Displaying items by tag: Malware

Malware and breaches are inevitable. Anyone that has been in security knows that this is a simple fact. Every day there are hundreds of attempted (and successful) attacks executed against businesses, consumers, and the government. These attacks have been traditionally met with an incident-response thought process. IT departments monitor their networks for suspicious activity and respond when/if they find someone who is either attempting to or actually has broken in. Sadly, this is probably not the best way to handle security.

Linksys has always had a name as a cost effective product for the consumer and even for small business. In the industry they have also been known to have some security issues. Not that long ago it was reported that a CGI script flaw in many of their E series routers allowed someone to bypass the requirement for admin credentials and gain unrestricted access to these products. Is if to add insult to injury malware has been identified in the wild that exploits the vulnerability.

Cisco has released the latest report in which they presented the results of research on malware on mobile platforms.

After last week experts from Gibson Security found security holes in the application Snapchat, on the internet appeared web page under a name SnapchatDB! where there is allegedly database with usernames of Snapchat users and their associated phone numbers.

According to new information provided to the media by Edward Snowden,  American National Security Agency (NSA) has set a malicious software into more than 50,000 computer networks of the world.

While it is commonly understood that Malware is a major threat to anyone with a computer, tablet or phone, what is not acknowledged is that Malware is much more than that. In the late-1990s a bit or Malware was released that actually infected the basic operating system that runs every computer, the BIOS (Basic Input/Output System). This bit of malware called Chernobyl was designed to wipe a systems BIOS on a preset date. 

As if it were not bad enough that the NSA, FBI, Local Law Enforcement and the Copyright industry is spying on you now we find out that even rent-to-own companies are doing it. Yup, you read that right: rent-to-own companies are leasing/selling computers to their customers that have spyware installed on them. According to a complaint filed by the FTC against Aaron’s they have been doing this for a while and their efforts have caught everything from logins to actual pictures of the people on the other end of the line.

Malware is a nasty thing that touches every corner of the consumer electronics market. No matter what type of device you have someone, somewhere will find a way to write malware to compromise it. Over the last two weeks there has been a resurgence of a very nasty bit of Malware called CryptoLocker. This malware sneaks in through poisoned websites or emails (typically in a .zip file) using multiple flaws in Java. Once in it reaches out and encrypts every Microsoft office file it can see including on shared drives. There is no real cure for this one and you end up losing data and time as you reload your computer.

The company Appriver warned users of Dropbox service to increase caution, as false messages that ask users to change the password they use when signing up for service appeared once again. Fraudulent email messages are composed so that at first glance they look like they were really sent from Dropbox Team.

Every so often demand for a product out paces people’s common sense. In the past we have watched as people have happily downloaded malware thinking they are getting something early or for free. It is not an unknown or uncommon happening. This time the product in question is GTA V for PC and the consequences for,… let’s call it eagerness, is not good at all.