An American website has published a warning of the possible appearance of a virus from outer space. No, it's not a joke. The claim was made by Richard Carrigan, a physicist with the Fermi National Acceleration Laboratory in Batavia (Illinois).
Security experts last week warned that hackers are preparing Christmas card emails that appear to lead to innocent images, but in fact trick users with Windows systems into downloading viruses.
To avoid difficulties, firms should check their mail filtering systems to ensure they handle emailed images in the same way as other HTML traffic, and should also educate users about this issue.
The cost to businesses of a single bug or virus attack can be as much as £66,000, research has revealed.
The estimate, contained in a report from analyst firm Datamonitor, comes as users face threats from the latest flaw in Microsoft Internet Explorer and the "Mary" e-mail bug which tempts users with porn.
Users are still waiting for a patch from Microsoft to prevent Explorer from downloading damaging code from hacked websites. This code, in turn, allows users’ desktops to be hacked remotely.
The Nachi worm compromised Windows-based automated teller machines at two financial institutions last August, according to ATM-maker Diebold, in the first confirmed case of malicious code penetrating cash machines.
The machines were in an advanced line of Diebold ATMs built atop Windows XP Embedded, which, like most versions of Windows, was vulnerable to the RPC DCOM security bug exploited by Nachi, and its more famous forebear, Blaster.
An e-mail claiming to contain pictures of the author having wild sex may actually contain a program that takes over a person's PC, antivirus companies warned Tuesday.
"Sysbug," which comes with the subject line of 'Re[2] Mary,' pretends to be a personal e-mail from a friend called James who has attached photographic evidence of a recent tryst. The e-mail actually contains a malicious program that will allow a PC to be taken over. Systems affected are Windows 2000, Windows 95, Windows 98, Windows Me, Windows NT and Windows XP.
I have always thought the idea of scanning for viruses to be flawed, well certainly as a security measure. Yet nearly all of you reading this article will be relying on just that technology to protect your networks, PCs and laptops. The last twelve months have provided enough evidence to convince the most sceptical of analysts that the defences are broken and anti-virus scanning is just not up to the job. Slammer, Sobig, Blaster, Swen et al have all managed to wreak havoc with not only the humble home user but corporate users alike.
NO SOONER IS MiMail.I out of the way than MiMail.J has arrived on the inbox scene, according to security firm iSecure.
The variant of the dangerous worm has been in the wild for the last 12 hours or so, according to iSecure expert Ken Dunham.
The reason for the rapid new revs, according to Dunham, is because the crooks behind the scam want to sneak past antiviral software.
He said that the virus writers are now employing a multiple attack approach, with lots of variants launched "in a wave of attacks within a short period of time".
Cisco Systems is to combat the spread of computer worms across internal networks.
Cisco's Network Admission Control program is designed to minimise the threat posed when mobile or guest users connect infected PCs to internal company networks.
Infections from worms such as Blaster and Nimda are frequently traced back to mobile or remote workers; their PCs are less likely to have AV protection and up-to-date security. Often infections from such sources break out long after the initial viral onslaught.
A new variant of the MiMail worm, MiMail I, is spreading around the world.
The worm attempts to trick people out of their credit card details by purporting to be from online payment services company PayPal, which is owned by eBay.
An email with the headline 'YOUR PAYPAL.COM ACCOUNT EXPIRES' claims that the company is implementing a new security policy.
The email is especially sneaky in that it correctly advises people not to send out credit card details by email.
With the posting Wednesday of proof-of-concept exploit code for one of the newly discovered vulnerabilities in Windows, the familiar chain of events that often leads to the release of a worm has begun. The cycle began Tuesday when Microsoft Corp. released its monthly passel of patches, including one for a flaw in the Workstation service in Windows 2000 and XP. A successful exploitation would give the attacker complete control of the compromised PC, Microsoft said.
