Malware that uses events like Valentine’s Day, Christmas or Halloween as a lure to trick users and infect computers is now a well-established feature of the IT security calendar. Once again, this year it will be no surprise to see numerous emails in circulation with links for downloading romantic greeting cards, videos, gift ideas, or Facebook and Twitter messages related to Valentine’s Day.

Social engineering is cyber-crooks’ preferred technique for deceiving users. In these cases it basically involves obtaining confidential information from users by convincing them to take a series of actions. Crimeware and social engineering go hand-in-hand: a carefully selected social engineering ploy convinces users to hand over their data or install a malicious program which captures information and sends it on to the fraudsters.

Cyber-crooks, however, are also exploiting other channels, such as Facebook, Twitter or Google+, and given the access to millions of users that these social networks provide, they have become just as popular among the criminal fraternity for spreading malware as email.

A new Facebook attack has recently been discovered that uses users’ walls to spread. An apparently harmless message invites users to install a Valentine’s Day theme on Facebook. However, if the user clicks the wall post, they are redirected to a page where they are prompted to install the theme. This installs a malware file which, once run, displays ads from other websites. It also downloads an extension that monitors Web activities and redirects sessions to survey pages that request sensitive information like phone numbers.

Some weeks ago, the PandaLabs blog reported on a link included in a Twitter profile that took users to a dating site: http://pandalabs.pandasecurity.com/sex-lies-and-twitter/. Special dates like Valentine’s Day can see a proliferation of malicious Twitter posts used to steal users’ confidential data and empty their bank accounts through social engineering.

Here is a collection of some of the Valentine’s Day-themed malware campaigns detected by PandaLabs, the anti-malware laboratory of Panda Security, in recent years:

Waledac.C: This worm spread by email trying to pass itself off as a greeting card. The email message included a link to download the card. However, if the user clicked the link and accepted the subsequent file download they were actually letting the Waledac.C worm into their computer. Once it infected the computer, the worm used the affected user’s email to send out spam.

I Love.exe you: This was a RAT (Remote Access Trojan) that gave attackers access to the victim’s computer and all their personal information. The Trojan allowed the virus creator to access target computers remotely, steal passwords and manage files.

Nuwar.OL: This worm spread in email messages with subjects like “I love You So Much”, “Inside My Heart” or “You in My Dreams”. The text of the email included a link to a website that downloaded the malicious code. The page was very simple and looked like a romantic greeting card with a large pink heart. Once it infected a computer, the worm sent out a large amount of emails, creating a heavy load on networks and slowing down computers.

Website that downloaded the Nuwar.OL worm

Valentin.E: This worm spread by email in messages with subjects like “Searching for True Love” or “True Love” and an attached file called “friends4u”. If the targeted user opened the file, a copy of the worm was downloaded. Then, the worm sent out emails with copies of itself from the infected computer to spread and infect more users.

Desktop wallpaper displayed by Valentin.E.

Storm Worm: This worm spread via email by employing a number of lures, one of them exploiting Valentine’s Day. If the targeted user clicked the link in the email, a Web page was displayed while the worm was downloaded in the background.

Web page displayed by Storm Worm

PandaLabs offers users a series of tips to avoid falling victim to computer threats:

• Do not open emails or messages received on social networks from unknown senders.

• Do not click any links included in email messages, even though they may come from reliable sources. It is better to type the URL directly in the browser. This rule applies to messages received through any mail client, as well as those in Facebook, Twitter, or other social networks or messaging applications, etc. If you do click on any such links, take a close look at the page you arrive at. If you don’t recognize it, close your browser.

• Do not run attached files that come from unknown sources. Especially these days, stay on the alert for files that claim to be Valentine Day’s greeting cards, romantic videos, etc.
• Even if the page seems legitimate, but asks you to download something, you should be suspicious and don’t accept the download. If, in any event, you download and install any type of executable file and you begin to see unusual messages on your computer, you have probably been infected with malware.
• If you are making any purchases online, type the address of the store in the browser, rather than going through any links that have been sent to you. Only buy online from sites that have a solid reputation and offer secure transactions, encrypting all information that is entered in the page.

