Tag: Malware
Knockoff of iWork '09 contains Mac-unfriendly Trojan Horse
There’s a new Trojan Horse for Mac in town and it’s riding around in pirate copies of iWork ’09.
OSX.Trojan.iServices.A secretes itself in otherwise fully-functioning copies of Apple’s latest office software. It installs itself in a startup directory and gives itself full root privileges (in other words, it’s God to your Mac).
Security firm Intego is warning anyone who has downloaded installer software from filesharing/Torrent sites that they could now be infected. Intego’s latest updates for VirusBarrier X4 and X5 will now protect against and disinfect the virus…
Prevx develops Internet Explorer 7 fix for latest threat
Anyone who ignored this morning’s warning to abandon Internet Explorer 7 (and let’s face it, there are better things to be doing over lunch than changing your web browser) can instead rejoice that the first patch for the problem has been released by Prevx.
The web site states:
Prevx have developed a utility that users can run to enable and disable Microsoft’s suggested workarounds. This utility will allow you to disable the affected component of Internet Explorer until Microsoft release a patch via their windows update software.
Malicious Firefox add-on steals banking passwords
Yet another reason to be extremely vigilant when accessing financial web sites: researchers have discovered an add-on for Firefox which lies in wait for the user to log in to a banking or online payments site and then sends the username and password to a Russian site.
It’s a bit of a blow for those who have trumpeted how secure Firefox is, but of course we all know that no piece of software is completely secure…
Your entire identity's worth just £80
Your name, your address, your mother’s maiden name, your passport number, the name of your first pet (“fluffles”? seriously?), your credit card numbers, your top five albums, your national insurance number. All that – what security experts call your ‘identity’ in the context of ‘identity theft’ – is worth just £80.
That’s the price that entire packages of data are going for on message boards and websites populated by fraudsters and scammers. A single piece of data can go for as little as £5. The data’s so cheap because there’s so much of it available – nearly half of all UK computer users aren’t using a firewall or security software.
All you’ve gotta do is make sure that your virus scanner stays up-to-date, and that you’ve got the security features in your operating system fully enabled and up-to-date. In fact go run Windows Update now. I’ll wait. Back? Good. Odds-are that you’re now pretty much safe.
Get Safe Online (via BBC)
Related posts: Microsoft on viruses and malware: It’s not our fault, guv. | FEATURE: Modern Day Malware & Organised Crime
Microsoft on viruses and malware: It's not our fault, guv.
Turns out that the vast majority of virus attacks are against badly-written third-party software, rather than Windows itself. So claims Microsoft, anyway, in the graph to the right. In XP, 58% of attacks target third party software, and in Vista, 94% target third-parties. The most popular targets are Apple’s Quicktime, Realplayer and Winzip.
When you drill down to the top ten browser vulnerabilities, Microsoft admit that they account for half of the biggest flaws on XP, including by far the top one, but on Vista, they don’t feature in the top ten at all – the number one place goes to a bit of software called Baofeng, which I suspect is a toolbar of some sort…
DarkMarket malware forum brought down by the FBI – take that foul spam demons!
It was only the other day I was writing in-depth about organised crime and malware on the web and now it not only seems that the authorities managed to do something about it but that they were doing so all along. Well done boys in blue.
In this case it was the boys in blue and yellow windcheaters, that I’ve grown to love through Hollywood cinema, and they’ve only gone and smashed one of the biggest malware forums out there, known as the DarkMarket…
FEATURE: Modern Day Malware & Organised Crime
Quarter past nine on a Monday morning. I’m staring at the thick oak beam of long polished table wondering what the hell I’m doing at briefing about internet security. My last journalistic foray into this turgid corner of the tech world had me stuck talking anti-virus software with one of the chief marketing officers at a leading company. I recall a solid 40 minutes of the internet neighbourhood watch warnings as the canapes passed just out of reach behind his back. The hungrier I got the more it sapped my soul. My last conscious thought was “never again”. Never again; until today.
I’m not sure if it was the lure of the Soho House, the charm of the invitation or, more likely, the promise of breakfast but somehow, between them, they short-circuited that old memory in my brain; they silenced its voice. Down went that corner of my neural net; a localised blackout and now here I am in my trainers and jeans, most others with a collar at least. Quarter past nine on a Monday morning. Fifteen minutes before I’m usually at work.
Ed Gibson begins the day more upset than I am that his cooked breakfast hasn’t arrived but that’s probably where the similarity ends. Edward P Gibson is Microsoft’s chief security advisor and a former operative with the FBI. He takes comfortable control of the room of assembled journalists with the warmth and ease of his Midwest drawl. I wonder if that manner served him well at the FBI. I wonder if he’s enjoying his retirement, but by the end of the morning I’ll have changed my mind about how much rest he’s getting in his new profession…
Sony PlayStation official site suffers phishing hack attack
Even Sony isn’t safe from the dark side of the net after news trickles through that their PlayStation US website was hacked in part of a credit card phishing scam.
The malware hit the Sing Star Pop and God of War sections of the official site…
LimeWire malware hits 500,000 users in a week
Users of LimeWire and eDonkey listen up and listen up good.
There’s a new piece of malware in town and, although not the most harmful code in the West, it sure is getting around. In just seven days this as yet unnamed irritant has hit over half a million computers…
Watch that new digital photo frame… it could be infected with malware
Digital photo frames are all the rage at the moment, and they seem innocuous enough, right? After all, you’re only going to be using them to display a few family photos.
The truth is, though, that the seemingly innocent device on your mantelpiece could be harbouring malicious software, ready to infect your PC. Some of it is specifically written to attach to portable storage devices.
It stands to reason, really, that any storage device, be that hard disc or flash memory based, could contain data which, when transferred to a PC, could manifest as a virus or trojan. Remember when a batch of Apple iPods was shipped complete with a PC virus?
McAfee Security reckons that the most likely point of infection for new hardware is in the Quality Control section of the manufacturer.
