Facebook Security Team Warns Users About DNSChanger Malware

The security team at the world’s most populace social network over in Palo Alto, Calif., finally addressed the thorny issue of the DNSChanger malware to its users in a blog post on the Facebook Security page yesterday. To the uninitiated, DNSChanger started popping up in security headlines earlie...

Tiny New Tinba Banker Trojan Found Stealing Financial Data

Security researchers have discovered a tiny new banking Trojan that comprises just 20 KB of code and uses a number of well-word man-in-the-browser tricks in an attempt to defeat two-factor authentication. Known as Tinba, the new malware doesn’t bother with any encryption or packing and yet is...

White House Lays Out Plans To Tackle Botnets

The White House revealed today a set of initiatives it plans to use as part of its public-private partnership to combat increasingly disruptive networks of infected computers known as botnets. In one of his last acts as White House Cybersecurity Coordinator, Howard Schmidt on Wednesday unveiled t...

Armenian Bredolab Creator Jailed For Computer Sabotage

An Armenian court sentenced a 27-year old Russian man to four years in jail this week following his conviction in connection with the infamous Bredolab botnet that infected 30 million computers over the last few years. G. Avanesov, later identified as Georgy Avanesov by several media outlets, was...

Staggering Increase in Android Malware Variants, Trojan Apps

The number of malicious programs that target Google’s Android mobile platform is growing at an alarming rate, according to data from anti-malware company F-Secure. In the first quarter of 2012, F-Secure identified 3063 new malicious Android application packages APKs and 37 new families of...

FBI Concerned About Bitcoin Usage Among Cybercriminals

The Federal Bureau of Investigation has become increasingly concerned over the usage of the mostly-anonymous payment network Bitcoin by hackers and cybercriminals, according to an unclassified report obtained by Wired this week. The report, “Bitcoin Virtual Currency: Unique Features Present...

Coming Up With Better Ways to Count — and Counter — Botnets

As botnets continue as a major purveyor of malicious activity, finding new and improved ways to measure their influence will be key to preventing future attacks. But gaining an accurate read on active populations continues to prove difficult. In recent years more research has been devoted to...

Flashback malware Creater earning $10,000 per day from Google Ads

Flashback malware Creater earning $10,000 per day from Google Ads In a recent analysis of the business model behind the Flashback Trojan, Symantec security researchers reported that the main objective of the malware is revenue generation through an ad-clicking component. Security researchers at...

New Flashback Variant Using Twitter as Backup C&C Channel

The latest version of the Flashback malware that’s infecting Macs has a new command-and-control infrastructure that used Twitter as a fallback mechanism in case the normal C&C system isn’t available. This is not the first time a botnet has used Twitter for some form of command and control, but it...

Flashback/SabPub

2012 The Mac malware scene shifted into high gear in 2012 with the emergence of the Flashback trojan and the revelation that its authors had control of a massive botnet containing well over a half-million machines. Flashback and SabPub, which exploited the same Java vulnerabilities, are the first...

Analysis: Flashback Spread Via Social Engineering, Then Java Exploits

Kaspersky Lab‘s latest analysis of the Mac OS X Flashback botnet reveals that the botnet’s malware was spread via drive-by downloads on hacked WordPress web sites. From September 2011 until February 2012, the Flashback creators distributed the trojan through compromised WordPress sites that...

New Mac Malware, SabPub, Used In Targeted Attacks

Researchers at Kaspersky Lab says a new malicious program, dubbed SabPub, exploits the same Java security hole as the Flashback Trojan and enables targeted attacks against Mac users. The new malware was identified in a blog post by Kaspersky Lab expert Costin Raiu on Saturday and is described as ...

Apple, Following Microsoft's Lead, Plans to Disable Flashback Botnet

Apple, which usually doesn’t get involved much in security issues outside of issuing patches when needed, said it is working with internet service providers around the world to disable the Flashback botnet’s command and control servers. Flashback exploits a security flaw in Java, Apple explains,...

Apple Developing Fix For Flashback Malware

Apple is planning to release a software fix that will find and remove the Flashback malware that has been haunting Mac users for several months now. The latest version of Flashback has built a botnet that at times has included more than 600,000 infected machines. Apple said on Tuesday that it was...

Ryan Naraine and Costin Raiu on Flashback and Mac Security

Dennis Fisher talks with Ryan Naraine and Costin Raiu about the Flashback Mac botnet, why Apple is reluctant to let third parties update software on Macs and the future outlook for the security of Macs. Podcast audio courtesy of sykboy65 Subscribe to the Digital Underground podcast on...

Java: The OSX and Cross-Platform Nightmare

By Roel Schouwenberg For a few days now I’ve been asking myself the following question: Which is more important: The fact we had a 500k-strong OSX botnet fly under the radar or the culprit that enabled the malware to infect so many machines? Every time the answer is clear – Java has become an...

Researchers Confirm 600K-Strong Flashback Botnet Is Mostly Mac

Kaspersky Lab researchers say that analysis of the Flashfake botnet confirms the size of the malicious network and that it consists mostly of Mac OS X machines. Researchers at Kaspersky wrote on Friday that they were able to reverse engineer the domain generation algorithm used by the botnet, the...

Questions Abound On Size and Makeup of Flashback Botnet

The botnet assembled by the Flashback Trojan that’s been infecting Macs in recent months is turning out to be a rather difficult one to pin down. Researchers have said that the network of compromised machines may be upwards of 600,000, while newere estimates say that it’s more likely in the...

More than 600000 Macs system infected with Flashback Botnet

More than 600000 Macs system infected with Flashback Botnet The computer security industry is buzzing with warnings that more than half a million Macintosh computers may have been infected with a virus targeting Apple machines. Dr. Web originally reported Wednesday that 550,000 Macintosh computer...

Flashback Mac Trojan Hits More than 500K Machines

The Flashback Trojan that has been infecting Mac OSX machines of late appears to have become the most successful piece of Mac-based malware in the short history of such things. Researchers say that there have been upwards of 500,000 Macs infected by the malware, and that number may still rise...