Viruses & Malware

Security researchers, working with law enforcement and Internet service providers, have disrupted the brains of the Koobface botnet.

Malware and virus writers could begin to target specific hardware, according to researchers, who claim to have discovered a way of remotely identifying individual chips and their weaknesses.

Most computer attacks have conventionally targeted computers according to their operating systems – whether it is Windows or, more rarely, Linux or Apple's Mac OS.

Computer security experts warned that a fake email invitation to this year's Nobel Peace Prize ceremony is circulating and carrying a virus capable of infecting the computer of anyone who opens it.

The Contagio Internet security blog reported that the email includes a PDF attachment containing a so-called "Trojan horse," that allows hackers to take control of victims' computers.

Traditional methods of analyzing malware to produce detection signatures are no longer a viable way to identify and eradicate malicious code on infected machines, according to a noted security expert who is hoping his research will prompt the security industry to change its ways.

USB devices are handy, powerful and convenient. They're also a major headache for IT security administrators because they're almost impossible to police and they can spread malware like wildfire.

Security software developer AVAST Software did some monitoring and research and came to the conclusion that roughly one in eight of the 700,000-plus malware incidents it identified this year were the direct result of tainted USB devices.

Attackers don't just lay traps for users; they do it for researchers and rivals as well.

A recent case in point is an exploit toolkit linked to a Zeus malware campaign that security pros at The Last Line of Defense report includes a fake administration console that records information about anyone who attempts to access or hack it. Such traps are not unfamiliar to security researchers. Cyber-crime is a business, and when defending that business, the best defense can be a good offense.

Big bad malware and zero-day attacks that fly under the radar of anti-virus software are hitting enterprises everywhere. With that in mind, HBGary is coming out with a 'do-it-yourself' tool to help security managers beat back Windows-based infections or prevent them while a zero-day outbreak is underway.

Called the Inoculator, it's an appliance that would typically sit inside the network, perhaps near Active Directory, and routinely perform a detection scan on Windows-based desktops and servers for signs of malware.

A week after a security company warned Mac users of the slowly growing risk of malware attack, a new Mac OS X Trojan-worm based on Koobface has been discovered circulating via Facebook and Twitter.

The malware appears in security bulletins puts out by two Mac anti-malware companies, SecureMac, which has dubbed it trojan.osx.boonana.a, and Intego, which describes it as OSX/Koobface.A, which would make it a variant of the common Koobface worm that afflicted Facebook in 2008.

The other day, my wife asked me how to copy a PowerPoint presentation to a flash drive so she could take it with her to school. I was a little shocked. My very own wife doesn't know how to do this? I've failed as a husband!

To make sure I don't fail you, dear readers, allow me to explain the process of copying files to flash drives. Most of you probably know how, but I'll wager it's a mystery to at least some users. There are two basic ways to go about this (both of which start with you plugging the drive into a USB port).

The challenge of custom malware and targeted attacks is a bi-product of today's rapidly evolving attacker. The problem with ‘custom malware' was mentioned to SC Magazine a year ago by Stephen Howes, CEO of GrIDsure, who said that he thought ‘one of the problems that the industry faces is that malware authors can come up with incremental ways of breaking the system'.