Category Archives: Consumer Alerts

Netflix Slow Today? Global “Biggest Attack Ever” May Be to Blame

Users experienced widespread delays and outages in Internet service around the world this week after a group called Spamhaus made a new addition to its spam blacklist—a Dutch company called Cyberbunker. Email service providers (like Gmail or Hotmail) use blacklist services like Spamhaus to separate likely spam messages from legitimate mail, and as it turns Read more…

Thwart iForgot Password Reset Flaw

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Following the lead of companies like Facebook, Google, and Microsoft, Apple last week announced two-step verification (also known as two-factor authentication) to help customers secure their Apple IDs against hackers. Unfortunately, just a day later, a major new security hole was discovered that affected any customer who had not implemented their new two-step security feature. Read more…

Criminals Prefer Pheasting on Phish Over Spam

Most of us are aware of spam, and while we may think it’s just an annoyance, what’s really dangerous about it is the fact that most spam are phishing attempts. Phishing is when cybercriminals attempt to fraudulently acquire your personal information, such as passwords and credit card details, by masquerading as a trustworthy person or Read more…

PIN numbers need protection too

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By now, avast! users are aware of the importance of creating strong computer passwords, and guarding their Social Security number like a trained Doberman. But what about the humble four-digit PIN number? Personal identification numbers (PINs) are security features just like passwords. They give access to your mobile phone, credit card, bank account, and numerous […]

Web Advertisers Burned by Bot

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Web advertisers got a nasty surprise this week after the discovery of the “Chameleon” botnet, a network of thousands of computers stealing millions of dollars through fake adverts. To-date, researchers have found over 120,000 home PCs infected with Chameleon, and they estimate the bot costs advertisers a whopping $6 million per month. That sounds like Read more…

Are We Witnessing the End of Privacy?

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Computers collect data; It’s a natural side effect of their operation. Every time you open an Internet browser or log into a website, your computer, smartphone, or tablet, information about you is stored. And as privacy and security expert Bruce Schneier points out, while much of this information is innocuous, it only takes one offensive Read more…

Avast Browser Cleanup at work

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Does this internet browser window look familiar to you? If so, you may be the victim of unwanted multiple browser toolbars. These browser add-ons have become a real problem in the last couple of years. Unfortunately, much free software nowadays comes with some unwanted add-ons; in most cases a so-called browser toolbar is installed. Many […]

Banker Omnia Vincit – A tale of signed Brazilian bankers

Let us present the long-term analysis of malware which was designed to steal credentials from more than 25 largest banking and payment systems in Brazil. The unique features of this banking malware include the usage of valid digital certificates, 3 years of evolution and stealing credentials from e-commerce admin pages. This feature opens doors for […]

Analysis of Chinese attack against Korean banks

In this blog post, we will look at the attack originating from hxxp://www.spc.or.kr/ and targeting several major Korean banks. The site, spc.or.kr, is a legitimate Korean website which belongs to Korea Software Property Right Council (SPC). After opening the site and showing its source code, we looked into the included script /js/common1.js. This script includes […]