• Do not use shared or public computers, or an unsecured WiFi connection, for making transactions or operations that require you to enter passwords or other personal details.

• Have an effective security solution installed, capable of detecting both known and new malware strains.

Panda Security offers you several free tools for scanning computers for malware, like Panda Cloud Antivirus: www.cloudantivirus.com

PandaLabs, the antimalware laboratory of Panda Security, has released its 2011 Annual Security Report, which details an extremely interesting year of data theft, social networking attacks and cyber-warfare. According to the report, malware creation hit a new record high in 2011 with 26 million new strains in circulation, nearly one-third of all malware that has ever existed and been classified by the company (88 million).

These figures show cyber-criminals’ sheer capacity to automate the creation of new malware variants, further evidenced by the average number of new threats created and released every day increasing from 63,000 to 73,000 since last year. Panda Security leverages Collective Intelligence, a cloud-based proprietary system that automatically detects, analyzes and classifies 99.4 percent of all malware received, leaving just 0.6 percent to be dealt with manually. In November 2011, PandaLabs announced that Collective Intelligence had reached a historic milestone by processing 200 million files, and this number has already reached 210 million.

Malware

In 2011, Trojans dominated the threat landscape more than ever before. Whereas in 2009 Trojans made up 60 percent of all malware, the percentage dropped to 56 percent in 2010. Last year, however, the percentage jumped up to 73 percent, so that three out of every four new malware strains created were Trojans, followed by viruses (14.24 percent) and worms (8.13 percent).

The countries leading the list of most infections are once again Thailand, China and Taiwan, with 60, 56 and 52 percent of infected computers respectively. These are actually the only countries that exceed the worldwide average of 38.49 percent.

2011: The year of cyber-attacks, social media and cyber-war

The report offers a general view of the most important events regarding computer security in 2011. Sony suffered a massive breach that led to the theft of data belonging to 100 million user accounts in what is probably the largest-ever Internet security break-in, whereas the Steam video game service, used by 35 million people, was also compromised by hackers.

Social networking sites, mainly Facebook and Twitter, play a vital role in the life of Internet users and are extensively covered in the report. 2011 witnessed the launch of a new social media service in a bid to rival Facebook: Google+. Despite its rapid growth, with more than 25 million users registered in just few weeks, Google+ is still far away from its direct competitor, Facebook, which makes it less of a target for cyber-crooks.

Cyber-war also grabbed headlines in 2011. The number of cyber-attacks multiplied all over the world, affecting governments and government contractors -like weapons manufacturers- alike.  Besides offering an overview of the most significant events in the computer security field, the 2011 Annual Security Report also forecasts future trends for 2012.

The full report is available at: http://press.pandasecurity.com/press-room/reports/. Visit the PandaLabs blog for more information about these and other threats:  http://pandalabs.pandasecurity.com/

PandaLabs, Panda Security’s anti-malware laboratory, has recently detected a new Facebook scam that uses a fake video of singer Katy Perry and ex-husband actor Russell Brand to trick users.

If the user clicks the link, they are taken to a fake Facebook page where they are invited to download a plug-in to watch the video. The page indicates that over 4,000 people have already clicked the “Like” button, which is used by the scammers to trick victims into believing that the video is legitimate.

If the user tries to play the video, the worm will act differently depending on the browser used. On Internet Explorer, the worm displays an age verification page to access an application called “X-Ray Scanner”.

Then, before the user can take any other action, the browser takes them to a typical scam site where they are asked to enter their phone number. However, if they do so, they will start receiving unwanted premium rate text messages.

The infection is even more serious on Firefox and Chrome, as the worm installs a browser plug-in and uses it to post the scam to the victims’ friends’ pages.

According to Luis Corrons, technical director of PandaLabs, “Once again, user curiosity becomes cyber-criminals’ best ally. Scammers exploit people’s interest in this couple to infect users, who click the malicious link and download the worm without taking any precautions. This has two negative effects: on one hand, users infect their own computers; and on the other, a message is automatically sent to all of their Facebook friends.”

Social engineering is cyber-crooks’ weapon of choice to spread their creations through social media. The fact that users themselves unknowingly send the malicious links to friends facilitates malware distribution as people are more likely to click on a link received from a reliable source. There have been similar cases in the past. Last year, for example, over 80,000 users fell victim to a scam exploiting Steve Jobs’s death.

