Hard on the heels of a report that a USB drive was used to compromise US military networks in 2008, a security company today claimed that 25% of all new worms are designed to spread through the portable storage devices.
The open-plan office in which I'm standing is buzzing, because a new type of threat has emerged in the past 24 hours. Excited young men and women (though mostly men) chatter beneath wall-mounted TV screens showing maps of the world overlaid with pulsing dots and scrolling information – the world's major cyber-security threats in real time.
Think twice before opening e-mails concerning credit card charges, business cards, or vacation photos. According to security firm Sophos, criminals have recently launched a large-scale "fake AV" attack online, using massive quantities of e-mail spam. Subject lines in circulation include "You're invited to view my photos!" and "Your Vistaprint Order Is Confirmed," among others.
It seems that industry experts are starting to agree that the IT security industry is struggling to tackle the rising tide of malware and hacker exploits.
As reported earlier this month by Infosecurity, CoreTrace senior vice president Ron Clarkson said that hackers may be winning the 'cat and mouse' game against IT security vendors. Citing Panda Security's observations in this regard, Clarkson said that malware samples are doubling year-on-year.
The computer security community is used to vilifying the hackers and malware authors who choose to use their talents for evil, instead of good. Now a new hacking conference is trying to bring malware authors out of the shadows and wondering, in the words of Rodney King, if we "all just can't get along."
Free antivirus software pioneer Avast, has received a $100 million (£64 million) investment from private equity firm Summit Partners to woo business users and open new offices around the globe.
Authorities investigating the 2008 crash of Spanair flight 5022 have discovered a central computer system used to monitor technical problems in the aircraft was infected with malware.
An internal report issued by the airline revealed the infected computer failed to detect three technical problems with the aircraft, which if detected, may have prevented the plane from taking off, according to reports in the Spanish newspaper, El Pais.
It’s always frustrating to find that your computer has been infected with a virus, especially one that can potentially wipe your files. However one hacker decided that he would bring a little humor to viruses by replacing any infected file with a particularly cute sea creature anime.
The Ika-tako virus (which is Japanese for Squid-Octopus) as it has been named first came to shore in May via Japanese file sharing Website Winny. Since then, it has reportedly gone on to infect somewhere between 20,000 and 50,000 computers, according to Asahi.com.
The Stuxnet worm, which targets industrial control systems, or "SCADA" systems, is one of the most sophisticated bits of digital malware security researchers have come across in a long time. Now, those researchers want to know where it came from. Was Stuxnet the product of a den of hackers working on their own accord, or did a national government somewhere in the world have a hand in its creation?
The old adage “Be careful what you wish for” has a modern-day counterpart: “Be careful what you download.” Especially on your mobile phone.
On Tuesday several mobile security companies were analyzing a Trojan horse that appeared on phones running Google’s Android software in Russia.
