tagged w/ malware
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A Los Angeles man was sentenced late Wednesday in federal court to four years in prison after pleading guilty last year to infecting as many as 250,000 computers and stealing thousands of peoples' identities and hijacking their bank accounts.
The Los Angeles authorities said John Schiefer, 27, was the nation's first defendant to plead guilty to wiretapping charges (.pdf) in connection to using botnets.
Schiefer, who went by the online handle "acidstorm," faced as many as 60 years in prison and acknowledged using a botnet to remotely control computers across the United States. Once in control of the computers, the authorities said, (.pdf) his spybot malware allowed him to intercept computer communications. He mined usernames and passwords on accounts such as PayPal and made purchases totaling thousands of dollars without consent.A Los Angeles man was sentenced late Wednesday in federal court to four years in... more
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gooma2
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added this
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3 years ago
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We’re not quite sure what’s going on, but a couple of minutes ago any search result from Google started being flagged as malware with a message stating “This site may harm your computer”We’re not quite sure what’s going on, but a couple of minutes ago any... more
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Trend Micro threat researchers say that consumers who conduct their holiday shopping online either at work or at home may be putting both home and corporate networks at risk for Web threats, viruses and identity theft.
The volume and sophistication of Web threats make it imperative that multilayered, real-time protection is used to ensure online safety.
(see article for list)
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Do you think that hackers have gotten better at identity theft? If so, why?Trend Micro threat researchers say that consumers who conduct their holiday shopping... more
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Worse than the Grinch is a new threat to personal computers that comes disguised as a deal on a meal ay McDonald’s, warns Panda Security, an Internet security software maker based in Bilbao, Spain.
The new holiday-themed e-mail scam infects computers with the P2PShared.U worm.
The e-mail message appears as a special Christmas time offering from McDonald's promising free giveaways and incredible savings. However, when opened, the e-mail begins to spread the P2PShared.U worm that gradually infects the user's computer, making them susceptible to external attacks, says PandaLabs, the U.S. subsidiary of Panda Security.
McDonald's recently announced an increase in worldwide sales as a result of the sudden influx of customer's searching for a budget friendly deal. In response, cyber criminals have developed a scheme to capitalize on the restaurant chain's success via an e-mail titled "McDonalds wishes you Merry Christmas!" Once opened, the e-mail includes a message that states:
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So why is it that when ever someone is trying to do something decent, a hacker decides to try mass scale identity theft of something? WTF?Worse than the Grinch is a new threat to personal computers that comes disguised as a... more
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Traveling by air this holiday season? Beware of email scams involving .zip attachments.
The latest malicious email uses the catchy "airline ticket and an ominous mention of a credit card balance" hook and "appears to come from legitimate major airlines including Delta, JetBlue, Continental, American Airlines and Virgin America."
Why be scared?
"The malware associated with this spam run is a Trojan downloader that’s typically used to drop other malicious programs on an infected machine. It was previously used in e-mail scams related to fake UPS invoices."
Best bet: never ever open email attachments.Traveling by air this holiday season? Beware of email scams involving .zip... more
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sajh
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added this
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3 years ago
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Vnunet warns of a potential new threat that has arisen for Firefox users in the form of malware masquerading as known browser plugins like Greasemonkey, in order to attempt to retrieve the user's bank, online payment and credit card details by running a script everytime the browser loads. Any information captured is then sent to a server in Russia, where presumably someone is sucking in the cash.
Scary scary stuff, so beware of your new plugins, guys!Vnunet warns of a potential new threat that has arisen for Firefox users in the form... more
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Hackers have seized on the results of the U.S. presidential election to launch a major malware campaign that tries to trick users into installing an update to Adobe Systems Inc.'s Flash, but actually plants a Trojan horse on unprotected PCs, security experts warned today.
The malware blitz stems from spam messages touting Sen. Barack Obama's victory last night, and offers up a link to what is supposedly a site sporting election results. When users click on the link, however, they're shunted to a fake site that demands the user install an update to Adobe's Flash Player before viewing a video.
Rather than a Flash update, what's actually downloaded is a Trojan horse that compromises the PC then floods the machine with more malware, said Dan Hubbard, vice president of security research at Websense Inc. "This is very coordinated," said Hubbard of the Obama-themed attacks, "with evidence that they planned this, then waited for the election results."
According to Hubbard, the hackers registered 15 to 20 domains yesterday to host the malware and fake site. All the domains are on so-called "fast flux" servers, Hubbard added, referring to the practice in which criminals rapidly switch domains between multiple IP addresses. Identity thieves often use the fast-flux tactic as a way to stay ahead of the law and prevent their servers from being shut down.
Hubbard called the attacks "the largest malicious e-mail campaign going," adding that Websense had tracked 100,000 individual copies of the scam message so far today.
Meanwhile, rival researcher Graham Cluley at Sophos PLC said his company put the volume at 60% of all the malicious spam on the Internet. "This is taking advantage of 'Obama mania,'" said Cluley, a senior technology consultant at the U.K.-based security firm. "He's easily the most famous person on the planet, and the fascination with him isn't just in the U.S. It's global."