PandaLabs offers users tips on how to avoid falling victim to this type of scam:

• Be wary of websites offering sensational videos or unusual stories.
• Before you click on a link sent by one of your contacts, make sure it has been intentionally sent by your friend and it is not the result of a massive scam like this one.
• Don’t accept friend requests from people you don’t know. This will help keep your privacy safe.
• Always keep your computer’s operating system and Web browsers up to date, and make sure you have an up-to-date antivirus solution installed.

If, however, you suspect you have fallen into the trap:

• Check your browser plug-ins and remove any suspicious ones.
• Check the applications that have permission to access your Facebook account, and delete those you don’t know.
• Change your Facebook account password. If you use the same credentials to sign in to other services as well, change them too. It is always better to take all necessary precautions.

More information is available in the PandaLabs Blog.

Panda Security, The Cloud Security Company, today announced that Panda Cloud Antivirus Free Edition, the world’s fastest growing cloud-based antivirus, has once again been certified by the prestigious AV-Test.org independent lab. The institute evaluated the protection, repair, usability and performance impact of 23 home user and 8 corporate antivirus products under Windows 7 in November and December 2011.

Panda Security’s free consumer antivirus solution scored highly across the board, and achieved top rankings in usability (5.5 out of 6 points). In addition, it obtained an excellent score in protection (5 points), well above the average for other solutions.

AV-Test evaluations measure how much each solution impacts overall system performance while still delivering good levels of protection. Of all products tested, Panda Cloud Antivirus Free Edition had the least impact, registering 50 percent below average for other products tested.  In terms of accuracy, Panda Cloud Antivirus recorded only one false positive –a legitimate file erroneously tagged as malware– out of the more than 481,000 test files, whereas other products tested averaged fifteen incorrect detections. The full report is available at: http://www.av-test.org/en/tests/test-reports/

This is the third consecutive award of the AV-Test ‘Certified’ seal for Panda Cloud Antivirus, and continues a trend of recognition for the company’s free cloud-based protection after the tests carried out in July-August and September-October. In addition to that, independent lab AV-Comparatives recognized the software with Advanced+ certification in its latest ‘On-demand Detection of Malicious Software’ test. More information on these tests is available at: http://press.pandasecurity.com/news/panda-cloud-antivirus-achieves-advanced-rating-in-its-first-participation-in-av-comparatives-tests/

Panda Cloud Antivirus Free Edition 1.5.1, the latest iteration of the software, includes performance improvements as well as new functionality requested by Panda Security’s user community. Since Cloud Antivirus’ initial release in 2009 as the first free ‘in the cloud’ security service for home users, millions of PC users around the world have benefitted from its award-winning protection and light footprint. This low resource usage is a primary benefit of Collective Intelligence, Panda’s proprietary technology for automatically collecting and processing millions of malware samples in the cloud instead of locally on the user’s PC, as is the case with traditionally architected antivirus solutions.

For more information about Panda Cloud Antivirus and to download the product, please visit http://www.cloudantivirus.com.

Panda Security, The Cloud Security Company, is obtaining excellent results with Panda Cloud Partner Center. Since its initial release in May 2011, and following the improvements introduced in version 2.1 in October 2011, the number of users has increased by 112 percent, over half of which are new Panda Security partners. This spectacular growth is due to the features included in the solution, which enables simple customer lifecycle management from trial, to purchase, to renewal. To use the solution, service providers just have to sign up to become an authorized partner at http://www.pandasecurity.com/enterprise/solutions/cloud-partner-center/ With Panda Cloud Partner Center, partners can manage all channel activity online in real-time, while remotely enabling protection for customers’ email and endpoints, such as servers, PCs and laptops.

In addition, the solution lets partners manage and monitor customers’ lifecycle and take better advantage of new business opportunities through better insight into license extension and cross-selling opportunities. It also simplifies the renewal process for service providers with customizable tools to streamline channel management, enabling them to assign new and existing customers trial versions of new products.

