Tag Archives: malware

Game of Thrones Fans Beware: TV Show Download Could Put You at Risk

Fans of the epic fantasy series Game of Thrones were understandably eager for the season premier earlier this month. After all, we’d waited since mid-2012 to renew our shared hatred for the most abhorrent monarch in television history, King Joffrey.  But while the show’s popularity is good news for creators David Benioff and D.B. Weiss, Read more…

Fake Vertu App Infects Korean and Japanese Android Users

A new threat has surfaced targeting users in Korea and Japan, but this attack, unlike others making the news, is not one motivated by political or ideological dogma. Instead, this one is based purely on old-fashioned greed. Vertu phone owners or those looking for a localized Vertu theme in Korean or Japanese for an Android Read more…

Tibetan Activists Targeted with More Android Malware

Following the recent discovery of Android/Chuli.A, yet another Android malware has now been found using the same method as Chuli.A: via forged email messages with the Android malware (APK file) as an attachment. However, instead of creating a standalone malicious application that shows a fake invitation about an upcoming congress, this time the attackers compromised Read more…

What is a “Drive-By” Download?

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Gone are the days when you had to click to “accept” a download or install a software update in order to become infected. Now, just opening a compromised web page could allow dangerous code to install on your device. You just need to visit or “drive by” a web page, without stopping to click or Read more…

(Code) Size Doesn’t Matter: Happy Easter and Enjoy Some Brilliant Computer Art

One thing that disturbs me is how people classify some malware by how surprising large the file is, how many libraries it uses, etc. In many cases, this just means the malware has inefficient code and all the tools are available to easily convert the binaries back into human-readable pseudocode. Let’s look back a bit Read more…

Targeted Attacks the Next Step in Mobile Malware

The Android threat landscape continues to evolve in 2013. To distribute Android threats, malware authors are transitioning away from attacking traditional vectors like the Google Play Market and third-party Android markets to vectors like spam and phishing emails and SMS. Recently a new information-stealing Android malware was found being distributed as an attachment in emails Read more…

Botnets Remain a Leading Threat

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One threat has evolved and dominated the threats landscape like no other: botnets. Practically every day a new set of online criminals attempt to exploit users in some way or the other. The best way to stop this threat at the perimeter is to identify its communication channel and block the bot from connecting to Read more…

Botnets Remain a Leading Threat

      No Comments on Botnets Remain a Leading Threat

One threat has evolved and dominated the threats landscape like no other: botnets. Practically every day a new set of online criminals attempt to exploit users in some way or the other. The best way to stop this threat at the perimeter is to identify its communication channel and block the bot from connecting to Read more…

South Korean Banks, Media Companies Targeted by Destructive Malware

A massive computer shutdown of two South Korean banks and media companies occurred Wednesday via an Internet malware attack. The malware wiped out the master boot records on the hard drives of the infected computers, overwriting the MBR with either one of these strings: PRINCPES PR!NCPES HASTATI. Figure 1: Snapshot of MBR after infection. The Read more…

Citadel Malware Continues to Deliver Reveton Ransomware in Attempts to Extort Money

A new extortion technique is being deployed by cyber criminals using the Citadel malware platform to deliver Reveton ransomware. The latest version of the ransomware uses the name of the Internet Crime Complaint Center to frighten victims into sending money to the perpetrators. In addition to instilling a fear of… Read more »