Inside a Malicious PDF Attack

PDFs are widely used business file format, which makes them a common target for malware attacks. On the surface, PDFs are secure, but because they have so many “features,” hackers have learned how to hide attacks deep under the surface. By using a number of utilities, we are able to reverse...

Identity Theft : It's cyber crime you should be scared of !

The number of Britons targeted by cybercrime is expected to overtake conventional crime for the first time next year. Internet security experts claim that up to 19 million people will come under attack from hi-tech criminals, generally involved in identity theft. While at one time, the biggest...

Scammers Impersonate IT Helpdesk to Spread Rogue Antivirus

Criminals are posing as IT support staff, calling unsuspecting U.K. internet users to push rogue antivirus software. GetSafeOnline.org reports this as part of their Internet safety week campaign. These scam operations often involve up to 400 people using sales techniques and social engineering to...

Microsoft to Issue Emergency Patch for Critical Windows Flaw

Microsoft will issue an out-of-band patch on Monday for a critical vulnerability in all of the current versions of Windows. The company didn’t identify which flaw it will be patching, but the description of the vulnerability is a close match to the LNK flaw that attackers have been exploiting for...

New Study Sees Need for Better Software Integrity Controls

Software security has become one of the more widely discussed and debated topics in the security industry in the last few years, as many software vendors and enterprises both large and small have begun to to focus considerable attention on improving the processes they have in place for producing...

Crimeware: A New Round of Confrontation Begins

This article provides an analysis of recent developments regarding attacks launched by malicious programs against the clients of financial organizations. This article will focus primarily on the struggle for control between financial malware, also known as crimeware1, and the antivirus industry a...

Foxit Launches 'Safe Mode' to Counter PDF Attacks

Foxit Corp has added new security features to its alternative PDF reader software to help thwart recent malware attacks that exploit the “/launch” feature. With Foxit PDF Reader Version 3.3, the company has added a Safe Mode that blocks external commands from being executed by the software. The...

Sun About Face: Out-of-Cycle Java Update Patches Critical Flaw

In a sudden about-face, Sun has rushed out a Java update to fix a drive-by download vulnerability that exposed Windows users to in-the-wild malware attacks. The patch comes less than a week after Sun told a Google researcher it did not consider the issue serious enough to warrant an out-of-cycle...

Microsoft Issues Fix-It Workaround for IE Zero-Day

Microsoft has released a one-click “fix-it” workaround to help Internet Explorer users block malware attacks against an unpatched browser vulnerability. The Fix-It workaround, available here, effectively disables peer factory in the iepeers.dll binary in affected versions of Internet Explorer. Th...

Marc Maiffret at RSA 2010

Dennis Fisher talks with Marc Maiffret of FireEye at RSA Conference 2010 about the lack of sophistication in the Aurora attack and the state of malware attacks on the Web...

Companies Unwilling to Disclose Financial Loss

Malware attacks and infections are up 50 percent from 2008 and losses are down, according to a Computer Security Institute report, but the industry organization says very few companies are willing to disclose dollar amounts. Read the full article. Security Focus...

MS Bracing For Malware Attacks From Embedded Fonts

Heads up to all Microsoft Windows users: If you’re running Windows 2000, Windows XP or Windows Server 2003, stop what you’re doing and immediately download and apply the MS09-065 update released earlier this week. Security researchers say it’s only a matter of time — days not weeks — before...

Fake Google domains top exploit site list

Misspelled versions of two popular Google services are among the Top 10 sites hosting exploits for use in drive-by malware download attacks. On the heels of two massive drive-by attacks — ten of thousands of hijacked sites launching attacks via the browser — Google released a list showing that...

Conficker's estimated cost? $9.1 billion

From ZDNet Dancho Danchev In a recent blog post, the Cyber Secure Institute claims that based on their previous studies into the average cost of suck malware attacks, the economic loss due to the Conficker worm could be as high as $9.1 billion. Despite that their analysis also considered a much...

The Ryan & Roel Show Episode 7

Emergency IE Patch – Fri, January 9, 2009 Ryan and Roel dissect the latest wave of malware attacks against Microsoft Internet Explorer browser and discuss the company’s plans to ship an emergency out-of-band update. Download episode...

Opera plugs code-execution vulnerabilities

Opera Software has shipped a high-priority security patch for its flagship Web browser to plug at least three vulnerabilities that expose Windows users to code execution and cross-domain scripting attacks. The Opera 9.64 upgrade also adds support for DEP Data Execution Prevention and ASLR Address...