Security firm Lookout has detailed a clever new bit of Android Malware lurking in the Google Play store.
The good news: unless you’re downloading questionable Russian clone apps, you’re probably not affected. The bad news: that hasn’t kept it from being downloaded a few million times. → Read More
Last week, a study by German antivirus testing company AV-Test claimed that Microsoft’s Bing delivered “five times as many websites containing malware as Google.” Unsurprisingly, Microsoft does not agree with these findings and today, the company released a full rebuttal of AV-Test’s study. The researchers, Bing argues, used its API to execute queries instead of performing… → Read More
Mobile service provider NQ Mobile today released a study of malware covering 2012, using data gathered from the company’s Security Labs. It found that malware threats in general on mobile platforms grew 163 percent in 2012, totally more than 65,000 identified distinct forms of app repackaging, malicious URLs and SMS phishing (also known as smishing). The attacks were mostly geared towards Android… → Read More
The rise in cybercrime, malware and other malicious hacking is seeing a subsequent rise in the fortunes of tech startups that are setting out to fight it. Today, cybercrime solution specialist Endgame announced that it has raised $23 million in a Series B round of equity finance. It will partly use the proceeds to take its product — originally developed for and deployed with government customers… → Read More
Is it because Android is the most popular smartphone platform in the world right now, or is it because it’s just fundamentally easier to attack? In any case, Google’s mobile juggernaut Android continues to be the world’s biggest magnet for mobile malware. According to a report out today from security specialists F-Secure, Android accounted for 79% of all malware in 2012, up from 66.7% in 2011 and… → Read More
Apple has revealed that it was attacked by the same group that went after Facebook in a recent attempt to break that network’s security. The company says a “small number” of its Macs were affected, but there is “no evidence that any data left Apple,” according to a report by Reuters. The company will be issuing software to prevent customers from being attacked in the same manner, Apple said. → Read More
ArmorHub is today launching a web security service targeting startups, small-to-medium sized businesses, and most importantly, the layperson who knows that website security is something to be concerned about, but doesn’t know how to monitor their site or what to do if an issue is found. The company is being bootstrapped by Evan Beard, previously the founder and CEO of eTacts, which sold to… → Read More
Shine Security has raised $3.3 million for its next-generation anti-virus technology. The round was led by Horizon Ventures with further participation from Initial Capital.
Shine addresses advanced persistent threats that we increasingly see. In broad strokes, Shine detects when your mobile device or PC shows just the slightest abnormality. → Read More
Facebook has donated $250,000 to the Center for Information Assurance and Joint Forensics Research at the University of Alabama at Birmingham, in recognition of its efforts in tracking down the creators of the social media botnet Koobface and other spammers. The donation, in fact, comes from money Facebook recovered from spammers around the world. The center says it will be using the grant to… → Read More
Skype isn’t exactly immune to malware and spam, but criminals are hoping that its users are perhaps less vigilant about clicking through on random links sent to their accounts. According to multiple reports from security firms, as well as from a community forum thread on Skype.com, the popular communications service is the latest target of a malicious online worm. The worm, identified as… → Read More
Using search engine optimization (SEO) to get unsuspecting web surfers to go to malicious websites isn’t exactly new and it’s a problem that Google, Bing and other search engines are very aware of. According to new data from online security firm Sophos, however, Bing is apparently not doing a great job here, as the majority of SEO redirects affect Bing users. → Read More
Bromium has released its first software product — a micro virtual machine (micro-vm) that traps malware and analyzes it for IT administrators to examine once an attack takes place.
Bromium is a startup banking on disrupting the enterprise security market. Though it has the technical capabilities to isolate attacks, its weakness is in the breadth of the market it can cover. Bromium is… → Read More
Oracle has issued a security alert for a Java vulnerability that if exploited can give attackers access to a user’s personal information.
The vulnerability means that attackers can access a user’s data without the need for a user name or password.
To be successful, the user would have to fall victim to a malware attack. It would specifically hit people who who visit a malicious web site that… → Read More
Seculert announced a $5.35 million round of funding today led by Norwest Venture Partners for the Israeli company’s next generation advanced threat detection service.
Seculert is s a software-as-a-service that detects back doors in your network. It finds malware attacks that have previously gone undetected. → Read More
It’s something of a 21st Century nightmare — headlines are declaring that come Monday morning, thousands of people could wake up to a startling lack of Internet access all because of a crafty bit of malware. How chilling!
