Security

So many Facebook scams in 2014 have been a little worrying even though at first they all seem innocent enough, but these are social scams to lure users in to gain money or access to computers. One particular Facebook scam this year was the “Robin Williams goodbye video”, which was apparently made before his death. This fake BBC News video is a scam and no such video exists. The “Robin Williams goodbye video” started to circulate on Facebook and asks users to share the video before they can watch it, DO NOT click on it. There is no video so no point on sharing it, Symantec explains in detail that when Facebook users click on the video it asks them to either fill out a survey or install an application. When the survey is complete the scammers gain money for each one completed. ...

The Federal Bureau of Investigation is willing to pay top dollar for the malicious, infectious software the rest of us pay to keep out of our computers, according to the Federal Business Opportunities website. A Monday price quote request by the Investigative Analysis Unit of the agency’s Operational Technology Division is asking computer security developers and retailers to help the agency build a library of malware for an undisclosed reason, letting the companies name their price. ...

With the second security and maintenance release of WordPress 3.5, the developers of the popular open source blogging software have closed 12 bugs, seven of them security issues. In their announcement, the developers “strongly encourage” all users to update all their installations of the software to version 3.5.2 immediately. In addition to the fixed vulnerabilities, the new release also includes some proactive changes intended to harden the platform against attacks. ...

This post has been shared originally by Malwarebytes Blog: The word about the Zeus Trojan back on Facebook has spread as fast as the malware itself across many news sites. Awareness and education about online dangers is essential but headlines like “Malware That Drains Your Bank Account Thriving On Facebook” instill fear while at the same time blame Facebook — something that may not be entirely justified. Malicious links on social networking sites are nothing new (Twitter, Linkedin to name a few). They have been, and continue to be, abused by spammers to peddle fake AV or redirect to exploit sites distributing all sorts of nasties. ...

The Hacker News reported: For all the talk about China and the Syrian Electronic Army, it seems there’s another threat to U.S. cyber interests i.e. Iran. Series of potentially destructive computer attacks that have been targeting American oil, gas and electricity companies tracked back to Iran. Iranian hackers were able to gain access to control-system software that could allow them to manipulate oil or gas pipelines. Malware have been found in the power grid that could be used to deliver malicious software to damage plants. The targets have included several American oil, gas and electricity companies, which government officials have refused to identify. ...

Apple has released a security update for its QuickTime media framework for Windows. Version 7.7.4 of the software closes 12 critical security holes causing memory corruption and buffer overflows when processing a number of media formats. The vulnerabilities affect Windows 7, Vista and XP SP2 or later and could be exploited to cause arbitrary code execution and application crashes. The vulnerabilities affected the playback of MP3, H.263, H.264, TeXML, JPEG, QTIF, Sorenson Video and FPX files as well as the handling of dref, enof and mvhd atoms within the program. All of the problems were reported by researchers working with HP’s Zero Day Initiative, five of them by Tom Gallagher and Paul Bates from Microsoft. ...

Cross-posted from PCMag SecurityWatch: Last week independent antivirus lab AV-Comparatives released the results of an on-demand antivirus detection test. The fact that Microsoft came in near the bottom wasn’t big news; the fact that Symantec scored even lower was surprising indeed. In a blog post released today, Symantec decried the entire practice of performing on-demand malware scanning tests, calling it “misleading.” In the early years of antivirus testing, every test was an on-demand scanning test. Researchers would assemble a collection of known malware, run a full scan, and record the percentage of samples detected. Modern labs work hard to devise tests that more closely reflect a user’s real-world experience, taking into account the fact that the vast majority of infections enter the computer from the Internet. Symantec contends that only the real-world sort of test is valid; I don’t entirely agree. ...

A former LulzSec hacker has been jailed for a year for ransacking Sony Pictures Entertainment’s computer systems. Cody Kretsinger, 25, from Decatur, Illinois – better known to his fellow LulzSec cohorts as “Recursion” – was also ordered to carry out 1,000 hours of community service, and a year of home detention, following his release from prison. He was sentenced by a Los Angeles court on Thursday, Reuters reports. Kretsinger had pleaded guilty to a single count of conspiracy and unauthorized impairment of a protected computer (i.e. computer hacking) in a plea-bargaining agreement. Kretsinger admitting breaking into the Sony Pictures website and extracting information which he passed on to other members of LulzSec, who leaked the data in order to embarrass Sony, a hated enemy of the hacktivist group. ...

PCMag: My social media accounts and email inbox are full of links to stories about the horrific incident in Boston earlier this week. I am reading about the victims, the bystanders and first responders that rushed to help, and looking for updates on the investigation. It turns out I should be careful about what links I click on, as cyber-criminals have already started exploiting the tragedy for their own nefarious purposes, security experts told SecurityWatch. ...