives an alert via email and through the Google Play Developer Console.

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ComputerWorld Independent

January 25, 2017 admin

Trump nominee suggests IRS cybersecurity and staffing boosts

Cybersecurity and staffing upgrades at the Internal Revenue Service appear to be in store, assuming Steven Mnuchin is confirmed as Treasury Secretary in the new Trump Administration.

Mnuchin, a former CIO and executive vice president for Goldman Sachs, told senators in a five-hour confirmation hearing on Thursday that he is “very concerned about the lack of first-rate technology at the IRS” as well as staff cuts in recent years. Mnuchin is expected to be confirmed, and would likely work with Trump to pick the next IRS director.

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