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Eye on Security: Windows Ransomware, DLL Hole, Malware, and More

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Summary: Menaces and unpleasant 'niceties' that only affect users of Windows this week

Russian cops cuff 10 ransomware Trojan suspects [via]

PCs infected by the WinLock Trojan at the centre of the scam were rendered unusable because the malware disabled key Windows components. More embarrassingly pornographic images were displayed on compromised machines, IDG adds.


Polymorphic ransomware tops malware charts

Ransomware variant TotalSecurity is topping the malware charts, according to the latest threat report from security firm Fortinet.

August was the biggest comeback month since March for TotalSecurity, which locks out applications and data, and then demands a ransom to restore access.


Microsoft Releases 'Fix It' for DLL Hole



The DLL security vulnerability first grabbed headlines in August when a Slovenian security research firm pointed out that, under some circumstances, a malicious hacker could deploy a booby-trapped DLL file into a directory where Windows will load it, potentially granting the attacker control over the system. But it later surfaced that a U.S. security researcher had warned Microsoft about the DLL issue almost a year before, and had even published an academic paper on the threat last month.


Google Code hosting malware-spreading project

Google Code's project hosting feature has occasionally been used by malicious individuals for storing and spreading malware.

[...]

After this discovery was made public, Google removed the offending project. But this instance shows that the company must find a better way of detecting malware hosted on its sites.


University loses nearly 1 million dollars to malware

Thieves appear to have stolen the funds from University of Virginia after compromising a computer belonging to the University's Financial Controller. Malware intercepted the Online Banking Credentials for the University's Bank accounts and initiated a fraudulent wire transfer for $996,000 to a Bank in China.


25 percent of Windows malware now targets USB storage devices

In a survey of small businesses, PandaLabs discovered that 48 percent had been victims of malware in the past year. Of those businesses infected, 27 percent were able to verify that a compromised USB device was at the root of the issue.


New malware detects browser, shows fake malware warning page

While the malware is a pretty good attempt, it's not perfect. The goal is to get the user to download and install something, shelling out some cash in the process, which neither of the three browser vendors would ever recommend. The Firefox warning page, meanwhile, has an obvious typo ("Get me our of here"). In addition, it's suspicious that a webpage is going out of its way to tell you it is protecting your purchase. It's also not hard to check that the supposedly detected files do not actually exist on the user's computer. All of these missteps should raise red flags immediately; having said that, we've still not before seen this level of detail and effort from the bad guys.


Heartland pays another $5.4m for malware infection



The United States' fourth largest credit card payments processing company Heartland Payment Systems has agreed to pay a US$5 million ($5.4 million) settlement to its financial services customer Discover over a data breach caused by a malware infection.

Heartland processed card payments for Visa, Mastercard and other financial service providers to the tune of US$70 billion in 2009.


Rogue Win7 AV Copies the Microsoft Security Essentials Site

There are downsides to market success, and in the case of Microsoft Security Essentials is that attackers build malware designed to piggy-back ride the free security solution from Microsoft.

Recent Techrights' Posts

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reported to British authorities
 
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Gemini Links 06/06/2025: Vanishing Cultures and MElon Implosion
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We're in 6/6 Now, Almost Halfway in 2025
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Slopwatch: Comparing Linux to Vermin, Attacking BSD With LLM Slop, and Helping Microsoft Demonise Linux/OpenBSD/SSH Over Weak User Passwords
Microsoft must be laughing its arse off, seeing how a bunch of Serial Sloppers (no skills, no comprehension, no integrity, no creativity) and slopfarms use Microsoft LLM to flood the Web with anti-Linux FUD
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Windows isn't growing, it's going away
Nat Friedman Had Left Microsoft GitHub Exactly One Week Before Matthew Garrett Sent His First SLAPP (Which Was an Empty Threat, He Was Abusing the Legal System of Another Continent to Terrorise Critics Who Had Just Unearthed Major Microsoft Scandals)
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Gemini Links 05/06/2025: Loop Earplugs Review and ANS Forth
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Armenian Adoption of GNU/Linux
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Abuse Inside the Polish Patent Office (UPRP) - Part II: Turning a Once-Respected Patent Office Into a Circus and Laughing Stock
It's not legal, but administrators who don't care about the law and don't fear the law would just go ahead and turn things to junk
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IRC logs for Wednesday, June 04, 2025
Slopwatch: Mindless Slop Pieces, Fake Images and Text, Linux FUD on the Cheap
spewed out by Microsoft-controlled LLMs
Links 04/06/2025: Workers' Strikes, Sudan Exodus
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Links 04/06/2025: Linux Foundation PR Spam and Lee Jae-myung Wins Election
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Gemini Links 04/06/2025: Future Leaders of the World and Platforming Jordan Peterson
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Links 04/06/2025: WSL Backfiring on Microsoft and "Disney, Microsoft Announce Massive Layoffs"
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Censoring is what people do when they lose the argument
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How to Expose High-Level Corruption Without Getting in (Too Much) Trouble
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In-Depth EPO Coverage at Techrights Turns Eleven
11 years is a very long time
Windows Measured Below 10% in Afghanistan, GNU/Linux Gaining a Lot
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Poland's Political Predicament and Social Control Media
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EPO: Taking Away From the Staff to Give More to the Rich
The Central Staff Committee (CSC) wrote to EPO staff earlier this week
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, June 03, 2025
IRC logs for Tuesday, June 03, 2025
Abuse Inside the Polish Patent Office (UPRP) - Part I: It's a Lot Like the EPO
we can commence a series soon
Gemini Links 04/06/2025: Inescapable Questions and Quitting All "Oligarch Tech"
Links for the day