Tag Archives: malware

Chris Dougherty VirtualThreat Contributing Writer   If you are the most technical person in your neighborhood, then chances are you have become the local unofficial tech support rep for your circle of friends and family. It doesn’t matter how much, or how little, you know…as long as you are more technically capable than the rest of your family, you will …

Chris Dougherty VirtualThreat Contributing Writer   Every day we hear news reports in the mainstream media about social network hacking, malware, malicious account takeovers and protecting data. It doesn’t matter if you are the average Joe Blow or a huge corporation like Burger King, everyone is being targeted these days. Cyber criminals are searching for everything from your banking and financial info …

Andrew Tangel LA Times   A cyber crime case brought by U.S. prosecutors in New York may add to the fears of anyone who banks online. The charges against three foreign nationals — a Russian, a Latvian and a Romanian — allege they were involved in creating and distributing a computer virus that infected more than 40,000 computers in the United States …

  Chris Dougherty VirtualThreat.com, Contributing Writer   Kaspersky Lab has uncovered a cyber espionage campaign that is targeting diplomatic and government agencies around the world.  The campaign has been dubbed “Rocra”, short for “Red October”. As of this writing the malware at the heart of the attack is actively sending data to several command and control (C&C) servers.  According to domain registration …

John Lister InfoPackets   The group behind a collection of ‘premium’ hacking tools is apparently charging hackers $10,000 a month for permission to use their exploit kit. The proceeds are helping fund rewards for anyone who shares information with the hackers about previously unknown software vulnerabilities. According to security firm Sophos, the ‘premium’ hacking kit is the work of a …

Chris Dougherty Virtual Threat Contributing Writer   As the Christmas season and holiday shopping hits full swing, cyber criminals are using sophisticated attacks to steal your money and credit card data. The latest scheme infects cash register machines with a malicious piece of software called Dexter malware. Seculert, an Israeli security firm, has identified a growing trend where criminals are …

Jerome Taylor The Independent   Stealing your money? Cyber-security experts sound alarm over growing prevalence of sophisticated malware. Almost a third of all fraudulent banking transactions now originate from the customer’s own computer, as cyber criminals use increasingly sophisticated malware to hijack accounts, online security specialists warned yesterday. To combat the ever-present threat of online crime, financial institutions across Europe …

Ryan Naraine ZDNet   Sophisticated Hackers Target Adobe Code Signing Infrastructure. The eyebrow-raising hack effectively gave the attackers the ability to create malware masquerading as legitimate Adobe software and signals a raising of the stakes in the world of Advanced Persistent Threats (APTs). Adobe today warned that an internal server with access to its digital certificate code signing infrastructure was hacked …

James Hutchinson Secure Business Magazine   6000 Aussie Users Caught in DNSChanger Shutdown. The Australian Communications and Media Authority estimates 6000 Australian internet users could face disconnection when US authorities shut down rogue DNS servers on Monday. Up to four million users are believed to have been infected at the height of the DNSChanger advertising scam, which redirected legitimate searches …

Stephanie McGrath The Chronicle Herald   How to Survive a Zombie Hack Attack I was sitting at my parents’ cottage checking my iPhone when digital disaster struck. First, I couldn’t sign into my email. Next, my husband’s phone made that annoying “You’ve got mail” Apple sound. “Did you just send me an email?” he asked. “No,” I said. (I’d been …