Study: Unpatched Web browsers prevalent on the Internet

Only 59.1% of people use up-to-date, fully patched Web browsers, putting the remainder at risk from growing threats from diligent hackers, according to a new study published by researchers in Switzerland.

Hands on: 12 quick hacks for Firefox 3
Firefox 3 has been out for two weeks now, so get with the program: It's time to hack it. The newest version of Mozilla's browser has plenty of new features, including the site identification button, the Bookmarks Library and what has become known as the "Awesome Bar" -- and I'll show you how to hack them all.

Dutch launch open-source smart card software project
A Dutch charity is funding an open-source project to design smart card software that offers stronger protection of personal data in light of security vulnerabilities found with cards used today in the U.S., U.K. and Netherlands.

Red Hat develops Linux-based hypervisor, virtualization security tool
Red Hat released a beta version of a Linux-based hypervisor that fits on a flash drive.

Firefox 3 vulnerability found
Five hours after Mozilla officially released Firefox 3.0, researchers found a vulnerability in the new browser.

Trend Micro: Barracuda suit not about open source
Trend Micro may have received more than it bargained for in its software patent dispute with rival Barracuda Networks. In the past few months Barracuda's cause has been taken up by free software advocates, who see Trend Micro's patent claims as a threat to the open-source ClamAV antivirus project. That's because Barracuda uses ClamAV to be able to scan for viruses at the "gateway," where a local area network connects to the Internet. Trend Micro says it owns the technology behind this -- thanks to a patent it calls the "600" patent.

Laptop safety questions
Let me say thanks to the Women's Business Council of the Southwest for inviting me to teach them about laptop safety. The business backgrounds of the members ranged from huge company manager to sole proprietor to corporate lawyer and everything in between. That's what made their questions so interesting, because they came from all directions.

Mozilla makes Firefox 3.0 bug-fix decision
Mozilla decided Tuesday to roll out a second release candidate for Firefox 3.0 that will include fixes for about 40 bugs. The alternative was to declare the open-source browser good "as is," then patch the problems with a later update.

Tools circulate that crack Debian, Ubuntu keys
A recently disclosed vulnerability in widely used Linux distributions can be exploited by attackers to guess cryptographic keys, possibly leading to the forgery of digital signatures and theft of confidential information, a noted security researcher said Thursday.

Laptop wireless security refresher
Let's recap: during my first Laptop Safety Seminar in Indianapolis on April 23, I was surprised at how many questions from the audience concerned basic laptop wireless security. People love laptops and love wireless connections, but don't love the extra security steps required so too often just avoid them. Not a good plan.

Mozilla: Firefox plugin shipped with malicious code
Mozilla warned Wednesday that a malicious program inserted adware code into a Firefox plugin that has been downloaded thousands of times over the past three months.

Google backs open-source CERT group
Google has thrown its weight behind a fledgling security reporting group for the open-source community.

Response team boosts open-source security
IT managers often assume that open source software is more secure than proprietary commercial software. Anyone who uses open source can examine the original code to spot any lurking vulnerabilities, and potentially even fix the vulnerabilities themselves. With proprietary software, you have to trust the vendor to do it all for you.

Data breach laws cover everyone
During the first Laptop Safety Seminar we gave in Indianapolis on April 23, I was surprised at how many questions we got from the audience about basic wireless laptop security. Of course, when my co-presenter Kim Brand of sponsor FileEngine demonstrated how easy it is to hack a Windows computer over the type of Wi-Fi service provided by coffee houses and hotels, the questions started coming even faster.

Management+Security, Security+Management
Continuing our discussion of support tools from Bomgar last week, let me report on the Altiris ManageFusion user conference in Las Vegas that happened in early April. Almost exactly a year after being acquired by Symantec, Altiris employees and users report mostly good things about the new products and integration with Symantec.

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