Stories about: Symantec

ActiveX controls accounted for an overwhelming majority of all browser plug-in vulnerabilities in the second half of 2007, Symantec said this week in its semi-annual Web security report.

The black market for software vulnerabilities is booming, with bugs regularly being sold for thousands of dollars a piece online. And one of the only ways to reduce this steady stream of hacks, according to Geekonomics author and IT security pro David Rice, is for software companies to simply write better code.

Online malware attacks are becoming more pervasive, targeted, and refined as the underground threat economy continues to evolve and take on the characteristics of an organized industry.

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.

Hewlett-Packard has been selling USB-based hybrid flash-floppy drives that were pre-infected with malware, the company said last week in a security bulletin.

The massive attacks against hundreds of thousands of Web pages that started earlier this month has spread to some of the Internet's most prominent US sites, including those for USA Today, ABC News, Target and Wal-Mart, researchers said Friday.

As enterprises seek out ways to reduce IT costs, optimize resources and improve operational efficiencies, three technology trends have started to dominate: virtualization, service-oriented architecture and mobility. More promising yet is the intertwining of these unique technologies.

Hackers using a new scam continue to subvert hundreds of thousands of Web pages with IFRAME redirects that send unwary users to malware-spewing sites, researchers said today.

A noted ActiveX researcher Monday revealed a bug in RealNetworks' RealPlayer that could be exploited by attackers to hijack Windows machines running nternet Explorer.

Earlier this month, Microsoft announced its intentions to acquire Yahoo. Although Yahoo has since announced it plans to fight Microsoft's takeover and court other suitors, most notably Google, there is an element of shared search technology that neither Microsoft nor Yahoo can easily dismiss because of Microsoft's earlier 2008 announcement to acquire FAST Search and Transfer.

A British consumer advocacy group is charging that Microsoft and other major software companies engage in misleading and unfair practices related to end-user license agreements (EULAs), and has asked for an investigation by the U.K.'s Office of Fair Trading (OFT).