It’s been almost one month since we reported about the huge increase of email-borne malware attachments. The outbreaks have continued on an almost daily basis since then and we have noted a corresponding dramatic increase of over 70% in the number of zombies.The traffic graph below shows the continued outbreaks (orange line). As noted previously [...]
Archive | Antivirus
FedEx used for continued email malware – Zombies up 70%
Posted on 28 April 2011.
Posted in CommtouchComments Off
500 free credits from Facebook – malware
Posted on 28 April 2011.
There’s no such thing as a free lunch – or free Facebook credits. As proof consider the attack described below which has several stages:1) Users get messages with offers of “free Facebook credits”2) These trick users into running a malicious JavaScript3) The infected user is lead to a website – which probably offers [...]
Posted in CommtouchComments Off
Playstation Network users at risk (updated)
Posted on 28 April 2011.
Update 27/04/2011 15:30 GMTA Spanish user tweet shows he has been charged in his card, his bank has called him after a suspicious charge to Netflix has been done (Netflix is not available in Spain):He has called Sony customer service and has explained it all in his blog (in Spanish, English and French.)************When we talk [...]
Posted in PandaComments Off
Questions and Answers on the Sony PSN Hack
Posted on 28 April 2011.
Q: What is PSN?A: It’s the Sony PlayStation Network, an online gaming network.Q: What devices can access it?A: Sony PlayStation 3 (PS3) Sony PlayStation Portable (PSP). You can also use your PSN login on the Sony discussion forums.Q: If I have a Playstation 3, do I also have a PSN account?A: Not necessarily. PS3s and [...]
Posted in F-SecureComments Off
Will You Be Accused of Collecting Child Pornography
Posted on 28 April 2011.
Throughout the years we have advised that you should use encryption on your home WI-FI. There are ma y reasons for this, including keeping your data confidential, but not having encryption enabled on your home WI-FI can put you at serious risk of having your doors knocked down and being arrested for downloading child pornography.You [...]
Posted in ESETComments Off
Sony PlayStation Network and Qriocity Services Hacked – 77 Million Accounts at Risk
Posted on 28 April 2011.
Not one to let Epsilon or Oak Ridge National Laboratories hog the media spotlight, Sony, a seasoned expert at security blunders such as the famous Sony rootkit, has taken the spotlight for one of the biggest security breaches of all time. Hackers were able to access Sony’s network and according to Sony http://blog.us.playstation.com/2011/04/26/update-on-playstation-network-and-qriocity/ the information [...]
Posted in ESETComments Off
Fake AV for mobile platform
Posted on 28 April 2011.
We have seen countless number of rogue security products for Windows platform however this one is targeted to trick mobile users.The sample masquerades itself as a certain AV for mobile and always reports that it has identified two threats in the mobile and pretends that it has encountered an error while trying to cure. It provides the [...]
Posted in CA TechnologiesComments Off
Sony PlayStation data breach fiasco: what bugs me about it
Posted on 27 April 2011.
I have been skimming the glut of news stories covering the PlayStation hack following Sony’s statement yesterday. The issues that keeps coming back to me are these: 1. Sony, like any company who keeps customer account details, is responsible for keeping this sensitive data safe. So the question is, How could these details, potentially including [...]
Posted in SophosComments Off
“Download photoalbum” another variant of “i got u surprise”
Posted on 27 April 2011.
Previously we have written about the “i got u surprise” spam trojan on Facebook. And today, we still discovered another variant. This time, the message that is received by the victim is only “u?” and followed by a link, with the subject is “Hello“.When the link is clicked, will lead to the following address: http://photo-album-#####.##/ [...]
Posted in EmsisoftComments Off
PlayStation Network hacked: Personal data of up to 70 million people stolen
Posted on 27 April 2011.
Users of Sony’s PlayStation Network are at risk of identity theft after hackers broke into the system, and accessed the personal information of videogame players. The implications of the hack, which resulted in the service being offline since last week, are only now becoming clear as Sony has confirmed that the hackers, who broke into [...]
Posted in SophosComments Off
419 Scammers Still Open to ‘Traditional Postal Services’ Option
Posted on 27 April 2011.
Communication in the today’s world is dominated by email, instant messaging, and social networking. However, for making any formal statement or announcement, hard-copy letters are still sent using postal services. In both mediums, unwanted, unsolicited letters are not new; however, it may still be surprising if a spam message is sent over using postal services [...]
Posted in SymantecComments Off
I LOVE YOU – Virus-inspired movie trailer and world premiere
Posted on 27 April 2011.
The Love Bug. I LOVE YOU. LoveLetter. All different names for one of the world’s most famous viruses, which spread around the globe in May 2000, infecting millions of computers and clogging up email systems.If you have an interest in IT and were around at the time, you’ll surely remember it. But if you don’t, [...]
Posted in SophosComments Off
A Second MSRT Release in April
Posted on 27 April 2011.
