Computer security giant McAfee says that things have got worse in the last quarter with spam, malware and web-based threat creation reaching record levels.

McAfee’s latest Third Quarter Threats Report, which covers July to September 2009, also revealed that the number of new file-sharing sites which host unauthorised, copyrighted content increased dramatically. What’s more, another trend on the increase is the number of cybercriminals who are extorting website owners with threats of denial-of-service attacks.

There was a 300% rise in the creation of file-sharing sites following the brief shutdown of the Swedish based Pirate Bay operation. Pirate Bay was a torrent site, one that can host links to copyrighted material and very controversial in the authorised spread of content. And with this huge rise in the number of similar sites, cybercriminals are presented with the ideal opportunity to exploit the way certain sites share content. Malware writers are skilled at creating sites to trick users looking to download copyrighted material into downloading malicious programs.

And McAfee warns that the number of these malicious sites could dramatically increase during the fall and holiday blockbuster film seasons.

File-sharing site problems to one side, McAfee reported that spam and malware levels have reached a record high, with threats surpassing previous levels in the last quarter. And rather gruesomely, web-based attacks have also increased as cybercriminals take advantage of celebrity deaths and natural disasters. At such times, website activity and email traffic dramatically increases, and malware authors quick to take advantage of such news stories and chat to hide their malicious intentions.

McAfee now reckon that of all email traffic, some 92% is spam. In other words, a tiny 8% is legimate email traffic.

The increase in web-based attacks – which target people who visit a malicious Web page, and are delivered to users through spam, phishing, social networks and even through redirects from hijacked legitimate websites – are fast becoming the most dangerous weapon wielded by a cybercriminal.

And McAfee estimates that 55% of all malicious URLs are hosted in the US. What’s more, cybercriminals are getting increasingly effective at utilising SEO techniques to drive traffic to the bad sites.

Denial of Service attacks are a particularly odious tactic employed by cybercriminals and McAfee has seen many more attacks in the latest quarter, and with some involving significant ransom demands.

Cybercriminals are offering for sale, to the highest bidder, botnets which are made up of thousands of zombie computers to attack sites. The botnets are used to knock out even some of the most-protected sites. And when offering such sophisticated botnets, the cybercriminals will often demonstrate their capability to prospective buyers with ‘live’ demonstrations, bringing down targeted websites for a few minutes.

Just recently, four Australian sports betting companies were targetted by cybercriminals and their sites taken down during key sports events, which resulted in the loss of millions of dollars of revenue.

Guest Article by Neil Camp

Mobile phone giant Sony Ericsson have been forced to issue a press release after their name has been illegally used in a number of spam and phishing attacks.

The terse announcement states that the Company is aware that: “…a series of unsolicited emails have been sent to members of the general public from an email address that appears to bear the name ‘Sony Ericsson’ and which tells that the recipient has won a sum of money in a competition and requests that certain personal data be confirmed.”

Another version of the hoax is an email which says that Sony Ericsson will give away a free laptop to users who forward promotional information. It includes not only a photograph of the Sony Ericsson logo, but also a ‘company’ contact name and number (both bogus). The Company points out that all its competitions and promotions are organised through official channels, including their own and partner websites.

A Sony Ericsson spokesperson warned:

“Please be wary of any competition or promotion that appears to come from outside of Sony Ericsson or Sony Ericsson’s partners official channels. Examples of these include via spam emails or SMS. Please do not reply to or forward the email if you receive it.”

Sony Ericsson go on to apologise for these emails, which they believe are solely for the fraudulent gathering of personal information, and hope that too much inconvenience has not been caused.

The Company ask that anyone effected by such attacks should contact them via an email: questions.gb@support.sonyericsson.com

This is just one of millions of such attacks which are known as phishing and the simple idea behind them is that cybercriminals will send out millions of hoax emails (many sent unknowingly via ‘zombie’ computers) which use company logos, addresses and phone numbers to lend them some degree of authenticity. To the practiced, or indeed jaded eye, then they are quite easy to spot. Poor quality reproduction of the logo and layout of the company identity; incorrect English with spelling and grammatical mistakes; and, a bullying message (‘…send back personal information or we cut your service…’), are all dead give-aways that the email is a hoax. In short, if the respondent has any doubts advise computer security experts, then never reply.

Guest Article by Neil Camp

The second quarter threat report from McAfee has some bad news for all computer users out there. The main finding is that Spam volumes have increased by 141% since March, 2009, continuing the longest streak of increasing spam volumes ever. But that’s not all, as there has been a dramatic expansion of botnets and auto-run malware.

The report highlighted the fact that 14 million computers have been enslaved by cybercriminal botnets, a 16% increase over last quarter.

Auto-run is becoming an increasing problem and over a test period of 30 days, it was discovered to have infected over 27 million files. Auto-Run malware, which exploits Windows Auto-Run capabilities, does not require any user clicks to activate. It is most often spread through portable USB and storage devices. Depressingly, the rate of detection surpasses the infamous Conficker worm by 400%, making it the number one piece of malware detected around the world.

