Security

Software used by Iranian citizens to access the uncensored Internet anonymously has now been revealed to carry malware. Even worse, it carries a variant of malicious software that tracks everything any user types into an infected computer. The ... dangerous software is named Simurgh, after a mythical creature in Iranian folklore. The software is thought to help Internet users combat harsh government controls and shield users from being located and identified. Software Hides Identity of User From Watchers The software is mostly used by Iranians to hide their identity. Users believe it creates ... (view more)

A leading security firm says it has discovered a virus that could be more sophisticated and potentially more dangerous than Stuxnet, which wreaked havoc last year. The new virus, called "Flame," appears however to be designed to steal data rather ... than to cause physical damage to computer systems. Security experts at Kaspersky Lab say Flame gathers data from infected machines using a comprehensive range of tactics. Rather than simply copy files and track online activity, it attempts to track what a user is typing, take screenshots, and even make audio recordings from online telephone ... (view more)

A British government official has said the online networks set to carry this summer's Olympic Games could be targeted for online attacks by cybercriminals. No specific threats have been identified, but officials are nevertheless employing ... professional hackers to test the networks' security and readiness to resist various methods of attack. Francis Maude, the UK's Cabinet Office minister, is charged with supporting the workings of the government across all departments. He made specific comments about the possibility of such attacks while visiting Estonia, the eastern European state that has ... (view more)

In a new report released by prominent security firm Symantec, research shows that adult websites are not the most dangerous on the web. Instead, blogs associated with religion or ideologies offer a far greater chance of infecting a visitor's ... computer with some form of malware. Called the Internet Security Threat Report, Symantec's information includes a list of the ten most dangerous types of websites. Surprisingly, adult sites -- which many have long associated with malware and viruses -- are included as number ten. Adult Sites Don't Need Malware Money According to the report, religious and ... (view more)

A new survey shows that most IT professionals are very concerned at present about the activities of 'hacktivist' groups like Anonymous. According to the study's results, about six in every ten IT pros believe members of hacktivist cells are most ... likely to attack enterprise-wide computer systems. But the specialists don't believe that's the most worrisome threat they face. The survey was carried out by Bit9, a company that calls itself "the global leader in Advanced Threat Protection." IT Pros Believe Hacktivists Most Likely to Attack Bit9's recently released report shows that 61 per cent of ... (view more)

An international law enforcement effort has taken down 36 websites allegedly responsible for selling stolen credit card information. In Europe, three men were arrested over claims they bought and sold the personal data. The operation was led by the ... United Kingdom's Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) and the United States Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI). The two agencies oversaw raids in the UK, US, Germany, the Netherlands, Romania, Ukraine and Australia. Officials say they have been working on the case for two years. The three dozen disabled websites were allegedly offering packages ... (view more)

Weak security passwords and overlooked security updates have kept Conficker, a malware 'worm' first reported in 2008, alive and well. According to Microsoft, Conficker has not only survived, it is steadily infecting more corporate networks all the ... time. The Conficker worm was first detected in November, 2008. It targeted networks and tried to penetrate them by guessing at their login passwords. At this, it was surprisingly successful. The main reason for its success was that so many business users employ extremely weak passwords, including '12345', the word 'Password' and the default password ... (view more)

Prominent security firm Sophos has discovered that approximately one out of every five Mac computers is infected with Windows malware. And while such infections pose little threat to the Macs themselves, they could spread to Windows computers. The ... report is the result of Sophos' work in analyzing the contents of about 100,000 Apple Macintosh computers, using the company's own anti-virus software for the Mac world. The analysis shows that 20 per cent of the computers are carrying some kind of Windows-oriented malware. About 2.7 per cent of the Mac computers, or about one in thirty-seven of the ... (view more)

More spam emails come from India than any other country, according to a pair of new reports from separate, reputable sources. SophosLabs has issued a report saying that 9.3 per cent of all spam messages transmitted in the first quarter of 2012 were ... relayed through India before arriving in people's inboxes. The firm lists the United States in second place with 8.3 per cent of spam, and South Korea in third at 5.7 per cent. (Source: sophos.com ) In a separate report on the same subject covering the same time period, security firm Trend Micro also put India in first place, but attributing 20 per ... (view more)

The Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) says that computers infected with a particular type of malware could lose their Internet connections this coming summer. Fortunately, there appears to be relatively simple solution for the problem. According ... to the FBI, computers infected with the malware called "DNSChanger," which first emerged in 2007 and which has since infected millions of computers worldwide, could go offline in July, 2012, until repaired. Cybercriminals Have Re-Routed Internet Traffic Normally, when a computer user enters a web address into their browser, their computer ... (view more)