Malware

Consumers Should Clean Up Their Act on Personal Security

The growing use of social networking sites is leaving PC inadvertently open to identity thieves warned Hugh Thompson, chief security strategist at People Security.

Speaking at the RSA Europe Conference, Thompson said that people were unaware just how many clues they left for fraudsters. He said such carelessness was fuelling the rise of cybercrime. He told the conference about the way he managed to access one of his wife’s friend’s bank account in a couple of hours using publicly available data – a process that he had previously documented in a Scientific American article. He warned that most people’s private accounts could be accessed in this way.  Read the full article [Techworld/Maxswell Cooter]

Microsoft Malware Data Shows Trojans Rampant in USA

One week after the release of its Microsoft Security Essentials utility, Microsoft is sharing some very useful data on malware infections globally.In the first week alone, the tool counted four million detections on 535,752 distinct machines, with ID-theft related Trojans sitting atop the detected category in the US. China has lots of potentially unwanted software threats, and worms (particularly Conficker) are very active in Brazil.

Scareware Locks Apps on Infected PCs

by Ryan Naraine
3

USA Today is reporting on a new variant of scareware that not only inundates users with exhortations to purchase phony antivirus software called “Total Security 2009,” but that also locks users out of nearly all applications until they purchase the disreputable product.  Once their PCs are infected with the malware, the only program users can open is Internet Explorer, so they can navigate to the site and make a purchase.

Fake Conficker Alert Drops Scareware Threat

by Ryan Naraine

An ongoing spam campaign is once again attempting to impersonate Microsoft’s security team by mass mailing Conficker.B Infection Alerts that drop a sample of the Antivirus Pro 2010 scareware scam. Here’s a sample of what the text looks like:

Microsoft .NET Plug-In Exposes Firefox Users to Malware Attacks

by Ryan Naraine
7

Remember that Microsoft .NET Framework Assistant add-on that Microsoft sneaked into Firefox without explicit permission from end users?
Well, the code in that add-on has a serious code execution vulnerability that exposes Firefox users to the “browse and you’re owned” attacks that are typically used in drive-by malware downloads.

Outlook Web Access Attack Using Pushdo Botnet

by Sergey Golovanov

By Sergey Golovanov
Here are some technical details on the Outlook Web Access phishing scheme.
1. The Spam
According to our preliminary research, the spam emails which attacked OWA users, including Kaspersky, were sent using the pushdo botnet – which is based on malware from the Backdoor.Win32.NewRes family. These Trojans spread via spam, social networks (in conjunction with the Koobface family) and through hacked websites.

Cybersecurity for your growing business
Cybersecurity for your growing business

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