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- ChetWisniewski: Fancy some geeky tech-puzzle fun? Try our latest #sophospuzzle (and win a NERF gun) http://t.co/9k3pr1Qaabout 3 hours ago
- ChetWisniewski: Looks like no #Canadians have solved the latest #sophospuzzle yet - c'mon, let's give'r http://t.co/9k3pr1Qaabout 4 hours ago
- SophosLabs: Sophos just released a beta of its free Android anti-virus scanner (does other things too). Get it here http://t.co/9ankUHxhabout 5 hours ago
- gcluley: Technical paper - Fake anti-virus: The journey from Trojan to a persistent threat http://t.co/8pyjNEbGabout 5 hours ago
Monthly Archives: April 2009
Send malware the easy way...
Today while looking at the spam queue, I came across a very small message sent to multiple email addresses. The message was a simple link to a website like so.. The link mentioned in the message goes to a page Read more…
A very verbose Nicky
Whilst going through the spam queues today I met Nicky. Nicky is yet another lonely Russian girl, bless her heart. I can't help but wonder if a few years down the line we're going to get a flood of lonely Read more…
Love Thy Comrade
Today her name was Veronica. Gregarious Veronica of the multiple email addresses. Behind the iron curtain there await a plethora of lustful "ladies" with "sweet and warm kisses" pour tu. Well, such is the fallacy promoted within millions of spam Read more…
Conficker headline competition - we have a winner!
Thanks to everyone who entered the Conficker news headline competition I was running earlier this week. Here's just a few of the entries: Conficker: world's greatest April Fool's joke or 'digital Pearl Harbor'? Conficker: Doomsday or Rickroll? Brainy worm might Read more…
Hackers attack via zero-day PowerPoint vulnerability
Microsoft has issued a warning about an unpatched security hole in PowerPoint that is being exploited by hackers. The attacks rely upon hackers creating a specially crafted booby-trapped PowerPoint file that when opened on the victim's computer runs malicious code Read more…
Australian PM targeted by Chinese hackers?
Australian media reports are claiming that Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has been the target of a stream of attacks from Chinese hackers. According to a report in The Australian, hackers attempted to break into laptops and mobile phone communications during Read more…
What web browser do security-savvy folks use?
Angela Moscaritolo reported in SC Magazine last night that Internet Explorer's marketshare has dropped considerably in the last 12 months. Who's eating away at Internet Explorer's chunk of the browser market? Firefox, Safari and Chrome it seems, according to the Read more…
FauxBook - fake Facebook emails spread malware attack
I'm a Facebook addict. I would login and check out all the lovely ladies everyday. I'm sure millions of men are doing the same and malware authors have already gotten onto the bandwagon. Another variant also comes as a faux Read more…
Stupid Mario Bluster - malware worm becomes parasitic
I've been following the MarioF worm family for some time now. Until recently, it had a unique method of running itself when the computer boots. The worm made a subtle patch to user32.dll. It is easy to miss that patch Read more…
Sophos wins VB100 award
Those charming folks at Virus Bulletin magazine (well, we think they're charming when they give us nice reviews) have just published details of their latest comparative test. Virus Bulletin tested 39 products from 34 different vendors, examining their ability to Read more…
Analysis of a phish targeting Australian Banks
Despite the publicity that online scams receive, a significant number of people are still falling for these attacks. We are constantly amazed at the sheer number and diversity of banks, credit unions and online payment schemes (such as Paypal and Read more…
Data leakage double time
The Sydney branch of SophosLabs has discovered an interesting phishing campaign against a local bank today. Interesting because it carries a double whammy for any unsuspecting soul dragged into it. The first contact from the phishers arrives in the tried-and-test Read more…
Conficker - What the FAQ
It is the first of April and no time for jokes because the Conficker worm is serious business ... loss of business for those infected and big business for those who wrote it. The big question on everybody's mind, apart Read more…
Conficker-C: A technical analysis
Niall Fitzgibbon and Mike Wood in SophosLabs have written a detailed technical paper analysing the latest version of the Conficker worm. It's an excellent piece of research, but not for the faint-hearted so be sure to be wearing your propeller Read more…
So, who did hype up Conficker?
Charles Arthur has written a curious piece on The Guardian website this morning: "Antivirus companies' worst fears realised as Conficker does... nothing". Charles argues that it was some parts of the anti-virus industry that started the panic, but unfortunately doesn't Read more…
Identity crisis for a malware author?
Late last week Sophos received a handful of samples which, from cursory static analysis, looked parasitic, given the various tell-tale signs of patched entrypoint, execution in another section and restoration of stolen bytes. Continuing the analysis showed that the code Read more…
I Spoke Too Soon! (But still nothing on Conficker)
Well it's turned 1st April GMT, but still nothing as far as Conficker is concerned. My laptop is still on GMT and is slightly warm, but certainly isn't melting. However, it would appear that I spoke too soon about satellites Read more…
April Fool: Shatner virus planted by hackers on orbiting satellite
We published this story on 1 April 2009. Of course, the Shatner virus doesn't really exist, and Far Polo L1 is an anagram of Apr1l Fool. We hope you enjoy the joke (and the video!) as much as we enjoyed Read more…
