There is a series of vulnerabilities in the widely used BlackBerry Enterprise Server software that could allow an attacker to compromise BlackBerry devices by sending a malicious PDF file. Research in Motion, the software’s maker, has issued a patch that fixes the problem in BES, as well as in BlackBerry Professional Software.
The latest large-scale malware outbreak to hit the Web, known variously as Gumblar and Geno and Martuz, is a multi-stage attack that not only infects compromised machines with a number of separate pieces of malware but also has the ability to steal credentials and block the victim from taking actions to clean his PC.
From the Associated Press
Law enforcement computers were struck by a Mystery computer virus Thursday, forcing the FBI and the U.S. Marshals to shut down part of their networks as a precaution.
The U.S. Marshals confirmed it disconnected from the Justice Department’s computers as a protective measure after being hit by the virus; an FBI official said only that that agency was experiencing similar issues and was working on the problem. Read the full story [yahoo.com]
From CNet News (Liam Tung)
Cybercrime fighter Eugene Kaspersky can’t help but be impressed by the slick operations behind the Conficker botnet, and says that it could have been worse had the botnet been after more than just money. “They are high-end engineers who write code in a good way,” Kaspersky said. “They use cryptographic systems in the right way, they don’t make mistakes — they are really professional.”
From IDG News Service (Robert McMillan)
A new attack that peppers Google search results with malicious links is spreading quickly, the U.S. Computer Emergence Response Team warned [us-cert.gov] on Monday.
The attack, which has intensified in recent days, can be found on several thousand legitimate Web sites, according to security experts. It targets known flaws in Adobe’s software and uses them to install a malicious program on victims’ machines, CERT said. Read the full story [cio.com]
From Computerworld (Gregg Keizer)
After discovering attack code on a brand new Windows XP netbook, anti-virus vendor Kaspersky Labs warned users yesterday that they should scan virgin systems for malware before connecting them to the Internet.
When Kaspersky developers installed their recently-released Security for Ultra Portables on an M&A Companion Touch netbook purchased for testing, “they thought something strange was going on,” said Roel Schouwenberg [viruslist.com], a senior anti-virus researcher with the Moscow-based firm. Schouwenberg scanned the machine — a $499 netbook designed for the school market — and found three pieces of malware. Read the full story [computerworld.com]
The number of legitimate Websites being hacked to host malware has hit startling highs in recent days, new figures from MessageLabs have revealed.
Data taken from the days between May 4 and 8 showed that 84.6 percent of Websites blocked by the company for hosting malicious content were ‘well-established’ domains that have been around for a year or more. Read the full story [pcworld.com]
Botnets have become one of the more insidious threats on the Internet in the last few years. Large-scale botnets such as the Storm, Asprox and Nugache networks have caused tremendous problems by serving as platforms for spamming operations, DDoS attacks and other mischief. In this podcast from SearchSecurity.com, Rob Westervelt talks with Brian Rexroad of AT&T Labs about the company’s botnet research program.
From eWEEK (Brian Prince)
Attackers pushing pirated, malware-laced copies of Microsoft’s upcoming Windows 7 operating system have been actively trying to build a botnet.
According to researchers at Damballa, attackers hid a Trojan inside of pirated copies of the operating system and began circulating them on BitTorrent sites. Damballa reported that it shut down the botnet’s command and control server May 10, but by that time infection rates had risen as high as 552 users per hour. Read the full story [eweek.com]
From CNet (Elinor Mills)
Cybercriminals have moved on from search engine optimization techniques and are now creating fake search sites designed solely to direct Web surfers to pages hosting malware, Panda Security warned on Wednesday.
Previously, attackers resorted to sending e-mails with malicious code in attachments and with links to malicious Web sites and took measures to push those Web sites higher in search engine rankings. Now, they’re also creating fake search engines that are showing up in Google search results. Read the full story [cnet.com]
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