According to Joao Matos, Panda Security’s General Manager for Latin America, Iberia and Canada, “The results obtained by Panda Cloud Partner Center couldn’t be better. This is proof that the path we embarked on some years ago was the right one. We have very positive feedback from our partners, and this helps us make our solutions even better.” Matos added that, “Panda Cloud Partner Center has become very popular with channel partners, with many of them wanting to use it after hearing about its ease of use and excellent features.”

Channel partners who want to sign up and benefit from the advantages offered by Panda Cloud Partner Center only have to join the Panda Partners program at http://www.pandasecurity.com/enterprise/solutions/cloud-partner-center/, or contact the Panda Security sales team.

Panda Security, The Cloud Security Company, today announced the beta release of Panda Cloud Office Protection 6.0, its cloud-based security service for protecting PCs, servers and corporate laptops, managed remotely from anywhere through its Web-based console. The beta can be downloaded for free at http://www.pandasecurity.com/promotions/betatest/pcop. The company has also launched a couple of initiatives to push the beta release: The first 200 new customers who use the beta on at least two PCs will receive six months of free service (up to 250 licenses). In addition, the beta testers who suggest the most helpful improvements will be awarded with a $200 Amazon.com gift certificate.

The new release includes device control technologies against malware in external devices, allowing companies to increase productivity by preventing improper use of those media. This technology allows companies to enforce actions -deny access, force read-only access, grant total access- on multiple types of devices (USB flash drives, digital cameras, DVDs, etc.) from the Panda Cloud Office Protection Web-based console

Panda Cloud Office Protection is one of the best security solutions on the market. It includes policies to block dangerous actions commonly carried out by malware, self-protection against malware that tries to damage or remove the antivirus, and real-time access to Collective Intelligence.

The new version uses Windows Azure, an Internet-scale cloud services platform hosted in Microsoft data centers and designed to support highly available, scalable and reliable applications. Windows Azure uses a set of privacy and security controls that ensure maximum protection of its hosted data and applications.

To download the free beta and get more information about the contest, please visit: http://www.pandasecurity.com/promotions/betatest/pcop

According to PandaLabs, the antimalware laboratory of Panda Security, the Cloud Security Company, privacy violations and data theft will be the top security issues organizations need to focus on in the coming year. Cyber-espionage and social networking attacks will be the trends to watch, together with other, more traditional threats.

Cyber-espionage aimed at companies and government agencies will be as predominant as this year. From New Zealand to Canada, from Japan to the European Parliament, there have been countless attacks aimed at stealing secret or classified information. According to Luis Corrons, Technical Director of PandaLabs: “We live in a world where all the information is in digital form, so modern-day spies no longer need to infiltrate a building to steal information. As long as they have the necessary computer skills, they can wreak havoc and access the best-kept secrets of organizations without ever leaving their living-rooms.”

In the case of home users, cyber-criminals will continue to target social media sites to steal personal data. Social engineering techniques exploiting users’ weaknesses have become the leading attack method for hackers. “Social networking sites provide a space where users feel safe as they interact with friends and family. The problem is that attackers are creating worms that take advantage of that false sense of security to spread their creations, and it is really easy for them to trick users with generic messages like “Look, you’re on this video” for example. Sometimes, curiosity can be our own worst enemy” explained Corrons.

Following is a summary of what PandaLabs predicts as the major security trends of 2012:

• Mobile malware: Over ten years ago, antivirus companies started making dire predictions of a mobile malware epidemic. Years later, as the situation was not as apocalyptic as predicted, they started claiming that the installation of antivirus software on mobile phones had prevented the catastrophe. Well, they were wrong again. If having an antivirus solution were enough to solve all types of malware problems, the world would be a happier place. Unfortunately though, both users and security vendors alike are in the hands of cyber-crooks, who are the ones who decide which platform to target. In this context, last year PandaLabs predicted a surge in cyber attacks on mobile phones, and the fact that Android has become the number one mobile target for cyber-crooks in 2011 confirms that prediction. In 2012 there will be new attacks on Android, but it will not be on a massive scale. New mobile payment methods –via NFC for example– could become the next big target for Trojans but, as always, this will largely depend on their popularity.

