Viruses & Malware

Computer hackers have developed a way of recording mouse clicks, as well as keystrokes, using a new form of virus.

Hackers have created thousands of viruses that collect keyed-in login information, such as bank account passwords, after infecting a computer.

The viruses, known as keylogging trojans, monitor internet usage, collect login information entered by users via keystrokes and send the information back to the author of the trojan.

But until recently mouse clicks have been undetectable using such viruses.

Cheap radio chips that are replacing the ubiquitous barcode are a threat to privacy and susceptible to computer viruses, scientists at a Dutch university said on Wednesday.

Researchers at the Amsterdam's Free University created a radio frequency identity (RFID) chip infected with a virus to prove that RFID systems are vulnerable despite the extremely low memory capacity on the cheap chips.

A Trojan making the rounds encrypts victims' files and demands a US$300 payment to have them decrypted and unlocked, according to a report by security firm Lurhq Threat Intelligence Group.

This so-called "ransomware" Trojan, dubbed Cryzip, is the second of its type to emerge in the past 10 months, following the PGPcoder Trojan. It also is the third such Trojan to appear since 1989.

Lurhq researchers noted on Tuesday that the appearance within a year of two encryption Trojans may indicate they are part an emerging trend in malicious software.

Online security company Symantec says incidents of viruses attacking computers to commit cyber-crime is on the rise.

While in the past most attacks were designed to destroy data, the current trend is for web-borne viruses to silently steal data without doing any noticeable damage that would alert a user to their presence, the company said.

Symantec last week released the results of its latest Internet Security Report - covering the period from July 1, 2005 to December 31, 2005.

Experts at Sophos have reminded Internet users of the importance of computer security after media reports revealed that sensitive police information has been leaked onto the Internet from a virus-infected computer.

Could quarantining e-mails be a better way of dealing with viruses than the traditional approach used by most antivirus companies?

With increasingly diversified threats and a splintered antivirus industry, some security providers are arguing that mainstream antivirus companies are simply not nimble enough to cope with new waves of malware. Traditional approaches to providing updates -- which require the malicious code to be in the possession of the security companies -- are fundamentally flawed, the argument goes.

Alerts went out Tuesday from several security companies warning users of an in-the-wild Trojan horse able to infect nearly any cell phone.

The Trojan, named Redbrowser.a by McAfee, F-Secure, and the discovering vendor, Moscow-based Kaspersky Labs, can attack any device -- smart phone, PDA, or cell phone -- that runs Java 2 Micro Edition (J2ME), Sun Microsystem's version for consumer electronics devices.

Viruses remain the biggest cyberthreat to businesses, according to a government report to be released soon which will also warn that the threat of spyware is growing, .

The Department of Trade and Industry (DTI) report into information security breaches found that approximately half of businesses said their worst security incidents over the past two years has been caused by virus infections, rather than other threats such as hacking or phishing.

The first malware to cross-infect a PC and a Windows wireless pocket device has been discovered, the Mobile Antivirus Researchers Association (MARA) said today.

The proof-of-concept, file-destroying trojan, sent to the association anonymously, automatically spreads from a Win32 desktop to a Windows Mobile Pocket PC, the association said.

PandaLabs has detected a new Trojan called Trj/Briz.A, whose main aim is to steal personal user data from affected computers. This code stands out because it specializes in stealing bank details and data from web forms and that its author customizes the code for hackers.