Category: Spyware

Three types of computer “virus” explained

Do you know the difference between a virus and a worm? What about a Trojan horse? Sophos blogger Chet Wisniewski explains the difference between different types of malware. http://www.sophos.com/blogs/chetw/g/2010/04/03/3-types-viruses-demystified

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10 things you didn’t know about the Koobface gang

With Koobface continuing to spreading across Facebook by utilizing hundreds of compromised sites as infection vectors, next to using them as distributed hosting infrastructure in an attempt to undermine potential take down activities, a common misconception regarding the gang’s activities shifts the attention from their true participating within the underground ecosystem. The intensive multitasking on behalf of the Koobface gang, next to the fact that the Koobface botnet is the tip of the iceberg for their malicious operations, prompts the publishing of this top 10 things you didn’t know about the Koobface gang list. Some are funny,

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PHISHING SCAM – CDC Sponsored State Vaccination Program for H1N1

CDC has received reports of fraudulent emails (phishing) referencing a CDC sponsored State Vaccination Program for H1N1. The messages request that users create a personal H1N1 (swine flu) Vaccination Profile on the CDC.gov web site. An example of the phishing email is below: Users that click on the embedded link in the email are at risk of having malicious code installed on their system. CDC reminds users to take the following steps to reduce the risk of being a victim of a phishing attack: Do not open or respond to unsolicited email messages. Do not click links

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Fake H1N1 (Swine Flu) alerts lead to malware

Malicious hackers are using fake alerts around H1N1 (Swine Flu) vaccines to trick end users into installing malware on Windows computers, according to warnings issued by computer security firms. The latest malware campaign begins with e-mail messages offering information regarding the H1N1 vaccination. The e-mail messages contain a link to a bogus Centers for Disease Control and Prevention site with prompts to create a user profile.  During this process, a malware file gets planted on the user’s machine. This US-CERT advisory contains some of the e-mail subject lines being used in the spam run. Some examples: “Governmental registration

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Facebook password-reset spam is Bredolab botnet attack

Virus hunters are raising the alarm for a large-scale spam attack that uses fake Facebook password-reset messages to trick PC users into downloading a dangerous piece of malware. The malicious executable is linked to the Bredolab botnet, which has been linked to massive spam runs and identity-theft related attacks. For the rest of the story click here

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Microsoft: Patch now or face attacks

Microsoft today shipped four bulletins with patches for at least 8 documented security vulnerabilities affecting Windows users and warned that “consistent exploit code could be easily crafted” to launch attacks via the Internet Explorer browser. The Patch Tuesday batch includes fixes for a pair of code execution holes in IE, two bugs in the Microsoft Exchange Server, a remote code execution issue in the Microsoft SQL Server, and three separate flaws haunting users of Microsoft Office Visio.   The Internet Explorer bulletin (MS09-002) should be treated with urgency because the flaws can be exploited to launch drive-by download attacks.

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Don’t dawdle on Microsoft latest batch of patches

If you’re like most folks you are taking your time installing Microsoft’s latest round of security patches. However, you may want to get your rear end in gear.Specifically apply MS08-001, which was released on Jan. 8. That patch fixed a Transmission Control Protocol/Internet Protocol (TCP/IP) processing vulnerability that was critical for XP and Vista. The vulnerability if left unpatched could lead to a worm attack. Ryan Naraine interviews the hacker that brought the bug to Microsoft last August and the details are worrisome. read the rest of this article here 

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The next generation of security threats

REDMOND, Wash.–Microsoft security engineer Robert Hensing had a question for the hundreds of his company’s developers seated before him: can a person’s PC become infected with a rootkit simply by opening a PowerPoint file? In the packed conference center, a smattering of developers raise their hands. Nearby, in an adjacent room, where hackers invited to speak at Microsoft’s Blue Hat conference watch the presentations on TV, an entire table of hands go up. “That’s one thing I want you to take away from this,” Hensing tells the Microsoft developers. “Applications are dangerous.” “We’re attacking today’s problems. We

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Phishers are using shorter URLs for malicious sites in a bid to lend an air of legitimacy to threatening links.

Internet Security Services, IBM’s online-security division, claims to have noticed a significant drop in the number of characters used by fraudsters in their phishing URLs. A post on ISS’s Frequency X blog stated that “analysts have been observing host names within fraudulent phishing URLs consistently arrive with lengths of between 30 and 37 characters”; observers “have noted a significant change” as phishing host names have shrunk down to an average of only 17 characters in recent weeks. For more info click here

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Malware found on new hard drives

Here’s an interesting story that I found in my inbox.  The Taipei Times is reporting that around 1,800 new 300GB and 500GB external hard drives manufactured by Maxtor shipped with malware on them.  What makes this story even more interesting is that Taiwanese authorities suspected that Chinese authorities were involved. This is a VERY important story if you install your own harddrives or even if you have someone else do it. Please read the rest of the story by clicking here 

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Microsoft exec calls XP hack ‘frightening’

A Microsoft executive calls the ease with which two British e-crime specialists managed to hack into a Windows XP computer as both “enlightening and frightening.” The demonstration took place Monday at an event sponsored by Get Safe Online–a joint initiative of the U.K. government and industry. At the event, which was aimed at heightening security awareness among small businesses, two members of the U.K. government intelligence group Serious Organized Crime Agency connected a machine running Windows XP with Service Pack 1 to an unsecured wireless network. The machine was running no antivirus, firewall, or anti-spyware software and

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Adobe Acrobat, Reader vulnerable to hacks

Adobe Systems, whose software is used by millions of people to read documents sent over the Internet, said some of its programs contain a flaw that makes personal computers vulnerable to attack. In an October 5 posting on its Web site, Adobe said the “critical” flaw is incorporated into versions of Adobe Reader and Acrobat software, and could allow malicious programs to get on to a PC without the user knowing about it. For more info click here 

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Storm worm exploits YouTube

Spammers are exploiting YouTube’s “invite your friends” function to send spam containing a variant of the “Storm worm.” Bradley Anstis, director of product management at security firm Marshal, said that spammers are taking advantage of the YouTube function that lets people invite friends to view videos that they have viewed or posted. The function allows someone to e-mail any address from an account. The scam on Google’s video-sharing site is targeting Xbox owners, urging recipients to collect a prize version of the popular game Halo 3. Anstis said clicking on the link to “winhalo3” leads to a

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Americans wrong about computer security

Most Americans believe their computers are protected against viruses and spyware, but scans found that a large number had outdated or disabled security software, according to a poll released on Monday. Fully 87 percent of Americans polled said they had antivirus software, 73 percent said they had a firewall and 70 percent said they had antispyware software, according to the survey by security software maker McAfee and the National Cyber Security Alliance. But when pollsters asked to remotely scan the respondents’ computers, the story turned out to be very different. While 94 percent of those polled had

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Storm Worm botnet could be world’s most powerful supercomputer

Nearly nine months after it was first discovered, the Storm Worm Trojan continues to surge, building what experts believe could be the world’s most powerful supercomputer.The Trojan, which uses a myriad of social engineering lures to trick Windows users into downloading malware, has successfully seeded a massive botnet — between one million and 10 million CPUs — producing computing power to rival the world’s top 10 supercomputers For more info click here

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