UPDATED 09:19 EDT / AUGUST 08 2013

Weekly Security Review: FireEye Eyes IPO, Google Chrome Exposes Passwords

This past week featured a number of developments in the ever-evolving security space. Enterprise security specialist FireEye filed for an initial public offering, a software designer stumbled upon an undiscovered Chrome vulnerability, and the FBI shut down Freedom Hosting using a zero-day FireFox flaw. In related news, an anonymous tipster leaked new details about the the agency’s use of commercial hacking tools.

FireEye, a California-based provider of threat detection solutions, disclosed in a SEC filing that it’s looking to raise as much as $175 million in its upcoming public offering. The company develops next generation security software that can thwart both zero-day attacks and advanced persistent threats (APTs).

Enterprises and consumers are both becoming more conscious about their privacy, and for good reason. On Tuesday, a software developer by the name of Elliott Kember dragged Google Chrome in the limelight with an article entitled “Chrome’s Insane Password Security Strategy.” Kember revealed in his piece that passwords stored in Chrome can be easily accessed via a settings menu that can’t be toggled or disabled in any way.

Chrome’s password syncing component is poorly implemented, but it’s arguably not outright broken. The same can’t be said of the zero-day FireFox vulnerability that the FBI exploited to bust Freedom Hosting, the “largest facilitator of child porn on the planet.” The agency used a combination of commercial hacking tools and homegrown solutions, which were in turn the subject of a recent Wall Street Journal report.

The WSJ cited a former U.S. official as saying that the agency has the means to remotely activate microphones in Android phones and laptops. Sources familiar with the matter insisted that the FBI only uses these tools under court order.


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