A week in security: Microsoft details Patch Tuesday

Microsoft is patching three critical vulnerabilities this month

This week was all about Microsoft, as the firm announced details of its upcoming Patch Tuesday after evidence of more holes in its products emerged.

The week started, however, with some security headaches for Apple and its App Store. The company was forced to ban a developer from the App Store following reports that iTunes accounts had been hacked and used to fraudulently inflate sales figures for certain applications.

Apple was quick to allay any privacy fears, saying that developers "do not receive any iTunes confidential customer data when an app is downloaded".

There were problems for Symbian this week after mobile security firm NetQin claimed to have found malware spreading via Symbian Series 60 handsets which is being used to build a mobile botnet.

The company identified three pieces of malware masquerading as mobile games or special offers, which infect versions three and five of the Series 60 Symbian platform.

Elsewhere, The US National Security Agency (NSA) is to start monitoring the networks of public companies for security holes as part of an early warning system against online attack.

The NSA said that the Perfect Citizen programme will ask companies to install network monitoring equipment to look for suspicious online activity.

Meanwhile, three hackers claim to have harvested the accounts of over four million registered users of the Pirate Bay web site, including contact details and the torrents they have downloaded.

An Argentinian hacker known as Ch Russo said that he and two associates found multiple flaws in the site's security and used a SQL injection attack to get access to the database.