m86

Zeus Trojan steals $1 million from U.K. bank accounts

Consumers and businesses in Great Britain have lost more than $1 million so far this summer from a Trojan that is infecting their computers, prompting them to log into their bank accounts, and then is surreptitiously transferring money to scammers in other countries, security researchers said on Tuesday.

About 3,000 bank accounts were found to be compromised at one financial institution, which was not identified, according to a white paper released by M86 Security.

The multilevel scheme uses a combination of a new version of the Zeus keylogger and password stealer Trojan, which targets Windows-based computers and runs on … Read more

Report: Adobe Reader, IE top vulnerability list

The most exploited vulnerabilities tend to be Adobe Reader and Internet Explorer, but a rising target for exploits is Java, according to a report to be released on Wednesday by M86 Security Labs.

Of the 15 most exploited vulnerabilities observed by M86 Security Labs during the first half of this year, four involved Adobe Reader and five in Internet Explorer, the lab wrote in its latest security report for January through June 2010.

Also on the Top 15 list were vulnerabilities affecting Microsoft Access Snapshot Viewer, Real Player, Microsoft DirectShow, SSreader, and AOL SuperBuddy. Most of the exploits observed had … Read more

Malware and social network attacks surge in '09

Malware-carrying spam and attacks via Twitter and Facebook grew dramatically in the second half of 2009, says a report (PDF) released Tuesday by security company M86 Security.

The volume of spam shot up last year to more than 200 billion messages each day, or 80 percent to 90 percent of all inbound e-mail sent to organizations, said M86. Spam carrying malware also surged in the second half of the year, hitting 3 billion each day compared with 600 million per day in the first half of 2009.

The vast majority of spam is now sent through botnets hiding on infected … Read more

Security firm M86 acquires Finjan

The security industry consolidation continues.

Web and e-mail security provider M86 Security was set to announce on Tuesday the acquisition of Finjan.

Finjan brings to the table a secure Web gateway product and software-as-a-service solutions, M86 said in a statement. Under the merger, which is effective immediately, Finjan will maintain a development center and operations in Netanya, Israel.

U.S.-based Finjan SW will remain an independent company to retain its malware detection intellectual property, according to a statement.

M86 was created a year ago with the merger of Marshal and 8e6. In March 2009, the combined company acquired behavioral … Read more