Category Archives: A Little Sunshine

Includes investigative blog posts meant to shine a light on the darker corners of the Internet.

A Closer Look: Email-Based Malware Attacks

June 21, 2012
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Nearly every time I write about a small to mid-sized business that has lost hundreds of thousands of dollars after falling victim to a malicious software attack, readers ask how the perpetrators broke through the victim organization’s defenses, and which type of malware paved the way. Normally, victim companies don’t know or disclose that information, so to get a better idea, I’ve put together a rough profile of the top daily email-based malware attacks over the past month.

Beware Scare Tactics for Mobile Security Apps

June 20, 2012
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It may not be long before your mobile phone is beset by the same sorts of obnoxious, screen-covering, scaremongering ads pimping security software that once inundated desktop users before pop-up blockers became widely-used.
Richard M. Smith, a Boston-based security consultant, was browsing a local news site with his Android phone when his screen was taken over by an alarming message warning of page errors and viruses. Clicking anywhere on the ad takes users to a Web site selling SnapSecure, a mobile antivirus and security subscription service that bills users $5.99 a month.

Naming and Shaming the Plaintext Offenders

June 15, 2012
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It was a fitting end to a week dominated by news of password breaches at major Internet companies. I’d sent a password reset request to a hosting provider I’ve used for years to host a file server online, and received an alarming response: The company sent me my password in plain text, all but advertising that they have zero regard for the security of their customers’ private information.

Feds Arrest ‘Kurupt’ Carding Kingpin?

June 12, 2012
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The Justice Department on Monday trumpeted the arrest of a Dutch man wanted for coordinating the theft of roughly 44,000 credit card numbers. The government hasn’t released many details about the accused, but data from a variety of sources indicates he may have run a large, recently-shuttered forum dedicated to cyber fraud, and that he actively hacked into and absconded with stolen card data taken from other fraud forums.

This much the government is saying: David Benjamin Schrooten, 21, appeared in Seattle federal court on Monday and pleaded not guilty to charges of bank fraud, access device fraud and conspiracy. Schrooten was accused of running Web sites that sold stolen credit card numbers in bulk. Authorities said Schrooten was extradited to the United States after being arrested in Romania, and that another man — 21-year-old Christopher A. Schroebel of Maryland — was an accomplice and also was charged.

How Companies Can Beef Up Password Security

June 11, 2012
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Separate password breaches last week at LinkedIn, eHarmony and Last.fm exposed millions of credentials, and once again raised the question of whether any company can get password security right. To understand more about why companies keep making the same mistakes and what they might do differently to prevent future password debacles, I interviewed Thomas Ptacek, a security researcher with Matasano Security.

Ptacek is just one of several extremely smart researchers I’ve been speaking with about this topic. Below are some snippets from a conversation we had last week.

Alleged Romanian Subway Hackers Were Lured to U.S.

June 6, 2012
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The alleged ringleader of a Romanian hacker gang accused of breaking into and stealing payment card data from hundreds of Subway restaurants made news late last month when he was extradited to face charges in the United States. But perhaps the more interesting story is how his two alleged accomplices happened to have come to this country willingly: They were lured here by undercover U.S. Secret Service agents who promised to shower the men with love and riches.

Attackers Hit Weak Spots in 2-Factor Authentication

June 5, 2012
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An attack late last week that compromised the personal and business Gmail accounts of Matthew Prince, chief executive of Web content delivery system CloudFlare, revealed a subtle but dangerous security flaw in the 2-factor authentication process used in Google Apps for business customers. Google has since fixed the glitch, but the incident offers a timely reminder that two-factor authentication schemes are only as secure as their weakest component.

In a blog post on Friday, Prince wrote about a complicated attack in which miscreants were able to access a customer’s account on CloudFlare and change the customer’s DNS records. The attack succeeded, Prince said, in part because the perpetrators exploited a weakness in Google’s account recovery process to hijack his CloudFlare.com email address, which runs on Google Apps

White House Aims to Stoke Botnet Fight

May 29, 2012
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The Obama administration will hold a public meeting at the White House on Wednesday to discuss industry and government efforts to combat botnet activity. Among them is a pilot program to share information about botnet victims between banks and Internet service providers, according to sources familiar with the event.

WHMCS Breach May Be Only Tip of the Trouble

May 24, 2012
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A recent breach at billing and support software provider WHMCS that exposed a half million customer usernames, passwords — and in some cases credit cards — may turn out to be least of the company’s worries. According to information obtained by KrebsOnSecurity.com, for the past four months hackers have been selling an exclusive zero-day flaw that they claim lets intruders break into Web hosting firms that rely on the software.