China linked to US cyber espionage

Recent attacks on three US defence contractors could be tied to cyber espionage campaigns waged from China, several security experts said, according to Cnet.

The incidents at Lockheed Martin, L-3 Communications, and Northrop Grumman appear to stem from a breach at RSA in March in which data was stolen related to RSA's SecurID two-factor authentication devices.

The devices are widely used by US government agencies, contractors, and banks to secure remote access to sensitive networks.

Adobe has been forced to rush an out-of-cycle patch to fix a zero-day universal cross-site scripting vulnerability which affects the firm's Flash Player software and is already being exploited in the wild, says V3.co.uk.

The flaw has been rated “important” by Adobe, one level below the highest “critical” rating, and meaning it would compromise data security if exploited.

The vulnerability affects Adobe Flash Player 10.3.181.16 and earlier for Windows, Macintosh, Linux and Solaris, and Adobe Flash Player 10.3.185.22 and earlier for Android.

French TV and radio presenters have been banned from mentioning social networking sites such as Facebook and Twitter on air, notes the BBC.

The country's broadcasting watchdog ruled that doing so would break guidelines on advertising. Stations can still talk about services without naming them, it said.

The French government is seen by many Internet watchers as overly keen to regulate in relation to new media and the Web.

Vodafone has stated that Internet firms should be bound by national regulations on privacy, intellectual property and copyright, notes Computing.co.uk.

Writing an article for the Financial Times, Vodafone CEO Vittorio Colao argued in favour of new laws to block access to sites that invade privacy, or disrupt security.

“In areas such as piracy of music and video content, new copyright laws require public authorities to direct network operators such as Vodafone to block access to illegal services or platforms,” said Colao.