Mike Gallagher, Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer of McAfee Avert Labs, said:
“The jump in bot and spam activity we saw in the last three months is alarming, and the threat from Auto-Run malware continues to grow. The expansion of these infections is a grave reminder of the potential harm that can be caused by unprotected computers in homes and businesses.”

McAfee also provides some background showing the a generally worsening computer security situation.

It is noted that fourteen million additional computers have been turned into botnets this quarter. This equates to more than 150,000 computers infected every day, or 20% of the personal computers bought daily.

It also said that South Korea accounted for the largest boost in bot activity. The country saw a 45% increase in new infected computers over the last quarter. And such botnets were used to execute the recent DDoS cyber attacks against the White House, the New York Stock Exchange and South Korean government Web sites.

But although South Korea has its problems, it only accounts for less than four percent of the world’s new bots. And its the U.S. which tops the list with 15% of the new zombie computers.

And its this bot expansion that is behind the increasing volume of spam, which is now 92% of all email. Spam volumes have now exceeded the highest volume on record by 20%, increasing at a steady rate of roughly 33% each month. This equates to spam volumes growing by over 117 billion emails every day.

What’s most disturbing, is that as the number of bots continues to grow, malware writers have begun to offer malicious software as a service to those who control botnets. By exchanging, or selling resources, cybercriminals distribute new malware to wider audiences instantaneously. And the creation of and management of malware is becoming even easier, thanks to programmes like Zeus.

Programs like Zeus – an easy-to-use Trojan creation tool – continue to make the creation and management of malware even easier.

And cyber criminals are increasingly turning their attention to the popular social networking sites, including Twitter, Facebook and MySpace.

Guest Article by Neil Camp

The computer security giant McAfee has identified which Internet searches are most dangerous to computer safety and which are the safest.

McAfee’s report, entitled ‘The Web’s Most Dangerous Search Terms’ claimed that dangerous Internet searches include searching for things such as free music or screensavers. These search terms are used by cybercriminals to ensnare web users and lead them to their own websites.

Once a web surfer has visited this website, they are vulnerable to downloads that infect your computer, such as spyware which can help reveal private bank details to hackers and other cybercriminals.

McAfee’s report also identifies that these dangerous search terms are changing with regard to the new global economic environment. With higher numbers of people being made redundant due to the economic slump affecting so many, cybercriminals are now using search results to target people looking to save money or find a job working at home.

Jeff Green, senior vice president of McAfee Product Development & Avert Labs said: “Cybercriminals are smart. Like sharks smelling blood in the water, hackers will create related Web sites laden with adware and malware whenever a particular topic increases in popularity. Unsuspecting consumers are then tricked into downloading malicious software that leads them to blindly hand over their personal assets to cybercriminals.”

The riskiest set of search words, according to McAfee’s report, include keywords to the variation of ‘screensavers’. The research concluded that nearly six out of the top 10 search results for the keyword ‘screensavers’ contained some form of malware.

The riskiest search of the 2,600 most popular keywords that McAfee researched was ‘lyrics’, with the risk factor rising to one in two.

The research concluded, however, that the word Viagra was one of the least risky of keywords. The keywords with the safest risk profile included search words related to health and the current economic climate.

McAfee’s report also indicated global variations on these risks. Many of these countries had keyword categories that ended up exposing web surfers to the higher risk sites. 12 countries were exposed to an overall higher risk than McAfee’s average, including Mexico and India. McAfee’s report therefore pointed to cybercriminals targeting those outside of the U.S.

McAfee gave caution to home workers and to those looking to save money: if a result contains the word ‘free’ it has a 21.3% chance of infecting a computer with spyware, spam, adware and other malicious cyber threats. The search ‘work from home’ is four times riskier than the average risk given for all popular terms.

To protect against these vulnerabilities, McAfee SiteAdvisor Technology has been designed. This rates every trafficked site on the Internet to conduct automated tests. Web sites are ranked using coloured ratings, so that users are knowledgeable as to what they are clicking on. McAfee have also recently announced the Cybercrime Response Unit to help arm users against the threat.

Guest Article by Neil Camp

Cyber criminals are exploiting Michael Jacksons death by spreading spam and viruses via bogus sympathy emails.

And grieving fans are amongst the worst victims. Computer security experts are warning everyone to be on their guard against such cynical attacks.

It took some hackers and spammers just hours to start launching cruel emails into the system. One example claimed to have up-to-date news of the 50-year-old mega-star’s progress in hospital, while others stated they had secret pictures and songs.

There were a number of subject lines in use, including ‘Remembering Michael Jackson’. Attachments included a ZIP file with the title ‘Michael songs and pictures.’

But once opened, many of these cynical emails deposited viruses and captured thousands of email addresses for further distribution of spams.

Computer security firms reported a massive rise in the spam right after news of Michael Jackson’s demise. They point out that the perpetrators have no respect for anyone and are just interested in making money and spreading trouble around the globe. They recommend zapping such emails immediately and never opening any accompanying attachments.

Another spam started the rounds later on, this time supposedly from Tamla Motown’s founder Berry Gordon. It promised a chance to win free copies of Michael Jackson CDs, but again proved to be bogus and dangerous.

