Category Archives: Latest Warnings

Rustock Botnet Flatlined, Spam Volumes Plummet

March 16, 2011
48 Comments

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.

Green Skimmers Skimming Green

March 11, 2011
30 Comments

To combat an increase in ATM fraud from skimmer devices, cash machine makers have been outfitting ATMs with a variety of anti-skimming technologies. In many cases, these anti-skimming tools take the shape of green or blue semi-transparent plastic casings that protrude from the card acceptance slot to prevent would-be thieves from easily attaching skimming devices. But a surprising number of incidents, skimmer scammers have simply designed their skimmers to look exactly like the anti-skimming devices.

Taking Stock of Rustock

January 5, 2011
20 Comments

Global spam volumes have fallen precipitously in the past two months, thanks to a cessation of junk e-mail from Rustock — until recently the world’s most active spam botnet. But experts say those behind Rustock haven’t gone away, but have merely shifted the botnet’s resources toward other money-making activities, such as installing spyware and adware.

Exploit Published for New Internet Explorer Flaw

December 23, 2010
13 Comments

Hackers have released exploit code that can be used to compromise Windows PCs through a previously unknown security flaw present in all versions Internet Explorer, Microsoft warned today.

Dave Forstrom, director of trustworthy computing at Microsoft, said the software giant is not aware of any attacks via this flaw attack customers, “given the public disclosure of this vulnerability, the likelihood of criminals using this information to actively attack our customers may increase.”