Well, it would be more chilling if people haven’t had plenty of advance warning. What’s more, the steps to detect and eliminate that malware — unimaginatively called… → Read More
Some eye-opening stats out today from McAfee, the Intel-owned IT security company: a study of 28 million computers in 24 countries has found that 17 percent of all PCs do not have any form of security at all on them against viruses, worms, spyware and other Internet malware – a transgression that McAfee compares to “walking around naked on the Internet.”
But McAfee notes that while the… → Read More
Security and anti-spam firm McAfee today reported that it saw a massive uptick in mobile malware last quarter. Mobile malware has “exploded,” the company said (PDF), “with a significant increase on Android devices. In addition, McAfee also found a slight increase in malware targeting the Mac, but the report notes that this trend was not “extreme.” Despite the increase in mobile and Mac malware, as… → Read More
Is Tumblr facing a growing spam problem? For many regular users of the blogging platform, the answer is “yes.” Although Tumblr hasn’t taken to its own blog to provide a public update on its progress in fighting spam, it did recently address the concerns of a high-profile Tumblr user – the associate producer of NPR’s Fresh Air, Melody Kramer, who maintains a blog for the popular program hosted on… → Read More
Facebook is announcing a partnership with security firm Websense today, in order to protect its users from dangerous links that lead to malicious websites and malware sites. Going forward, when a Facebook user clicks on a link, the new system will first check the link against Websense’s system to determine whether or not it’s safe. If it’s not, a message is displayed warning the user that the link… → Read More
“Did you see this photo of you?” “Look on your face in this pix is priceless!” “LMAO this video of you is funny!”
If you’re a regular Twitter user, you’ve probably see tweets like those come through as @replies or direct messages at some point. And you probably know not to click on the accompanying link. After all, there is no picture of you behind it, only a malicious web page set up by a… → Read More
Security researchers at Trend Micro have discovered a new mobile malware application on Android that disguises itself as a Google+ app. The app has the capability to record phone calls, as well as gather the GPS location of the handset, the text messages and the call logs, all of which are sent off to remote servers.
The app installs itself on Android devices under the guise of being a Google+… → Read More
Now there’s no question that Android’s flexibility has endeared it self to many a smartphowner out there, but I’d imagine that not everyone is as cognizant about security as they should be.
Case in point: a nasty new bit of Android malware discovered by security researcher Dinesh Venkatesan at CA Technologies records all of your conversations to your SD card when activated. → Read More
Blue Coat Systems, the provider of web security and speed optimization solutions, released a mid-year web security report earlier this month, which, among other things, examined the current state of malware ecosystems, and detailed the growing size and reach of malware delivery networks.
Malware and malicious software have been around for years, but malware networks are becoming increasingly… → Read More
Google has just announced something pretty interesting, that it is using its own data to detect viruses and will as of today be using Google Search results pages to warn users if their computers are infected with a specific form of malware. Users infected with the virus, which is apparently rerouting traffic to Google and other sites through a proxy, will see the above warning. → Read More
Yet another example of why even the savviest of Internet users need to keep their anti-malware software current and fully working. Spotify, the popular European streaming service, discovered that it was inadvertently serving ads that were laced with malware. → Read More
It was like a movie. Microsoft, working with domestic and international police, and with corporations like Phizer, had managed to effectively shut down the Rustock botnet last week. Almost overnight the total volume of spam—that was Rustock’s specialty—collapsed. But is the botnet completely shut down, or does its very nature prevent it from every truly being shut down? → Read More
Ten days ago Google discovered that apparently innocuous Android apps were in fact infested with “DroidDream” malware that included an Android rootkit, with the apparent intent of creating a smartphone botnet. It infected more than a quarter of a million devices before Google intervened. The thriller writer in me immediately began to wonder what would happen if black hats built a wildly popular… → Read More
A new Dasient report says that the number of Web sites infected with malware has doubled in the past year. That means we’re now just short of 1.2 million Web sites out there infected with malware. Wonderful. → Read More
These past few days haven’t been Google‘s best. The company ran into a bit of a problem with its Gmail service late last week, with some users reporting that all of their e-mails had been deleted. Google says the problem only affected a fraction of its user-base, but seeing headlines along the lines of “USERS REPORT GMAIL DELETIONS” probably didn’t go over too well in Mountain View. Then there… → Read More
More bad news in the endless struggle against malware. Tens of thousands of people in the UK were victimized by malware that was embedded in advertisements present on several big Web sites, including the Vue movie chain and Autotrader. It just goes to show you that even supposedly trustworthy Web sites can infect you with malware, as we’ve mentioned in the past. → Read More
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