Arp-scan 1.8 - a discovery and fingerprinting tool that uses the address resolution protocol (ARP) to find systems and determine Internet Protocol (IP) addresses and hosts on the local network - has been updated to incorporate the latest IP and MAC address information, added support for Apple Mac OS X to now include Tiger, Leopard and Snow Leopard, new ARP decoding and display, and minor bug fixing.

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Signs of economic recovery may be appearing in some industries, but for most organisations - particularly in the public sector - budget cuts and cost savings are here to stay for the foreseeable future.

According to TechMarketView, they estimate that a 10 - 30 per cent spending reduction in software and IT services (SITS) in local and central government over the next two years will be the longest and most severe downturn in the 50-year history of public sector IT.

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SQL injection and cross-site scripting (XSS) were the most common flaws found in web applications in 2010 according to results from tests carried out by NTA Monitor.

Data from 118 web application tests showed that more than a quarter (27%) of threats identified as high risk were categorised as SQL injection, while 21% of medium risk issues were classified as XSS.

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There may have been significant technological advances to the hardware and software organisations use, but according to Roy Hills, who co-founded NTA Monitor in 1996, the basic security threats have not changed in the last 15 years.

"Looking at the results of the thousands of penetration tests we've carried out and the hundreds of companies and organisations we've consulted for since we first started the business, three recurring security issues stand out," says Roy.

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When NTA Monitor first started security testing, organisations perceived the main focus to be protecting themselves from the insider threat. During the last fifteen years this has changed and businesses have become more and more concerned about defending themselves from external attacks via the Internet.

However, with considerable job losses predicted this year, the risk from the insider threat to information security grows as employees are more likely to want to take data to help them with a new job or - less frequently - to maliciously pass onto competitors for financial gain.

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