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On May 28, my colleagues Peter Szor and Guilherme Venere posted a blog on Skywiper and listed various key filenames. Since then, I have searched these files, as well as some others that appear to be linked to this threat, in our collections. The following table summarizes these investigations. After I finished creating this table, Read more…
The current “ransomware” campaign uses a novel approach to extort money from naive Internet users. Malware from cybercriminals infects personal computers by claiming to be a genuine Windows update. Once installed, this malware encrypts data on the hard drive and displays a message (see Figure 1) in German that translates to “Your system has been Read more…
Tags: .pre, locked-, malware, paycash, Ransomware, RC4 algorithm, realtec, ukash, windows malware, winsh
There has been quite a bit of analysis and speculation about the Flamer/Skywiper threat. As we started to analyze this threat, we knew from the very beginning that this was going to be a giant undertaking and potentially very long term. Now we want to pause to help the people we protect visualize the kind Read more…
Tags: advanced persistent threats, antivirus, APT, critical infrastructure, Cybercrime, Data Protection, enterprise, Flamer, global threat intelligence, Identity thieves and cybercriminals, labs, malware, McAfee, McAfee Labs, Mobile, mobile security, Network Security, SkyWiper, social networking
A few weeks ago, Iran reported intensified cyberattacks on its energy sector that they observed as a direct continuation of the Stuxnet and Duqu attacks. Over the weekend, the IR Cert (Iran’s emergency response team) published a new report that describes this attack as Flame and/or Flamer. Some other news agencies also called the attack Read more…
Tags: Advanced Persistent Threat, antivirus, APT, Cybercrime, cyberespionage, cyberwarfare, espionage, global threat intelligence, malware, McAfee Labs, targeted attack
McAfee Labs has just released the McAfee Threats Report, First Quarter 2012, and I’m proud of it. I am cribbing from the intro to this quarter’s report, but it kinda says it all: “The Greek philosopher Heraclitus, known for his doctrine of change as central to the universe, once wrote that ‘everything flows, nothing Read more…
Tags: Android, antivirus, Consumer, counter identity theft, critical infrastructure, Cybercrime, data breach, Data Protection, global threat intelligence, Identity thieves and cybercriminals, mobile security, phishing, social networking, spam
Those who attempt to predict the future run the risk of being wrong. But those who overlook the importance of conducting a prospective analysis adopt a passive attitude that weakens them against the dictatorship of events. Anticipating societal changes prepares us to weather the storm. That quote comes from the recently published Prospective Analysis on Read more…
Tags: Cybercrime, predictions
Pinterest is getting lots of media attention lately. Spammers are also starting to exploit the social-media “pinup” site to make quick money. We have found that there are already lots of ready-to-use tools that make it easy for anyone to start Pinterest scams without much difficulty or technical skill. These tools are so easy that Read more…
Tags: Android, Cybercrime, Data Protection, global threat intelligence, identity fraud scams, identity protection, identity theft, Identity thieves and cybercriminals, McAfee Labs, pinterest scam, social networking
Mother’s Day is normally celebrated by people to express their love for their mothers. We sometimes buy them special gifts such as watches, antiques, greeting cards, or flowers. Spammers also celebrate Mother’s Day, but with a different goal in mind. As always, spammers like to take advantage of special occasions and festivals. Currently we see Read more…
Tags: Mother’s day spam, spam
In recent years one of the most prevalent malware threats for PCs (and lately Mac users) is fake-antivirus software, which pretends to be a legitimate security program. Its real purpose is to charge victims a fee to remove a nonexistent threat. The same threat has now been ported to mobile devices. In some cases we Read more…
Tags: Android, fake anti-virus software, fake-av, Google Play, Mobile, pup
We all know how fast the smart phone market is growing. Along with it, the complexity and the numbers of mobile malware are also on the rise. While I was going through our mobile malware collection, I found an interesting piece of malware for Android. This malware acts as an IRC Bot, just as we Read more…
Tags: Android Bot analysis, Android Dropper, Android Malware, Android Malware Analysis, Android Rooting Exploit, Android SMS broadcast, Arun Sabapathy, Exploit for Android, IRCBOT for android, Malicious Android Application, mobile malware, Premium SMS Trojan, Rooting Exploit
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