Security, Security, More Security

By Nancy Weil
Fri, August 01, 2008

IDG News Service —

Security news dominated this week, and that will undoubtedly be the case next week as well, with the Black Hat and Defcon conferences under way in Las Vegas. In other news, Yahoo shareholders met Friday for their annual meeting, with fewer fireworks than expected.

1. DNS patches cause problems, developers admit: Patches for the DNS (Domain Name System) vulnerability that has generated so much buzz have led to performance problems for servers running BIND (Berkeley Internet Name Domain) software. BIND is the most popular DNS software. Administrators shouldn't roll back the patch released July 8, said Paul Vixie, head of the Internet Systems Consortium, which oversees BIND. "The vulnerability is of more concern than a slow server," he said. An updated patch is in the offing. Meanwhile, hackers are actively exploiting the DNS vulnerability, and ...

2. Apple finally patches dangerous DNS flaw and Opinion: Apple's unforgivable DNS delay: Apple issued a patch -- finally -- for its implementation of the BIND server software in various Mac OS releases. The delay in the patch release has caused considerable consternation among Mac fans.

3. A photo that can steal your online credentials and Black Hat/Defcon: Welcome to the funhouse: Among other things, researchers at Black Hat next week will demonstrate software they've developed that can circumvent security and take over accounts on popular sites such as Facebook, Google and eBay. The malicious software looks like image files to Web servers. The researchers will leave out details of how the attack works so that it won't be immediately used. We expect a lot of news out of Black Hat and Defcon, both in Las Vegas next week.

4. After facing shareholders, Yang must fulfill promises and Yahoo on defensive at shareholder meeting: Yahoo CEO Jerry Yang has made a lot of promises about how he's going to get Yahoo back in its financial and technology grooves. Shareholders at Friday's annual meeting served up some criticism, and one even suggested that Chairman Roy Bostock "do the honorable thing" and quit, but the get-together overall wasn't as heated as had been expected. Even so, with Microsoft's attempts to buy all or part of Yahoo now presumably behind the company, and having made peace with investor Carl Icahn, Yang and other company leaders will be expected to deliver.

5. FBI warns of new Storm worm attacks: The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation has warned that spam e-mails making the rounds on the Internet are spreading the dreaded Storm worm. Watch out for e-mail containing the phrase "F.B.I. vs. Facebook" and don't click on links in unsolicited e-mail, especially when you don't know the sender.

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