War on Error

FinFisher: legitimate spy program or dubious commercial malware?

John E. Dunn — Fri, 03 May 2013 16:03:46 GMT

Is the FinFisher suite legitimate surveillance or software’s Dr Strangelove? The UK is a bulwark against cybercrime, noted the world over for its respect for the principles of law and order; except that is when a British-based firm is accused...

FinFisher: there is no such thing as legitimate spyware

John E. Dunn — Fri, 03 May 2013 16:03:46 GMT

Is the FinFisher suite legitimate surveillance or software’s Dr Strangelove? The UK is a bulwark against cybercrime, noted the world over for its respect for the principles of law and order, correct? Except, that is, when a British-based firm is...

Scotland's Internet startups still firing on one cylinder

John E. Dunn — Wed, 01 May 2013 16:05:05 GMT

Now that Silicon Glen is a memory Scotland needs more than worthy aspirations Internet startups can look effortless. Google surfaced like an information leviathan from the genius factory of Stanford University, Facebook came out of a dorm room full...

Did a 300Gb/s DDoS really slow the Net? Only if you believe in Smurfs

John E. Dunn — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 18:09:26 GMT

Lock up your DNS - the little blue men are back.A day on from what was only yesterday being described as a DDoS attack so large it had slowed the Internet itself, the sceptics have rallied with a simple question:...

Did 300Gb/s DDoS really slow the Net? Only if you believe in Smurfs

John E. Dunn — Thu, 28 Mar 2013 18:09:26 GMT

Will China's techies go near Canonical's 'Kylin' Linux?

John E. Dunn — Mon, 25 Mar 2013 18:18:24 GMT

Linux in China, Ubuntu styleRecent history is strewn with the corpses of national operating system projects and it is probably too early to tell whether Canonical's Ubuntu ‘Kylin’ collaboration with China’s Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (CSIP) will...

Linux in China, Ubuntu style

John E. Dunn — Mon, 25 Mar 2013 18:18:24 GMT

Recent history is strewn with the corpses of national operating system projects and it is probably too early to tell whether Canonical's Ubuntu ‘Kylin’ collaboration with China’s Chinese Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (CSIP) will pan out any differently.The...

SCADA's frighteningly exposed underbelly

John E. Dunn — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 16:35:49 GMT

Industrial control systems and SCADA are under attack but from who or what?According to a Trend Micro researcher who decided to find out by setting up an be Industrial Control Systems (ICS) SCADA honeypot that mimicked among other things an...

SCADA's frightening underbelly

John E. Dunn — Thu, 21 Mar 2013 16:35:49 GMT

Google's Chromebook - from vanity project to stealthy Windows killer

John E. Dunn — Wed, 20 Mar 2013 17:36:15 GMT

How on earth did this happen? By its own high standards, Microsoft’s Windows 8 juggernaut is in a bit of a sales fix while a Google OS/Chromebook platform few consumers had even heard of six months ago is suddenly just...

Google's Chromebook - from vanity project to Windows killer

John E. Dunn — Wed, 20 Mar 2013 17:36:15 GMT

Netbooks foundered but Chromebooks are succeeding. Why?How on earth did this happen? By its own high standards, Microsoft’s Windows 8 juggernaut is in a bit of a sales fix while a Google OS/Chromebook platform few consumers had even heard of...

Iran v USA - the world's first cyberwar has started

John E. Dunn — Tue, 15 Jan 2013 16:20:23 GMT

It sometimes hides behind hacktivism. But 75Gbps peak DDoS on US banks is no amateur protest...We can say with a growing sense of certainty that the world’s first cyberwar is upon us, unfolding behind the scenes with a rising level...

Iran v USA - the world's first cyber-war has started

John E. Dunn — Tue, 15 Jan 2013 16:20:23 GMT

New Year resolution 2013 - ditch Java

John E. Dunn — Wed, 02 Jan 2013 16:58:57 GMT

Not even Oracle’s recent security overhaul to Java Development Kit 7, Update 10 (JDK 7u10) deserves to save its seat on the average non-business PC, a slew of informed experts have argued. I'm not about to disagree.We’ve written about Java...

'Eurograbber' SMS attack shows Android's vulnerability

John E. Dunn — Fri, 14 Dec 2012 11:08:57 GMT

We end 2012 with the alarming knowledge that the SMS two-factor authentication systems used to secure online banking have suffered their first major security failure and left a clutch of banks down to the tune of €36 million (£30 million).Between...

The 'Eurograbber' SMS attack shows Android's vulnerability

John E. Dunn — Fri, 14 Dec 2012 11:08:57 GMT

The 'Eurograbber' SMS attack underlines Android's vulnerability

John E. Dunn — Fri, 14 Dec 2012 11:08:57 GMT

Did Windows 8's Metro interface cost Steven Sinofsky his job?

John E. Dunn — Tue, 13 Nov 2012 09:52:56 GMT

Barley two weeks after the launch of Windows 8, the operating system’s chief architect and long-serving employee Steven Sinofsky is leaving Microsoft, it has been confirmed.Let's be frank. This is a huge shock no matter how Microsoft CEO Steve Ballmer...

Flame is good, too good. Is Cyberwar now in the hands of Dr Strangelove?

John E. Dunn — Mon, 11 Jun 2012 12:45:06 GMT

Surely the security experts and vendors should be delighted by the sudden and shocking outing of Stuxnet as part of a US Government malware programme?Long suspected of having been developed by a well-resourced state full of old-school Highway 101 programmers...

Why Apple and Amazon should pay more tax

John E. Dunn — Tue, 10 Apr 2012 17:57:42 GMT

Image via CrunchBase Last week Amazon was publically named as talented avoider of UK Corporation tax and this week it’s Apple’s turn. According to The Daily Mail, the US giant that generated sales approaching $10 billion in the UK last...

Hackers spam Ticketweb users after email breach

Mon, 13 Feb 2012 14:50:07 GMT

Customers of the Ticketweb online ticketing site have been receiving fake emails after hackers broke into the company’s servers at the weekend, the company has admitted.In an email sent to its customer database the following day, the Ticketmaster subsidiary said...

Microsoft offers access to anti-botnet system

Thu, 12 Jan 2012 16:51:10 GMT

At last the world’s most effective but ignored digital police force, Microsoft, has said it plans to give third-parties including CERTs, ISPs and even foreign governments automated access to its formidable botnet intelligence feeds through an API.As an article written...

Comet has some explaining to do but so does Microsoft

Thu, 05 Jan 2012 17:30:34 GMT

The irony of Microsoft launching a legal action over illegal operating system recovery disks against UK retail chain Comet in the very week it announced a feature in Windows 8 that will render them largely obsolete deserves special mention. The...

Hacker finds Lindsay Lohan Playboy pictures on P2P

Mon, 12 Dec 2011 14:55:27 GMT

A hacker claims to have found the entire Playboy magazine featuring nude images of celebrity Lindsay Lohan sitting on an Internet file-sharing website, it has been reported.In a story from Fox News, the unnamed Russian said he had discovered 200...

Dell dumps Streak tablet and cools on Android

Wed, 07 Dec 2011 17:02:06 GMT

Dell has announced that it is dropping production of the Streak, the Android mini-tablet too few customers dented their plastic to the tune of $450 to buy.But is the Steak’s demise a reflection on Dell, on the Android OS it...