Week in review: Twitter phishing, rogue software and Waledac botnet takedown
Here’s an overview of some of last week’s most interesting news and articles:
75% of organizations suffered a cyber attack
42 percent of organizations rate security their top issue, which isn’t a surprise, considering that 75 percent of organizations experienced cyber attacks in the past 12 months.
Twitter users targeted by BZPharma phishing attack
The latest attack on Twitter users took the form of the fascinatingly curiosity-raising phrase “Lol. This you??” and it’s variants “Lol. this is me??” and “Lol, this is funny.”
Widespread data breaches uncovered by FTC probe
The Federal Trade Commission has notified almost 100 organizations that personal information has been shared from the organizations’ computer networks and is available on peer-to-peer file-sharing networks.
What’s a rogue and why do you need to know?
You may not be familiar with the term rogue software but there’s a very good chance that you or someone you know either has experienced it, or will in the near future.
Undetected data breaches are the ones that hurt the most
Just as we become comfortable with modern managed file transfer solutions companies must now better manage how their employees share and exchange information.
Windows Live ID phishing spam
Joe Wilcox warns of what seems to be an attempt to phish his Windows Live ID and password.
IT firm falls victim to online bank fraud, loses $100,000
The latest company to fall victim to a plundering of their account by the hands of cyber criminals is Cynxsure, an IT consultancy firm based in New Hampshire.
US unable to win a cyber war
The inability to deflect even a simulated cyber attack or mitigate its effects shown in the exercise that took place some six days ago at Washington doesn’t bode well for the US.
End users are the main targets of online attacks
A report about the state of the Web by Zscaler indicates that cyber criminals have transferred the focus of their attacks from web and email servers to end user systems.
Beware of the fake FBI fingerprint scanner
According to information popping up in some online forums, an application that supposedly allows you to enter and search the FBI fingerprint database will be released in a few days.
Hackers follow the money, IBM research shows
Existing threats such as phishing and document format vulnerabilities have continued to expand, even as users improve security, according to a new IBM report.
SEO poisoning reaches a new level
To improve the chances of installing their malware, scareware peddlers have decided to set up more that 60 websites that contain hundreds of possible search matches for hot/trending topics.
A closer look at Comodo Dragon 1.0.0.5
Comodo Dragon is a recently released free Internet browser constructed on the open source Chromium Project browser.
Pros and cons of biometric authentication
In theory, biometrics are a great way to authenticate a user: it’s impossible to lose your fingerprint, you can’t forget it like you could a password, and it’s unique to you.
How to avoid rogue security software
What can you do to help prevent the spread of rogues and make sure that rogue software vendors stop profiting from their unscrupulous business?
Microsoft cripples the Waledac botnet
A few days ago, Microsoft was granted a temporary restraining order that resulted in the takedown of 273 Internet domains that are believed to belong to criminals that operate the massive “Waledac” botnet.
SQL injection attack show-and-tell
For those who are not familiar with how an attack of this kind looks like in practice, here is an interesting story coming from Rafael Los, one of HP’s application security experts.
Security monitoring: Having vision for the future
As more companies become reliant on internet services, the role of IT security will become even more paramount in protecting companies so that they can operate at optimum efficiency and effectiveness at all times.