compromise

Maker of smart-grid software discloses hack

Telvent Canada says someone sneaked past its internal firewall, installing malicious software and stealing files related to control software it makes that's used to manage the electric grid in various countries.

The company warned customers last week that it learned of a breach of its network on September 10, according to the KrebsOnSecurity blog. Project files associated with the firm's OASyS SCADA (supervisory control and data acquisition) software were stolen, the post says.

"Although we do not have any reason to believe that the intruder(s) acquired any information that would enable them to gain access to … Read more

eHarmony member passwords compromised

Dating site eHarmony confirmed today that passwords used by its members were compromised following reports of references to the site among allegedly stolen passwords that were posted to a hacker site.

"After investigating reports of compromised passwords, we have found that a small fraction of our user base has been affected. We are continuing to investigate but would like to provide the following actions we are taking to protect our members," Becky Teraoka, spokeswoman for eHarmony, wrote in a blog post. "As a precaution, we have reset affected members passwords. Those members will receive an email with … Read more

Google search results warn of compromised sites

Google has been warning Web surfers about sites that appear to be hosting malware in search results for years. Now, the company is adding a warning in search results when the site appears to be compromised but may not be actually downloading malware to visitors' computers.

Starting today, Google search users should start seeing a new hyperlink warning that says "This site may be compromised," adjacent to some results if Google's system has detected something on the site that would indicate that it has been hacked or otherwise compromised. Clicking on the warning link leads to a … Read more

ATM malware lets criminals steal data and cash

Malware has been found on ATMs in Eastern Europe and elsewhere that allows criminals to steal account data and PINs and even empty the machine of its cash, a computer forensics expert said.

About 20 ATMs have been compromised in that manner, mostly in Russia and Ukraine, but there are "early indications" of compromised ATMs in the U.S., said Nicholas Percoco, vice president and head of SpiderLabs at Trustwave, which provides data security and payment card compliance services.

Percoco said he could not elaborate further on where the compromised ATMs were located and how they were used. … Read more

Report: Rogue antivirus software pays off for scammers

Updated March 23, 5:03 a.m. PDT with a link to the new Cybercrime Intelligence Report.

Online scammers are making a lucrative business out of redirecting visitors from legitimate Web sites to sites that try install rogue antivirus software, according to a report due to be released by security firm Finjan on Monday.

Finjan's Malicious Code Research Center came across a traffic management server in Ukraine used by underground online scammers to keep track of how many redirects their rogue antivirus sites get from legitimate sites that have been compromised.

Typically, rogue antivirus software displays a message saying … Read more