Archive by Author

Don’t really have an article to comment on this time. Instead let me add a little something that jumped in my lap. Or maybe you could say, jumped on my computer. It may be that you too run into this and after reading about it here, you will have the answers on how to remove it. My little episode began with my antivirus running out. So I thought I would try another with an equivalent level of protection. Sadly, the new antivirus would not install without removing the firewall in place. I started [...]

After the hack According to published reports, Visa and MasterCard recently warned card-issuing banks that a third-party payments processor suffered a security breach. This breach may have exposed the Track 1 and Track 2 data needed to counterfeit cards. The compromise, according to both KrebsonSecurity and The Wall Street Journal, happened sometime between January 21 and February 25. It’s not clear if attackers had access for that entire period. Source Here is where the driving force is [...]

ABCs for ISPs The Anti-Bot Code of Conduct for Internet Service Providers A Voluntary Industry Code to Help Reduce End-User Bots The Federal Communications Commission’s CSRIC Working Group #7 released a new voluntary code of conduct for ISPs and network operators on March 22, 2012 as a cooperative industry-government initiative. The Anti-Bot Code of Conduct for Internet Service Providers (ABCs for ISPs), included in the FCC CSRIC Final Report of March 2012 includes the opportunity for participating [...]

Critical Windows bug could make worm meat of millions of high-value machines Microsoft has plugged a critical hole in all supported versions of Windows that allows attackers to hit high-value computers with self-replicating attacks that install malicious code with no user interaction required. The vulnerability in the Remote Desktop Protocol is of particular concern to system administrators in government and corporate settings because they often use the feature to remotely trouble-shoot e-mail servers, [...]

Nortel hit by suspected Chinese cyberattacks for a decade The hackers – who appeared to be based in China – had unfettered access to the former telecommunications giant as far back as 2000, according to Brian Shields, a former Nortel employee who launched an internal investigation of the attacks, the Wall Street Journal reports. They “had access to everything”, Shields told the Journal. “They had plenty of time. All they had to do was figure out what they wanted.” Source A decade ago, [...]

Facebook malware scam takes hold A “worrying number” of Facebook users are sharing a link to a malware-laden fake CNN news page reporting the U.S. has attacked Iran and Saudi Arabia, security firm Sophos said Friday. If users who follow the link then click to play what purports to be video coverage of the attack, they are prompted to update their Adobe Flash player with a pop-up window that looks very much like the real thing. Those who accept the prompt unwittingly install malware on [...]

Kelihos Botnet Coming Back to Life A botnet that was crippled by Microsoft and Kaspersky Lab last September is spamming once again and experts have no recourse to stop it. Source Kelihos was never big compared to a lot of the botnets. Despite it’s size, it was extremely active. Spam and malware go hand in hand. Much of it is infected links in email which is the easiest way to infect the individual computer user. The hard way that provides more computers for the bot-herder is injecting a web [...]