Security Monitoring: News

The Web site for the Phoenix Mars Mission, NASA's most recent arrival on the Red Planet, was hacked over the weekend by a Turkish crew, according to a defacement database.

A security researcher has developed malicious rootkit software for Cisco Systems' routers, a development that has placed increasing scrutiny on the routers that carry the majority of the Internet's traffic.

A group of US Marines hunker down beside a building, enemy fire coming at them from somewhere up ahead. One soldier reaches into his pack and pulls out a few robots that look like large bugs. The bots fly down the street, sending back images that show where the enemy troops are hiding, how many there are and what weapons they're using.

The troubled radio network used by the Tasmanian Police will finally be upgraded, following a $13 million contract with former operator Ericsson.

The PCI Security Standards Council, which establishes requirements for the payment-card industry, Tuesday formally launched its payment-application security program.

Security vendor PC Tools has questioned the usefulness of the threat lists used by many security companies to warn of current malware attacks.

Oracle released 41 security fixes for its flagship database and several other products Tuesday, including 15 patches for vulnerabilities that can be exploited remotely without a username or password.

Symantec's malware tally topped 1 million for the first time in the second half of 2007 as the number of new malicious code threats skyrocketed, the company said in its semiannual report on the state of security.

After enduring withering criticism late last year for the lack of adequate privacy controls in its Beacon advertising system, Facebook garnered positive reviews Wednesday for new controls that let users more strictly monitor who can access the content they create on the site.

A fresh discovery by security vendor Finjan provides yet another example of how easy it is becoming for almost anyone to find the tools needed to break into, infect or steal data from corporate Web sites.

The Russian Business Network, a notorious hacker and malware hosting network, runs a protection racket that extorts as much as US$2000 a month in fees for "protective Web services" from borderline sites, a researcher alleged.