Twitter spam on the up
by Kerry ButtersA report from Naked Security, the blog of security firm Sophos warns users of continuing phishing attacks carried out on Twitter users. The attacks are designed to reap passwords from victims and apparently often come in the form of a message from friends. The latest threat is similar to the ones we’ve seen a spate [...]
September 2, 2011
Sophos warns of student loan phishing scam
by Jan HarrisSecurity firm Sophos has warned about phishing emails which are targeting students preparing to return to universities in the UK. The bogus emails, which concern student loans, claim to come from Directgov UK and appear genuine at first glance, but contain grammatical mistakes. They warn students that there is a problem with their online student [...]
August 4, 2011
Sophos warns of search engine poisoning threat
by Jan HarrisIn its Security Threat Report Mid-Year 2011, Sophos warns of the emergence of a new threat – search engine poisoning, also known as Black Hat SEO. Although this is a relatively new form of attack, it accounted for nearly a third of all the malware detected by Sophos Web Appliance. Search engine poisoning involves the [...]
June 20, 2011
Sophos warns of HSBC Wimbledon phishing scam
by Jan HarrisWith the UK’s hopes pinned on Andy Murray as Wimbledon hits off today, security expert Sophos is warning people not to be taken in by cyber criminals trying to take advantage of the high level of interest in the event. In a blog post, Graham Cluley of Sophos warns that a phishing email is doing [...]
April 18, 2011
Sophos criticises Facebook security in open letter
by Jan HarrisSecurity firm Sophos has published an open letter to Facebook on its Naked Security blog, calling for the social network to improve security. Sophos wants Facebook to implement a three-point plan to offer privacy by default, vetted app developers and https for everything. Introducing these three security features would create a safer environment for Facebook [...]
March 11, 2011
Apple fixes 62 Safari bugs
by Jan HarrisThe latest Apple update fixed 62 vulnerabilities in the Safari browser, 57 of which can be exploited simply by visiting a malicious site, potentially resulting in unexpected application termination or arbitrary code execution. Most of the patches relate to WebKit, the open source web browser engine used by Safari. In a blog post, Graham Cluley [...]
February 28, 2011
Backdoor Trojan targets Mac OS X
by Jan HarrisSophos is warning Mac OS X users to beware of a backdoor Trojan that is currently doing the rounds in beta. The emergence of the malware has prompted Chester Wisniewski, a security advisor at Sophos Canada, to warn of a new trend for hackers to focus on the increasingly popular Mac computers, which are traditionally [...]
January 20, 2011
Sophos raises concerns over Facebook app security
by Jan HarrisSecurity company Sophos has warned that Facebook’s app policy could put user’s data at risk. Unlike Apple, which strictly controls the apps available for its iPhone and iPad devices, Facebook allows a free-for-all, where anyone can create apps and other programmes and make them available for download. Sophos believes that this opens to door to [...]
January 11, 2011
UK fifth for spam
by Jan HarrisThe US is still the worst offender for sending spam, while the UK remains in fifth place, according to the latest report from Sophos. Sophos attributed the US’s inglorious first place to the large number of compromised computers in the country. It seems that many US users aren’t up to speed on security as 36 [...]
June 16, 2010
XP flaw now under attack
by Jan HarrisSophos has reported that a security flaw in Windows XP’s Help and Support Centre, revealed last week by a Google engineer, is now under attack. The engineer, Tavis Ormandy, revealed the flaw only five days after reporting it to Microsoft, in an effort to get Microsoft to resolve it quicker. The ploy now seems to [...]