Ars Technica: Justice Department goes nuclear on Google in search warrant fight. “The Justice Department is demanding that a federal judge sanction Google for failing to abide by court orders to turn over data tied to 22 e-mail accounts. ‘Google’s conduct here amounts to a willful and contemptuous disregard of various court orders,’ the government wrote (PDF) in a legal filing to US District Judge Richard Seeborg of California.”
Security & Legal Issues
Security & Legal issues and news. May be about patches, hacks, or court decisions.
BetaNews: Over one million phishing websites are created every month
BetaNews: Over one million phishing websites are created every month . “Every month, almost 1.5 million new phishing websites are created. This is according to a new report by Webroot, showing just how big of an industry phishing really is. The Webroot Quarterly Threat Trends Report says that 1.385 million new phishing sites are created every month. May was the busiest of them all, with 2.3 million sites created.”
Ars Technica: CCleaner malware outbreak is much worse than it first appeared
Ars Technica: CCleaner malware outbreak is much worse than it first appeared. “The recent CCleaner malware outbreak is much worse than it initially appeared, according to newly unearthed evidence. That evidence shows that the CCleaner malware infected at least 20 computers from a carefully selected list of high-profile technology companies with a mysterious payload.”
Bleeping Computer: Google Experiment Tests Top 5 Browsers, Finds Safari Riddled With Security Bugs
Bleeping Computer: Google Experiment Tests Top 5 Browsers, Finds Safari Riddled With Security Bugs. “The Project Zero team at Google has created a new tool for testing browser DOM engines and has unleashed it on today’s top five browsers, finding most bugs in Apple’s Safari. The tool — named Domato — is a fuzzer, a security testing toolkit that feeds a software application with random data and analyzes the output for abnormalities. Google engineer Ivan Fratric created Domato with the goal of fuzzing DOM engines, the browser components that read HTML code and organize it into the DOM (Document Object Model), which is then ‘painted’ and displayed inside the browser window that human users view on their screens.” Just keep in mind that the test was run by Google.
Wired: How Malware Keeps Sneaking Past Google Play’s Defenses
Wired: How Malware Keeps Sneaking Past Google Play’s Defenses. “THE STANDARD ADVICE for Android users to avoid downloading malicious apps is simple: Only get apps from the official Google Play Store. Unlike third-party app stores that are generally difficult to vet and validate, Google Play has built-in mechanisms to screen every app for malware, ransomware, and assorted sketchiness. So why, then, has so much malware slipped through lately?”
Ottawa Citizen: Google is linking secret, court-protected names – including victim IDs – to online coverage
Ottawa Citizen: Google is linking secret, court-protected names – including victim IDs – to online coverage. “Google’s powerful search engine is defeating some court-ordered publication bans in Canada and undermining efforts to protect young offenders and victims. Computer experts believe it’s an unintended, ‘mind-boggling’ consequence of Google search algorithms.” Please read the entire story. It’s a bit terrifying.
New York Times: S.E.C. Says It Was a Victim of Computer Hacking Last Year
New York Times: S.E.C. Says It Was a Victim of Computer Hacking Last Year. “The top securities regulator in the United States said Wednesday night that its computer system had been hacked last year, giving the attackers private information that could have been exploited for trading. The disclosure, coming on the heels of a data breach at Equifax, the major consumer credit reporting firm, is likely to intensify concerns over potential computer vulnerabilities lurking among pillars of the American financial system.”
