03.21.10
Eye on Security: Windows Botnets and Other New Problems
Summary: Assemblage of security news from recent days
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• 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.
• Naming and Shaming ‘Bad’ ISPs
• 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.
• Malware Found on Another HTC Magic Smartphone
• Vodafone Spain supplies pre-Mariposa’d smartphone (again)
• Vodafone Spain admits 3,000 smartphones shipped with Mariposa
• Malware Infected Memory Cards of 3,000 Vodafone Mobiles
• How the butterfly botnet was broken
• Drudge Report, TechCrunch hit by ad malware
• 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.
