virus

People whose computers are infected with the ' DNS Changer ' virus will lose access to the Internet on Monday, July 9, 2012, unless they take steps to remedy the situation. Right now the Federal Bureau of Investigation is wrapping up an operation ... designed to help such victims maintain their online connections. DNS Changer is named after the domain name system that helps translate website addresses (such as www.infopackets.com ) into a string of numbers known as an IP address, which is the way computers actually identify the machine where a particular website is physically stored. 'DNS Changer ... (view more)

According to a new report, the governments of the United States and Israel were jointly responsible for crafting and turning loose the new Flame virus . The apparent goal of the project: to disrupt Iran's nuclear weapons program. The report about ... the origins of Flame was published in the Washington Post, which indicates that Flame was originally designed to act as a cyber weapon that could help its creators acquire "sensitive" information from the Middle East region. Flame Project Known as "Olympic Games" The overarching project that ultimately yielded Flame, known as "Olympic Games ... (view more)

A leading security firm says it has discovered a virus that could be more sophisticated and potentially more dangerous than Stuxnet, which wreaked havoc last year. The new virus, called "Flame," appears however to be designed to steal data rather ... than to cause physical damage to computer systems. Security experts at Kaspersky Lab say Flame gathers data from infected machines using a comprehensive range of tactics. Rather than simply copy files and track online activity, it attempts to track what a user is typing, take screenshots, and even make audio recordings from online telephone ... (view more)

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) has made two announcements about successful operations against online bandits. The first is a near-complete takedown of a widespread virus, while the second is a series of arrests and seizures relating to ... two separate cybercrime gangs responsible for scareware scams. The virus in question had allowed criminals to set up a botnet . In short, a botnet is a large network of virus-infected PCs which is remotely controlled by one or a few individuals. The infected PCs are typically used to attack websites, send spam (unsolicited bulk email) to users around ... (view more)

Australian police services are today sending out a warning to all Twitter and Facebook users. It seems that online scumbags are targeting social networks, using a local hot topic of debate in order to solicit a curious click, which in turn infects ... PCs with a nasty virus and an even nastier payload. The debate is in regard to a new mass-transit ticketing system that is currently under development in Australia. Users are lead to a fake survey page, where then infects PCs with a Trojan virus. Once infected, the virus automatically downloads and stores highly illegal and distasteful images of ... (view more)

In one of the more embarrassing security breaches of all time, a major government laboratory has fallen victim to a phishing scam . Fortunately, the stolen data wasn't among the most confidential information in the centre's database. The scammers ... struck at the Oak Ridge National Laboratory in Oak Ridge, Tennessee, a town known for its role in the Manhattan Project. The laboratory works with the Department of Energy on subjects that require intense computing power to help simulate millions of possible outcomes to particular scenarios. The lab is host to Jaguar, the world's second-fastest ... (view more)

Government officials say they'll need more time to tackle a major network of infected Windows computers. The request comes as more details emerge about just how widely affected major organizations were by the Coreflood botnet . Zombie Windows PCs ... Steal Over $100 Million Those responsible had used a Windows-based virus to seize remote control of more than two million machines , most of which were located in the US. The machines were then ordered to collect and transmit confidential data, with one independent estimate suggesting more than $100 million may have been stolen as a result. The FBI ... (view more)

A malicious backdoor Trojan using illicit images is currently making its way through email inboxes around the world. Sophos is reporting that the computer worm lurks within an attachment offering a Kama Sutra PowerPoint presentation. Beyond the ... PowerPoint After activating the link (which is in fact an .EXE executable file) inquisitive individuals are shown a legitimate-looking presentation with more than a half dozen 'techniques' taken from the ancient Indian text. While the provocative pictures do appear as promised, the virus (called Troj/Bckdr-RFM) also makes its way onto the computer ... (view more)

The latest cash-stealing scam, an evasive "zombie virus," is costing Chinese smartphone owners hundreds of thousands of dollars every day. The virus has already appeared on more than one million mobile phones in the Far East, and is reportedly ... responsible for sending out a barrage of text messages to the friends and family of each victim, costing them an average of $300,000 a day (or 2 million yuan). Smart Phone Virus Clever and Malicious The smart phone virus works similarly to a PC infected with a virus. Like a PC-based Trojan, the virus hides within a fake anti-virus smart-phone ... (view more)

A group of cyber-security experts told US lawmakers Wednesday that American facilities could be the next target of the Stuxnet virus . The Stuxnet virus made headlines this past summer when it infected USB memory sticks and attacked Siemens ... industrial automation systems. Security experts believe that the virus went beyond the work of an individual prankster and was instead a sinister "game changer". That's because unlike most viruses, which aim either to merely cause disruption or to make money through stealing data or by redirecting web browsers to pay-per-click ads, Stuxnet is ... (view more)