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Monthly archives for November, 2010

Malware Hacker

Nov26
2010 Written by admin

Malware HackerA hacker was sentenced to 18 months for private images, wills, confidentiality of medical reports and CV, by e-mail scam.

During his stay in Scotland, Matthew Anderson has worked as part of an international gang which uses phishing e-mail virus origin to access individual computers and companies’ computers between September 2005 and June 2006. Anderson was charged under the Computer Misuse Act UK.

According to the BBC Southwark Crown Court prosecutor Hugh Davies described the gang’s success as a “fundamental breach of security” and he said, “The conduct involved the repeated distribution of cleverly disguised e-mails, measured by the million, if not tens of millions, bearing sophisticated viruses.”

Once the viruses got into the targets’ computers Anderson and his co-horts were able to access private data including images, wills, confidential medical reports and CVs.

The study concluded that the benefits obtained from the gang activity of hacking were the opportunities it has generated. It seems that it was very difficult to go only to generate leads or if a company is looking to buy or sell anything. They would have better honestly.

Posted in Malware, Online hacking - Tagged ,

Panda Security Reported Says “One-Third of All Malware Created in 2010”

Nov24
2010 Written by admin

Malware

Wednesday, Panda plans to publish the information gathered by its anti-malware laboratories indicating that almost a third of all known malware has been created in the first ten months of 2010. In addition, the report will add that, in general, most malware was created this year than in all of 2009.

Laboratories of Panda Anti-Malware are scattered around the world to form the backbone of their networks of collective intelligence. It is from these nodes that engineers are able to monitor and control the lifecycle of malware.

According to the report, Panda identified 134 million separate files, 60 million of which are Malware. Of that, 34 percent of all the active threats were created in the first ten months of 2010. So far, there have been 20 million new threats detected by Panda this year, which is the same total detected in all of 2009.

Moreover, the report says that the average number of threats created daily, including new Malware and variants of existing families, has risen from 55,000 in 2009 to 63,000 in 2010.

The reason for the growth, which is just under 15 percent, is due to the shortened lifecycle for the typical threat. Criminals have been forced into a corner, creating new variants and payloads just to beat the clock, as the average lifespan of a piece of Malware is just 24 hours in some cases.

As vendors such as Panda, Symantec, Trend Micro, and McAfee are able to use global networks to detect, process, and mitigate new Malware, the criminals have to react just as quickly.

It is entirely common to see a strain of Malware designed and deployed in order to infect a small number of systems, only to be replaced by a new version the following day. Panda’s Sean-Paul Correll, who spoke with The Tech Herald about the report, mentioned that at one point the criminals behind the Mariposa botnet would need to release updated binaries four or five times a day to keep up with detection rates.

“Since 2003, new threats have increased at a rate of 100 percent or more. Yet so far in 2010, purely new malware has increased by only 50 percent, significantly less than the historical norm,” Luis Corrons, technical director of PandaLabs commented in a statement.

“This doesn’t mean that there are fewer threats or that the cyber-crime market is shrinking. On the contrary, it continues to expand…It seems [criminals] are applying economies of scale, reusing old malicious code or prioritizing the distribution of existing threats over the creation new ones.”

These Malware figures come just a week after Panda examined the state of Rogue anti-Virus software. According to that study, 40 percent of all Rogue anti-Virus applications were created in 2010. When you compare the Rogue anti-Virus counts with the malicious samples overall, fake anti-Virus software accounts 11.6 percent of all Malware.

Since the detection of rogue anti-virus for the first time in 2006, there were 5,651,786 unique variants detected. Of this amount, 2,285,629 of them were created between January and October this year.

According to Panda, 46.8 percent of all computers worldwide were infected with a type of malware. Of the remaining 5.4 percent were infected with rogue anti-virus.

Posted in Malware - Tagged , ,

Malware Attacks Increasing Continuously

Nov20
2010 Written by admin

Malware Attacks Increasing ContinuouslyAccording to Cisco’s Global Threat Report, the pharmaceutical and chemical industry had been attacked by malware, 372 percent more frequently in recent months as they were earlier this year. Energy and oil industry has been threatened more often, compared to 209 per cent growth. Another malware has been the growth of agriculture and mining, has been attacked169 percent more.