Guest Article by Neil Camp

Computer security experts are worried that the advances in smartphone technology, such as achieved by the Apple iPhone 3G S will lead to an increased threat of malware.

Basically, as the ability to mobile surf becomes the norm, mobile phones will become just as vulnerable to attack from malware as desktops and laptops.

And what’s more, the popularity of the App Store makes the chance of malware infiltration far higher than before. Experts say that the problems being encountered by PC users now on a daily basis (spam, viruses and identity theft), could become commonplace on mobile phones.

The experts are worried that smartphones, effectively complex multimedia devices which have a number of ways of communicating, and which are updated on a very regular basis, are leaving the security industry trying to play catch up.

So the best solution, claim the experts, is rather than the onus being on the mobile user protecting themselves, is to get the network operators to take control of the situation. They should introduce sophisticated security techniques including anti-flooding technology, anti-spam and virus filtering software, and, blacklisting programmes.

Whether the network operators agree that one of their roles is to act as policemen against malware threats remains to be seen. But if someone doesn’t get a grip on developments soon, warn the security companies, then the situation will get out of hand and mobile surfers will become a happy hunting ground for the cyber criminals.

Guest Article by Neil Camp

McAfee reports that the fear of swine flu has caused an online epidemic with spammers going into overdrive by trying to trick people to open their emails.

Some 5% of email traffic now contains the words swine flu and that means billions of emails each day. McAfee Avert Labs say they have seen between 80 billion and 100 billion spam messages each day over the last month. And whereas the words swine flu rarely featured a week ago, now the words are increasingly occurring. The spam emails are being sent with infected viruses which once opened, infect the user’s computer.

Although the spam is coming from all over the world, the majority is originating from Brazil, Germany and Italy. Much is coming from computers that have already been compromised by malware and act as zombies within a botnet of infected machines.

Furthermore, websites using the words swine and flu are being registered at an increasing rate, worrying McAfee experts that people will be attracted to websites that trick them into downloading such things as a video codec (usually used to view a movie). But rather than a proper viewing device, it turns into a piece of malware that takes control of the computer.

McAfee are advising all those that require information about the swine flu situation, should go to a reputable site such as the World Health Organisation, and avoid emails, instant messages and social network sites that urge you to click a link to find out more.

For anyone who suspects they might have been successfully targeted, they can always get advice from the free McAfee Cybercrime Response Unit.

McAfee have warned against particular emails which might have the following in their subject lines:

Salma Hayek caught swine flu!
Madonna caught swine flu!
First US swine flu victims!
US swine flu statistics
Swine flu worldwide!
Swine flu in Hollywood!
Swine flu in USA.

Guest Article by Neil Camp

It’s official; the hackers are getting better.

Not only are they doing it more often, but they are getting more efficient at doing it.

Hacking is no longer a pastime of the bored, adolescent youth in their bedroom, playing at seeing who can crack the code first. It’s big business and a raft of reports from the big security firms show that the hackers are operating with an alarming degree of planning, targeting and prior research.

The reports, including one from security firm Verizon, showed that cyber crime reached its highest level in 2008 and amounted to more than the total number of attacks over the previous four years. They went on to say that nine out of ten attacks against businesses were very well organised and some demonstrated a new level of sophistication from the cyber criminals.

And it was no surprise that some 93% of attacks were aimed at companies in the financial services sector.

Another report from security firm Symantec showed that stolen credit card details were swopping hands at a paltry four pence each, whereas the price to obtain a full person’s identity was a mere 50p. And many might be surprised to learn that there were advertisements posted on the web asking for people’s personal details. These ads grew in number by 32% in 2008, confirming that there is indeed a growing and healthy black market in personal identity fraud.

The reports also made much of the increase in spam traffic in 2008, up an eye-watering 192%, despite attempts by many companies to rid the world of this pernicious traffic. In 2008, there were nearly 350 billion unwanted messages, up from around 120 billion in 2007. And spam accounts for 80% of all email messages.

This is no surprise for anyone who sits there and sees the constant flow of spam emails that enter their inbox, advertising everything from a night with a Russian belly dancer (male, or female), to a box of pills that promises a new experience for every man. And they are child’s play when you consider the amount that pretend to be from a person’s bank asking them to reveal all their personal information, and others who play the old con trick that you’ve been left a ten million cheque, and all that’s needed to get your hands on it is a two hundred pound payment to pay for the administration costs.

The sad thing is, that if people didn’t respond to spam email, over 90% of it would dry-up as a waste of time. Unfortunately, there are still millions who fall for the same tricks everytime, making most email users very paranoid about what they are receiving.

Another security company, this one McAfee, had another quite successful spin on the spam email debacle. They calculated that the electricity used to create and send all those unwanted emails, was responsible for some 33 billion kilowatt hours of electricity. This is the same amount as it would take to run 2.4 million homes every year.

So, not only are the cyber criminals trying to steal our money, they are also killing the plant at the same time. Not a pleasant section of society at all.

Guest Article by Neil Camp