Viruses & Malware

Downloading files from a P2P file sharing network is risky at the best of times, but now there is a new threat that specifically targets music file sharers. Kaspersky Lab, a computer security company, has discovered a Trojan that changes your music files in order to download malware and infect your computer. Once an infected digital music file is played, Internet Explorer is automatically launched and contacts websites that contain malware; this malicious code often masquerades as a codec which tricks the user into downloading it.

Security firm Sophos has been poking around the Internet on the hunt for malware and found out that Google (NSDQ: GOOG)'s Blogger service is the world's No. 1 repository for the evil code. Some 2% of all malware can be found on Google's servers. Google, time to clean house.

Cyber-criminals have attacked key government and consumer websites, allowing them to steal the personal details of anyone browsing the sites, The Times has learnt.

Eastern European hackers are suspected of placing the Asprox virus on more than a thousand British websites, including those run by the NHS and a local council, in the past two weeks.

Threat Level was intrigued the other day to get an e-mail with the subject line, "God Destroys Boise for Not Being Gay Enough."

Intrigued enough to open it. The body of the e-mail made an odd reference to Barack Obama being an anorexic, over-exerciser and had a link to a file called viewmovie.html on a U.K. domain owned by Virgin Media. That seemed sketchy, especially since I had no idea who the e-mail was from.

Self-styled ‘domestic goddess’ Nigella Lawson may have exposed visitors to her web site to malware, after it was discovered that it had been compromised by hackers.

The site was hit by a Structured Query Language (SQL) attack and malware, including a Trojan, was installed.

Cyber criminals are changing tactics by using malicious software as a tool for profit — and the trend is set to increase as hacking becomes easier.

A security intelligence report by Microsoft has found that detection of malicious software rose by more than 300 percent from the second half of 2006 to last year.

Over 2,600 computer viruses new to Vietnam attacked nearly 5.5 million computers in the country last month, said Vietnam’s leading cyber security center, adding that most of the viruses had originated abroad.

Security risks to mobile devices such as mobile phones, smartphones and personal digital assistants (PDA) are not yet a major issue these days compared to the 1980s when computer networks were once vulnerable to such threats.

However, a security expert said companies should nonetheless be prepared just in case criminal elements, such as hackers, may beat them to it and steal valuable company information usually made available to corporate mobile workers.

IT security and control firm Sophos is warning of an attempt by hackers to infect computers using the camouflage of a news report claiming that the USA has invaded Iran.

Widely spammed out emails with subject lines including "Third World War has begun", "20000 US Soldiers in Iran", and "US Army crossed Iran's borders" have been intercepted by Sophos. The emails contain links to a malicious webpage that displays what appears to be a video player showing the mushroom cloud of a nuclear explosion with the following text beneath:

Writers of a password-stealing Trojan horse program have found that a little patience can lead to a lot of infections.

They have managed to infect hundreds of thousands of computers, including more than 14,000 within one unnamed global hotel chain, by waiting for system administrators to log onto infected PCs and then using a Microsoft administration tool to spread their malicious software throughout the network.