Among the various malware threats, the report shows Rustock botnets are the most popular.”

Mary Landesman, manager of market intelligence at Cisco says, “The botnet is considered one of the largest providers of spam and was most predominantly associated with the shipment of counterfeit medicine and see spam,”

Overall, 65 percent of malware attacks were prevented by antivirus software. Java, Adobe Acrobat, Adobe Reader and Adobe Flash were targeted most frequently by successful malware. On average, users faced 133 attacks every month.

Recent research by a group of French experts, said the malware is becoming more sophisticated. Dark Reading reports that the group has found malware and now can attack computer’s hardware and is no longer restricted to intimidating software and information alone.

Posted in Malware - Tagged ,

Web Malware Amplified in Third Quarter

Nov19
2010 Written by admin

Web MalwareCisco’s 3Q10 Global Threat Report described that, The Exploits of Sun Java by web malware amplified in the month from July to September. The malware attack was noticed 5% in July to 7% in September.

According to the Cisco’s Report, at the same time, Exploits of Adobe Reader and Acrobat declined over this quarter, it was 1% in September, while in July it was 3%.

“We hear so much about exploits of Reader and Acrobat and not as much about the exploits targeting Sun Java. When we look at the actual numbers, we find that Sun Java exploits are much higher. That was a shift that started in the first quarter”, said Mary Landesman, market intelligence manager at Cisco.

Landesman told Infosecurity that the increase in Sun Java attacks was the result of the development of a public exploit code for Java made available in the first quarter. So attackers began to focus on Java, and Java was put at the top of the exploit list.

“If the first [attack] succeeds, there is no need to move onto the second one. This increased the number of exploits of Java and decreased the number for other exploits, such as Adobe Reader and Acrobat”, she said.

Many users are unaware that they have Java on their computers. Also, Sun’s security updates for Java are unpredictable. These both contributed to Java’s vulnerability to malware attacks, she observed.

In addition, the report found that the pharmaceutical and chemical sector was most at risk for web malware attacks in the quarter, far outpacing attacks on the energy and oil sector and agriculture and mining sector. At the least risk was the aviation and automotive sectors

The pharmaceutical and chemical sector has always been in the top three in terms of malware attacks in the Cisco report. Landesman said that this is likely due to the sector’s high level of intellectual property, which tends to attract malware attacks. “We found that sectors [with more intellectual property], like pharmaceutical and chemical and energy and oil, tend to have a higher rate of encounter with password stealing and data theft trojans”, she said.

The report also found that spam volumes were highest in August, primarily as a result of the Rustock botnet, which accounted for 21% of all events handled by Cisco. This botnet is one of the largest purveyors of spam, primarily counterfeit drug and watch spam, Cisco noted.

The report also showed that during the course of the largest LinkedIn spoofing in mid-September, the malicious LinkedIn email comprised a significant 31.26% of all spam for that period.

Landesman noted that those who fall for counterfeit drug spam are victimized twice. First they are victimized because they are paying for something that they do not receive, and what they do receive could be harmful.

This Cisco’s Report notified that 10% of web malware was encountered via search engine traffic or service. While around 7% of all web malware encounters resulted from Google referrals. The malware encounters resulted of yahoo is 2% followed by Bing at 1%, and Sina at 0.1%.

Posted in Malware - Tagged , ,

Malware Prevention Tips

Nov17
2010 Written by admin

Malware Prevention Tips

Malware is a phrase used to portray a wide category of malicious software that includes viruses, worms, Trojans, root kits, spyware and adware. The effects of malware series of computer trouble shortly malware and identity theft. Malware is easier to avoid being deleted. Avoid malware is a two-pronged strategy. Follow these instructions to stay safe.

