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IT Security Highlights March 9 2010
By Kelli Tarala | March 9, 2010
Energizer Bunny’s software infects PCs
The Energizer Bunny infects PCs with backdoor malware, the Department of Homeland Security’s US-CERT said on March 5. According to researchers at US-CERT, software that accompanies the Energizer DUO USB battery charger contains a Trojan horse that gives hackers total access to a Windows PC. The Energizer DUO, a USB-powered nickel-metal hydride battery recharger, has been discontinued, said Energizer Holdings, which late on March 5 confirmed that the software contains malicious code.
Full Story:
http://www.networkworld.com/news/2010/030810-energizer-bunnys-software-infects.html?hpg1=bn
Wave of ransom malware hits Internet
Criminals reused an attack from 2008 to hit the Internet with a huge wave of ransomware in recent weeks. In the space of only two days, February 8 and 9, the HTML/Goldun.AXT campaign accounted for more than half the total malware detected for February, which gives some indication of its unusual scale. The attack itself takes the form of a spam e-mail with an attachment, report.zip, which if clicked automatically downloads a rogue antivirus product called Security Tool. It is also being distributed using manipulated search engine optimization (SEO) on Google and other providers.
Full Story:
http://www.pcworld.com/article/190967/wave_of_ransom_malware_hits_internet.html
Microsoft gives dates for the end of support for Windows XP Service Pack 2 and Windows 2000.
Microsoft is to address eight vulnerabilities on its monthly Patch Tuesday, with no critical flaws expected to be addressed. The vulnerabilities are in Windows and Microsoft Office and are remote code execution problems. Microsoft confirmed ending support for legacy operating systems in the coming months. Windows XP Service Pack 2 will no longer be supported after July 13, and on the same date extended support for Windows 2000 will finish. Windows Vista RTM will no longer be supported after April 13, although service pack one will still be supported until the July 12th 2011.
Full Story:
http://www.scmagazineuk.com/microsoft-will-cover-eight-important-vulnerabilities/
Opera says bug probably can’t commandeer machines
A security vulnerability identified in Opera can be exploited to crash users’ browsers, but probably can’t lead to the remote execution of malware, a company spokesman said. The buffer overflow bug was disclosed by Vupen Security on Thursday, and the report has since been picked up by others, including Secunia and Sans. The advisories have said the vulnerability is critical because it can be exploited to remotely execute malicious code on end user machines. Users should be sure to enable a security feature known as DEP, or data execution prevention.
Full Story:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/03/05/opera_vulnerability/
Smartphone weather app builds a mobile botnet
A pair of researchers has amassed nearly 8,000 iPhones and Android smartphones in an experimental mobile botnet that demonstrates the ease of spreading potentially malicious applications on these devices. The security researchers with TippingPoint’s Digital Vaccine Group demonstrated how their seemingly innocuous weather app — called WeatherFist — gathers information on the users who downloaded it, including their GPS coordinates and phone numbers. The researchers wrote the app to prove how such an app could steal or modify a user’s contacts, read his files, and access his Facebook and Twitter accounts, as well as email and passwords.
Full Story:
http://www.darkreading.com/insiderthreat/security/client/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=223200001
Phishing reaches record high in January
January marked a record high for phishing attacks, seeing a 21 percent increase over the month before, according to security vendor RSA. The firm’s monthly Online Fraud Report showed that recorded phishing attacks reached 18,820, more than double the figure a year ago. Fast-flux attacks, accounted for 24 percent of phishing incidents in January, up four per cent on December. Standard phishing attacks, meanwhile, showed a 12 percent increase compared with December. The number of attacked brands climbed by just two percent compared to December, but 35 new organizations suffered their first attack in January, more than triple the number reported in December.
Full Story:
http://www.v3.co.uk/v3/news/2259037/january-sees-phishing
RSA Online Fraud Report:
http://www.rsa.com/solutions/Online_Fraud_report_0210.pdf
Read the Full DHS Infrastructure Report:
www.enclavesecurity.com/blogresources/cdr_030910.pdf
Topics: DHS Infrastructure Reports |
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