botnet

In attempt to hide the location of its command-and-control server, the Pushdo botnet has been instructing its infected zombie computers to send fake SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) connections to major Web sites, a botnet expert said on Monday.

The strange traffic targeting the Web sites--including sites for the CIA, FBI, PayPal, Yahoo, and Twitter, according to a list at the Shadow Server Foundation--was not enough to cause any outages or slowdowns, said Joe Stewart, director of malware research at SecureWorks.

Site owners "would just see weird connections that don't seem to make sense," he said. "… Read more

Social-networking sites like Facebook and Twitter can expect more attention from cybercriminals in 2010, according to a new report (PDF) released Tuesday by McAfee Labs. Also at risk are users of Adobe Systems products including Acrobat Reader and Flash. And move over Microsoft; the security firm predicts that Google's Chrome OS will "create another opportunity for malware writers to prey on users."

The company also anticipates smarter and more dangerous Trojans that "follow the money," as well as a "significant trend toward a more distributed and resilient botnet infrastructure that relies much more on … Read more

Citigroup denies it, but its Citibank unit was reportedly robbed of tens of millions of dollars, the victim of a cyberattack by members of a Russian criminal gang, says Tuesday's Wall Steet Journal (subscription required).

The attack was discovered this past summer, says the Journal, but investigators for the FBI and National Security Agency believe it could have happened months or a year prior. The two agencies have reportedly shared information with the Department of Homeland Security and Citigroup to defend against the attack. The investigation is supposedly ongoing, with no word on whether or not any of the … Read more

Comcast is launching a trial on Thursday of a new automated service that will warn broadband customers of possible virus infections, if the computers are behaving as if they have been compromised by malware.

For instance, a significant overnight spike in traffic being sent from a particular Internet Protocol address could signal that a computer is infected with a virus taking control of the system and using it to send spam as part of a botnet.

The alerts are triggered "when we see computers on our network that are doing things that are known bot activities--say, a computer is … Read more

In the U.K., you don't have to be in the presence of someone to serve them with legal papers. So now Twitter has become a way to get served. We also are happy that the U.S. government is taking cybersecurity seriously, but maybe they could lay off with the cyber prefix a little. And we try to care more about the Palm Pixi. We really do.

Vista/IE market share slide, Win 7/Firefox/Chrome surge http://blogs.zdnet.com/hardware/?p=5700… Read more

We learn that not only is a botnet using Twitter to store some of its data but that botnet follow Veronica. Who is a bot herself. We also ponder why leaked pictures of the Dell smartphone are so blurry. And bad news folks. Looks like no tablet for the Apple announcement, but it sounds like it will be in September.

Dell’s first phone spied on web http://www.reghardware.co.uk/2009/08/14/dell_smartphone_pictures/

Apple planning September event? http://news.cnet.com/8301-13579_3-10309110-37.html… Read more

A Twitter account can be used as the command center for harnessing a "botnet" of virus-infected computers, security firms Arbor Networks and Symantec reported. In a blog post Friday, Symantec analyst Peter Coogan wrote that researchers found an account, @upd4t3, which was tweeting out links to download a piece malware called Downloader.Sninfs. The account has since been suspended by Twitter.

Downloader.Sninfs, also known as Infostealer.Bancos, is a Trojan that uses the guise of a Brazilian banking site to collects passwords and related personal information from infected computers.

Security on Twitter is front and center right … Read more

Spam and botnets have hit their highest levels ever, according to McAfee's second-quarter Threats Report, released Wednesday. McAfee's Avert Labs says spam recorded in the second quarter shot up 80 percent compared with the first quarter of the year.

This follows a brief reprieve from spam following last year's shutdown of the McColo ISP. June alone saw the largest amount of spam recorded by McAfee, surpassing the previous monthly high in October by more than 20 percent. McAfee now estimates that spam accounts for 92 percent of all e-mail.

By country, the amount of worldwide spam originating … Read more