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Viruses & Malware

Computer Virus Hits U.S. Military Base in Afghanistan

posted onNovember 29, 2008
by hitbsecnews

The largest U.S. military base in Afghanistan was hit by a computer virus earlier this month that affected nearly three quarters of the computers on the base, U.S. News has learned.

This wasn't the first such cyberattack, and officials said that earlier incarnations of the virus had exported information such as convoy and troop movements here. It was not clear precisely what information, if any, was being pulled from Department of Defense computers by this latest virus, they said.

Virus sweeps through university e-mail

posted onNovember 19, 2008
by hitbsecnews

When Corey Tincher discovered his SIU e-mail inbox filled with messages that appeared to be sent from himself, he said he knew they were spam.

Tincher, a graduate student from Marion in applied psychology, said he sometimes sends himself e-mails, but he knew he did not forward himself ones titled "Now everyone knows your secrets" and "Shaming videos of Obamas." These e-mails were a hoax that gave users' computers a virus if they clicked "unsubscribe," said Frank Scobby, director of information technology.

Worm Infects London Hospital Systems

posted onNovember 19, 2008
by hitbsecnews

A computer worm has forced the shutdown of computer systems at three London hospitals for more than 24 hours, reports BBC News. A hospital spokesman said “well rehearsed” emergency procedures were in place.

Next Monday a bad day for computer virus attacks

posted onNovember 17, 2008
by hitbsecnews

You might as well not bothering powerinf up that Windows PC of yours on Monday 24 November as that day is set to see a peak of malware.

IT security company PC Tools said that after analysing information on more than 500,000 computers worldwide and comparing data from the same period in 2007 it found that the worst day for worms and trojans was the Monday before Thanksgiving in the US. The company said was because of the increased online activity at this time of the year before Christmas and on the day after Thanksgiving, when many US shops start their sales.

Nearly 4,000 new viruses recorded in October

posted onNovember 11, 2008
by hitbsecnews

Up to 3,910 new types of computer viruses were recorded in Vietnam in October, including 3,905 of internationalorigin and 5 of domestic origin.

According to the leading networks security agency in Vietnam, BKIS Network Security Centre, the bugs attacked more than 6.2 million computers in Vietnam during October. The most popular virus is X97M.XFSic, which infected over 73,000 computers.

A worm in your inbox: 25 years of the computer virus

posted onNovember 11, 2008
by hitbsecnews

A stressed e-mail from a friend once read: "A worm has just eaten my kid!"

Thankfully, the message was not referring to infanticidal earthworms, but rather to a type of computer virus, a "worm", that had just infected some files (known as KID files) on his computer. And he may have had Fred Cohen to thank for the ensuing implosion of his computer hard-drive.

Computer virus infections via USB spreading in Japan

posted onNovember 10, 2008
by hitbsecnews

Computer infections with viruses by way of USB flash memory drives are spreading in Japan, according to a Trend Micro Inc survey released Saturday. Based on the finding, the Tokyo-based virus-scanning software company called on PC users to take precautions when sharing data with others via USB memory sticks.

New Tools to Battle the Sinowal Trojan

posted onNovember 8, 2008
by hitbsecnews

For years, the Sinowal Trojan has stymied efforts by antivirus vendors and security experts to hunt it down. In the meantime, it has gone about its business of stealing credentials from about 500,000 bank accounts, according to security experts.

Antivirus vendor Authentium thinks it might have built a better mousetrap that will protect users against the Trojan, also known as Torpig and Mebroot. The technique uses reverse sandboxing, chief technology officer Ray Dickenson told InternetNews.com.

Android May Not Need Antivirus Software, Researcher Says

posted onNovember 7, 2008
by hitbsecnews

Antivirus developer SMobile released software this week to protect users of the G1 Android phone, although one security analyst wondered if people really need it.

Even though Android, the software developed by Google and running on just one phone sold by T-Mobile, is open source, it is unlikely to be more susceptible to malware than other, proprietary mobile operating systems, said Charlie Miller, principal analyst at Independent Security Evaluators and the researcher who found the first Android vulnerability.

Javascript to be next core malware language

posted onNovember 3, 2008
by hitbsecnews

The demand that the development of web 2.0 has placed on browsers to become more interactive and act as a portal rather than just a viewing platform is opening up new vulnerabilities to unsuspecting users, Itzik Kotler, team leader of the Security Operation Center at Radware, has warned.