eweekdev

By: Robert Lemos Companies’ front doors on the Internet, their Web applications, are attacked almost 120 days of the year on average, and attackers are more likely to pound on the door than pick the lock or quietly knock, according to an analysis of attack data published by business security firm Imperva on Aug. 7. […]

By: Robert Lemos A typical digital kidnapping often begins with the victim inadvertently running a malicious program. The ransomware, as such programs are called, then encrypts the computer hard drive and offers to sell the victim the encryption key for a small fee. Over the past few months, security professionals have engaged in a cat-and-mouse […]

By: Robert Lemos As the Olympics go into Week Two in London, security experts are warning consumers seeking news on the events to beware of fraudsters that are attempting to sell anything from free access to Olympic TV coverage to venue tickets. On Aug. 3, Web security firm Zscaler reported that nearly 80 percent of […]

By: Robert Lemos Routers made by China-based Huawei Technologies have very few modern security protections and easy-to-find vulnerabilities, two network-security experts stated at the Defcon hacking convention. The two researchers-Felix “FX” Lindner and Gregor Kopf, both of Recurity Labs-analyzed two small-office routers made by Huawei and found a number of vulnerabilities. The ease with which […]

By: Robert Lemos More than 200 unique families of malware have been used to eavesdrop on corporate and government employees, including attacks on the Japanese government, according to the results of a study of cyber-espionage activities released on July 25. Unlike the massive botnets used by cyber-criminals to steal cash, such as the “Gameover” Zeus […]

By: Robert Lemos A peer-to-peer botnet has infected more than 675,000 systems, including those at 14 of the top 20 Fortune 500 companies, according to research released July 25 at the Black Hat security conference. The botnet, known as Gameover, uses a private version of the Zeus framework, a collection of software components needed to […]

By: Robert Lemos A software project funded by the U.S. government and developed by a small security startup will put wireless carriers’ patching practices under the microscope. Smartphone security firm Duo Security plans to release an app for Android phones on July 23 that will check the operating system on consumer devices for known, but […]

By: Robert Lemos A simple information-stealing program infiltrated about 800 computers in several Middle Eastern countries, but appears to have focused on Iran, according to analyses released July 17. The malware, dubbed Mahdi, appears to be unrelated to Stuxnet, Duqu and Flame-three other well-known attacks targeted Iran, among other countries. While those attacks relied on […]

By: Robert Lemos Online criminals are increasingly choosing to protect their botnets rather than using more effective denial-of-service attacks that potentially could reveal information about the makeup of their network of compromised computers, according to a report released by Internet security firm Prolexic. Instead, these cyber-crooks are going back to basics and flooding users with […]

By: Robert Lemos The underground developers behind the Blackhole exploit kit updated the framework the week of July 9 with a module that can easily compromise computer systems using a month-old flaw in Java. Because most PC users and companies can take months to update third-party software, the exploit will like remain effective for some […]