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“We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be.” ― Kurt Vonnegut
In an analysis of Virut botnet samples, Symantec researchers observed the malware downloading Waledac variants, suggesting that the gangs responsible for each botnet may be cooperating with one another through some sort of affiliate program, or, at the very least, that the two threats coexist and function on single infected machines.
Scammers are spamming out malicious emails purporting to come from payroll processing company ADP, according Dancho Danchev of Webroot.
UPDATE – In an attempt to reign in the tendency of indifference toward consumer privacy among mobile application developers, California Attorney General Kamala D. Harris today made public a list of guidelines regulating the ways in which mobile application developers and technology companies handle user data and educate users about what they intend on doing with that data.
If the relatively cheap, easily available, and totally reliable Blackhole exploit kit is the Toyota Camry of exploit kits, then the Cool exploit kit is the Lexus LS: both kits are reportedly developed by the same crew, but the latter is astronomically more expensive and presumably loaded with better features.
Working with forensics experts from the FBI, Ernst & Young’s Fraud Investigation and Dispute Services Practice developed a piece of linguistic, fraud-monitoring software that identified language commonly used among employees engaged in corporate malfeasance. The accounting giant plans to offer their newly developed fraud-detection capacity as a service to their clients.
Security researcher Shahin Ramezany developed an XSS proof-of-concept exploit that he claims puts some 400 million Yahoo Mail users at risk of having their accounts taken over.
In the last two years, 94 percent of healthcare organizations that took part in the Ponemon Institute’s “Third Annual Benchmark Study on Patient Privacy & Data Security” [PDF] reported that they had suffered at least one data breach; 45 percent reported that they had been the victim of at more than five data breaches.
In spring of last year, reports began surfacing that some employers were demanding that current and sometimes prospective employees hand over the log-in credentials or otherwise provide access to their various social media accounts. People were outraged. Such invasions of what many perceive as their personal, albeit, online privacy prompted much debating and the writing of a never-ending slew opinion pieces.
Late last week the social networking giant Facebook patched a particularly voyeuristic security vulnerability in the platform that could have given malefactors the ability to remotely turn on the webcams of other users and post videos to their profiles, according to a Bloomberg News report.
UPDATE – The Senate today rejected the inclusion of four privacy-friendly amendments before voting to reauthorize the controversial Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act (FISA) that grants the federal government the authority to clandestinely monitor electronic communications involving foreign citizens coming into or out of the United States without the probable cause required for traditional warrants.
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