Anti-virus - Infoworld

After infection: New schemes to restore your systems

Roger A. Grimes — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 11:00:00 +0000

In the computing world, detecting problems is far easier than fixing them. Take antimalware software: It's always been better at accurately finding viruses and the like than at cleaning up and repairing infected systems. That left security professionals with an ongoing conundrum for the past three decades: How can we be certain we've cleaned up a system once it's been compromised? Just because it tells you it's infection-free doesn't mean it is. Malware can modify one bit, and because you don't know which bit has changed, you have to do a complete recovery.

Security slackers risk Internet blackout on March 8

InfoWorld Tech Watch — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 21:53:42 +0000

Companies and home users whose computers or routers are infected by the DNSChanger Trojan risk being unable to access the Web come March 8, 2012, when the FBI unplugs the legitimate DNS servers it set up to replace the rogue DNS servers that were forwardi

Business is booming for 'malware as a service' merchants

admin — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 17:22:32 +0000

They are well organized. They pay close attention to product quality, working hard to make it effective and scalable. They are all about customer service, providing after-sales support. They even solicit the help of their customers in product development.

All admirable qualities. But all in the service of theft.

2011: The year Mac malware got interesting

InfoWorld Tech Watch — Tue, 24 Jan 2012 21:37:38 +0000

For years, security professionals have argued that Mac OS X is just as prone to digital attack as the latest Windows system. Yet, Mac users have felt safer because, let's face it, few attackers focus on Macs.

Symantec leak: Minor security threat but questions remain

InfoWorld Tech Watch — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 17:54:54 +0000

A group of purported Indian hackers claimed this week to have stolen the source code to Symantec's Norton AntiVirus soft

Symantec confirms source code leak in two enterprise security products

admin — Fri, 06 Jan 2012 12:42:46 +0000

Symantec late Thursday confirmed that source code used in two of its older enterprise security products was publicly exposed by hackers this week.

In a statement, the company said that the compromised code is between four and five years old and does not affect Symantec's consumer-oriented Norton products as had been previously speculated.

Symantec investigates possible leak of Norton AntiVirus source code

admin — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 22:58:40 +0000

Symantec is investigating claims by a group of hackers that they are in possession of source code for its Norton AntiVirus product.

The group, which uses the name "The Lords of Dharmaraja," claims to have stolen Symantec source code and documentation from the servers of Indian intelligence agencies, along with intellectual property from other software companies that have contracts with the Indian government.

AJAX-based Web exploitation attacks detected in the wild

admin — Thu, 05 Jan 2012 17:34:05 +0000

Security researchers from Web filtering vendor M86 Security have detected Web exploitation attacks that use AJAX (Asynchronous JavaScript and XML) to fragment the payload into small pieces of code that are harder to detect by antivirus programs and intrusion prevention systems.

5 security breakthroughs promise to thwart threats

admin — Mon, 12 Dec 2011 17:26:57 +0000

For the past 25 years, a war has waged between malicious programmers and the researchers trying to make computing safe for the enterprise. The battle has shown no signs of subsiding — once a new countermeasure is deployed, the hackers find new ways to make IT worried.

Leaked email reveals Microsoft Security Essentials beta program

InfoWorld Tech Watch — Fri, 18 Nov 2011 14:23:37 +0000

If you're interested in testing the next version of Microsoft Security Essentials, head over to the Microsoft Connect site.

Free Android antivirus software is 'useless,' says testing firm

InfoWorld Tech Watch — Fri, 11 Nov 2011 20:50:25 +0000

Consumers and workers who install free Android antivirus scanners from relatively unknown developers are mostly wasting their time, an independent testing firm has found.

Microsoft's Russinovich: How to stop a real 'Zero Day' disaster

J. Peter Bruzzese — Wed, 09 Nov 2011 11:00:00 +0000

I've just finished reading the book "Zero Day" by Mark Russinovich. This is the first fiction book that has computers and technology at the heart of it where I didn't angrily shout to the invisible author about the inaccuracy of the tech storyline. Even though the story is a work of fiction, the technical portion is spot-on -- and downright scary.

10 ways to secure browsing in the enterprise

admin — Tue, 01 Nov 2011 15:45:49 +0000

It goes without saying that the Internet isn't a safe place -- it's a veritable jungle. In the world of browsers, we, the users, are seen as a delicious and commonly exploited target by many adversaries. Much like in the real jungle, we most often fall prey to lurking predators that bring us down using spear phishing, drive-by downloads and all manner of malware.

The browser itself, Java, Javascript, HTML5 and plug-ins such as Adobe Flash allow us great opportunities to use rich applications, but they also open the door wide to cybercriminals.

Number of fake antivirus attacks has decreased considerably, researchers say

admin — Fri, 28 Oct 2011 16:49:45 +0000

The frequency of attacks that distribute fake antivirus software, a long-time pillar of the underground economy, has decreased considerably in recent months. However, security researchers warn that the industry is not yet dead and new versions of attacks continue to be released.

In minimizing zero-day, Microsoft misses the point

InfoWorld Tech Watch — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 19:18:49 +0000

If you've waded through Microsoft's latest Security Intelligence Report and its special Trojan horse that poses as a PDF document.

Nations with low malware rates have better ISPs

admin — Mon, 29 Aug 2011 11:48:07 +0000

Countries with good national security teams (CERTs) and diligent ISPs show consistently lower rates of malware infection than those states that adopt a less paternalistic approach to security, a new analysis by Microsoft researchers has suggested.

Google: Web-based malware growing more difficult to detect

admin — Thu, 18 Aug 2011 12:06:01 +0000

Google issued a new study on Wednesday detailing how it is becoming more difficult to identify malicious websites and attacks, with antivirus software proving to be an ineffective defense against new ones.

Beware of 'wrong transaction' hotel spam

admin — Thu, 28 Jul 2011 11:35:46 +0000

If you get an email message telling you a hotel has erroneously charged your credit card account, be careful. The odds are that it's part of a new spam campaign that could infect your computer.

The messages started popping up in recent days and there are already hundreds of variants on the same theme: A hotel wrongly charged a credit card number and the victim is supposed to fill out an attached form to process the refund.