Viruses & Malware

Did you know that cyber criminals can trade your e-mail account? Yes, that's right. According to the latest Symantec's Internet Security Threat Report, these evil people buy and sell hacked e-mail accounts. Just 65p and hackers can turn your account into "Malware Mule".

Researchers from Symantec have noted that when hackers pay this amount of money, they can purchase your e-mail login data and passwords. And as soon as they gain access to the hacked account, messages containing viruses are suddenly being sent to all the contacts in the list.

A new variant of the Zbot/Zeus Trojan has been discovered, prompting one security specialist to call for improvements in malware protection.

According to Trusteer, A leading provider of virus protection solutions, the discovery should encourage the virus and malware protection industry to 'ratchet up' its strategy.

Mickey Boodaei, Trusteer's chief executive, explained that the Trojan, which exploits Adobe PDF files and attaches to otherwise trusted programmes, highlights how quickly cybercriminals can exploit security issues.

A Japanese cyber gang has come up with a way to extortmoney off those who pirate adult games: Pay up, or you’ll be embarrassed online.

According to Computerworld, this type of scam is a new one in the world of “ransomware”–the practice of holding hostage a computer system or the data it contains, and then extorting money from its rightful owner.

Computer anti-malware firm Intego has identified a new variant of malware for Mac OS X, dubbed HellRTS.D. When installed on your machine, it opens a backdoor that lets hackers take control of your machine without your knowledge.

Up to 88% of Fortune 500 companies may have been affected by the Zeus trojan, according to research by RSA's FraudAction Anti-Trojan division, part of EMC. The trojan installs keystroke loggers to steal login credentials to banking, social networking, and e-mail accounts.

Security researchers have discovered flaws in common file formats, including .zip, which can be used to sneak malware onto computers by evading antivirus detection.

Eight vulnerabilities were found in .zip, supported by Microsoft Office, along with seven others in the .7zip, .rar, .cab and .gzip file formats, said Mario Vuksan, president of ReversingLabs Corp.

Gmail spam is on the rise. Spammers are using fake Gmail accounts to clog up inboxes, making "Gmail.com" the most abused domain name, according to Commtouch's quarterly Internet Threats Trend Report, released Wednesday.

Only 1% of spam e-mails sent from Gmail addresses are actually from real Gmail accounts, and "this small percentage is likely to represent a mix of spammers and compromised Gmail accounts," Commtouch says.

Hackers are exploiting the controversy surrounding illegal downloading in a bid to steal credit card details from web users, says F-Secure.

The security vendor has identified a Trojan that attempts to get PC users to believe an 'Antipiracy foundation scanner' has found illegal torrents on the system. The warnings reappear every time the user reboots their system and encourage them to fork out $400 (£259) to ICPP Foundation in a "pre-trial settlement" to cover a "copyright holder fine".

An audit has found the Waikato District Heath Board fell victim to a computer virus last year because its anti-virus software failed.

The conficker virus caused the shut down of 3,000 Waikato DHB computers, after it was loaded onto an unprotected computer via a USB stick.

The computer was used by a third party and was connected to the DHB's network. The DHB has admitted it gave insufficient priority to addressing the known risk of viruses. Mass use of USB storage devices and weak password protection also put it at a higher risk

Step aside, rogue anti-virus software. There is a new scareware method in town. Security experts warned on Monday that attackers are targeting users of BitTorrent, a file-sharing application, in a novel scam that attempts to panic them into spending cash to avoid fines and imprisonment.

The extortion ploy works like this: A trojan is installed on victims' machines and it elicits pop-up messages in BitTorrent. It is unclear how the malware, dubbed Rogue:W32/DotTorrent.A by security firm F-Secure, is installed on affected systems.