TechBlog

Yesterday evening our spamtraps started receiving the email below in a mass mailing action. The email was immediately flagged as spam even before reaching our spamtraps. No wonder since it has no To:-field, it has a different Reply-to:- than the From:-field and it comes from a DSL line IP address. If the user replies to the email, the return address is set to [email protected]. Nice try, but the email is just to generic to be actually taken seriously by anyone. I expect to see targeted emails in the next days (as we’ve already seen last year). ...

Does anyone really care about opening a zip file to examine an RTF or JPEG file? This task—combined with a dull, unexciting, unstimulating subject line—competes with the content of the email to win a race of worthlessness. Spammers have traditionally used zip files to carry executables, but in most cases the subject line or the content of the message made an effort to encourage users to open the attachment. There are cases of spamming attacks in which HTML attachments opened up a fully functional Web page, capable of carrying sensitive user information back to the fraudsters. However, with this latest spam attack using zipped files, not only have the spammers made an attempt to escape anti-spam filters, they’re missing out on reaching any users as well. The scope of returns for these messages looks to be much less rewarding than other comparable attacks. ...

If, like me, you live outside of the U.S. and you’re waiting for your chance to purchase the iPad, you’re out of luck. Apple has delayed the international launch of the device until the end of May because it has sold more iPads (over half a million) than it anticipated. Here’s the official announcement: “Although we have delivered more than 500,000 iPads during its first week, demand is far higher than we predicted and will likely continue to exceed our supply over the next several weeks as more people see and touch an iPad™. We have also taken a large number of pre-orders for iPad 3G models for delivery by the end of April. ...

Of course I’m talking about football. When I say football I mean the game that is played with one ball thas is kicked with the foot, not the other game that is known as football in the US even though it’s played using the hands. Anyway I don’t like football at all, it’s too boring fo me. But, at least in Europe, everyone loves football. And one of the best national championships is the Spanish one, with the 2 biggest teams being Real Madrid and F.C. Barcelona. Every time they play against each other, millions of people watch that game, and news about it are going around all the time. Last Saturday they played in Madrid, and being this such a popular match, cybercriminals couldn’t miss this opportunity. ...

Although there’s a heated Adobe vs. Apple discussion going on, creative professionals are probably much more excited about the latest version of Adobe’s Creative Suite, which is now officially available. Besides the new versions of Photoshop, Illustrator, InDesign, Premiere Pro and Dreamweaver, Adobe Creative Suite 5 also brings Flash Player 10.1 and Adobe AIR® 2, which are “optimized for high performance on mobile screens and designed to take advantage of native device capabilities for a richer, more immersive user experience.” ...

Every once in a while, you find some odd piece of text in a piece of malware. Debugging the TDL 3 rootkit yields some interesting results. Here are messages that dump in the debug window at various times: Fri Apr 9 09:02:37.495 2010 (GMT-4): You people voted for Hubert Humphrey, and you killed Jesus Fri Apr 9 09:03:01.900 2010 (GMT-4): Ah Lou, come on man, we really like this place Fri Apr 9 11:53:08.715 2010 (GMT-4): Dude, meet me in Montana XX00, Jesus (H. Christ) Fri Apr 9 12:18:27.522 2010 (GMT-4): I felt like putting a bullet between the eyes of every panda that wouldn’t screw to save it’s species. I wanted to open the dump valves on oil tankers and smother all those french beaches I’d never see. I wanted to breathe smoke ...

Many patches are announced for tomorrow: The Redmond company expects to release 11 security bulletins. Of those 5 are rated critical, 5 important and 1 moderate. The patches belonging to the bulletins will close 25 security vulnerabilities in Windows, Exchange and in Office. Adobe plans to deliver security updates for critical vulnerabilities in Adobe Reader and Acrobat for all supported platforms tomorrow. Additionally, the automatic updater will be activated with the patches so in future updates get installed silent.

Palm, the smartphone pioneer, is on the block. The company, which in recent years has been eclipsed by the iPhone (and to some extent by Google’s Android OS), failed to make much of a comeback with its most recent Pre and Pixi phones. Now Bloomberg reports the inevitable: Goldman Sachs and Qatalyst Partners have been tasked with finding a buyer for the ailing company, and bids may be sought as early as this week. ...

Brian Krebs, in his “Krebs on Security” blog is reporting that a large number of WordPress blog pages have been hacked to redirected visitors to networkads.net that downloads rogue security applications onto their machines. Also, the owners of the blogs are locked out of access. “It’s not clear yet whether the point of compromise is a WordPress vulnerability (users of the latest, patched version appear to be most affected), a malicious WordPress plugin, or if a common service provider may be the culprit. However, nearly every site owner affected so far reports that Network Solutions is their current Web hosting provider,” Krebs wrote. ...

Google CEO Eric Schmidt has confirmed that his company is developing a tablet device based on the Android operating system, according to friends that spoke to the executive at a recent event in Los Angeles. The New York Times reports that Google has “been working with several hardware manufacturers,” and “hopes to make its own apps marketplace available for new slate-like devices.” Although Google is yet to publicly announce such a device, many signs point to its likely launch. For starters, Google has been rumored to be developing a slate device with HTC – the same company it brought Nexus One to market with – since January. Moreover, the company has already announced plans for an e-book store expected to launch within the next few months. ...