• Malware for tablets: The fact that tablets share the same operating system as smartphones means that they will be soon targeted by the same malware as those platforms. In addition, tablets might draw a special interest from cyber-crooks as people are using them for an increasing number of activities and they are more likely to store sensitive data than, say, a smartphone.

• Mac malware: As the market share of Mac users continues to grow, the number of threats will grow. Fortunately enough, it seems that Mac users are now more aware that Mac is not immune to malware attacks and they are increasingly using antivirus programs, hindering cyber-crooks. The number of malware specimens for Mac will continue to grow in 2012, although much less than for PCs.

• PC malware: In the past few years, the number of malware threats has grown exponentially, and everything seems to indicate that the trend will continue in 2012. Trojans are cyber-crooks’ weapon of choice for their attacks, as shown by the fact that three out of every four new malware strains created in 2011 were Trojans, designed to sit silently on users’ computers and steal their information.

• Cyber-crooks targeting small to medium-sized companies: Why do cyber-criminals target online banking customers instead of directly attacking banking institutions to steal money? The answer to this question has to do with the cost-benefit ratio of the attack: Financial entities are usually very well protected, and the chance of launching a successful attack is remote and very costly. However, attacking their customers to steal their identity and impersonate them is much simpler. The security of small to medium-sized companies is not that strong, and this makes them very attractive for cyber-thieves, who can steal data from hundreds or thousands of users in one go. On many occasions, small to medium-sized companies do not have dedicated security teams, which makes them much more vulnerable.

• Windows 8: The next version of Microsoft’s popular operating system is scheduled for November 2012, so even though it is not supposed to have much on an impact on the malware landscape in the coming year, it will surely offer cyber-crooks new opportunities to create malicious software. Windows 8 will allow users to develop applications for virtually any device (PCs, tablets and smartphones) running Windows 8, so it will be possible to develop malicious applications like those for Android. This, in any event, will probably not take place until 2013.

“The overall picture is not improving. As new technologies advance, cyber-crooks develop new modes of attack sometimes by simply adapting old techniques to the new platforms. In the end, users’ false sense of security is cyber-crooks’ best friend.”

More information is available in the PandaLabs Blog.

Fine IT, a leading provider of IT support and services with over 10 years of experience, has chosen Panda Security’s cloud-based solution Panda Cloud Email Protection to protect its own and its customer’s email communications. Panda Cloud Email Protection is a managed security service that ensures email protection by ridding companies of spam and malware, eliminating non-productive traffic at the network perimeter.

Fine IT uses Panda’s solution to protect the email communication of its more than 300 PCs, as well as its customers’ systems. “Panda Cloud Email Protection moves spam filtering to the cloud, and its superior malware protection provides my customers with the complete confidence that their networks are protected”, commented Robert Melluish, Managing Director at Fine IT. “Other solutions we have evaluated or been asked to support have proven to be both hard to implement and cumbersome to manage, but Panda offers a solution that is flexible in implementation, management and scalability”.

Fine IT‘s business model required a Security as a Service solution, and Panda Cloud Email Protection proved to be the best option to protect the networks of small businesses that are inherently resource-constrained and often lack dedicated IT staff. For Fine IT it is also important that the solutions they provide can be managed remotely to minimize the number of site visits required.

As a support company, Fine IT manages more than 100 customers at any given time.  Therefore it is essential that the products Fine IT implements are easy to install and maintain.  Panda Cloud Email Protection works in synergy with Fine IT’s business model, enabling Melluish and his team to maintain guaranteed spam-free email remotely.

The biggest single advantage that Melluish considers from his relationship with Panda is the superior service levels.  “From my dealings with their competitors, Panda’s most significant differentiator is their incredible support -with named account managers and technicians. I know that if there are any issues then there will be real people immediately on hand to assist me in supporting my customers.”

“Our partnership with Panda Security for the past 7 years has undoubtedly helped contribute to our growth and success as an IT service provider,” said Melluish. “By providing industry-leading technology and dedicated UK-based support Panda allows us to deliver our customers’ security needs”.

Panda Cloud Email Protection is a complete, managed security service that ensures email protection by ridding companies of spam and malware, blocking unproductive traffic at the perimeter. The service is totally configurable and provides antispam and antimalware protection, as well as email continuity and content filtering.

