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Items tagged with Malware
Here’s the thing about most types of mobile malware in the wild; they’re avoidable. That doesn’t mean, however, if you’re not paying attention--and especially if you’re the type that likes to customize things as the Android platform is so capable of--that you might not stumble into some nasty code deplorables. Such is the case with a new, very sneaky strain of Android ad malware that has been downloaded to literally millions of devices globally, though predominantly in Southeast Asia. AndroidOS_Xavier_AXM, or Xavier for short, as it is more commonly known, is a tricky little payload that has been...
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Getting on-board with an operating system like Windows 10 S may be difficult for some users. Only a certain type of user would purposefully opt to use a whittled-down, locked-down OS by choice, but for the security conscious, it makes a lot of sense. After all, 10 S is still Windows -- it's just supposed to be safer. That's been Microsoft's message since the OS' launch, and its logic is sound: the more locked-down an OS, the lower the chances are that a piece of malware -- including ransomware -- will make it onto the system. To put it simply, using Windows 10 S is akin to locking your doors...
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It seemed for a moment that the WannaCry ransomware that wreaked havoc at hospitals across Europe had been neutralized, but apparently it is still causing disruptions. The latest report comes from Honda Motor Co., which said on Wednesday that it had to shut down one of its factories in Japan after discovering that WannaCry had wormed its way onto the company's computer network.Honda temporarily ceased production at its Sayama plant located northwest of Tokyo. That particular factory produces several Honda automobile models, including the Accord sedan, Odyssey minivan, and Step Wagon compact vehicle....
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The notion that Mac systems are immune to malware is just plain wrong. Sure, Macs might be less susceptible to malware than Windows-based PCs, but they are certainly not exempt from security threats. Proving otherwise, two different security outfits have put out warnings about separate threats targeting Mac users. One of them pertains to ransomware, where a user's documents and files are encrypted and held hostage until a ransom is paid, and the other is a spyware application that sniffs out sensitive information.Image Source: Apple Starting with the former, security outfit Fortinet said its labs...
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If you're a Raspberry Pi user who's never changed the default password of the "pi" user, then heed this warning: change it. A brand new piece of malware has hit the web, called "Linux.MulDrop.14", and it preys on those who haven't secured their devices properly. Linux.MulDrop.14 looks to be a simple piece of malware, but what it does wouldn't be acceptable by any RPi owner. After scanning for RPis with an open (and default) SSH port, the "pi" user is logged into (if the password is left default), and the password is subsequently changed. After that, the malware installs ZMap and sshpass software,...
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Most wireless routers are equipped with a series of LEDs to indicate things like network connectivity and activity, though if a router has been compromised with malware, those blinking lights could reveal more than the owner bargained for. Using specially crafted malware, an attacker could instruct those LEDs to transmit data in a binary format.Image Source: TP-Link The attack was outlined in a paper by a team of researches from the Cyber Security Research Center at the Ben-Gurion University of the Negev in Israel. It is the same team of security researchers that previously wrote about data exfiltration...
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The folks at Kaspersky, one of the biggest antivirus companies on the planet, are not too pleased with Microsoft's recent Windows design cues. Last year, the company filed a complaint against the Redmond company with Russia's Federal Antimonopoly Service (FAS), and recently, it did the same thing in Europe. Any mention of Windows and "monopoly" make this complaint easy to figure out without even looking at it. Kaspersky has a beef with how Microsoft promotes the use of its Defender antivirus / anti-malware app over third-party solutions. One issue in particular is how Windows acts as a bit of a...
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Be careful what you download from Google Play, as auto-clicking adware dubbed “Judy” is believed to have infected up to 36.5 million users. The apps have been deemed as malware, despite their overall high review ratings on Google Play. Judy was found on forty-one apps developed by a Korean company Kiniwini, registered on Google Play as ENISTUDIO corp. Hackers developed bridgehead apps that, once downloaded, established a connection with their Command and Control server (C&C). The server replied with payload that included JavaScript code, a user-agent string and URLs that were controlled by...
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Now that the dust has settled on a global ransomware outbreak that could have been much worse than it ended up being, we can all breathe a sigh of relieve. Meanwhile, security outfits are busy analyzing the outbreak to uncover as much information as possible about the threat known as WannaCry. According to Symantec's investigation into things, WannaCry has "strong links to Lazarus," which is the same group that attacked Sony Pictures and made off with $81 million from the Bangladesh Central Bank. Symantec says that before the recent outbreak occurred, a near identical version of WannaCry was used...
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WikiLeaks has posted its latest release from the Vault 7 series of CIA-related leaks that exposes a tool dubbed “Athena”, which acts as a beacon on compromised Windows-based systems and gives the agency remote loader capabilities as well.Athena and its associated tools function on all versions of Windows from XP through Windows 10. There is a secondary implementation named “Hera” for Windows 8 and newer systems, due to some underlying changes Microsoft made to the OSes, which offers all of the same capabilities. All told, Athena / Hera provides a beaconing capability with remote configuration and...
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The Wanna Decrypter ransomware that began floating around the Internet late last week, or WannCry as it's commonly known, has made a lasting impact, with hundreds of thousands of PCs worldwide being affected. What the malware does is even more alarming: one minute, you're using your computer normally; the next, your data is locked away behind a key unless you fork over hundreds of dollars in ransom money. As has become typical of ransomware, WannaCry will demand payment via Bitcoin in order to recover the data the attackers locked down. Once payment is received, an encryption key is typically (but...
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Last fall, we reported on a somewhat humorous report of a mere "reply all" email that managed to bring down email servers of the UK's National Health Service. Unfortunately, we have something a bit more severe to report on today: an all-out cyberattack against the NHS. At some point today, doctors at NHS had to begin turning away patients as a ransomware attack that affected NHS' most important servers reared its ugly head. Doctors and staff were immediately locked out of their computers, essentially meaning that patient data could not be accessed. Queen Elizabeth Hospital in Birmingham;...
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A vulnerability researcher at Google is giving props to Microsoft for issuing a quick fix to what he described as a "crazy bad" remote code exploit in the company's malware protection engine. He also said it was the worst of its kind in recent memory, and that is because prior to the patch, a remote attacker could gain full control of a PC simply by sending a malicious email. The recipient needn't even open the communication for this nasty zero-day bug to work. "The update addresses a vulnerability that could allow remote code execution if the Microsoft Malware Protection Engine scans a specially...
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It seems like a day doesn't go by that we don't hear about some piece of malware that's harassing computer users. In 2017, you would expect that most people would be hesitant to download and extract random, rogue zip files, but sadly, that's not the case. There's a reason these pieces of malware still exist -- just like with spam email, a small percentage of users ultimately fall for it. With the latest piece of malware to hit the Mac, users who are careless enough to open attachments from people they don't know are the prime targets for this exploit and infection. OSX/Dok is malware that...
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