Google blames ‘human error’ for search ‘malware’ hiccup

Google is blaming “human error” for today’s search results screw-up that flagged the entire Web as serving up malicious code. But the company’s explanation, detailed in a blog post by VP of search products and user experience Marissa Mayer incorrectly linked StopBadware.org to the glitch, causing major problems for the non-profit group. StopBadware, which [...]

Google flags entire Web as ‘malware’

A major hiccup at Google this morning caused the entire Internet to be flagged as malware. The problem appears to be centered around the Google Safe Browsing API — even that returned a “This site may harm your computer” warning (see screenshot below) — the security diagnostics service that powers Firefox’s malware blocking service.

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“Zombies ahead!” sign says something about SCADA security

An electronic road sign hacked to alert drivers to hoards of the undead provides a nice pedagogical example of why SCADA security is such a “big deal”.

Earlier this week a road sign was hacked to warn drivers about zombies disturbing their evening commute. The hack itself was trivial: an intrepid individual discovered that [...]

Purewire snaps up online reputation management vendor

Less than six months after banking a $2 million funding round, Atlanta-based security-as-a-service startup Purewire has made its first acquisition — online reputation management vendor Opinity. Financial terms were not released. The deal gives Purewire software and intellectual property to add to its Purewire Web Security Service, an in-the-cloud enterprise product that sits between a [...]

Google plugs ‘high-risk’ holes in Chrome browser

Google has shipped a high-priority Chrome browser patch with fixes for three security vulnerabilities that expose users to cross-site scripting and data theft attacks. Google Chrome’s beta and stable channels have been updated to version 1.0.154.46 to mitigate an issue with the Adobe Reader plug-in (two separate vulnerabilities) and to fix a bug in the [...]