Piriform admits legitimate downloads of its CCleaner software carry a "multi-stage malware payload"-- essentially a backdoor allowing hackers to install ransomware or keyloggers to further infect PCs.

According to the company around 2.27 million users ran the affected software (specifically CCleaner version 5.33.6162 and CCleaner Cloud version 1.07.3191) following download from a hacked server. The company says the situation could have been a lot worse, since CCleaner gets around 5 million new users per month, for a total of over 2 billion downloads.

It also says the affected version is already updated, and it was "able to disarm the threat before it was able to do any harm" following initial warnings from security researchers at Cisco and Morphisec. According to the Cisco Talos research unit the affected CCleaner infects computers through the inclusion of remote administration tools that, once installed, connect to several unregistered websites in order to download more unauthorised programs.

Juniper boosts its Sky advanced threat prevention (ATP) through the acquisition of Cyphort, a startup specialised in security analytics for advanced threat defense.

Financial details of the deal are not available.

Cyphort offers an open-architecture platform complete with a machine learning-powered analytics engine. It integrates with existing security tools to help mid-size and large enterprises find threats able to bypass first-line security efforts. Post-acquisition, Cyphort technology will be integrated in both cloud and on-premises Sky offerings.

Researchers at the University of Ottawa manage to send a message with high-dimensional quantum encryption between two building rooftops, marking a first successful test for the transmission of such signals.

Quantum encryption uses photons to encode information as quantum buts. The simplest form of quantum encryption is 2D, where each photon encodes one bit (either 1 or 0), but a photon can encode even more information, making "high-dimensional quantum encryption." The scheme used by the University of Ottawa is referred to as "4D," because each photon encodes 2 bits of information. This provides 4 possibilities, namely 01, 10, 11 and 00.

High-dimensional quantum encryption sends more information per photon. It is also more tolerant to signal-obscuring noise (such as turbulent air, failed electronics and detectors) before the transmission becomes unsecure. The real world test involved optical setups set on two rooftops 0.3km apart, and had the messages showing an error rate of 11%, below the 19% threshold required to maintain a secure connection.

According to Gartner global spending on security products and services is to reach $86.4bn in 2017-- a 7% increase over 2016, before growing to $93bn in 2018.

The analyst predicts fast growth in the security testing market (if from a small base), the result of continued data breaches and growing demands for application security testing as part of DevOps. Spending on emerging application security testing tools, particularly interactive application security testing (IAST), should contribute to further growth through 2021.

Security services remain the fastest growing segment, especially IT outsourcing, consulting and implementation services. However hardware support services should slow down due to the adoption of virtual appliances, public cloud and software as a service (SaaS) editions of security solutions reducing the overall need for attached hardware support.