Items tagged with 'Malware'
Infamous Hacker Gives Up Assets, Heads To Prison For Stealing CC Data
Thinking of using those newfound hacking skills to engage in nefarious behavior? Think again. Albert Gonzalez is a name that'll go down in hacking history, but it's not for anything positive. After being charged with stealing some 130 million credit and debit card numbers, Albert plead guilty to previous data-theft charges... Read More
IE 8 Found To Be Safest Web Browser In Studies Funded by Microsoft
Internet Explorer 8 is the safest web browser on the market, according to a pair of studies sponsored by, um, Microsoft.One study focused on socially engineered malware and the other on phishing.In the first study, NSS Labs found that IE8 caught 81 percent of live threats, while Firefox 3 caught 27 percent, Safari... Read More
Many Computer Viruses Become Inert After 24 Hours
More than half of computer viruses last a mere 24 hours.Panda Security's malware detection laboratory, PandaLabs, has been analyzing the nearly 37,000 samples of new viruses, worms, Trojans and other security threats that it receives each day and found that 52 percent of them work for just 24 hours. "After that timeframe,... Read More
Social Networking Increases Avenues For Cybercrime
The rise of social networking has given rise to a whole new species of cyber criminals, experts warn.When people sign up on Facebook, for example, they tend not to think twice about putting in their birth date. But combine that with all sorts of other personal data in your profile — contact info including phone numbers... Read More
We're receiving more spam!
It's not your imagination. You are getting more spam in your e-mail inbox.Symantec, which focuses on Internet security and storage, issued a report this week that said a stunning 90.4 percent of e-mail on corporate networks this month was unsolicited. That's a 5.1 percent jump over April.The report highlights:• Spam... Read More
Twitter Hit With Four Worms Over Weekend
Just when you thought it was safe to tweet again, another Twitter worm has reared its ugly head. In case you were busy hunting for Easter eggs or biting the heads off chocolate bunnies this weekend, and didn't have a chance to tweet or read other folks' tweets on Twitter, the micro-blogging social-networking site was hit... Read More
Conficker Reveals Its Purpose
Since the April 1st Conficker target date came and went, people have been waiting for the other shoe to drop. And on Wednesday night, Conficker downloaded the update that people were expecting, via the P2P functionality that's part of the malware.Dubbed Conficker.e, the new version appears to focus on that all-too-familiar... Read More
New Conficker Worm Variant Spotted
We had all been warned: April 1 was the day that the infamous DOWNAD/Conficker worm was supposed to activate and do its dastardly deeds, whatever they might be. The day came and went without a whimper of Conficker-initiated destruction, although that didn't stop countless media outlets from reporting on it (HotHardware... Read More
Conficker Eye Chart Developed
April 1st has come and gone, but researchers are convinced we haven't seen the last of the Conficker worm. While there are ways to determine if you are infected, the Conficker Working Group has posted a simple and visual aid to help as well. The Conficker Working Group is a group of organizations that have joined forces... Read More
"The Internet is Infected" - 60 Minutes
60 Minutes is a great show, for the most part (and let's not forget it has Andy Rooney!), but a report Sunday night on the Conficker worm titled "The Internet is Infected" is probably the definition of hyperbole. The report, a full transcript of which is here, and a video below, was designed to alarm, and I'm sure it did.... Read More
‘GhostNet’ Spies on Governments & Dalai Lama
After a 10-month cyber espionage investigation, researchers have found 1,295 computers in 103 countries with software that is capable of stealing information from high-profile targets such as the Dalai Lama and government agencies around the world. In the report published today by Information Warfare Monitor, a Toronto-based... Read More
TinyURL Phishing Increases in Popularity
TinyURL is a popular URL shortening service which is frequently used to reduce the length of a URL to something more manageable. Security firm Trend Micro has warned that TinyURL phishing, first reported in February, is becoming more popular and spreading across different languages. An example of tinyURL use would be perhaps... Read More
OpenDNS and Kaspersky Take On Conficker
Internet security and infrastructure service provider, OpenDNS, and security software provider, Kaspersky Lab, have collaborated to help alert users that their systems are infected by one of the "most widely-spread" worms to come our way, the Conficker worm. The Conficker worm, which is also called Kido and Downadup, first... Read More
Parking Violation Notices Lead to Malware
Using a combination of social engineering and malicious software, an innovative new way to get people to install malware on their computers has recently popped up, and it all starts with finding a flier on your car's windshield stating that your car is illegally parked. The fliers are fake, but they prey on people's fears... Read More
Transient Malware is the New Online Threat
Security software company, AVG Technologies, reports that as many as 300,000 new, unique Websites launch every day, whose sole purpose is to infect visiting computers with malware. Not only has this number jumped up from as many as 200,000 only three months earlier, but many of these sites stay active for only a short period... Read More
New Trojan Horse Targets Macs
Mac-based security software company, Intego, is warning that a Trojan horse targeting Macs is actively out in the wild and that at least 20,000 users have already downloaded (although not necessarily installed) infected software. The Trojan horse has the name OSX.Trojan.iServices.A and it is piggybacking on pirated copies... Read More
Lavasoft Enters the AV Business
Lavasoft, developer of the long-time entrant in the spyware detection arena, Ad-Aware, has released a stand-alone antivirus application. The new product, Lavasoft Anti-Virus Helix is based on technology from antivirus vendor Avira. It's interesting that Lavasoft would make this move shortly after Microsoft's announcement... Read More
Invulnerable No More! Mac OS
It's long been asserted that Apple computers are invulnerable to viruses. This has not been because the OS is flawless, but rather because hackers focused on the more popular OS: Windows, as well as the fact that most hackers had Windows machines. But no longer.With increased popularity has come increased vulnerability.... Read More
Waiter, There's Malware in My Soup!
October might officially be National Cyber Security Awareness Month, but based on the online security reports that have come out this July, it appears that Cyber Security Awareness is actually being promoted a few months early this year. First McAfee released its report on the lack of security measures being taken... Read More
Websites Slow to Clean Up Malware Infection
Security company Finjan recently proclaimed that it detected over 1,000 different Website domains had been compromised during the first two weeks of June by a known malware toolkit, "Asprox," which has been around for over a year (according to Symantec). "… a new round of mass Web attacks has started during May 2008. Hackers... Read More
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