Network World

Ping is Apple's music-centric social network that is integrated into iTunes 10. From a privacy standpoint, it's pretty straightforward--as opposed to Facebook's multitude of privacy settings--but then again, Ping is also very limited as to what services it offers. In either case, here's a quick run-down of the privacy features present in Ping.

They install themselves, marking their territory with icons. They flash distracting, trivial alerts on the screen in front of you. They demand that you install the latest update, and they won’t take no for an answer. When you give in and install the update, they make you restart. They nag you to upgrade to a paid version. They spam you. They beg you to sign up. They’re a pain in the browser.

Confidela's WatchDox is adding support for mobile platforms, starting with Android 2.2. Users can access selected, protected documents. But they can be restricted in being able to forward, print, or copy them. It uses an encrypted version of Flash to display documents, but a native version is being tested now for iOS devices like the iPhone.

An information security company will soon release a tool that will allow companies to test their ERP (enterprise resource planning) software for security threats.

Fake antivirus programs appear to be adopting some of the money-raising tactics of more threatening ransom malware, security company Fortinet’s latest threat report has found.

Researchers are hoping to get a better insight on botnets after taking down part of Pushdo, one of the top five networks of hacked computers responsible for most of the world's spam.

A Miami man has pleaded guilty to two identity-theft related charges after federal agents found more than 26,000 credit card numbers stored on his computer, the U.S. Department of Justice said.

Heartland Payment Systems has agreed to pay $5 million to Discover to settle claims arising from the massive data breach disclosed by the payment processor last year.

The Defense Advanced Projects Agency (DARPA) has launched an effort aimed at finding and detecting to insider threats on Department of Defense networks.

Check Point's Security Gateway software is now available in a virtual edition that is compatible with VMware virtual environments.

Hundreds of lunchtime customers of a diner in the US city of Memphis are believed to have had funds stolen from their debit and credit cards after PCs at the venue became infected with malware.

The Wikileaks whistleblowing website has reportedly moved its server hosting to a Cold War bunker deep under the streets of Stockholm.

The combination of free open source and virtual machines is hard to beat; here are some of the handiest virtual appliances you'll find

Microsoft on Tuesday again abstained from naming which of its Windows programs, if any, contain bugs that could lead to widespread "DLL load hijacking" attacks.

A little-known group of security researchers will kick off a month of bug disclosures starting Wednesday that target unpatched vulnerabilities in software from Abode, Microsoft, Mozilla, Apple and others.

Chrome users yesterday bombarded Google's Gmail support forum with complaints about music suddenly playing in the background when they reached their inboxes.

Novell has made its cloud security service available following successful beta trials

The biggest security threat to most networks could be the people paid to look after them, an informal survey of IT professionals has suggested.

Twitter has nearly finished migrating to a new authentication protocol, called OAuth

A botnet responsible for a significant amount of spam has been crippled but may reconstitute itself in a matter of weeks, according to vendor M86 Security.