From the shutdown of McColo to last week’s disruption of the Pushdo botnet, spammers have continually found ways to stay in business.

Nearly 20 of the 30 command and control (CnC)servers associated with Pushdo were taken offline last week due to efforts by security vendor LastLine. The servers were supported by eight hosting providers, some of which did not respond to the vendor’s requests for action.

Many TweetDeck users have awaken to an unfortunate surprise this morning when trying to launch the application. What is the unfortunate surprise you ask? “It did not work!” Twitter has recently implemented major changes to how other applications access your Twitter account and hackers have taken the opportunity by implementing a malware since they know millions of Twitter users will be looking for the new updates. The fake Tweetdeck update that is actually a Trojan virus. A Trojan virus is malware that appears to perform a desirable function for the user but instead facilitates unauthorized access of the user’s computer system.

Parents do not allow their kids access to adult content while reading a magazine or watching TV, so the same should be taken into consideration when it comes to using the computer and mobile phone. Yes, mobile phones too. Ideally, parents would like to shoulder surf while their kids are on the Internet, but the reality is that’s not always possible. Teaching kids to use the Internet properly and not to disclose personal information as describe in a recent article is a very important step in keeping them safe, but adding a bit of insurance with an Internet content filtering software geared towards protecting kids can also compliment a potential dangerous situation.

The Wireshark Certified Network Analyst webinar recording is available at www.wiresharktraining.com/certification. The Exam Information Pack is available at the same location.

The Internet has made it possible for people to communicate with anyone anywhere in the world. That is a scary thought when it comes to thinking about child safety on the Internet. On a daily basis, kids are on line communicating on chat rooms without adult supervision not really knowing the person on the end is who they claim to be.

Ran across this interesting presentation on FISMA and Continuos Monitoring…

Linux is inherently not a secure operating system. The reason it’s not secure is because Linux was based on the architectural design of UNIX, and the creators of UNIX didn’t care about security – it was 1969 after all.

“The first fact to face is that UNIX was not developed with security, in any realistic sense, in mind; this fact alone guarantees a vast number of holes,” Dennis Ritchie wrote in his paper, “On the Security of UNIX” in 1979.

Patch Tuesday is the second Tuesday of each month, the day on which Microsoft releases security patches.

The SecurityOrb.com deal of the week comes from TigerDirect.com . It is a refurbished Samsung NP-N130-JA01US Netbook with a webcam and Windows 7 Starter.

Computer networks controlling the electric grid are plagued with security holes says a new Energy Department report based on the findings of 24 assessments of computer-control systems performed between 2003 and 2009. Many are VERY basic.

The 2010 Computer Security Salary Survey was launched this morning. Please complete it today or at least this week (takes 5 minutes). A valid survey is probably the most valuable tool security people have to have productive conversations with their employers about their salaries. You get the results if you participate.

Now you can have total security intelligence at your fingertips – anywhere, anytime. ArcSight Express is so easy to deploy and simple to use, we are running it on an Apple iPad. In fact, we are having so much fun that we are offering an Apple iPad certificate with every purchase of ArcSight Express in August or September.* Learn more about this offer and how you can protect your business with ArcSight Express: