Security

Sun Microsystems, Secunia, the United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team and other security agencies have issued alerts for a somewhat oxymoronic telnet vulnerability in the Sun Solaris 10 operating system. The vulnerability is oxymoronic because, while it's possible for a hacker to gain poten...

As the five versions of Microsoft Windows' new Vista operating system sit on store shelves, current Windows users are taking their time deciding if they will upgrade from Windows XP or buy new computers with Vista installed. The push for buying Windows Vista follows an epidemic of computer viruses, ...

Mozilla released the first security reinforcements for Firefox 2.0, the latest version of its popular Web browser, providing users of the open source software with fixes for five critical and three minor security holes. Security has emerged as one of the most important aspects of browser software fr...

As consumers experiment with the Linux operating system and consider switching from Windows, the first carryover they expect to find is applications for virus and spyware protection. However, few exist because Linux does not need them. Nearly all Linux distributions bundle a firewall package, but th...

Mozilla claims that the anti-phishing measures in its Firefox Web browser are superior to those of Microsoft's Internet Explorer, based on a report released Wednesday by software testing company SmartWare. While IE owns around 80 percent of the browser market, it also draws the majority of Internet ...

Mozilla Foundation this week released patches for its Firefox browser, its Thunderbird e-mail client, and its SeaMonkey Internet application suite, responding to an increase in security issues accompanying the open source software's surging popularity. Firefox has topped the 15 percent mark in brows...

The Mozilla Foundation patches seven security flaws with version 1.5.0.7 of its Firefox browser. Four of them, rated "critical," would allow attackers to install software on vulnerable computers. The critical problems include a JavaScript error that could permit remote execution of code and a vuln...

Grisoft, the supplier of AVG security software, has released the public beta version of AVG Internet Security 7.5, its new anti-malware security suite. In addition to the new security suite, public beta versions for the entire AVG 7.5 computer security portfolio are available, including new and upda...

Leading Linux vendor Red Hat is developing a new software vulnerability database with the National Institute of Standards and Technology. The database will give vendors of both open source and proprietary software a place to post official statements and security related information pertaining to the...

Hackers made Firefox the latest subject of attack last week, utilizing software that could capture extremely sensitive information, including credit card numbers and passwords. On July 25, Symantec Security Response detected Infostealer.Snifula, which downloads malicious Trojans onto a user's compu...

Mozilla's beta version of Firefox 2.0 is drawing applause from reviewers for its new anti-phishing features, which are likely to become increasingly important in consumers' constant battle against data theft. The built-in phishing protection in the latest version, which debuted Wednesday, warns user...

Mozilla late last week released 12 patches for its popular open source browser. Five of the patches issued in Firefox 1.5.0.4 were labeled "critical." Mozilla has issued four security updates to the 1.5 edition of the browser since it was made available last November. The last round of security fixe...

Up-and-coming European security software player BitDefender has updated both its Linux-based perimeter protection security suite and its Linux Edition solution for antivirus scanning on Linux and FreeBSD platforms. The company's new products highlight the latest filtering protection for Windows and ...

The U.S. Department of Homeland Security's open source security audit program has identified the biggest X Window System security vulnerability in the last six years. The X Window System is used in Unix and Linux operating systems. It also ships as an optional GUI with Apple's Macintosh computers. C...

Open-source database deployments rose dramatically in the last half of 2005, and as one might expect, as more IT pros get acquainted with these non-proprietary systems, security is a chief concern. Open-source database makers like MySQL and PostgreSQL simply must answer some of the most prevalent se...