Eye on Security: Windows Botnets and Other New Problems
- Dr. Roy Schestowitz
- 2010-03-21 10:49:24 UTC
- Modified: 2010-03-21 10:49:24 UTC
Summary: Assemblage of security news from recent days
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Spammers survive botnet shutdowns
Victims, typically users of Windows machines, often fall victim via booby-trapped e-mail messages or through websites that slip malware onto computers via software vulnerabilities.
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Don't trust that Web Address!
But, that comes with using Windows. What's more disturbing is that these malware-bearing messages are getting to be timelier and better written. It used to be that malware e-mail was badly written junk. You'd never mistake them for a legitimate message. The three messages I mentioned though all looked like they could have been real ones. I'm about as paranoid as it comes in computer security, but the basketball one almost tricked me.
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Bad BitDefender Update Clobbers Windows PCs
Users of the BitDefender antivirus software started flooding the company's support forums Saturday, apparently after a faulty antivirus update caused 64-bit Windows machines to stop working.
The company acknowledged the issue in a note explaining the problem, posted Saturday. "Due to a recent update it is possible that BitDefender detects several Windows and BitDefender files as infected with Trojan.FakeAlert.5," the company said.
The acknowledgement came after BitDefender users had logged hundreds of posts on the topic. Some complained of being unable to reboot their systems.
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Energizer battery rechargers still haunted by trojan backdoor
Microsoft labels the trojan as Arurizer.A and warns that it installs a backdoor on user machines that allows attackers to upload, download, and delete files at will, install additional malware and carry out other nefarious deeds.
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Naming and Shaming ‘Bad’ ISPs
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Panda discovers malware on HTC Magic phone
A Panda Security employee discovered three malware programs on a recently purchased HTC Magic phone when it was plugged it into a Windows computer.
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Malware Found on Another HTC Magic Smartphone
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Vodafone Spain supplies pre-Mariposa'd smartphone (again)
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Vodafone Spain admits 3,000 smartphones shipped with Mariposa
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Malware Infected Memory Cards of 3,000 Vodafone Mobiles
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How the butterfly botnet was broken
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Drudge Report, TechCrunch hit by ad malware
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Estonia Defense Minister: Cyberattacks Will Grow
Others at the conference agreed. A major cyberattack sponsored by terrorists or a state will happen within the next decade, predicted Jerry Archer, chief information security officer with Sallie Mae. "I think within the next five to 10 years we will have a cyberwar that will turn into a shooting war," he said, speaking during a panel discussion at the conference.
Recent Techrights' Posts
- Tentative Summary of Things to Publish in Project 2030
- I'll still be in my forties by then
- Rust People: Drain the Swap, You're Holding It Wrong
- Does Rust make sense?
- Slopwatch: LinuxSecurity, linuxconfig.org, and Plagiarised Phoronix
- Many articles out there are nowadays fake
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- Our 5-Year Geminispace Anniversary is Coming Up
- I still remember when Gemini Protocol was quite new
- It's Right to Point Out Violence From the Right
- Violence is a recurring theme
- Web Browsers That "Do Hey Hi" (AI)
- State-of-the-art plagiarism or "autocomplete on steroids" (not coined by us, nevertheless a nice description) don't have much/any prospect
- Links 20/09/2025: Hardware Projects in View, Some Independent Publishers About Russia Prosper After Cheeto Cuts Funding
- Links for the day
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- Links for the day
- Links 20/09/2025: Retrocomputer, Antique Phone Experience, and More
- Links for the day
- Links 20/09/2025: Internet Shutdowns, Media Censorship, and Climate Worries
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- About 700 New Gemini Capsules in 13 Months (or 54 Per Month)
- 4.8K would represent a 20% increase
- Techrights the Name Turns 15
- About 6 weeks from now we turn 19
- Microsoft is Running Out of Time and Floating Fake Figures, Fake Projects, Fake Narratives, Fake Excuses
- Also, a lot of Microsoft's "revenue" claims are circular financing (i.e. Microsoft buying from itself, which means Ponzi-like fraud)
- Over at Tux Machines...
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- IRC Proceedings: Friday, September 19, 2025
- IRC logs for Friday, September 19, 2025
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- Links for the day
- Links 19/09/2025: Press Freedom Dying in US, Anti-Austerity Strikes in France, and Alan Rusbridger to Leave 'Prospect'
- Links for the day
- European Patent Office Illegally Gutting and Outsourcing Its Functions, Acting Like an Above-the-Law Commercial Business (It Won't Stop at Formalities Officers (FOs) and Classification Slop at the EPO)
- breaking/violating laws and conventions
- Offloading to the Sister Site
- In the interest of not overwhelming readers
- Links 19/09/2025: Coffee Club and "SpellBinding is Now Absurdly Fast"
- Links for the day
- Links 19/09/2025: Lobbyist of American GAFAM Becomes Data Protection Commissioner in Europe
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- Links 19/09/2025: Media Freedom Ceases to Exist in US, "Consider Dropping Twitter/X"
- Links for the day
- Gemini Links 19/09/2025: Thinking and Insect Bites
- Links for the day
- Microsoft E.E.E.: Git Will Now (or Very Soon) Fully Depend on Rust, Which is Controlled by Microsoft
- Microsoft now makes Git dependent on Rust, or making Git dependent on GitHub, which is proprietary
- The Right to Punch People (Apparently)
- At Brett Wilson, Brett's job title is "Head of Crime" and Wilson normalises calls for violence
- Slop or Fake Articles Have Turned Linux Journal From a Pioneering/Trailblazing "Linux" Magazine Into a Nuisance
- some sites with former reputation - good reputation - turn into cesspools
- Over at Tux Machines...
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- IRC logs for Thursday, September 18, 2025
- Brett Wilson LLP Seem to Have Had Only One Litigation Client in 2025, He Was Previously Charged, Just Like the Serial Strangler From Microsoft (Whom They Now Represent)
- Karma is superstition, regulators are not
- Project 2030 to Cover How "Project 2025"-Styled Anti-Media Zealots From America Targeted Techrights and Tux Machines
- The common denominator is also their attacks on women
- Brett Wilson LLP Failed to Meet Deadlines Set by Judge 7 Months Earlier, Tried to Ruin Our Holiday, Then Had the Audacity to Ask Us for Over 3,000 Pounds for Its Own Lateness
- As a matter of principle we will never respond to assassin while we are on holiday
- On Claims That After Bluewashing Red Hat Will Increasingly Become an Indian Company
- Discussed this week (long and detailed)
- Americans Attacking British Sites Only Months After They Leave America
- We find it kind of funny if not ironic that this site, originally an American site, got legal harassment only from Americans and only months after it had moved to the UK
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- SPI's financial state depends a lot on its public image or its reputation
- Slopwatch: Google Helps Plagiarism and Sends Traffic to Ripoff Artists
- That Google as a company helps spamfarms is noteworthy
- If You Want to Know the Future, Listen to the Free Software Foundation (FSF) and Andy Farnell
- We're sure the FSF will have plenty of its own output
- Links 18/09/2025: A Taliban Ban on Internet Access and Troubled US Job Market
- Links for the day
- Gemini Links 18/09/2025: Computer Literacy and Accessing Alhena's Database
- Links for the day
- Links 18/09/2025: US War on Media (Truth Banned, Cancel Culture by the Hard Right), NYT Chief Executive Warns Cheeto is Deploying ‘Anti-press Playbook'
- Links for the day
- Over at Tux Machines...
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- IRC logs for Wednesday, September 17, 2025