Items tagged with Malware
A new report by network security provider Kindsight suggests that 13 percent of all home networks in North America are infected with malware, which is slightly less than the infection rate of the previous quarter (14 percent). That works out to one in seven home networks. In addition, some 6.5 percent of broadband...
Read more...
Security outfit Avast Software has partnered with Facebook to share its Virus Lab data with the social networking service. In doing so, Facebook now has access to Avast's real-time cloud database, which it will use to block malware from being shared unwittingly by its users. When you click on a link within Facebook...
Read more...
Google Play is about to become a safer place to download apps. It sounds weird to say that after all this time, but it's not terribly uncommon to find malware laying in wait -- just ask the 80,000+ users who downloaded a fake copy of Bad Piggies. With the latest update to Google Play, it's been discovered that Google has introduced a built-in...
Read more...
Over 82,000 Google Chrome users were duped into installing a malicious browser plug-in from the Chrome web store when what they thought they were downloading was a free copy of Bad Piggies, Rovio's latest title in the Angry Birds franchise. How could such a thing happen? A search in the Google Chrome web store for "Bad Piggies" turns up a...
Read more...
Tread carefully on the Internet, surf ninja. That's always sound advice, but it's especially important now to be extra cautious, particularly if you use Java. Researchers at Security Explorations discovered a zero-day exploit in multiple versions of Java that could affect over a billion PCs around the globe. Technical details of the exploit...
Read more...
Well here's a bit of a bummer going into the weekend. Apparently the developer responsible for the popular Black Hole exploit kit -- the one that lazy hackers and inexperienced script kiddies are particularly drawn towards -- has released a new version of his nefarious software, with new and improved features designed to evade antivirus scanners....
Read more...
Malware targeting Android users is on a precipitous rise, and what's even scarier is that over half of all Android devices have unpatched vulnerabilities. That's according to Duo Security, a startup with funding from the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). Duo Security issued its revelation after...
Read more...
Malware scanner VirusTotal announced today that it's been purchased by Google for an undisclosed sum. Apparently Google's been a long-time partner of the online scanning service, and now the two have tied the knot in antivirus matrimony. If you've never used VirusTotal before, go ahead and bookmark the website...
Read more...
There seems to be a recurring phenomenon in the technology press, where any trojan that affects Linux or Macs becomes front page news. On the other hand, trojans that affect Windows are mostly ignored, perhaps because this is considered to be the normal state of affairs. There are two common statements made in the discussions of these...
Read more...
There seems to be a recurring phenomenon in the technology press, where any trojan that affects Linux or Macs becomes front page news. On the other hand, trojans that affect Windows are mostly ignored, perhaps because this is considered to be the normal state of affairs. There are two common statements made in the discussions...
Read more...
No one is arguing that Windows isn’t the biggest target for malware writers, but it’s starting to look like Microsoft’s OS isn’t alone. Threats for the Mac have made the occasional headline, and a new Trojan is making the rounds on both Mac and Linux. That’s right: a cross-platform...
Read more...
Windows users seeking refuge from malware don't have many places to go, including Apple's iOS App Store, which was recently discovered to be harboring files containing a Windows virus. A user on Apple's support forum first reported the discovery after ClamXav flagged his "InstaQuotes-Quotes Cards for Instagram" download as being infected....
Read more...
For years, Apple has propogated the myth that its computers were inherently secure thanks to its BSD roots, inherently better security management, or because Steve Jobs sacrificed puppies under the new moon to keep your platform safe. This created a dangerous perception that Macs were immune to viruses, trojans, or...
Read more...
Considering a career change? You may want to see if Dunder Mifflin is hiring. A piece of malware first discovered in 2010 is making the rounds, and it's wreaking havoc on thousands of office printers, resulting in pages of "garbled printouts" and reams of wasted paper. It's a "paper saleman's dream come true," Symantec says. Trojan.Milicenso,...
Read more...
Surfing the Web unprotected is like running out into traffic and hoping you don't get hit. Chances are you'll end up a hood ornament. Google is doing its part to keep you safe from all the malicious Web traffic out there, and it's been five years since it announced its malware and phishing protection via the company's...
Read more...
After researchers identified the terrifying Flame malware recently, they called it the most sophisticated cyber weapon they’d ever seen, which is impressive, considering how powerful the Stuxnet and Duqu bugs that wrought havoc in the Middle East a couple of years ago were. As it turns out, Flame and Stuxnet and...
Read more...
Google’s Bouncer just made sense; unlike Apple’s heavily curated walled-garden app store, Google Play is a target for malicious (and/or downright crappy) apps, so having Bouncer in place to scan submitted apps for malicious software to protect Google Play customers was necessary. Google kept...
Read more...
It's all fun and games until someone gets hurt, or until someone uses a the same programming language behind one of the most popular mobile games of all time to construct one of the largest cyberweapons the world has ever seen. The folks at Fox News spoke with a number of cyber security experts who said that the...
Read more...
Although we’ve been told anecdotally by industry pros that the cyber security field is actually kind of boring, it sure sounds like a lot of heart-pounding adventure. According to a blog post from Kaspersky Labs, there’s a new cyber weapon tearing through the Middle East called “Flame”. The...
Read more...
Whether Mac OS X was ever truly secure or just didn’t receive the same attention from cybercriminals as Windows operating systems, Apple was once a bastion of malware invulnerability. Those days are long gone, as recently somewhere between half a million and 600,000 Macs were found to be infected with the Flashback Trojan and security...
Read more...
Apple users have generally eschewed anti-malware software and safe online practices, because “Macs don’t get viruses”. We’ve learned that’s a fallacy, of course, and Mac users would be wise to heed some advice about malware safety, but Sophos found that Macs were actually more likely to spread malware than be...
Read more...
While many have dogmatically adhered to the idea that Macs are impervious to malware, some experts have been warning that it was only a matter of time before the Apple systems were hit with significant bugs. Findings like the one from Doctor Web late yesterday confirm that indeed, the malware threat looms large for Mac users. According to...
Read more...