Security

We hear a lot about Internet threats as they develop, but how are these scares addressed by the government? According to one survey, the potential for disaster has convinced about 65% of the country's government-employed IT managers to spend more ... time on security than they did in 2006. The recent survey was conducted by Cisco Systems, no slouch in the security sphere. The security firm found that spyware and bots remain the top concern of most answering the survey, with security breaches and poor training finishing second and third. Part of the reason for spyware's infamous rise has something ... (view more)

Hackers are now hiding viruses in the last place you'd expect to find them: anti-spyware software. The elaborate scam allows hackers to get access to users computers. And for added measure, they even take credit card details on the way. The scam ... works by posting adverts on big-name websites. A random selection of these ads produce a pop-up window with a fake warning that the user's computer is infected, and offers a download of an anti-spyware program, paid for by credit card. The download, which comes under more than 40 different names such as Spyshredder, is actually a Trojan virus. The ... (view more)

Spammers have recruited an unusual new ally in their battle against security checks: 'Melissa' the virtual stripper. She features in the Captcha Trojan, named because of its attempts to get 'round the 'Completely Automated Public Turing test to tell ... Computers and Humans Apart' technology. This is the system where users have to type in the letters they see in an image, designed to stop computers automatically completing a forum. The spammers behind this case are trying to automatically sign up for multiple Yahoo mail accounts. The Captcha Trojan replaces Yahoo pages with what appears to be a ... (view more)

Tucked away behind that Iron Curtain, for a long time we didn't hear much from Eastern Europe. With the fall of the Soviet Union less than twenty years ago, travelers began to uncover more than just the area's brooding discontent. Unfortunately for ... the web's security companies Russia remains a bit wild; in fact, some might consider it a hacker haven. That's certainly the impression after the discovery of a new website that uses an impressive botnet to infect vulnerable PCs -- on demand. Although the website itself hasn't been bookmarked for immediately filling a visitor's system with malware ... (view more)

If you're cruising along the flea market lines in the next month or so and happen upon a library of brand new video games for dirt-cheap prices, I might have an idea as to where they came from. Not long before the early morning commute a Toronto ... band of thieves made off with a whopping $300,000 worth of gaming goodness. The heist was actually made just west of Toronto in the oversized suburb of Mississauga. Well before the sun could rise on a chilly Friday morning, a thief (or two or three or enough for a good multiplayer match) broke into a freight yard on North Line West in the city. In ... (view more)

Forget Operation Barbarossa, Overlord, or any other of those critical events that have shaped modern human history. The new attack to watch is "Operation Cyberstorm," and it's already incurred its first casualties. Launched by the Federal Bureau of ... Investigation and the Internal Revenue Service, Cyberstorm has been a two year undercover investigation of software fraud. It recently crushed its first four victims, Mirza Ali, his wife Sameena, Keith Griffin, and William Glushenko, all convicted of ripping off Microsoft. The quadruplet, hailing from California, Oregon, and places unknown ( ... (view more)

Just this week Adobe patched a major problem with its Acrobat and Reader programs. The issue? Flaws that could allow malicious exploits. Now, it seems hackers are using the precious time between update release and update download to unleash a flood ... of malicious code. According to Symantec Corporation, the exploits are still alive and well for the bulk of users yet to update. "This mass mailing of exploit files may be an attempt to leverage the exposure window between patch release and widespread adoption of the fix," they said. What should Adobe users be on the lookout for? Symantec warns ... (view more)

Whether you're aware of it or not, Adobe's Acrobat and Reader programs recently exposed Windows XP users to nasty malware exploits. Thankfully, Adobe Systems Inc. has now announced that a patch has been made available. The new fix is included in ... vital updates to Reader, the company's free PDF utility, and Acrobat, its fleshed-out, full-featured program. Patches to both are unceremoniously named Version 8.1.1. So, who is at risk? The central flaw exposes Windows XP users to exploits taking the form of malicious PDF files. More specifically, the code attempts to disable the Windows Firewall ... (view more)

Just when it seemed like those behind the Storm Worm were about to make a big profit off its ability to soak up personal details, a University of California researcher is reporting the virus' imminent demise. According to Brandon Enright, network ... security analyst at the U of C's San Diego campus, the Storm Worm has actually been shrinking in size and impact since sometime during this past summer. He says that despite the immense publicity surrounding the virus, it may soon cease to present a legitimate threat to computer and Internet users. Enright made the surprising argument at the Toorcon ... (view more)

With Halloween fast approaching, there will no doubt be plenty of scary little things wandering around the streets in coming weeks. However, for a significant number of web users the scares have been going on for some time, and may not stop by ... November 1st. The "Storm Worm" has been having a thundersome impact on the web for some time now. It made its infamous debut by sucking in National Football League fans unwise enough to click on an email promising "free online game trackers" for pool or other purposes. The advertisement led directly to a website that appeared legitimate, but instead ... (view more)