A glitch in a computer security program embedded deeply into Google's search engine briefly prevented users of the popular search engine from visiting any Web sites turned up in search results this morning. Instead, Google users were redirected to page that warned: "This site may harm your computer." Calls and e-mails sent to Google were not returned as of publication. I will update this blog if and when I hear back from them about the cause and length of this incident. The problem, which appears to have been corrected by the time of publication, was related to Google's "Stop Badware" program, which is designed to keep Internet users from visiting sites that Google's bots have found try to install malicious software when users browse the sites. I first learned of the blockage just before 10 a.m. ET, when my wife complained that Google was telling her that OfficeDepot.com was trying

I'm writing this to set the record straight on some statements made earlier this month by Jeff Jones, a security strategy director at Microsoft. In analysis published on his Technet Security Blog and at cio.com, Jeff picked apart research I conducted in 2007, which found that Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser was unsafe for 284 days in 2006. According to Jones's analysis, Firefox users were instead more "at risk" than their IE counterparts in 2006 -- albeit just by a single day -- 285 days in 2006, he concludes. What Jones neglected to mention was that in my analysis I only examined the longevity of unpatched browser vulnerabilities that by each company's definition earned the most dangerous security ratings. In the case of Internet Explorer, for example, I counted only flaws that Microsoft said were "critical," for one or more versions of the browser or closely-tied component of the Windows operating

Some of the most prolific and recognizable malware disbursed by Russian and East European cyber crime groups purposefully avoids infecting computers if the program detects the potential victim is a native resident. But evidence from the Conficker worm -- which by some estimates is infecting more than one million new PCs each day -- shows that trend may be shifting. According to an analysis by Microsoft engineers, the original version of the Downadup (a.k.a. "Conficker") worm will quit the installation process if the malware detects the host system is configured with a Ukrainian keyboard layout. However, the latest variant has no such restriction. Stats collected by Finnish computer security firm F-Secure show that Russia and Ukraine had the second and fifth-largest number of victims from the worm, 139,934 and 63,939, respectively, as of Tuesday, Jan. 20. In the past, attackers from the infamous rogue anti-spyware families -- such as Antivirus

President Barack Obama's administration has sketched out a broad new strategy to protect the nation's most vital information networks from cyber attack and to boost investment and research on cyber security. The key points of the plan closely mirror recommendations offered late last year by a bipartisan commission of computer security experts, which urged then president-elect Obama to set up a high-level post to tackle cyber security, consider new regulations to combat cyber crime and shore up the security of the nation's most sensitive computer networks. The strategy, as outlined in a broader policy document on homeland security priorities posted on the Whitehouse.gov Web site Wednesday, states the following goals: * Strengthen Federal Leadership on Cyber Security: Declare the cyber infrastructure a strategic asset and establish the position of national cyber advisor who will report directly to the president and will be responsible for coordinating federal agency efforts and development