The current Wifi Protected Setup (WPS) standard has a major vulnerability affecting millions of devices worldwide, according to security researcher Stefan Viehbock and the US Computer Emergency Readiness Team (US-CERT).

The researchers say a security hole allows one to access a WPS PIN-protected network in around 2 hours through the use of "brute force," since routers send a message informing potential hackers if the first 4 digits are correct while using the last digit of the key as a checksum. This reduces the 100 million security possibilities Read more...

The global enterprise security market will grow by 8.7% Y-o-Y to reach $22Bn by 2012 according to Canalys, with the anti-virus (AV) segment remaining one of the strongest in the security industry. 

The analyst says AV accounts for 11.3% of the 2011 security industry, and should grow by 6.8% Y-o-Y in 2012. Being the first step in security for most SMBs, AV continues driving revenues for both small and large resellers. In fact, Canalys redicts results in the SMB market will "define vendor leadership," as smaller vendors (such as Kaspersky Lab, Panda Security, F-Secure and AVG) continue gaining strong reputations-- and market share-- within both consumer and SMB markets. Read more...

A SecurityMetrics study could point out to your next security opportunity-- credit card info encryption for businesses and retailers. 

The study shows 71% of participating merchants storing unencrypted payment card data in 2011, an 8% increase over 2010. Retailers failing to encrypt payment card data violate Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI DSS) requirements, and maybe be subject to penalties after a compromise-- not to mention the risks for their customers. 

SecurityMetrics says the study found over 370M unencrypted cards on business Read more...

Can hackers really access a printer and order it to overheat until it catches fire? Or, even, worse, use it as a copy machine for identity theft? Sounds far fetched, but not according to researchers at Columbia University.

The researchers claim to discover a security exploit in internet-connected HP Laserjet printers using little more than an infected firmware update. Hackers could send a file containing the hack directly to a device, since most printers look for firmware updates every time a job is received-- but rarely check the validity of Read more...