The IEEE Standards Association (IEEE-SA) launches the Anti-Malware Support Service (AMSS), an Industry Connections Security Group (ICSG) initiative to provide better protection against malware authors.

“Software packer and obfuscator companies often feel abused by malware authors,” the IEEE-SA says. “By working collaboratively, the security industry can apply economic pressure to the malware industry that couldn’t be achieved independently... AMSS provides a robust set of shared support services that will help mitigate the spread and effects of rapidly mutating malware threats.”

Currently the AMSS offers two services-- the Taggant System and the Clean file Metadata eXchange (CMX), with more to follow in the future.

Gartner reports global 2013 security software revenues total $19.9 billion, a lower-than-expected increase of 4.9% caused by key subsegment commoditisation and the declining fortunes of 2 top 5 vendors.

"The market experienced slower, but still healthy, growth in 2013," the analyst says. "This slightly tempered growth was partly due to the increased commoditisation of the endpoint security (particularly consumer endpoint software) and secure email gateway (SEG) subsegments (particularly consumer endpoint software) that in 2013 accounted for around 25% of the total security software market."

A major threat seen in 2013 is the "democratization" of security threats-- essentially malicious software and infrastructure are easily available vla the so-called underground economy, allowing the launch of advanced targeted attacks. Such ubiquity of threads leads organisations to rethink their approach to security, with involvement both positive and negative to software vendor revenues.

Mere months after the discovery of the Hearthbleed vulnerability, the entity behind the widely used OpenSSL encryption software issues a warning of another security vulnerability.

The OpenSSL Foundation already published an advisory asking users to yet again update their SSL.

Discovered by Japanese researcher Masashi Kikuchi, the new vulnerability involves ChangeCipherSpec (CCS), a portion of the OpenSSL "handshake" procedure. Dubbed "CCS Injection Vulnerability," it allows attackers to force a PC and server to use weak encryption keys as they handshake, opening the systems for "man-in-the-middle" snoops to decrypt and read traffic.

From Smartvue , the American cloud surveillance platform comes an offer hard to refuse...

Using their free tool, you can... upload a picture of your floor plan, drag and drop cameras into your proposed position, and design your own surveillance maps.

This free online tool allows you to create and save endless maps. This is just one of a number of cloud tools provided by Smartvue in their effort to make cloud video surveillance "elegantly simple." Read more...