Monthly Archives: September 2009

Stay away from the Sophos scammers

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Sally in our UK marketing department grabbed me to tell me about a scam that they heard about at the end of last week. Apparently, someone pretending to be representing Sophos has been calling up businesses on the pretext of Read more…

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Anti-virus experts head for Geneva

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The great and the good (are they mutually exclusive?) of the anti-virus industry are gathering in Geneva this week for the annual Virus Bulletin conference. The VB2009 Conference will pack over 50 talks into its three days as experts from Read more…

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BBC sending Nigerian scam?

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I don't often receive spam through my work address and when I do I investigate and block it so our customer can be protected. Imagine my surprise this morning when I received an email from the BBC! From: Thomas Wellington Read more…

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Will spammers start pushing watermelon for erectile disfunction?

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Word reaches me that researchers have found that eating watermelon has the same effect as taking Viagra. Apparently, watermelon contains the chemical citruline which affects human's blood vessels in a similar way to how Viagra can enhance sexual experience. According Read more…

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Infected? No internet for you! Australian ISPs to police internet?

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The Internet Industry Association in Australia has proposed a draft code of conduct to disconnect users from the internet if their computers are infected with malware. I am not very familiar with Australian industry associations, but this seems like a Read more…

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Fake Online AV Scanner Installs Fake AV

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Today, SophosLabs witnessed a bogus website with a fake online AntiAdware scanner. When the website is accessed, it executes embedded javascript within the webpage. This script will cause the victim's computer to display a fake progress bar pretending to scan Read more…

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Fake AV -- why I want your FTP credentials

Fake AV -- why I want your FTP credentials

I recently came across a rogue security software (aka "Fake AV") variant Troj/FakeAv-AAL which, in addition to the scareware component, downloads and runs a packet sniffer Troj/Sniffer-R. After peeling away the encryption layers, the credential-sniffing logic is quite simple. The Read more…

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Patrick Swayze's death exploited by scareware hackers

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Patrick Swayze, the star of movies such as "Dirty Dancing" and "Ghost", has died after fighting cancer of the pancreas for two years. Although the entertainment world mourns his loss, heartless hackers are taking advantage of the hot news story Read more…

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Hackers bought ad space directly from New York Times

Hackers bought ad space directly from New York Times

The hackers who exposed innocent internet users to malicious computer code, bought the advertising space on the New York Times website directly from the newspaper it has been revealed. According to a report published on the New York Times website, Read more…

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Serena Williams outburst video? Advantage hackers

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Once again, it's time to remind internet users to be very careful when searching the internet for information about breaking news stories. This weekend ace tennis player Serena Williams made the headlines for all the wrong reasons, after losing her Read more…

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Shouldn't protecting iPhone users from phishers be easier than this?

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Last week there were a number of reports that the anti-phishing technology built into the Mobile Safari web browser shipped with Apple's iPhone OS 3.1 software doesn't actually work. Researchers at Mac security firm Intego reported that it "extensively tested Read more…

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Update on the New York Times malicious ads attack

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As you have probably read in Graham's blog, over the weekend attackers managed to poison an ad-stream such that users browsing the New York Times web site where hit with malware (see New York Times alert). This attack provides a Read more…

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Casino spam poses as foolproof betting system

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Online gambling is a huge industry, with many different casinos fighting hard to grab marketshare from their internet competitors. So, it's perhaps not a surprise to find that some gambling websites are using some ingenious schemes to try and encourage Read more…

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Spammers promote adult webcam sites via Imeem

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The social media website Imeem allows its members to share videos, podcasts, photos and blog entries with each other, but it's also being exploited by spammers to spread their unwanted messages too. Here's an email which arrived in the inbox Read more…

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Fake anti-virus attack hits New York Times website readers

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This weekend, readers of the New York Times website NYTimes.com were exposed to danger as the popular media outlet served up malicious adverts to some of its visitors. According to a posting on the website some readers saw a pop-up Read more…

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Microsoft Vs. Adobe security smack-down

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I have heard a lot of rumbling as to whether Adobe is now a worse threat to desktop security than Microsoft. Seeing the huge quantity of patches in 2009 issued by both software giants, I have to say it's not Read more…

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Newsletter Templates in Spam

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Today we saw a Viagra campaign hitting our spamtraps. It's not unusual to see Viagra campaigns, the notable aspect is the different tactics the spammers are implementing  to evade spam filters 2. In today's case we saw spammers using newsletter templates in their emails. Online Read more…

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Protect your web assets - Is Linux still safe?

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The Register is reporting today that Linux servers have been recruited into a botnet. In May we saw TROJ/JSRedir-R and many variants thereof attacking web servers. Last November SophosLabs reported that after more than six years there are still over Read more…

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'Shipping confirmation' malware.

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On the surface things would appear to have been fairly quiet so far today. Not too many samples requiring attention and not much in the way of new, aggressive spam campaigns. But in terms of malware distribution, today has just Read more…

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Scareware scammers exploit 9/11

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Just when you think the hackers couldn't get any lower, they plumb new depths. Cybercriminals hell bent on infecting users with scareware by displaying fake anti-virus scans are hacking legitimate webpages and stuffing them with keywords related to the 9/11 Read more…

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