In its largest patch push so far this year, Microsoft today released 10 security updates to fix at least 34 security vulnerabilities in its Windows operating system and software designed to run on top of it. Separately, Apple has shipped another version of Safari for both Mac and Windows PCs that patches some four dozen security holes in the Web browser.
Adobe Systems Inc. warned late Friday that malicious hackers are exploiting a previously unknown security hole present in current versions of its Adobe Reader, Acrobat and Flash Player software.
“There are reports that this vulnerability is being actively exploited in the wild against both Adobe Flash Player and Adobe Reader and Acrobat,” the company said in a brief blog post published Friday evening. “This vulnerability could cause a crash and potentially allow an attacker to take control of the affected system.”
ATM skimmers, fraud devices that criminals attach to cash machines in a bid to steal and ultimately clone customer bank card data, are marketed on a surprisingly large number of open forums and Web sites. For example, ATMbrakers operates a forum that claims to sell or even rent ATM skimmers. Tradekey.com, a place where you can find truly anything for sale, also markets these devices on the cheap.
The truth is that most of these skimmers openly advertised are little more than scams designed to separate clueless crooks from their ill-gotten gains. Start poking around on some of the more exclusive online fraud forums for sellers who have built up a reputation in this business and chances are eventually you will hit upon the real deal.
David Green normally only accessed his company’s online bank account from his trusty Mac laptop. Then one day this April while he was home sick, Green found himself needing to authorize a transfer of money out of his firm’s account. Trouble was, he’d left his Mac at work. So he decided to log in to the company’s bank account using his wife’s Windows PC.
Unfortunately for Green, that PC was the same computer his kids used to browse the Web, chat, and play games online. It was also the same computer that organized thieves had already compromised with a password-stealing Trojan horse program.
A few days later, the crooks used those same credentials to steal nearly $100,000 from the company’s online accounts, sending the money in sub- $10,000 and sub-$5,000 chunks to 14 individuals across the United States.
If you use your iPhone to connect to open or public Wi-Fi networks, it’s a good idea to tell the device to forget the wireless network’s name after you’re done using it, as failing to do so could make it easier for snoops to eavesdrop on your iPhone data usage.
For example, if you use your iPhone to connect to an open wireless network called “linksys,” — which happens to be the default, out-of-the-box name assigned to all Linksys home Wi-Fi routers — your iPhone will in the future automatically connect to any Wi-Fi network by that same name.
The potential security and privacy threat here is that an attacker could abuse this behavior to sniff the network for passwords and other sensitive information transmitted from nearby iPhones even when the owners of those phones have no intention of connecting to a wireless network, simply by giving his rogue access point a common name.
Organized cyber thieves stole more than $100,000 from a small credit union in Salt Lake City last week, in a brazen online robbery that involved dozens of co-conspirators, KrebsOnSecurity has learned.
Mozilla’s Plugin Check Web site, which inspects Firefox browsers for outdated and insecure plugins, now checks other browsers — including Apple’s Safari, Google’s Chrome, Opera, and (to a far lesser extent) even Internet Explorer.
Most Internet users know to avoid the telltale signs of phish bait: An e-mail that asks you to click on a link and enter your e-mail or banking credentials at the resulting Web site. But a new phishing concept that exploits user inattention and trust in browser tabs may fool even the most wary Web surfers.
Not long after I launched this blog, I wrote about the damage wrought by the Eleonore Exploit Kit, an increasingly prevalent commercial hacking tool that makes it easy for criminals to booby-trap Web sites with malicious software. That post generated tremendous public interest because it offered a peek at the statistics page that normally only the criminals operating these kits get to see.
I’m revisiting this topic again because I managed to have a look at another live Eleonore exploit pack panel, and the data seems to reinforce a previous hunch: Today’s attackers care less about the browser you use and more about whether your third-party browser add-ons and plugins are up-to-date.
If you’ve been watching the slow motion train wreck that is Facebook.com’s recent effort to revamp its privacy promises, you may be wondering where to start unraveling all of the privacy “choices” offered by the world’s largest online social network. Fortunately, developers are starting to release free new tools so that you don’t need a masters in Facebook privacy or read a statement longer than the U.S. Constitution to get started.
