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Looking back this year’s RSA Conference, you might have the feeling that the current threat landscape is primarily a series of advanced attacks. This concept includes well-known advanced persistent threats (APTs) and zero-day vulnerability exploits. To respond to this trend in threats, McAfee Labs has launched several innovative projects, one of which we call the Read more…
Tags: 0 day vulnerability, Adobe Reader, Advanced Persistent Threat, APT, detection, email tracking service, exploit, PDF, tracking usage, Zero-Day
In a McAfee Labs blog by my colleague Vikas Taneja last month, he discussed high-level functioning in the malware Travnet. Since then we have continued to analyze different samples and now classify Travnet as a botnet rather than a Trojan because of the presence of control code, and the malware’s ability to wait for further Read more…
Tags: botnet, data theft, Travnet
McAfee Labs Messaging Security recently observed a spam campaign based on the Boston Marathon bombing and the Texas fertilizer plant explosion. The messages take advantage of our interest in these tragic events to lure victims to malware and exploits. Last week my colleague Paras Gupta blogged about the use of the Blackhole exploit kit to Read more…
Tags: bombings, Boston Marathon, Exploit Kit, Red Kit, spam, Texas fertilizer plant explosion
Spam campaigns based on the Blackhole Exploit Kit send messages that contain links to compromised legitimate websites, which serve hidden iframes and redirections that exploit vulnerabilities across operating systems–from Android to Windows. Spam themes we have seen vary rapidly and are disguised to appear as legitimate messages from familiar services. Campaigns spoofing Facebook, LinkedIn, American Read more…
Tags: Blackhole Exploit Kit, spam
Last week McAfee Labs reported a series of “one-click fraud” malware on Google Play in Japan. We have been monitoring this fraudulent activity and have found more than 120 additional variants on Google Play since the previous report. The malicious developers upload five or six applications per account using three to five accounts every night, Read more…
Tags: Android security, Android/OneClickFraud, Google Play, one-click fraud, online safety
Facebook continues to be a favorite target for attackers to spread fake wall-post messages or fake scams. Most of the time these fake messages are involved in fake scams that ask users to respond to surveys. Recently, I discovered a Facebook wall post with a malicious website address that was unknowingly shared by a friend. Read more…
Tags: browser, Chrome, Delete Virus, facebook, Firefox, Turkey
Following the recent discovery of Android/Chuli.A, yet another Android malware has now been found using the same method as Chuli.A: via forged email messages with the Android malware (APK file) as an attachment. However, instead of creating a standalone malicious application that shows a fake invitation about an upcoming congress, this time the attackers compromised Read more…
Tags: Android, Android/Chuli.A, KakaoTalk, KaoSpy, malware, phishing, targeted attack
Last week, we noticed thousands of malware files in the wild that employ a simple phishing attack by modifying the hosts file on Windows systems. What’s interesting, however, is the technique chosen by the malware authors to distribute their payload. The samples in question (Example MD5: 34d9b42bfd64c6f752fe27eef8d80c5f) are packaged in a ZIP file along with Read more…
Foreign languages are no longer as difficult to understand as they once were, thanks to improvements in web translation services, which instantly translate words and web pages. The website translator plug-in can expand your global world with an amazing and effortless approach by automatically recognizing foreign-language identifiers. Website translators require JavaScript to be enabled to Read more…
Tags: JavaScript, language translation, redirect, spoof, translator
In what may be the biggest security-related incident on Google Play this year, multiple Trojans targeting Japanese users were discovered carrying the strain of Android one-click fraud. McAfee Mobile Research has already identified multiple developer accounts that were used to spread the malware and confirmed that more than 80 applications of this type existed on Read more…
Tags: Android security, Android/OneClickFraud, Google Play, one-click fraud, online safety
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