Both Hubbard and Cluley noted that the attacks are nearly identical to previous campaigns that have tried to dupe users into installing a file posing as a video codec or player program. Last August, for example, several massive campaigns lured users to malware-hosting sites by promising video clips from the CNN and MSNBC news channels. One of those campaigns tried to convince users to install a fake version of Flash Player, just as the Obama-oriented attacks did today.
"This is just the latest evolution of the campaigns we've seen in the past," said Cluley. "Obama is the hottest celebrity, isn't he?"
Hubbard and Cluley also agreed on one more thing: This is just the beginning of Obama-themed attacks. "You would expect another wave, or a copycat of this, maybe with another fake news story," said Hubbard.
"This is far from the last piece of malware we'll see abusing Obama," Cluley echoed. "Users need to remember not to click on links."
November 5, 2008 (Computerworld)
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Typical....Hackers have seized on the results of the U.S. presidential election to launch a major... more
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A tool that automates the creation of fake YouTube Web sites that can be used to deliver malware and password-cracking services for sale.A tool that automates the creation of fake YouTube Web sites that can be used to... more
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"Web searches for 'Brad Pitt' have been found to be the most likely to lead the user into dangerous online territory.
Security firm McAfee said that the film star's name is more likely to direct a user to malicious sites than any other celebrity's name.
Fans searching for 'Brad Pitt' have nearly a one in five chance of encountering a potentially risky site, according to the research.
Around 18 per cent of searches lead to wallpapers, screen savers and photos that carry some sort of malware. Searching for 'Brad Pitt screensavers' bumps the infection risk up to 50 per cent.""Web searches for 'Brad Pitt' have been found to be the most likely to... more
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More and more computers are being infested by the dreaded "XP Antivirus 2008" malware/virus.
"Antivirus XP 2008 is a new rogue anti-spyware program that is advertised through Trojans and other malware. It is advertised in the form of fake security alerts and warnings on web sites that state you are infected with malware or are being attacked in some manner. When you click on these ads, it will automatically download the installer for Antivirus XP 2008 and install it on your machine. In some cases, this program is installed without any intervention at all from you.
"Once installed, Antivirus XP 2008 will scan your computer and display a variety of security risks found on your computer that can only be removed if you purchase a license of the software. These risks, though, are all fake and are only being displayed to scare you into thinking you are infected and thus purchase their software. Another tactic that Antivirus XP 2008, and the accompanied malware, uses is to change your desktop background to be a message stating you are infected, popups and fake alerts stating your computer is being attacked, and a fake Internet Explorer page that states Google has found your computer to be infected."
Some people who fell for this and decided to purchase Antivirus XP 2008 using their credit card have apparently had vast amounts of money fraudulently taken, stolen, by whoever is behind this little monster.
My husband's computer got infected a couple of days ago when he visited DivXVine where he has a few DivX videos hosted. This malware/virus is a real pain in the backside and can, according to some, destroy your hard-drive. There is a number of videos on YouTube which offer different ways of getting rid of it, none of which worked - it seems that the makers of this little monster have changed some of its properties to make it almost impossible to get rid of. It interferes with one's browser in such a way that when one wants to go to a website giving instructions on how to get rid of it, one lands on totally different and unrelated pages. It makes the downloading of .exe files that can help one get rid of it impossible, or disables some of the information which corrupts or empties these .exe files.
After over 24 hours of very frustrating struggles in trying to get rid of this little monster, I finally found a solution that did work. I downloaded the free trial version of Spyware Doctor (it will detect the little monster, but one needs to purchase it in order to clean it out) and then purchased the license online (about $34). I put the .exe file onto an external drive, then we connected the external drive to my husband's computer, and he grabbed, slid and dropped the .exe file onto his desktop and installed it. After that, he entered the name and the license number (one may install it into 3 computers), activated it, downloaded the latest definitions, did a full scan - it worked like a charm and zapped and destroyed the little monster!
I found Spyware Doctor at pctools.com after doing a lot of research on the subject. Beware - some of the sites that one finds via a google search when googling for that malware/virus by name are traps, some are attack sites. Happily, I am well protected and get warnings when going to these sites.
I am going to install it on my computer too, as it prevents such little monsters from ever entering one's computer. I can only advise others to also purchase it before getting hit by this little monster, and if you're already a victim, well, now you have the solution.More and more computers are being infested by the dreaded "XP Antivirus... more
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A new web-based attack is making the rounds that tries to spread poisonous links by hijacking end users' clipboards.
Forum discussions here, here, here, here and elsewhere all report the same thing: the commenter surfs to a seemingly legitimate site (MSNBC.com comes up more than once) and suddenly a malicious link is copied to the clipboard. The rogue link remains even after the user copies a new batch of text. The only way to remove it is to reboot the computer.
The attack has been reported by Firefox users running both OS X and Windows, but we wouldn't be surprised to hear that other browsers and operating systems are also vulnerable. It's unclear exactly how the attack spreads. The Spyware Sucks blog posits here that banner ads transmitting bad Adobe Flash code is responsible, and that makes sense to us.A new web-based attack is making the rounds that tries to spread poisonous links by... more
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PCWorld Norge - Grønland,Oslo,Norway
James Fallows, national correspondent for The Atlantic Monthly, has experienced "The Great Firewall of China" firsthand, an experience people from aroundPCWorld Norge - Grønland,Oslo,Norway
James Fallows, national correspondent for... more
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