ParetoLogic

Microsoft Crippled by a Virus!!!

How's that for sensationalism? Turns out the virus screwing with Microsoft isn't Zotob or Rbot or anything that's been through a compiler.

It's the measles.

An MS employee contracted the sickness while travelling overseas, and Washington State health officials are worried that it may spread across MS's Redmond campus. Hopefully Mr. Gate's sends his sick employee home with some chicken soup and a copy of Wired. Wouldn't it be ironic if Microsoft was actually crippled by a biological virus? I'd get a laugh out of it, but that's just because I'm mean.

Read the story at VNUnet.com.

Software Problems Provide Biggest Security Threat to Consumers

In an article on Red Herring, entitled Top 20 Hacker Targets, SANS (SysAdmin, Audit, Network, Security Institute) has announced that software provides one of the biggest security threats to consumers. The company came up with a list of the worst 20 security problems in software, which includes Oracle, Microsoft, Apple and Symantec.

Research Director of SANS, Alan Paller said:

“These critical vulnerabilities are widespread and many of them are being exploited, right now, in our homes and in our offices."

Though most of the problems were associated wth Windows products, Computer Associates and Apple's iTunes also showed vulnerabilities.

Spyware Targets Feed Demon

Nick Bradbury, founder of the excellent RSS Reader Feed Demon, has an interesting [short] article on his blog about how he was approached by a Spyware company to explore syndication opportunities with them.

"We are interested in any co-distribution and/or co-marketing opportunities with FeedDemon. I represent [company name omitted since I don't need the legal hassle], a free content and application network that represents a current user base of 30 million plus subscribers."

It is just unbelievable to think that a spyware company would even knock together such an email.

Vatican Prepares to Elect new Pope in a Spy-Free Environment

Monday, 17th April will be the day that one of the most awaited decisions of the year may be made, namely the naming of the new Pope. It is also likely the day that many people will try and break the tight security surrounding the Sistine Chapel to get the first word on who will be the new Papal Successor. According to Yahoo! News - Electronic Spying Threatens Vatican Secrecy:

"Computer hackers, electronic bugs and supersensitive microphones threaten to pierce the Vatican's thick walls next week when cardinals gather in the Sistine Chapel to name a papal successor."

It is thought that the Vatican, in addition to its own security people, will enlist the help of the plice and security professionals to prevent any news leaking out. In the last papacy, John Paul set down rules to protect cardinals from "threats to their independence of judgment." In short, cell phones, electronic organizers, radios, newspapers, TVs and recorders were banned.

With the advent of highly sophisticated eavesdropping equipment, it is now possible to target sensitive microphones, which can be placed over a quarter of a mile away, at buildings to pick up conversations. The Vatican has even gone as far as replacing the floor of the Sistine Chapel with a false one which houses jamming equipment to prevent bugging devices or mobile phone signals. However, it did seem that one or two reporters, who were given a brief tour of the Sistine Chapel, were able pick up signals from their mobile phones.

Related Links
Sistine Chapel Ready for Papal Conclave (Detroit Free News)
Sistine Chapel Has False Floor, Stove (Guardian)

Spyware Distributors Indicted in Seoul, South Korea

In one of the biggest crackdowns yet in Asia, the Seoul Central District Public Prosecutors’ Office has announced that it has indicted 10 people on charges of  "producing or distributing malicious programs that intrude into receivers' computers and make them display pop-up ads and unwanted Web sites." This is the first time that this has ever happened in the country.

According to the Korea Herald:

"The Seoul Central Prosecutor's Office said it arrested and indicted two distributors of the programs on charges of violating the information and communication law. Four developers were prosecuted but not detained while four minor distributors will face summary trials.

One distributor, identified by his family name Song, purchased a spyware program which designates the start page of his browser as his Web site. He made tens of millions of won from adult Web site operators in return for advertising their business on his Web site, according to the prosecutors."

One worrying factor, and possibly a key reason in cracking down on the purpetrators, was that potentially large numbers of teenagers had been lured into these websites - mainly due to the fact that links to these "spyware" sites were  found on sites frequented by young people.

Related Links
Crackdown on Spyware Launched (The Korea Times)

Spyware - the Biggest Threat on the Internet

Here´s a great introdution to Spyware by Joanna Gurnitsky - entitled Spyware 101: Understanding The Biggest Internet Threat of 2005 - on the About website. She reckons, rightly so, that Spyware is now the biggest threat facing Internet users, a threat more important than spam, viruses and hackers. She covers everything from what spyware/malware does to your computer to where it comes from and what personal information does it steal.

Here´s her list of the the most common malware functions :

1. Malware steals your personal information and address book (identity theft and keystroke-logging).
2. Malware floods your browser with pop-up advertising.
3. Malware spams your inbox with advertising email.
4. Malware slows down your connection.
5. Malware hijacks your browser and redirects you to an advertising or a phishing-con web page.
6. Malware uses your computer as a secret server to broadcast pornography files.
7. Malware slows down or crashes your computer.

Well worth reading!

Google Tests out Phishing Protection for its Gmail Clients

CNET reports, in their article This week in Phishing, that Google has been busy testing out phishing protection for its Gmail clients. According to the CNET site:

When a Gmail user opens a suspected phishing message, the software displays a large red dialog box that warns the user the message may not be from whom it claims to be.

Gmail will also remove all live hyperlinks from suspect HTML-based e-mails to protect people's systems from potentially fraudulent Web sites. The addresses of the sites can still be accessed by examining the original code of the e-mail, a feature that Gmail provides.

Though the number of threats has eased off in recent months, it would appear that the threats are getting more sophisticated, though new email protection is always welcome. The Anti-Phishing Working Group reports a new trend, too:

Previous phishing attacks were based around luring a user to perform an action through social engineering, primarily through spoofed email and websites. The use of Instant Messaging (IM) to spoof companies and phish for information is becoming more frequent.

Phishing without a lure is now becoming more prevalent among attack styles. The most common is malicious code which either modifies your hosts file to point commonly accessed sites to the fraudulent site (so-called “Pharming”) and malicious code that logs your keystrokes based upon a set of predetermined URLs that are accessed (“keylogging”).

The Group have an interesting report for the month of February which lists the numbers or reported attacks, comparisons with previous months, most targeted sectors and countries where phishing sites are hosted. 

Yahoo!'s Instant Messenger Targeted by Phishers

Zdnet have an interesting article about the use of phishing techniques being used on Yahoo!'s Instant Messaging service, Yahoo! Messenger.  Yahoo! reported that it was being targeted by scammers last Thursday. It would seem that users are  being sent messages asking them to click on a link to a site that resembles the Yahoo! one,  once there they are asked to sign in using their username and password.

The worrying part of all this is that the requests look like they come from someone on the  Yahoo! friends' list.

How do they  get the friend's email? Well. once you've got into one yahoo! account you can tap into the email addresses that are held in the account.

A Yahoo! spokesman had this to say:

"Hackers have become very devious in their methods to obtain personal information. In this case, the hacker was able to trick the user into providing personal information by disguising their identity to make it appear that the message was coming from a trusted source."

In the past couple of months Microsoft's MSN Messenger service has been hit by various malware, including a Trojan horse and a virus. as recently as February MSN Messenger users were forced to update their client software to prevent one of the worms spreading around its network.