Tag archive: SSL

Certificate authority GlobalSign has stopped issuing new security certificates after a hacker who claimed responsibility for last week's breach of DigiNotar claimed to have access to four more certificate authorities—specifically naming GlobalSign. As a precaution, GlobalSign as temporarily stopped issued new security certificates until it can complete an investigation; the company also announced it has hired Dutch cyber-security… Read More

If unauthenticated postings on the Internet are to be believes—and we all know how that goes—the attacker who was behind a breach of the SSL affiliate registration authority Comodo earlier this year may be behind the recent compromise of Dutch SSL certificate authority DigiNotar. The attacker posted an announcement on Pastebin under the name “Comodohacker” claiming responsibility for the DigiNotar breach. In the… Read More

Computer security firm Trend Micro says fake digital certificates from compromised Dutch certification authority DigiNotar were part of a broad-scale man-in-the-middle attack targeting Iranian Internet users—and may have left political dissidents, activists, and others trying to bypass Iran's online censorship regime vulnerable to eavesdropping. DigiNotar catapulted into the news late last month when it was discovered to have… Read More

A fraudulent Google security certificate has found its way onto the web, making it possible for hackers to access the accounts of Gmail users, reports CNet. The certificate is reportedly being used to target Gmail users located in Iran. The Secure Sockets Layer (SSL) certificate was issued by Dutch security authority DigiNotar to unidentified attackers on July 10. The attackers apparently tricked DigiNotar into thinking the request for the SSL… Read More

Riding off of the coattails of the FireSheep Firefox exploit, Digital Society has studied the basic security functions of 11 popular websites and given them grades. The results are not stellar for most, especially social networking sites Twitter and Facebook, which both received failing grades. The reasons why they failed get quite technical, but center around the lack of full SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) protection on the sites. One easy way to… Read More

Symantec has always been a company that believes in growing through acquisitions, and now the company is making a big one: Symantec has announced it will be paying $1.28 billion to acquire VeriSign's Web security business, including the company's SSL security services for securing online transactions, along with public key infrastructure and identify management and verification services. The move is a major play for Symantec, which… Read More

Two researchers with PhoneFactor, a company that offers two-factor authentication services, say that thay have uncovered a serious vulnerability in SSL (Secure Sockets Layer), a fundamental online security technology that's widely used to safeguard ecommerce transactions and other sensitive data. The flaw, in theory, can enable attackers to insert themselves into a secured online transaction as a “man in the middle,” able to… Read More