Week in review: Facebook, phishing and social engineering

Here’s an overview of some of last week’s most interesting news, articles, reviews, interviews and videos:

Google now supports encrypted search
Google just rolled out SSL encryption to Google Search. The option is currently in beta, therefore the users aren’t automatically transferred to https.

Wi-Fi security patent granted for dynamic authentication and encryption
Ruckus Wireless has been granted a patent by the USPTO for an innovation that radically simplifies the configuration, administration and strength of wireless network security.

New Facebook clickjacking attack
There is a new Facebook focused worm circulating around. Currently it seems that it doesn’t have any malicious payload, except spamming via posting messages to the people’s Facebook walls.

Q&A: Symantec’s acquisitions and the future
Francis deSouza, senior vice president of the Enterprise Security Group at Symantec, discusses the company’s recent acquisitions, how they mitigate cloud computing and social networking threats, as well as their plans for the near future.

Very interesting new type of a phishing attack using tabs
Aza Raskin from the Mozilla Firefox team found an interesting new type of phishing attack that uses automatic change of a favicon icon to make one of your tabs look like another web site.

Fresh security feature in the new Android 2.2
New device policy management APIs allow developers to write “device administrator” applications that can control security features of the device.

Eleventh Hour Security+: Exam SY0-201 Study Guide
The book concentrates on security as it applies to the test, and is aimed at those who need an organized, simplified approach to last minute cramming.

Findings of the Q1 2010 “State of the Web” security report
Among numerous findings, the report details several growing threat vectors, including attackers leveraging search engines and growing fake anti-virus threats.

Researcher showcases his virus infected RFID implant
According to a report on BBC News, Dr Mark Gasson, a senior research fellow working at the university’s Cybernetic Intelligence Research Group, implanted an RFID chip containing what he claimed to be virus code into his hand.

A closer look at PC Tools Firewall Plus
PC Tools Firewall Plus (6.0.0.88) is a free personal firewall for Windows. It helps you prevent unauthorized users from gaining access to your computer through the Internet or a network.

Video: Facebook privacy changes
There has been lot of talk on the latest Facebook privacy changes. Robert Scoble published a 10 minute video from the Facebook press event where Mark Zuckerberg discussed the changes.

Social Engineering and Dr. Cialdini’s “Influence”
6 techniques adopted sales professionals to convince people to buy things can also be used by the social engineer to easily gain access to information.

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