Monthly Archives: March 2012

Aghast at Avast’s iYogi Support

March 14, 2012
135 Comments

The makers of Avast antivirus software are warning users about a new scam involving phone calls from people posing as customer service reps for the company and requesting remote access to user systems. Avast is still investigating the incidents, but a number of users are reporting that the incidents followed experiences with iYogi, the company in India that is handling Avast’s customer support.

A follow-up investigation by KrebsOnSecurity indicates that Avast (among other security companies) is outsourcing its customer support to a third-party firm that appears engineered to do little else but sell expensive and unnecessary support contracts.

RDP Flaws Lead Microsoft’s March Patch Batch

March 13, 2012
28 Comments

Microsoft today released updates to sew up at least seven vulnerabilities in Windows and other software. The sole “critical” update in the bunch patches a particularly dangerous flaw in all supported versions of Windows that allows attackers to seize control over vulnerable systems remotely without authentication.

Hacked Inboxes Lead to Bank Fraud

March 13, 2012
8 Comments

Hacked and phished email accounts increasingly are serving as the staging grounds for bank fraud schemes targeting small businesses. The scams are decidedly low-tech and often result in losses of just a few thousand dollars, but the attacks frequently succeed because they exploit existing trust relationships between banks and their customers.

Last month, scam artists hijacked private email accounts belonging to three different customers of Western National Bank, a small financial institution with seven branches throughout Central and West Texas. In each case, the thieves could see that the victim had previously communicated with bank personnel via email.

Half of All ‘Rogue’ Pharmacies at Two Registrars

March 12, 2012
25 Comments

Half of all “rogue” online pharmacies — sites that sell prescription drugs without requiring a prescription — got their Web site names from just two domain name registrars, a study released today found. The findings illustrate the challenges facing Internet policymakers in an industry that is largely self-regulated and rewards companies who market their services as safe havens for shadowy businesses.

Banking on Badb in the Underweb

March 8, 2012
18 Comments

Underground Web sites can be a useful barometer for the daily volume of criminal trade in goods like stolen credit card numbers and hijacked PayPal or eBay accounts. And if the current low prices at one of Underweb’s newer and… Read More »

Court: 4 More Months for DNSChanger-Infected PCs

March 6, 2012
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Millions of PCs sickened by a global computer contagion known as DNSChanger were slated to have their life support yanked on March 8. But an order handed down Monday by a federal judge will delay that event by 120 days to give companies, businesses and governments more time to respond to the epidemic.

The reprieve came late Monday, when the judge overseeing the U.S. government’s landmark case against an international cyber fraud network agreed that extending the deadline was necessary “to continue to provide remediation details to industry channels approved by the FBI.”

Double the Love from Friends and Enemies

March 4, 2012
31 Comments

KrebsOnSecurity.com earned two honors this week at the RSA Security Conference. For the second year running, it was voted the blog that best represents the security industry by judges at the Social Security Bloggers Awards. I was also recognized for the Security Bloggers Hall of Fame award, alongside noted security expert Bruce Schneier.