Week in Review: Patch Overload and Confronting Mobile Malware

Patches – and plenty of them – took center stage this week as two big software companies shipped substantial updates. Some alarming news also broke regarding the growing number of botnets operating out of the U.S. Read on for the full week in review. Microsoft’s band of patches, pushed Tuesday,...

U.S. Reigns As Most Bot-Infected Country

The U.S. has by far the highest number of bot-infected computers of any country in the world, with nearly four times as many infected PCs as the country in second place, Brazil, according to a new report by Microsoft. The quarterly report on malicious software and Internet attacks shows that whil...

Botnet-For-Hire Model Resurfaces in New IMDDOS Botnet

Researchers have identified a new botnet based in China that was openly selling DDoS-for-hire services and had managed to plant roots inside a number of major U.S. ISPs. The botnet, known as IMDDOS, is mostly contained right now and the researchers are working with authorities to locate its...

Thumb Drive Attack in 2008 Compromised Classified U.S. Networks

A senior official at the Department of Defense is talking publicly about a 2008 security breach that he claims compromised classified intelligence networks used by the U.S. military. Classified networks used by the U.S. military were the target of a successful attack by a foreign nation in 2008,...

Hackers Increasingly Look For Configuration Errors

Hackers appear to be increasingly counting on configuration problems and programming errors rather than software vulnerabilities in order to steal information from computer systems, according to a new study based on U.S. Secret Service investigations. Read the full article. IDG News Service...

Anatomy of the Eleonore Exploit Kit

LIMASSOL, CYPRUS–When an unknown attacker compromised three domains belonging to the U.S. Bureau of Engraving and Printing last month, it became big news, mainly for the brazenness of the attack against a federal Web site. The bigger news, however, turned out to be that the attack involved the us...

Treasury Bank Robbed by Online Thieves

Organized cyber thieves stole more than $100,000 from a small credit union who serves U.S. Treasury employees in Salt Lake City last week, in a brazen online robbery that involved dozens of co-conspirators. Read the full article. KrebsonSecurity...

Dallas Security Guard Pleads Guilty to Hacking

A former security guard has pleaded guilty to charges that he broke into his employer’s computers while working the night shift at a Dallas hospital. Jesse William McGraw pleaded guilty to two counts of transmitting malicious code, said the U.S. Department of Justice DoJ. Read the full article. I...

NSA Director to Head U.S. Cyber Command

The U.S. Senate has approved Lt. Gen. Keith Alexander, director of the National Security Agency, to also head the military’s recently created U.S. Cyber Command. Read the full article. Computerworld...

TJX Hacker Gets 20-Year Jail Sentence

Hacker mastermind Albert Gonzalez was sentenced Thursday in U.S. District Court to two concurrent 20-year stints in prison for his role in what prosecutors called the “unparalleled” theft of millions of credit card numbers from major U.S. retailers. U.S. District Court Judge Patti B. Saris...

Malaysian Hacker Will Be Extradited to U.S.

A Thai court has approved the extradition to the U.S. of a Malaysian man allegedly involved in hacking credit card information, causing massive losses for victims in the U.S. Read the full article. Computerworld...

Waledac Spam Botnet Domains Neutered

With the help of a U.S. federal judge, Microsoft has struck a blow against one of the Internet’s worst sources of spam: the notorious Waledac botnet. Microsoft said that it had been granted a court order that will cut off 277 .com domains associated with the botnet. Read the full article...

Is the U.S. Unprepared for a Real Cyber Attack?

During the simulated cyber attack that took place yesterday in Washington and was recorded by the CNN, one thing became clear: the US are still not ready to deflect or mitigate such an attack to an extent that would not affect considerably the everyday life of its citizens. Read the full article...

Operation Aurora Still Out There

The targeted attacks that hit Google, Adobe, and other U.S. organizations are still ongoing and have affected many more companies than the original 20 to 30 or so reported by Google and others. One researcher believes they are close to naming the suspected coder. Read the full article. Dark Readi...

U.S. Congress Websites Defaced

A number of Congressional websites were defaced with abuse aimed at President Obama following Wednesday’s State of the Union address. Read the full article. The Register...

Feds Nab 4 From 19-Person Indictment in Mexico

Four people from North Texas indicted last week by a federal grand jury in Dallas were arrested Friday morning in Cancun, Mexico, according to the FBI. Michael Faulkner, 36, and his wife, Chastity Faulkner, 34, both of Southlake, were central figures in the 19-person indictment brought by U.S...

Inside An Online Banking Money Mule Scam

New evidence indicates one of the gangs chiefly responsible for bank attacks actually managed to hack directly into a West Virgina U.S. bank last year and siphon off tens of thousands of dollars with the aid of unsuspecting money mules. Read the full article. KrebsonSecurity...

Cyber Challenge Tests Nation's Top Hackers

CNN reports on the U.S. Cyber Challenge, which is aimed at identifying young people with exceptional computer skills and inspiring them to join the country’s woefully understaffed ranks of cybersecurity specialists...

U.S. Defense Information Systems Agency (DISA) Unix Security Readiness Review (SRR) privilege escalation

Application executes all executables with predefined names found in system...

Online eBay Criminals Sentenced to Jail, Fined

Two Bulgarians have been sentenced for their roles in an online money-laundering scheme that collected about $1.2 million from U.S. residents and sent it to a criminal group in Eastern Europe, the U.S. Department of Justice said. Read the full article. Computerworld...