The Flashback botnet scare may have thrust Macs' supposed invulnerability to antiviruses claim under a microscope, but Sophos decided it wanted some numbers to go along with the heaping of hype. So the company studied feedback from 100,000 Apple computers with Sophos antivirus installed and surprisingly discovered that the Macs were fairly teeming with malware. Before you start laughing, consider this: the vast majority of the malware found didn't affect OS X at all. It targeted Windows PCs.
Hundreds of thousands of infected PCs could be without Internet access beginning July 9, 2012, the day the FBI is planning to pull the plug on servers it seized that had been used to push ads to computers infected with a malware Trojan called DNSChanger. Systems infected with DNSChanger end up being redirected to the servers that were once under the control of the cybercriminals, but now belong to the FBI.
Give a man a virus and he'll wreak havoc on a single machine. But teach a man to phish and, well, he'll become a pain in the ass for potentially thousands of computer users. Unfortunately, phishing is a 'skill' every two-bit hacker acquires right off the bat, but not all of them move on to bigger and more insidious things. Some phishers concentrate on honing their craft in hopes of not only ensnaring the gullible and less computer savvy, but even sophisticated ones. Security firm ESET warns of a new phishing method that has popped up in the last few weeks.
Fake antivirus is by no means a recent phenomenon. In fact, it has been around for ages, with the first documented instance of fake antivirus reportedly dating back to 1989. Of course, it has become much more widespread over the past few years. But in case you needed reminding that rogue antivirus software continues to be a threat, security firm Websense has just the reminder for you.
The FBI is currently scheduled to take several temporary DNS servers offline on March 8th; an action that could result in the disconnection of millions of Internet users. This dilemma stems from a nasty trojan that was circulating back in 2011 called DNSChanger. This bug was used to alter a user’s DNS settings, and law enforcement used temporary DNS servers to give everyone time to fix the problem. Experts fear that many systems are still infected, and risk failure on March 8th.
Google’s Android OS often takes a beating from security companies for it’s occasional malware scares. Google has not been silent on the matter in the past, but the OS maker revealed today that it is taking action to combat Android malware. In fact, it has been taking action for the last few months without telling us. Google’s Bouncer project is an automated security scanner that will apparently filter malware from the Market.
Before you go around scanning QR codes with your mobile device willy-nilly, you should read through AVG's threat report for Q4 2011. In it AVG provides insight and analysis on trending security threats, and highlights in this latest installment include risks of QR codes, stolen digital certificates bypassing security on mobile phones, and the persistence of rootkits.
The thing about being a criminal is there's always the risk of being caught or otherwise exposed. This applies to the life of a cyber criminal as well. To wit, Facebook has identified five men it believes are behind the Koobface worm designed to burrow into various social networks like Facebook and Twitter in search of login information to help spread its related botnet far and wide.
We here at Maximum PC usually don’t cover drones, except for the ones that can be controlled using generic Android- or iOS-based smartphones and tablets. But we are left with little choice but to venture into Aviation Week territory when a story about military drones also features hackers, zero-day vulnerabilities and malware. You get the drift, don’t you? Hit the jump for more.
Everywhere you turn these days, it seems as though the headlines are filled with horror stories of Android phones riddled with malware. Even apps you snag on Android Market can infect your phone (although those are rare and often quickly removed). Microsoft has been paying attention to the news and decided to kick Google where it hurts with a new social media campaign. Have you been bitten by some Android malware and want to switch to (possibly) greener pastures? If you share your sob story on Twitter, Microsoft might just send you a shiny new Windows Phone as a technological band-aid.
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