It offers a 24×7 technical support service with security experts, ensuring email security, availability and confidentiality. The service leverages state-of-the-art technologies including PandaLabs Collective Intelligence scanning and support.

More information about Panda Cloud Email Protection is available at: http://go.pandasecurity.com/cloud-email-protection/

Check out the Fine IT customer success story at:  http://press.pandasecurity.com/press-room/case-studies/

Panda Security, The Cloud Security Company, today announced that Panda Cloud Antivirus Free Edition, the world’s fastest growing cloud-based antivirus, has been certified for the second time by the prestigious AV-Test.org independent lab. The tests, which replicate today’s real-world threat scenarios, evaluated 25 home user products under Windows XP (SP3, 32-bit) in September and October 2011. The full report is available at: http://www.av-test.org/en/tests/test-reports/.

Panda Security’s free consumer antivirus solution scored highly across the board, and was the only product to achieve a perfect ranking (six out of six points) for performance and usability.

AV-Test evaluations measure how much each solution impacts overall system performance while still delivering good levels of protection. Of all products tested, Panda Cloud Antivirus Free Edition had the least impact, registering 70 percent below average for other products tested. In terms of accuracy, Panda Cloud Antivirus recorded only one false positive – a legitimate file erroneously tagged as malware – out of the more than 450,000 test files; other products tested averaged a dozen incorrect detections.

This is the second consecutive award of the AV-Test ‘Certified’ seal for Panda Cloud Antivirus, and continues a trend of recognition for the company’s free cloud-based protection. Independent lab AV-Comparatives recognized the software with Advanced+ certification in its latest “On-demand Detection of Malicious Software” test. More information on these tests is available at: http://press.pandasecurity.com/news/panda-cloud-antivirus-achieves-advanced-rating-in-its-first-participation-in-av-comparatives-tests/

Panda Cloud Antivirus Free Edition 1.5.1, the latest iteration of the software, includes performance improvements as well as new functionality requested by Panda Security’s user community. Since Cloud Antivirus’ initial release in 2009 as the first free ‘in the cloud’ security service for home users, millions of PC users around the world have benefitted from its award-winning protection and light footprint. This low resource usage is a primary benefit of Collective Intelligence, Panda’s proprietary technology for automatically collecting and processing millions of malware samples in the cloud instead of locally on the user’s PC, as is the case with traditionally-architected antivirus solutions.

For more information about Panda Cloud Antivirus and to download the product, please visit http://www.cloudantivirus.com

Panda Security today announced that Panda Global Protection 2012 has won the 2011 Best Security Software Award given by the prestigious PC World Latin America magazine. The award was received by Eduardo D’Antona, Panda Security’s General Manager for Latin America, in a gala held on November 3 at the Conrad Hotel in Miami.

The Awards have become a landmark of the industry in the region. A panel of judges from the magazine’s editorial team chose 138 finalists out of a total of 210 nominees from 35 companies in the various categories. Panda Global Protection won in its category over products by other security vendors, such as CheckPoint, Eset, Fortinet, Kasperksy, TrustPort, VMWare and Websense.

Joao Matos, General Manager for Latin America, Iberia and Canada, said: “This award is very important for us as it recognizes the hard work and effort the entire Panda Security group has put into offering users a high-quality, cloud-based product that leverages our Collective Intelligence technology. This award confirms that we are on the right track and offer the best solutions in the market”.

“The 2010 awards saw Panda Cloud Antivirus, the fist free cloud-based antivirus, crowned Best Security Software. This new award further confirms that our solutions stay on the technological vanguard”, said D’Antona.

Designed for home and corporate users, Panda Global Protection 2012 is the most comprehensive solution in Panda Security’s new 2012 product line. It delivers real-time protection against known and unknown threats by leveraging the knowledge and experience of millions of users through Panda’s unique Collective Intelligence technology.

Collective Intelligence, the engine powering Panda Security’s cloud-based solutions, has recently reached a historic milestone by processing 200 million files, nearly 40 percent of which were malware specimens.

For more information about Panda Global Protection 2012, please visit  http://www.pandasecurity.com/homeusers/solutions/global-protection/