IRS Announces Safeguards to Protect Taxpayer Information

The Internal Revenue Service IRS has issued two news releases addressing new safeguards to protect taxpayers and strengthen authentication requirements. The electronic filing e-File PIN, an alternative signature verification tool used to assist with electronic tax filing, will no longer be...

IRS Issues Warning for Tax Phishing Scam

The Internal Revenue Service IRS has issued a press release to address a phishing scam targeting taxpayers. Email scammers have been observed citing tax fraud to trick victims into clicking on a malicious link. Taxpayers should be suspicious of unsolicited emails. Users and administrators are...

IRS Releases Eighth Security Tip

The Internal Revenue Service IRS has released the eighth in a series of tips intended to help the public protect personal and financial data online and at home. A new tip will be available each Monday through the start of the tax season in January. This tip describes methods users should follow t...

IRS Releases Seventh Security Tip

The Internal Revenue Service IRS has released the seventh in a series of tips intended to help the public protect personal and financial data online and at home. A new tip will be available each Monday through the start of the tax season in January. This tip describes methods users can follow to...

IRS Releases Fourth Tax Security Tip

The Internal Revenue Service IRS has released the fourth in a series of tips intended to help the public protect personal and financial data online and at home. This tip focuses on protecting your passwords. Recommendations include creating longer and more complex passwords, not using the same...

IC3 Issues Alert on DDoS Extortion Campaigns

The Internet Crime Complaint Center IC3 has issued an alert to U.S. businesses about a rise in extortion campaigns. In a typical incident, a business receives an e-mail threatening a Distributed Denial of Service DDoS attack to its website unless it pays a ransom. Businesses are warned against...

Best Practices to Protect You, Your Network, and Your Information

The National Cybersecurity and Communications Integration Center NCCIC and its partners responded to a series of data breaches in the public and private sector over the last year, helping organizations through incident response actions, conducting damage assessments, and implementing restoration...

IC3 Issues Alert on Gift Card Scams

The Internet Crime Complaint Center IC3 has released an alert warning consumers of fraud around the resale of gift cards. The secondary gift card market has grown in recent years, and criminal activity has been identified on sites facilitating such exchanges. When purchasing gift cards, look for...

IRS Issues Warning for a Scam Targeting Tax Preparers

The Internal Revenue Service IRS has issued a press release addressing a new spear phishing scam targeting tax preparers and other tax professionals. Scam operators often use fraudulent e-mails to entice their targets to reveal login credentials. US-CERT encourages users and administrators to...

US-CERT Technical Cyber Security Alert TA10-013A -- Adobe Reader and Acrobat Vulnerabilities

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 National Cyber Alert System Technical Cyber Security Alert TA10-013A Adobe Reader and Acrobat Vulnerabilities Original release date: Last revised: -- Source: US-CERT Systems Affected Adobe Reader and Acrobat 9.2 and earlier 9.x versions Adobe Reader a...

Apple Mac OS X DMG UFS byte_swap_sbin() function Integer Overflow

Overview The Apple Mac OS X byteswapsbin function contains an integer overflow vulnerability, which may allow a remote, unauthenticated attacker to execute arbitrary code or cause a denial of service on a vulnerable system. Description DMG files are disk images that can contain a variety of...

Microsoft Windows fails to properly handle malformed OLE documents

Overview A vulnerability exists in a Microsoft Windows library that is used to handle OLE documents. The complete impact of this vulnerability is not clear, but may include the execution of arbitrary code as well as a denial of service. Description Microsoft OLE documents include summary...

Microsoft Excel fails to properly parse malformed Palette records

Overview A vulnerability in the way that Microsoft Excel handles malformed Palette records could allow an attacker to execute arbitrary code on a vulnerable system. Description Microsoft Excel fails to properly handle Palette records embedded in Excel documents. When a file containing a malformed...

Adobe Acrobat Plug-In cross domain violation

Overview The Adobe Acrobat Plug-In fails to properly validate user-supplied content, which may allow for cross-site scripting. Description Adobe Acrobat Reader is software designed to view Portable Document Format PDF files. Adobe also distributes the Adobe Acrobat Plug-In to allow users to view...

US-CERT Technical Cyber Security Alert TA06-167A -- Microsoft Excel Vulnerability

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 National Cyber Alert System Technical Cyber Security Alert TA06-167A Microsoft Excel Vulnerability Original release date: June 16, 2006 Last revised: -- Source: US-CERT Systems Affected Microsoft Excel 2003 Microsoft Excel XP 2002 Microsoft Excel for...

US-CERT Technical Cyber Security Alert TA06-139A -- Microsoft Word Vulnerability

-----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE----- Hash: SHA1 National Cyber Alert System Technical Cyber Security Alert TA06-139A Microsoft Word Vulnerability Original release date: May 19, 2006 Last revised: -- Source: US-CERT Systems Affected Microsoft Word 2003 Microsoft Word XP 2002 Microsoft Word is includ...