It seems the promise of private (and presumed) nude photos of strangers may be too much for some folks to resist. The Mimail.C worm was discovered on October 31st and nearly immediately was at a medium threat level according to McAfee's AVERT risk assessment.
Full Story 01:07 PM#
Trend Micro's latest offering is packed full of pleasant surprises. Their already stellar antivirus protection has been expanded to prevent everything from credit card theft to spam. But the biggest surprise doesn't come on the CD. Full Review 07:41 PM#
A mass-mailing email worm that seems to have little going for it - bad English, no special tricks, and obviously executable attachments - nonetheless seems to have no trouble picking up willing victims.
Full story 01:19 PM#
Emails falsely claiming to be from the likes of Citibank, NatWest, and other reputable banking entities attempt to entice recipients into divulging their ATM/Debit card and PIN numbers. A recent rash of these fraudulent emails have been discovered worldwide. The email employs a new twist designed to fool even the skeptical.
Full story
A whopping 85% of computers in China were infected with viruses this year, according to a survey performed by the Chinese Ministry of Public Security. Antivirus vendor Sophos reports on this alarming trend. 12:24 PM#
Reputable firms such as eBay and PayPal have been besieged by email scammers attempting to pilfer valuable credit card details from unsuspecting customers. Here's how to ferret out these scams.
Full article 09:08 AM#
It seems Aaron Caffrey, the teen accused of launching a digital attack against a U.S. seaport's navigation system, successfully defended his claim that his PC was hijacked by a Trojan. A UK jury found Caffrey not guilty, despite the fact that his computer showed no signs of the alleged Trojan but did reveal log files and other evidence substantiating the attack.
Full Story 09:41 AM#
Windows Messenger service vulnerable to critical exploit
Microsoft has issued a critical patch to resolve a vulnerability in the Windows Messenger service which could allow an attacker to remotely run malicious code. Disabling the Messenger service is recommended unless specifically needed (i.e. in a networked environment as directed by the sysadmin, or as required by certain backup software and UPS devices). The Messenger service is a favorite with spammers, who exploit the service to serve pop-up advertising to unsuspecting users. Thus, disabling the service not only protects against the exploit, it may prevent unwanted advertising from appearing on your PC. Microsoft Security Bulletin MS03-043 provides details and a patch for those who must keep the Messenger service enabled. Properly configured personal firewall software will block the inbound RPC traffic used to exploit this vulnerability.
Microsoft is now releasing Security Bulletins on a monthly basis. This month's release includes critical security updates for Microsoft Windows and Exchange Server. October patches:
Microsoft Exchange Server patches Microsoft Windows patches
Want to get even with the viruses, hackers, and spammers that plague your system?
Kaspersky Labs has released version II of their popular Virus Hunter online game. I had no trouble killing the viruses and did a pretty good job of taking out the hackers, but when it came to the spammers, they got the better of me. Give it a go and see how you fare. Warning:this game is highly addictive. On the plus side, if you're caught playing at work, you can always mention that Kaspersky awards substantial discounts for winning game play. In essence, playing could save you - or your company - big bucks on Kaspersky Anti-Virus! Play online 10:26 PM#
Hacker suspect claims he was hacked
A teen accused of launching a digital attack against a U.S. seaport's navigation system claims his PC was hijacked by a Trojan...read more 12:41 PM#
We have just charged your credit card for money laundry service in amount of $234.65 ... Yeah. Right. Sadly, though, the scam continues to thrive so somebody must be responding. But it's not just credit cards these thieves are after. Discover the hidden agenda behind this scam and avoid becoming a victim.
Full Story 07:13 PM#
Student unleashes Beast on investors
Van T. Dinh, a 19 year old Drexel University student , faced losses after making a speculative deal on Cisco stock. To prevent those losses, Van Dinh tricked another investor into "beta testing" his newly developed share tracking software. Problem is, there was no share tracking software. Dinh used the ruse to install The Beast, a keylogging Trojan that allowed him to surreptitiously monitor his intended victim and use the gleaned info to manipulate a buyout of the "put" options.
Full Story 03:49 PM#
SunnComm shifts thinking on illicit keystroke
SunnComm CEO Peter Jacobs has decided not to sue a Princeton student who defeated their CD copyright technology with the simple press of the Shift key. "I don't want to be the guy that creates any kind of chilling effect on research," Jacobs said. Good thing. Can you imagine the implications a successful Shift key suit might have on future use of the miscreant Delete key?
The Daily Princetonian 02:18 PM#
Shift Key Use Illegal, claims SunnComm
SunnComm is threatening to sue a Princeton student for releasing details of a flaw in their CD copyright protection software. SummComm alleges, "Halderman and Princeton University have significantly damaged SunnComm's reputation and caused the market value of SunnComm to drop by more than $10 million." The flaw? Pressing the Shift key when inserting the CD. Doing so bypasses the autorun feature - upon which SunnComm's so-called "copy-management technology" relies. Disabling of autorun is a fairly common and prudent practice. Indeed, common sense security dictates that CDs not automatically launch - otherwise systems could be easily infected by viruses that might be contained on those CDs. Such was the case in November 2001, when both the Powerpuff Girls "Meet The Beat Alls" DVD was found to be infected with the Funlove virus and the SEGA Dreamcast game, Atelier Marie, featured a PC screensaver infected with the highly destructive Kriz virus.
12:46 PM#
SOFTWIN, producer of BitDefender - one of the antivirus Top Picks - has announced the opening of its new office in Germany. Martin Siemens, former CEO of H+BEDV, has been has been appointed to take over the leadership of SOFTWIN GmbH Germany.
Press Release | Deutsch 10:29 AM#
eTrust Antivirus Scanner
Computer Associates has a new online scanner that is incredibly quick and easy to use. The scanner will initially update its signatures, if necessary, then present a tree of drives which can be selected for scanning. The tree can be expanded to allow for individual directories to be selected and scanned. If an infection or suspicious file is found, you can decide if you want to submit to CA for evaluation. The file will be sent and responses returned via email.
Top online scanners 08:16 AM#
Worms of Mass Destruction?
British high-tech crime investigators are looking for clues in viral code to determine if any of the miscreant creations are linked to organized crime or terrorist groups. The NHTCU hopes to pinpoint possible origins now in an attempt to prevent digital detonation in the future.
02:15 PM#
California film-maker Marcy Levitas Hamilton has initiated a class action suit against Microsoft, blaming them for her security problems. The lawsuit just happens to coincide with, and borrow language from, last week's CyberInsecurity report that heavily criticized Microsoft and blamed the software giant for viruses, worms, and Trojans. The problem is, this short-sighted blame game misses the entire crux of the problem.
Full Story 11:58 AM#
A mysterious new Trojan, dubbed QHosts-1 (a.k.a. Delude.B), has been responsible for several recent drive-by DNS "hijackings". The exploit results from a vulnerability in Internet Explorer that allows malicious attackers to run the code of their choice on affected systems.
Full Story 03:53 PM#
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