Bad news for Firefox users out there, as they’ve been warned that there could be some malware heading their direction if they’re not careful. The news comes after Mozilla confirmed that a new ‘zero-day’ exploit is being used by cyber criminals.

This is exactly what it looks like when Firefox is attacked by malware. Exactly.

The latest critical vulnerability is believed to affect version 3.5 and 3.6 of the Firefox browser, and has already provided opportunity to malware makers. Continue Reading

A Microsoft security expert has warned that Java-based malware attacks are rapidly on the rise. The expert in question, Holly Stewart, has revealed that while working on the company’s Security Intelligence Report she noticed an unprecedented amount of Java exploitation late last year.

“In fact, by the beginning of this year, the number of Java exploits (and by that I mean attacks on vulnerable Java code, not attacks using JavaScript) had well surpassed the total number of Adobe-related exploits we monitored,” she says. This surge of attacks is focused on three vulnerabilities – however the thing that is really getting under Stewart’s skin is that these weaknesses have already been patched but the general public just aren’t updating their PCs. Continue Reading

Earlier in the year we brought you news of a terrible plight befalling a group of previously successful individuals. Yes, the humble burglar had seen his traditional business model crushed by falling technology prices*. Well, now it seems that the threat of physical theft is dropping off for businesses around the globe as well, while the threat of electronic theft rises.

She really should have seen that coming.

Companies have, for the first time, reported they are losing more through electronic theft of data than physical stealing of assets according to risk consultancy firm, Kroll who published this finding in the company’s annual report on international fraud trends. Continue Reading

Attempts to stem the tide of illegal downloads have created quite a few headlines in Ireland this week. However, no country – and certainly not Ireland – has really come up with a viable legal strategy to tackle people downloading tunes illegally to their home PCs whenever they want. The French however, have a new tactic.

As music filesharing stock photography goes, I’ve seen worse.

Citizens there (well those aged 12 to 25) are to be encouraged to buy music via a state-subsidised scheme. Stick with us, it makes sense eventually.

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The PR crowd at security software experts Sophos seem to have been a busy bunch of late, and after blasting Facebook for what they deemed to be overly complex and generally flawed changes to the social network’s ‘Groups’ section, today they have brought out a report that names and shames the worst countries on the planet for relaying spam.

They might like spam, most of us just want rid of it though.

The US is number one on this score according to Sophos, with India second – Ireland meanwhile, comes in at number 50 on the list. Said the report: “Since the second quarter this year, the spam output from the United States has increased significantly from 15.2% to 18.6% of global spam, making the country responsible for nearly one in five junk emails, and meaning that the USA contributes nearly 2.5 times more spam than the next worse offender, India.”

Some of the top spam relaying countries for July to September 2010 are as follows: Continue Reading

Cyber criminals wouldn’t be known for their sentimentality. Most likely they’ve long since abandoned their once treasured copies of ‘Hackers’ and now they’ve gone and dumped the old reliable Zeus botnet.

Instead, the more clued-in software scamps are now using a stronger version of the malware called Bugat which is apparently far harder to detect that the Zeus Trojan… well it is in the sense that companies are now looking out for Zeus more than ever before, while Bugat barely gets a second thought. Continue Reading

The FBI, you would assume, only employs the very latest technology when choosing to spy on enemies both foreign and domestic. So it comes as something of a surprise to find out that they recently used a GPS device similar to something OJ Simpson’s character in ‘The Naked Gun’ might have attached to a suspicious van (before being hilariously dragged away after getting his sleeve caught in the exhaust), to spy on a US student.

Detective Nordberg not pictured.

Their target was a 20year-old California resident Yasir Afifi, who, while fiddling about with his car, spotted a cluster of suspicious looking wires in close proximity to the right rear wheel of his vehicle. He then found them to be connected to an ancient looking tracking device (pictured above). Continue Reading

Avast has decided to release a list of what they believe to be the most infected game websites out there. “The increased popularity of gaming brings with it greater security risks due to unsafe player behaviour and more cyber-criminals following the crowds in pursuit of new victims,” says a blog from the security software experts.

Mariogamesplay.com was named as one of the "most infected" game websites out there.

The list of the riskiest sites are as follows: Continue Reading

Security software experts at Sophos have decided to air some concerns over upcoming changes to Facebook’s ‘Groups’ system. While a Sophos representative says that the changes “suggest a step in the right direction” towards protecting personal information online, the new additions may in fact add complexity, rather than improving online safety.

Facebook chief Mark Zuckerberg announced yesterday that several alterations are being made to the site, in particular with regards to the Groups system. Zuckerberg revealed there would be “tighter control” over Groups and a dashboard amongst the Facebook privacy interface to show what Facebook applications have access to user’s data. Continue Reading

The FBI has announced that it’s cracked a “major international cyber crime network” after more than 90 suspected members of the ring were arrested in the US. According to the BBC the suspects worked for fraudsters based in Eastern Europe who hacked into US computers to steal over €50 million.

Stock-photo-tastic! I’m guessing the ‘money mules’ didn’t dress like this all the time.

The FBI said the suspects acted as go-betweens or ‘money mules’ by providing bank accounts for an elaborate cyber crime scheme. The arrests were part of what the Bureau called “one of the largest cyber criminal cases we have ever investigated”, and most of those arrested in the US were charged with conspiracy to commit bank fraud and money laundering. Meanwhile, more people were detained in Ukraine and the UK.

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