Malware

Hundreds of government employees in Seattle, Washington received fraudulent emails yesterday that appeared to be traffic violation notifications but were, in fact, vehicles for infection by malicious software.

A new iteration of the Carberp trojan is targeting Facebook users, but unlike most Facebook attacks that attempt to pinch login credentials, this one is trying to steal money by fooling users into handing over an e-cash voucher.

By Stefan TanaseJust as a stand-up comedian carefully places his punch line at the end of the joke, I also usually leave my conclusions for the end of a post. Except for this time. This time, I would like to start with the conclusion: For an ongoing investigation not to be jeopardized, it is extremely important that all information related to those being investigated does not become public.

The crew behind the Koobface worm, who have been quite open about their exploits and financial gains from their work in the past, now seem to be ducking underground as pressure is building on them in the wake of exposures of their operation and real identities. The command-and-control server used to run the Koobface botnet, known as the Mothership, is now offline and new infections seem to have dropped off, experts say.

MIAMI–The world’s foremost expert on the Stuxnet worm said an analysis of source code for a critical component of the malware prove that Iran’s nuclear program was the target, and that attackers were able to exploit weak design in Siemens software, rather than having to exploit a software vulnerability to carry out their attack.

Vladimir Zdorovenin, an alleged prolific Russian cybercriminal, has arrived in New York City following his arrest and subsequent extradition by Swiss authorities. The FBI had been working to find and extradite Zdorovenin for several years.

The individuals allegedly responsible for wreaking havoc on Facebook with the infamous Koobface botnet are living lavishly, blatantly flaunting their ill-gotten gains and taking little precautions to cover their tracks. Their locations, travels, business ventures, social media personas, Internet and real-life identities are apparently well-documented, but no one seems to be able to do anything about it.