JAPANESE storage vendor IO Data has dropped a bit of a clanger by shipping a batch of external hard drives complete with a Windows worm.
Hard drives in the vendor’s HDP range were accidentally infected with the Tompai-A worm which turns the PC it’s installed with into a zombie, awaiting commands from some Mr Big in the malware business.
The Sober worm outbreak that began in earnest Tuesday has been dubbed the world's largest mass-mailed malware attack of 2005 by a Finnish security firm.
"The numbers we're seeing [with Sober] are just huge. This is the largest e-mail worm outbreak of the year so far," wrote Miko Hyppönen, chief research officer of F-Secure, in an online alert.
Meanwhile, Denver-based MX Logic said that Sober was accounting for one in every eight e-mails.
The Federal Bureau of Investigation has issued a warning about e-mail that appears to be sent from the FBI but instead comes from hackers attempting to spread the Sober worm.
The fictitious e-mail indicates the FBI has collected information proving that the user has visited illegal Web sites. The e-mail instructs users to open the attached document to answer a list of questions. But instead of a seeing the list of questions, users infect themselves with the latest version of the Sober worm.
Security sleuths at FaceTime Communications say they have linked a group of hackers operating in the Middle East to a worm that began spreading last month via America Online's Instant Messenger service.
Experts at FaceTime's security unit reported Thursday in the United States that the hacker group has seized control of at least 17,000 computers across the globe. The hackers have the capability to pilfer personal information from a computer's hard drive or remotely commandeer a PC to help launch attacks against companies or networks.
A record number of instant messaging worm mutations is undermining network security, according to new analysis.
Security and IT administrators have been aware of IM worms and viruses for some time now. How seriously they have been taking that threat just might be another issue, according to some analysts.
And some say it's time to pick up the vigilance.
In a surprise move, the Bavarian Police is warning on a worm outbreak that will happen - tomorrow. Bayerisches Landeskriminalamt has today put out a press release. In the release they warn of a possible new Sober variant that would be launched today (Tuesday 15th of November).
The new variant should be spreading in emails like this:
Subject: Registration Confirmation
Body: Thanks for your registration. Your data are saved in the zipped Word.doc file!
Attachment: registration.zip
Over the weekend, fellow ZDNet blogger George Ou wrote to me to say I might be interested some math he did in a recent blog — math that for fun, I'm now calling George's Law. George's Law appears in his blog about certain types of WiFi access points and how long their user-defined pass phrases should be in order to minimize the chances of a hacker gaining access to information that was thought to be protected through encryption. The blog itself is worth a read if you've got consumer grade WiFi access points that you think you've secured.
A computer security firm said Thursday it had discovered the first virus that uses music publisher Sony BMG's controversial CD copy-protection software to hide on PCs and wreak havoc.
Under a subject line containing the words "Photo approval," a hacker has mass-mailed the so-called Stinx-E trojan virus to British email addresses, said British anti-virus firm Sophos.
A Trojan horse discovered on Tuesday includes a fully working -- but pirate -- copy of an anti-virus application called ExoVirusStop by exoSyphen Studios.
Mobile phone malware is often disguised as a security application in order to dupe the user into installing it. However, the latest version of Doomboot, which attacks the Symbian platform, is the first to contain a fully working copy of an anti-virus application, according to Jarno Niemela, a virus researcher at anti-virus firm F-Secure.
While organizations rush to develop their security policies and implement even a basic security foundation, the professional hacker continues to find new ways to attack. Their attention has reverted to the application-layer, either shrink-wrapped or custom applications, which is commonly the least protected layer of an organization’s network. Industry experts estimate that three-fourths of the successful attacks targeting corporate networks are perpetrated via the application layer.
