Security researchers have found more malware hosted in Google's official Android market, a discovery that once again demonstrates the limitations of a recently deployed scanning service designed to flag malicious apps before they can be downloaded by end users.
US authorities have officially cut off servers in New York put in place to direct internet traffic for computers infected with the DNSChanger malware.
But concerns around a potential internet blackout for an estimated 211,000 computers still believed to be infected at the time of the shut down were ultimately unfounded. Approximately 6000 Australian internet subscribers faced a similar fate locally, with the majority sourced to Telstra connections.
Mobile security company TrustGo has detailed the discovery of a new type of Android malware which operates in China. The trojan – which the company has dubbed MMarketPay.A – is being distributed in nine different third party app stores. When installed on a phone, the trojan is able to buy applications from China Mobile's own marketplace; these purchases then get billed to the victim.
A computer worm that propagates by exploiting a 2010 Windows vulnerability is responsible for some of the recent incidents involving network printers suddenly printing useless data, according to security researchers from Symantec.
Many companies have reported unauthorized printing incidents in recent weeks, prompting antivirus firms to investigate the possible causes.
This coming Monday, 9 July, the FBI will be turning off the DNS server which currently intercepts queries from DNSChanger victims. This will mean that users who are infected with the malware will be almost completely unable to access the internet normally. Users are therefore advised to check whether their computers or routers use one of the FBI-listed IP addresses for DNS queries, well before the server shutdown, by visiting dnschanger.eu or dns-ok.us.
Users who want to check their configuration manually need to look out for the following IP address ranges:
Android malware levels are rising at an alarming rate, according to antivirus maker Trend Micro.
The security firm said at the start of the year, it had found more than 5,000 malicious applications designed to target Google's Android mobile operating system, but the figure has since risen to about 20,000 in recent months.
A group of researchers from North Carolina State University have managed to create a proof-of-concept rootkit for the Android OS that is able to hijack the clicks made by the phone owners and use them to launch malicious applications without the users being aware of it.
Led by Assistant Professor Xuxian Jiang, the group was initially concentrated of finding security weaknesses in various smartphone platforms, but proceeded to create the rootkit in order to discover how Android developers could defend users against this type of attack.
The Citadel trojan is being pulled underground by its authors who fear an impending law enforcement crackdown, researchers at security firm RSA said this week.
Citadel, built on the shoulders of Zeus, was one of the most advanced and quality trojans available, with a sales price of nearly $2,500.
A research team at North Carolina State University led by Professor Xuxian Jiang recently announced that a security flaw in Android Version 4.0.4 and below could exploited by a rootkit with relative ease, according to an official university research blog post.
Like most Android malware, the rootkit can be distributed as a malicious app, opening up a host of potential vulnerabilities on any device on which it is installed. However, it functions in a different way.
More than one in 10 Fortune 500 companies still have computers infected with DNSChanger malware, according to estimates by Internet security firm IID.
The firm also estimated that around four percent of "major US Government" agencies also still have infected machines, a figure which has been steady for almost three months.
