Showing Tag: " malware" (Show all posts)

Geinimi Android Trojan horse discovered

Posted by vijai on Sunday, January 2, 2011, In : Security

There has been something of a sting in the tail of the year for lovers of the Android mobile operating system, as researchers uncovered a new Trojan horse.

The Troj/Geinimi-A malware (also known as "Gemini") has been seen incorporated into repackaged versions of various applications and games, and attempts to steal data, and may contact remote URLs.

Although some media reports have portrayed Geinimi as the first ever malware for the Google Android operating system, this isn't correct. For insta...

Searching for free stuff online can be costly

Posted by vijai on Thursday, September 16, 2010, In : Security

This pie chart shows the different threats that can come from visiting Web sites that advertise unauthorized content.

(Credit: McAfee)

It's common knowledge that you can catch computer viruses on porn Web sites. But did you know it's also risky to surf the Web searching for free movies or music?

A study from McAfee to be released on Tuesday finds that adding the word "free" when looking for entertainment content in search engines greatly increases the chances of landing on a site hos...

VeriSign adds malware scanning to SSL services

Posted by Oyya-Info on Tuesday, July 20, 2010, In : Security

VeriSign is adding malware scanning to its authentication services for Web site operators, the company announced on Monday.

The "VeriSign Trusted" check mark seal indicates to Web surfers that VeriSign has verified that the site represents the organization or company that it purports to be and that it is using encryption to protect communications between the site and its visitors. Now, existing and new VeriSign SSL customers will have their sites scanned daily to check for malware as ...

When malware strikes via bad ads on good sites

Posted by Oyya-Info on Tuesday, March 16, 2010, In : Security

Matt Drudge and Michael Arrington found themselves this week in an unpleasant position when visitors to their respective Drudge Report and TechCrunch sites were targeted by malware that appeared to have come from ads.

While Drudge vehemently denied it and blamed accusers with playing politics, Arrington acknowledged on Thursday that there had been malware-laden ads on TechCrunch on Wednesday. It's unclear which ad network served up the malware and what type of malware it was, althoug...

More security breaches hit midsize companies

Posted by Oyya-Info on Thursday, October 29, 2009, In : Security

More midsize companies are being attacked by cybercriminals at the same time they're spending less on security, says a McAfee report released Wednesday.

Across the world, more than half of the 900 midsize businesses (51 to 1,000 employees) surveyed by McAfee for its report, The Security Paradox, said they've seen an increase in security breaches over the past year. Despite the threat, the recession has caused most of these companies to freeze their IT security budgets.

Midsize organizations have seen an increase in cyberthreats in 2009.

(Credit: McAfee)

M...

Why virus writers are turning to open source

Posted by Oyya-Info on Saturday, September 19, 2009, In : Security

Malware developers are going open source in an effort to make their malicious software more useful to fraudsters.

By giving criminal coders free access to malware that steals financial and personal details, the malicious software developers are hoping to expand the capabilities of old Trojans.

According to Candid W?est, threat researcher with security firm Symantec, around 10 percent of the Trojan market is now open source.

The move to an open source business model is allowing criminals t...

Twitter warms up malware filter

Posted by Oyya-Info on Tuesday, August 4, 2009, In : Webware

Twitter's new malware filter is a sign the social media site is stepping up efforts to stem attacks, but the measure has its shortcomings, say security experts.

Twitter's filtering mechanism was highlighted by Mikko Hypponen, chief research officer of F-Secure, in a blog post Monday. When a user tries to submit a tweet with a suspect Web link, the following warning appears:

"Oops! Your tweet contained a URL to a known malware site!"

Twitter's latest security measure was a positive one, es...

Microsoft's free anti-malware beta to arrive next week

Posted by Oyya-Info on Friday, June 19, 2009, In : Security

Microsoft will launch a public beta of its anti-malware service, Microsoft Security Essentials, on Tuesday as it phases out its Live OneCare suite in favor of a simpler free consumer security offering.

Microsoft Security Essentials, which will run on Windows XP, Vista, and Windows 7, will be available in the U.S., Brazil, and Israel in English and Brazilian Portuguese. A public beta version for Simplified Chinese will be available later in the year.

The service works like traditional antivi...

Dasient helps Web sites avoid blacklists, malware

Posted by Oyya-Info on Tuesday, June 16, 2009, In : Security

Last week, PBWorks founder David Weekly found out from some customers that his hosted collaboration site had been blacklisted by Symantec for hosting malware and, thus, visitors to any of the 10 million pages on PBWorks were being warned that the site wasn't safe.

"(Damn) you, Norton Safe Web. Whenever one file on one PBWorks space has a virus, all of PBworks is marked unsafe?!" a frustrated Weekly wrote on Twitter and Facebook on Thursday. In a follow-up interview, he said: "That's tarnishi...

Look Ma, I created a botnet!

Posted by Oyya-Info on Monday, June 15, 2009, In : Security

The abstract concepts of "botnet" and "Trojan" just became a lot more concrete for me.

In less than an hour on Thursday, I was able to use programs readily available on the Internet underground for as little as $300 to infect several Windows clients and take complete control of them in a test environment.

In contrast to the real world, the McAfee Malware Experience event, which was akin to a Malware 101 class (or, in my case, Malware ...

ATM malware lets criminals steal data and cash

Posted by Oyya-Info on Monday, June 15, 2009, In : Security

Malware has been found on ATMs in Eastern Europe and elsewhere that allows criminals to steal account data and PINs and even empty the machine of its cash, a computer forensics expert said.

About 20 ATMs have been compromised in that manner, mostly in Russia and the Ukraine, but there are "early indications" of compromised ATMs in the U.S., said Nicholas Percoco, vice president and head of SpiderLabs at Trustwave, which provides data security and payment card compliance services.

Percoco ...

Cybercriminals use fake search engines to spread malware

Posted by Oyya-Info on Monday, June 15, 2009, In : Security

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 ...