Details about the recent cyber attacks against security firm RSA suggest the assailants may have been taunting the industry giant and the United States while they were stealing secrets from a company whose technology is used to secure many banks and government agencies.
With new security updates from vendors like Adobe, Apple and Java coming out on a near-monthly basis, keeping your Web browser patched against the latest threats can be an arduous, worrisome chore. But a new browser plug-in from security firm Qualys makes it quick and painless to find and patch outdated browser components.
Scammers typically kick into high gear during tax season in the United States, which tends to bring with it a spike in phishing attacks that spoof the Internal Revenue Service. Take, for example, a new scam making the rounds via email, which warns of discrepancies on the recipient’s income tax return and requests that personal information be sent via fax to a toll-free number.
Who controlled the Rustock botnet? The question remains unanswered: Microsoft’s recent takedown of the world’s largest spam engine offered tantalizing new clues to the identity and earnings of the Rustock botmasters. The data shows that Rustock’s curators made millions by pimping rogue Internet pharmacies, but also highlights the challenges that investigators still face in tracking down those responsible for building and profiting from this complex crime machine.
Business gurus have long maintained that time = $, but that doesn’t mean playtime necessarily detracts from the bottom line. As many corporations have discovered, employees tend to be more productive when they have time to give their brains a break, and gameplay is the perfect escape. So it’s not surprising that some cyber criminals have taken this lesson to heart, and are crafting crime machines to include games that allow them to steal money and set hi-scores at the same time.
Adobe today released a software update to plug a critical security hole in its Flash Player, Adobe Acrobat and PDF Reader products. The patch comes a week after the software maker warned that miscreants were exploiting the Flash vulnerability to launch targeted attacks on users.
The Flash update address a critical vulnerability in Adobe Flash Player version 10.2.152.33 and earlier versions (Adobe Flash Player version 10.2.154.18 and earlier versions for Chrome users) for Windows, Macintosh, Linux and Solaris operating systems, Adobe Flash Player 10.1.106.16 and earlier versions for Android.
Aaron Wendel opened the doors of his business to some unexpected visitors on the morning of Mar. 16, 2011. The chief technology officer of Kansas City based hosting provider Wholesale Internet found that two U.S. marshals, a pair of computer forensics experts and a Microsoft lawyer had come calling, armed with papers allowing them to enter the facility and to commandeer computer hard drives and portions of the hosting firm’s network. Anyone attempting to interfere would be subject to arrest and prosecution.
The global volume of junk e-mail sent worldwide took a massive nosedive today following what appears to be a coordinated takedown of the Rustock botnet, one of the world’s most active spam-generating machines.
For years, Rustock has been the most prolific purveyor of spam — mainly junk messages touting online pharmacies and male enhancement pills. But late Wednesday morning Eastern Time, dozens of Internet servers used to coordinate these spam campaigns ceased operating, apparently almost simultaneously.
Security experts long have warned computer users of the threat from “keystroke-logging” malware, malicious programs capable of recording your every keystroke. But the truth is, real bad guys don’t care about your everyday chit-chat. More importantly, their data-stealing creations tend to strip out or ignore anything that isn’t related to specific information they are seeking, such as credit card numbers and online bank account credentials.
Adobe warned today attackers are exploiting a previously unknown security flaw in its Flash Player software. The company said the same vulnerability exists in Adobe Reader and Acrobat, but that it hasn’t yet seen attacks targeting the bug in those programs.
