Spammers and scammers have already used the public's fear and curiosity about the avian flu to spread their schemes, but now hackers have turned to the trick, a security company warned Thursday.
A new Trojan horse, dubbed "Navia.a" by Panda Software, uses subject heads of "Outbreak in North America" and "What is avian influenza (bird flu)?" to dupe recipients into opening an attached Microsoft Word document.
Fewer businesses fell victim to the Zotob worm that struck corporate networks than previous attacks, but those it hit paid dearly, according to a new survey.
The August worm caused disruptions for about 13 percent of the organisations surveyed by computer security firm Cybertrust, which released the results of a 700-company study on Wednesday. As reported earlier, Zotob's victims included cable news station CNN, TV network ABC, The New York Times and DaimlerChrysler.
Using a self-propagating worm that exploits a scripting vulnerability common to most dynamic websites, a Los Angeles teenager made himself the most popular member of community website MySpace.com earlier this month.
While the attack caused little damage, the technique could be used to destroy website data or steal private information — even from enterprise users behind protected networks, according to an internet security firm.
A vulnerability in the Snort open-source intrusion detection software puts companies at serious risk, the researcher who discovered the bug said Wednesday.
"The vulnerability is very easy to exploit, and potentially quite workable," said Neel Mehta, the team leader for Internet Security Systems' (IS) X-force research group, and the discoverer of the flaw.
Security firm MessageLabs detected a new variant of the Mytob worm and said it intercepted 100 copies within the first several hours of its discovery today.
Although it is similar to previous Mytob variants, this version of the malicious code, dubbed DoomBot, is delivered with a header warning individuals that their services are about to be closed.
However, the latest code appears to have more variants, said MessageLabs' Senior Antivirus Researcher Maksym Schipka.
Security firm MessageLabs has detected a new variant of the IRCbot Trojan disguised as the latest release of the popular Skype VoIP software client version 1.4.
More than 150 copies of the IRCbot, also known as Fanbot that is distributed via e-mail, have already been blocked by MessageLabs researchers.
MessageLabs has put a "medium risk" rating on the threat.
The malicious code disguised as VoIP software client, version 1.4, which was first released last month . If executed, it attaches a malware program that displays a fake "installation error" box.
MOBILE phone users will soon be using antivirus software in their phones. While mobile phone viruses are still relatively new, infrequent and largely confined to smart phones that run the Symbian operating system, it will eventually be a common precaution, according to F-Secure Corp chief researcher Mikko Hypponen.
Hypponen, who was in town as a speaker at HITBSecConf2005, was careful not to overstate the urgency of the problem. He noted that of the world’s current population of two billion cellphones, just 4% are smartphones, the kind vulnerable to malware attack, he noted.
The Korea Information Security Agency (KISA) Tuesday warned of a Trojan horse program that steals online game identifications and passwords by hacking into the Web sites of game companies.
In its monthly report, the state-backed agency said it found almost 1,000 Web sites at home and abroad that included the clandestine malicious code.
``The Trojan horse program sneaked into major Korean Internet sites with the aim of swiping personal data such as game IDs and passwords,’’ a KISA official said.
The Trojan that could render PlayStation Portable (PSP) devices useless has been spotted in the wild.
The Trojan, Trojan.PSPBrick, was first reported late last week. It flashes critical system files and shows a message “Your PSP 2.0 is hacked, please reboot”. However, it renders the console unbootable.
It the World Athletics Championships in Helsinki this year, athletes and spectators were invited to download an application that would show event results on their mobiles. But a hacker exploited a security loophole in smartphones to deliver a virus over the Bluetooth radio network. So many people were infected that the authorities had to set up a special booth to remove the virus from their handsets.