In continuation of our support for the takedown activities on the Win32/Afcore botnet, we are releasing a second edition of MSRT in April. This edition includes variants of Afcore released by the criminals behind it at approximately the same time as the previous edition of MSRT. While MSRT has traditionally been released on the second [...]
Posted in MicrosoftComments Off
Memories of the Chernobyl virus
Posted on 26 April 2011.
Today is the 25th anniversary of the explosion at the Chernobyl nuclear power plant, which resulted in the world’s worst nuclear accident.Vigils have been held to commemorate the disaster, where an explosion and fire released a large cloud of radioactive contamination into the air, spreading over much of Western Russia and Europe.No doubt the anniversary [...]
Posted in SophosComments Off
Corporate Malware Development
Posted on 26 April 2011.
The Washington Times has published a long article on companies that develop backdoors and trojans for governmental use. The article got started after we broke the news on the connections between Gamma Technologies, Elaman GmbH and the Egypt Government.Photo by F-Secure GmbHIt’s more than unsettling to realize there are large companies out there developing backdoors, [...]
Posted in F-SecureComments Off
The SMSer Trojan returns as fake browser
Posted on 26 April 2011.
We have seen many fake security products and fake disk utilities targeting the windows platform. Of late, we have started observing an increasing trend in mobile platform too. Following on the heels of the FakeAV product sample, here is an application that masquerades as the Opera mini browser for mobile devices.This Trojan claims to install [...]
Posted in CA TechnologiesComments Off
Is Kian Egan leaving Westlife or has he been Twitter hacked?
Posted on 26 April 2011.
Kian Egan, a singer with the Irish boyband Westlife, has been forced to deny that he is leaving the chart-topping pop group after statements were posted on his Twitter account. Egan had over 60,000 followers on Twitter, and the news would surely have plucked the heartstrings of his many young female fans: it took my [...]
Posted in SophosComments Off
PlayStation Network hacked: five days and counting..
Posted on 26 April 2011.
The Sony PlayStation Network, used by millions of online videogame players around the world, has been offline since Wednesday 20th April. You can still play games offline, but if you want to connect your PlayStation to play online games, stream movies, or go shopping you’re out of luck. According to Sony, who have been updating [...]
Posted in SophosComments Off
Stars virus: Iran claims to intercept second cyberwarfare attack
Posted on 26 April 2011.
Iranian officials today claimed to have intercepted a cyberwarfare attack, involving malware designed to spy upon government systems. The malware has been dubbed the “Stars” virus by Gholamreza Jalali, the head of Iran’s civil defence organisation, who broke the news on the institution’s website. Jalali says that the Stars virus continues to be investigated by [...]
Posted in SophosComments Off
DLL-Based FAKEAV Returns In The Wild
Posted on 26 April 2011.
In our previous FAKEAV whitepaper, we presented how Trend Micro researchers tracked down the evolution of FAKEAV and classified its development, behavior-wise, according to generations. One of the early generations listed in the paper can be recalled as the DLL-based FAKEAV (4th Generation) – a FAKEAV group that uses a DLL file to perform all [...]
Posted in TrendmicroComments Off
Yahoo! PH Purple Hunt 2.0 Ad Compromised
Posted on 25 April 2011.
Earlier the other day, I was browsing through the Yahoo! PH site and the Yahoo! Purple Hunt 2.0 ad caught my attention.Curious as I am, I clicked on the ad and surprisingly my browser downloaded a suspicious file named com.com.Apparently this ad redirected me to a randomly generated URL similar to the following which, unfortunately, [...]
Posted in TrendmicroComments Off
Easter Egg locations remain safe, says Bunny spokesperson
Posted on 25 April 2011.
Reports surfaced late today that the Easter Bunny had a minor incident while hiding the last of his eggs during his traditional Easter mission.Every year the Easter Bunny travels the world hiding brightly colored eggs and baskets with goodies for children to discover on Easter morning.“It would be a tragedy if the locations of all [...]
Posted in SophosComments Off
‘Nigerian’ spam from Egypt and Libya
Posted on 25 April 2011.
The revolutions spreading across the Arab world have grabbed the attention of people across the globe, including cybercriminals: so-called ‘Nigerian’ spam emails have recently appeared claiming to be from a variety of “relatives” of Gaddafi and Mubarak. There’s absolutely nothing new about the messages they send: the ‘Nigerians’ don’t always introduce themselves as the solicitor [...]
Posted in KasperskyComments Off
Kate Middleton has a blog, and some Fake AV
Posted on 22 April 2011.
Ah, Kate. When she isn’t waving at babies, mingling with the commoners or appearing on Tumblrs she likes to set down some thoughts on her blog located at katemiddleton997(dot)typepad(dot)com:Click to EnlargeShe also wants you to check out her movie clip. Unfortunately, this movie clip can’t be viewed unless you update your version of Flash. Alarm [...]
Posted in GFI SoftwareComments Off
