Hacks

There has been another round of malicious apps discovered in the official Android Market, with this wave containing hidden functionality to send SMS messages to premium-rate numbers. The apps, which Google has pulled from the Market already, are counterfeit versions of popular games, including Angry Birds.

More evidence is beginning to emerge that the Adobe Reader zero-day bug revealed recently is being used in targeted attacks against companies and federal agencies. Researchers recently have come across fresh samples of malware exploiting the vulnerability by using files crafted to draw in employees of federal contractors and other related organizations.

Executives for some of the world’s largest oil companies stressed that cyber attacks against their companies are becoming more strategic and happening more frequently at a conference last week, according to a report today from the BBC.

Cyber security analysts at private sector firms in the U.S. say they have linked a string of devastating hacks of military networks and defense contractors to a small cadre of hacking groups within China, and are pushing the U.S. government for the green light to strike back.

Attackers have been going after various pieces of the DNS infrastructure for a long time now, and it’s not unusual for there to be somewhat organized campaigns that target certain vertical industries or geographic regions. But researchers lately have been seeing an interesting pattern of compromises in which attackers somehow add new names to existing domains and use those sub-domains to piggyback on the good reputation of the sites and push counterfeit goods, pills and other junk. And now they’re using the attack to push exploits via the Black Hole Exploit Kit.

There are multiple reports emerging of two new vulnerabilities in Adobe Flash that could lead to remote code execution. There’s little information about the exact nature of the bugs available right now, and Adobe has not released any advisories or information about them either.

Officials at Cnet’s Download.com site have issued a statement apologizing for bundling the popular open source Nmap security audit application with adware that changed users’ search engine and home page to Microsoft properties. Fyodor, the author of Nmap, raised the issue earlier this week, saying that his app was being wrapped in malware on Download.com.