IBM is beefing up its enterprise security offerings by creating a security platform that is aware of real-time virus information, meaning that the system will be much quicker at recognising new threats.

Marketing its updated QRadar Security Intelligence Platform as a comprehensive security solution, IBM argue that the platform will protect companies much better than a bunch of piecemeal security patches. Systems patched that way have loopholes, warned Brendan Hannigan, general manager, IBM Security Systems.

(Reuters) – Hackers have tried to crash a vast network of Web cameras which Vladimir Putin has ordered to allay fears of vote-rigging in the March presidential election, a deputy minister said on Friday.

Putin, facing the biggest protests of his 12-year rule after a disputed December parliamentary election the opposition said was rigged, ordered 182,000 Web cameras to be installed at the 91,000 polling stations.

As early voting began in the most desolate corners of Russia for sailors and reindeer herders, Putin inspected a polling station in the Siberian city of Novosibirsk where the first two cameras went live on the www.webvybory2012.ru website.

READ MORE …

For the past year, Sergey Aleynikov has been in prison at the Ft. Dix federal prison in New Jersey as prisoner number 90453-054.  Yesterday, the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Manhattan reversed his conviction and entered a judgment of“Acquittal”, meaning that Alyenikov will be heading home as soon as some paperwork is completed.  His lawyer, Kevin Marinohopes that will be as soon as today.

You may recall this case from 2009 through Aleynikov’s sentencing to prison last March when he was sentenced over 8 years in prison.  Aleynikov left Goldman as a computer programmer in June 2009 for a new opportunity with Teza Technologies.  As he left, he was accused of taking computer source code from Goldman’s controversial high frequency trading program.  So dangerous was this code that U.S. prosecutors had been told by Goldman that in the wrong hands the computer program could harm financial markets….so dangerous that U.S. prosecutor Joseph Facciponte said of Aleynikov, “…the defendant poses both a substantial risk of flight and danger to the community,” during an initial bond hearing.  Aleynikov was granted bail even though Facciponte described the dangers of his release to the community.  Not only did Aleynikov, a dual Russian and U.S. citizen, show up to court on every occasion, he initially even cooperated with authorities when they showed up at his home before he even had legal counsel…turning over his personal computers in his home and answering the FBI’s questions.

READ MORE …

THREE GREEK TEENAGERS have been arrested and accused of hacking and defacing a government web site.

The attack happened at the start of February and the three are accused of defacing the Greek Ministry of Justice with a protest message, according to a report on Greek news web site In.gr.

“What is going on in your country is unacceptable. You were chosen by your people to act on behalf of them and express their wishes, but you have derogatorily failed,” says the message that is still available on Youtube.

“You have killed the most sacred element your country had and that is democracy. Democracy was given birth in your country but you have now killed it.”

The message says that a government dictatorship is favouring bankers and the EU and making its citizens pay for their mistakes. It adds that Greek support of ACTA, which is limited to the government, is also a driver behind the hack.

Source: The Inquirer (http://s.tt/15LHm)

READ MORE …

A 26-year-old British hacker who broke in to Facebook’s internal networks has been sentenced to eight months behind bars.

Glenn Mangham, who had admitted breaking into Facebook’s systems between April and May 2011, had claimed he was an “ethical hacker”, attempting to show the company how it could improve its security.

According to widespread reports Judge Alistair McCreath rejected that explanation, and told Mangham that his actions could have been “utterly disastrous” for Facebook.

According to the Crown Prosecution Service, Facebook spent $200,000 dealing with the aftermath of Mangham’s attack.

READ MORE …

IDG News Service - Mozilla has asked all certificate authorities (CAs) to revoke subordinate CA certificates currently used for corporate SSL traffic management, offering an amnesty to any CAs that had breached Mozilla’s conditions for having their root certificates ship with its products.

The request comes after Trustwave recently admitted to issuing a sub-CA certificate to a private company for use in a data loss prevention system.

Sub-CA keys can be used to sign SSL certificates for any domain name on the Internet, which makes them very dangerous if they fall in the wrong hands.

Even though Trustwave argued that the sub-CA key in question was stored in a hardware security module (HSM), making it irretrievable, the fact that such a powerful certificate was issued to a private company that wasn’t a certificate authority, represents a violation of Mozilla’s policy for CAs.

READ MORE …

There is growing talk of cyberwar, as opposed to run-of-the-mill cybercrime. There are also terms that lie somewhere in the middle like cyber espionage, and cyber hacktivism–which is sort of like cyber terrorism for good guys. At the heart of the debate is an attempt to define the scope of an appropriate response to each type of threat.