Prevent Malware with Smart Online Behavior

The biggest factor in the prevention of malware infections on your computer is only you. You do not have experience or training. You only need vigilance to avoid downloading and installing something that would not have understood or trusted, no matter how tempting the following sources:

  • From physical media: Your friends, family, and associates may unknowingly give you a disc or flash drive with an infected file on it. Don’t blindly accept these files; scan them with security software. If you are still unsure, do not accept the files.
  • From a pop-up window: Some pop-up windows or boxes will attempt to corner you into downloading software or accepting a free “system scan” of some type. Often these pop-ups will employ scare tactics to make you believe you need what they are offering in order to be safe. Close the pop-up without clicking anything inside it (including the X in the corner). Close the window via Windows Task Manager (press Ctrl-Alt-Delete).
  • From a website: If you are unsure, leave the site and research the software you are being asked to install. If it is OK, you can always come back to site and install it. If it is not OK, you will avoid a malware headache.
  • From e-mail: Do not trust anything associated with a spam e-mail. Approach e-mail from people you know with caution when the message contains links or attachments. If you are suspicious of what you are being asked to view or install, don’t do it.
  • From another piece of software: Some programs attempt to install malware as a part of their own installation process. When installing software, pay close attention to the message boxes before clicking Next, OK, or I Agree. Scan the user agreement for anything that suggests malware may be a part of the installation. If you are unsure, cancel the installation, check up on the program, and run the installation again if you determine it is safe.
  • From illegal file-sharing services: You’re on your own if you enter this realm. There is little quality control in the world of illegal software, and it is easy for an attacker to name a piece of malware after a popular movie, album, or program to tempt you into downloading it.

Remove Malware with the Right Software

Chances are that no matter how careful you are, you will be infected some day. That’s because malware is designed to sneak onto your computer in ways you can’t possibly foresee. Enlist the help of the following software:

  • An updated operating system: Use Windows Update. Take advantage of its ability to automatically notify you of updates, or better yet, to automatically download and install updates.
  • Firewall: If you aren’t running a third-party firewall, use Windows Firewall. (Don’t run two firewalls at once; they will interfere with one another.)
  • Spam filter: If your e-mail program is not adequately filtering spam from your in-box, consider additional spam filtering software. If your security software is a security suite, spam filtering may be a feature that you need to switch on.
  • An updated browser: No matter which browser you use, keeping it current is vital to preventing infection. Take advantage of your browser’s pop-up blocking, download screening, and automatic update features.
  • Antivirus software: You must run an antivirus program to be sure. Keep up on, and schedule a scan to run at least once a month. (Do not run two antivirus programs that interfere with each other.)
  • Anti-malware: Also known anti-spyware that includes many antivirus programs, anti-malware component. If you do not, install and use a standalone anti-malware that does not conflict with your antivirus program. So keep it up to date.
Posted in Security Software - Tagged , , ,

Android Market Secretly Install Additional Malware Apps

Nov12
2010 Written by admin

Malware AppsOn Wednesday, a proof of concept application has been downloaded and made available on Android Market, which took advantage of two recently discovered serious errors in Android OS.

Angry bird disguised as expanding the software silently installed three additional applications without user authorization. Hidden applications are also able to access your contacts information to the user location and SMS. They could also transmit data to a remote server.

Scio Security CTO Jon Oberheide–one of the two researchers who discovered and exploited the Android vulnerability–said that it took Google about six hours to discover and pull the bogus app. The next step will be to “lock down” the special security tokens Google uses so that users don’t have to expose passwords to 3rd-party services. The proof-of-concept code works by exploiting weaknesses in that Android token system.

“It abuses that token to perform the same actions the legitimate Market app would perform, but without asking for permission,” Oberheide told The Register. “Through some of the research, we realized we could use this one specific token for the Android service to bypass the restrictions on the permission system.”

Oberheide and colleague Zach Lanier – Senior Consultant Intrepidus Group – plan to give more information to Homeland Security Conference is scheduled for Thursday at Intel’s Oregon campus.

Oberheide previously released a couple of applications on Android Market in June that forced Google to use its remote switch secret then kill. The applications have demonstrated how hackers can only kit market bootstrap root at the top Android phones.

