admini – Page 94 – CyberSecurity Institute

2013 will see more Stuxnet and Flame-like malware attacks, says AVG CTO – 06 Feb 2013 – Computing Ne

Posted on February 7, 2013December 30, 2021 by admini

Stuxnet and Flame, which were identified in 2010 and 2012 respectively, have both been linked to the US and Israeli governments, who are alleged to have used the malware to sabotage critical infrastructure systems of various global targets, including Iran.

“It’s going to be keeping security officers in a lot of countries quite busy, so from their perspective that’s going to be a major player this year,” said Ben-Itzhak. However, he was less sure about the continued influence of so-called ‘hacktivist’ groups, the threat from which be believes has been hyped up by the media. “Even now, ICQ [a social networking program launched in 1996, but now of diminished consumer interest] is still a main place for them – it’s mainly populated by hackers now.”

Ben-Itzhak said that “headlines and slogans calling [hacktivists] ‘Anonymous’ is pretty in the press”, but the only real advantage the hackers have over the “dialup days” is an increased and sustained global connectivity. However, Ben-Itzhak suggested that while internet-based press coverage of world political events speeds up the response of hacktivists to these events, the same fast channel of news reporting is also building an undeserved reputation for the groups as they become linked to the events.

Link: http://www.computing.co.uk/ctg/news/2241743/2013-will-see-more-stuxnet-and-flamelike-malware-attacks-says-avg-cto

Nearly a third of all computers are infected with malware

Posted on February 7, 2013December 30, 2021 by admini

The countries leading the list of most infections are China, South Korea and Taiwan, with 54.89, 54.15 and 42.14 percent of infected computers respectively. … In China, the number of infected computers dropped from 56 percent in 2011 to 54.89 percent in 2012, and in Taiwan, the decrease was even larger (from 52 percent to 42.14 percent).

Facebook and Twitter continue to be among the most popular social media sites, and are exploited by cyber-crooks to trick users, infect their computers and steal their confidential information. LinkedIn, a tool that is increasingly becoming a key part of job searches, also suffered a massive breach that led to the theft of 6.5 million user passwords.

Special care will have to be taken to protect networks against operating system and application vulnerabilities, as it has become increasingly common for cyber-criminals and national intelligence agencies to exploit security flaws to silently compromise systems.

Cyber-espionage and cyber-war will also be on the rise in a year that presents itself full of challenges in the computer security world.

Link: http://www.net-security.org/malware_news.php?id=2404

BBC News – EU proposes new cybercrime reporting rules

Posted on February 7, 2013December 30, 2021 by admini

Announcing the changes, Ms Kroes said: “Europe needs resilient networks and systems and failing to act would would impose significant costs on consumers, businesses and society.”

According to the EU, only one in four European companies has a regularly-reviewed, formal ICT security policy.

A recent study by accountants PwC suggested that three quarters of UK small businesses, and 93% of large ones, had recently suffered a cybersecurity breach.

Link: http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-21366366

New ‘whitehole’ malware exploit kit revealed

Posted on February 7, 2013December 30, 2021 by admini

Cyber attacks on U.S. banks likely to continue, experts say. Even before the threat of malware from the Blackhole exploit kit could die down, a new exploit kit has emerged, a security vendor warned over the weekend.

Trend Micro said the new kit, which it dubbed Whitehole Exploit Kit, uses similar code as Blackhole —but does not bother to hide itself. “However, the people behind this kit are already peddling the kit and even command a fee ranging from $200 to $1,800,” it said.

Trend Micro said an analysis of sample exploit malware, detected as JAVA_EXPLOYT.NTW, exploits vulnerabilities to download malicious files on a victim’s computer. It then downloads BKDR_ZACCESS.NTW and TROJ_RANSOM.NTW, noting ZACCESS/SIRIEF variants are known bootkit malware that download other malware and push fake applications. “This specific ZACCESS variant connects to certain websites to send and receive information as well as terminates certain processes. It also downloads additional malicious files onto already infected systems,” Trend Micro said.

On the other hand, ransomware typically locks systems until users pay money via specific payment modes. “Given Whitehole’s current state, we may be seeing more noteworthy changes to the exploit kit these coming months.”

Link: http://www.gmanetwork.com/news/story/294043/scitech/technology/new-whitehole-malware-exploit-kit-revealed

Fed hack highlights software patching problem – Network World

Posted on February 7, 2013December 30, 2021 by admini

While potentially damaging to the bank execs, the data was less critical than other information held by the central bank, such as sensitive financial data or confidential policy communications.

“While it may not seem so to the bankers whose information was compromised, when you put it into perspective — we are talking about the Federal Reserve — this data is really the low-hanging fruit,” said Al Pascual, security analyst for Javelin Strategy & Research.

Unconfirmed, media speculation had the flaw as a known vulnerability in Adobe ColdFusion software, which is used by some Federal Reserve websites. The data that was stolen from the Fed and posted on the Web could likely become a headache for the bank execs. Hackers could use the information to craft email that would be more likely to trick recipients into clicking on an attachment or a link to a malicious website.

Link: http://www.networkworld.com/news/2013/020713-fed-hack-highlights-software-patching-266497.html

Anonymous hackers leak personal information of 4,000 bank executives | Fox News

Posted on February 5, 2013December 30, 2021 by admini

The leak is part of Operation Last Resort, the group’s campaign to reform computer crime law in the wake of Aaron Swartz’s death, according to the faction’s Twitter account.

The leaks came after computer attacks last weekend in which the hacktivist group turned the United States Sentencing Commission website into a game of Asteroids.

Last Monday, a House panel issued a letter to Attorney General Eric Holder demanding answers regarding the prosecution of Aaron Swartz. The group believes that an overzealous prosecution and outdated computer crime laws may have contributed to Swartz’s suicide.

Swartz, a Harvard researcher who was known for his contributions to the development of RSS and the popular website Reddit, was charged for a slew of crimes including computer and wire fraud after breaking into MIT campus and systematically downloading academic journals from a service called JSTOR.

Link: http://www.foxnews.com/tech/2013/02/04/anonymous-leaks-personal-information-4000-bank-execs/