Posted in Malware, Security Software - Tagged ,

IE Added Malware Attack Kit

Nov10
2010 Written by admin

IE Malware Attack KitA known vulnerability exploits used that can be used to compromise Internet Explorer version 6, 7 and 8 has been added to Eleonore malware attack kit, which increases the chances that more use will occur in the wild, according to a security expert.

AVG chief research officer “Roger Thompson” wrote on his blog on Sunday that “we’ve begun detecting in the Eleonore Exploit Kit. This raises the stakes significantly, because it means that anyone can buy the kit for a few hundred bucks and have a zero-day work.

The weakness — which is already being exploited in the wild — can allow attackers to remotely execute code without a user’s knowledge. Exposure to the exploit usually takes place by tricking a user into visiting a website containing malicious code. A drive-by attack then takes place, in which the attacker executes code on the target machine.

Microsoft acknowledged the existence of the weakness on 3 November. “It is possible under certain conditions for the invalid flag reference to be accessed after an object is deleted. In a specially-crafted attack, in attempting to access a freed object, Internet Explorer can be caused to allow remote code execution,” said the company in a security advisory.

The advisory also notes that, if required, Microsoft will consider issuing an out-of-cycle security update, or providing a fix through its regular “patch Tuesday” monthly update.

However, according to Thompson, Microsoft may be forced to issue an unplanned fix.
“What this means to Microsoft, is that they should consider issuing an out-of-band patch. What this means to you, if you’re a non-geek, is that until Microsoft releases said patch, you should install something that’s pretty good at detecting and blocking web-based attacks.”

Microsoft has released the mitigation techniques to protect users until a patch is released. Workaround is to enable Data Execution Prevention (DEP) for Internet Explorer 6, 7 and 8. Internet Explorer 8 comes with DEP enabled by default. Microsoft has also provided instructions on how to use user-defined CSS also temporarily remove the threat.

Posted in Malware - Tagged , ,

To Fight Against Malware Hacking Computer Scientist Creates New Weapon

Nov03
2010 Written by admin

Malware Hacking WeaponIn the fight against hackers, a professor at Virginia Tech said, she created a new weapon to spread malware.

Daphne Yao, assistant professor of computer science at Virginia Tech, said she has design a framework to fight in opposition to “spoofing attacks”.

A phishing attack is when organized botnets – groups of computers that are controlled by the malware – run by hackers, are able to penetrate someone’s computer and steal their identity. These robots are capable of attack by emulating the user keystrokes.

Yao and her colleague, Deian Stefan, now a graduate student in the computer science department at Stanford University, have developed a system to combat these attacks. Caled “Telling Human and Bot Apart” (TUBA), it is able to differentiate when the bot and human are typing. It is based on a remote biometrics system. It also uses a cryptographic mechanism that prevents the bot from pretending to be human.

“What we’re trying to detect are drive by downloads and the illegal creation of files. Some malware sends spam or exports propriety information. One recent attack, Hydraq, which impacted more than 30 major U.S. companies, including Google, was dangerous. It sends an email with someone pretending to know you and has a link attached. If you click on the link, you’ll get drive by downloaded,” Yao said.

These types of attacks have become more frequent and commercial anti-virus companies have been attempting to come out with the best problem-solving solution. Yao said her technology, which is being patented, is more efficient than current offerings.

“The typical anti-virus company is going to look for a signature, a unique string that you may find in malicious software. They don’t look at the software as a whole, but rather they look for patterns. We’re comparing a particular user’s behavior and correlating to with the system’s events,” Yao said.

She also said the typical anti-virus software will not be able to detect new attacks. Her framework, it can prevent identified new abnormal patterns before they happen. “We don’t rely on knowing patterns,” Yao said.

Although this technology is transferred to an unknown company, work of Yao is not done. She said she will work to implement host-based discovery of an operating system. This will improve IT infrastructure and make it more difficult for hackers to penetrate.

Yao and Stefan won the award for best paper Collaborate’10 the 6th International Conference on Collaborative Computing for their anti Malware hacking weapon.

Posted in Malware, Online hacking - Tagged , ,
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