* Sorry, but I couldn't resist a Crosby reference. I was more than a little irritated over the weekend – see Faith, Hope, Charity and Manipulation - by Microsoft's use of the Japanese disaster to give the Bing search engine a little extra exposure using a chaintweet technique: How you can #SupportJapan – http://binged.it/fEh7iT. For every retweet,

We've already discussed a lo-tech but surprisingly effective attack on ATM users here and elsewhere. However, Brian Krebs has recently posted on more conventional skimming attacks: Green Skimmers Skimming Green. An interesting and useful comment thread too. However, in view of the mentions there of chip and pin technology, it's worth pointing out that while

I've added some commentary and resources on the Japan earthquake/tsunami disasters to an independent blog I maintain that specializes in hoaxes, scams and so forth, but here are a few of the same resources that aren't already included in my recent blogs here on the topic: Analysis from Kimberley at stopmalvertising.com: http://stopmalvertising.com/blackhat-seo/recent-japanese-earthquake-search-results-lead-to-fakeav.html Guy Bruneau at Internet

From my friend Rob Slade. He was writing at the time of the Haiti earthquake over a year ago, but the advice still stands, and not just for those who are uncomfortably near all those fault lines that seem to have been particularly restless in the last year or two. Thoughts on Haiti, Olympics, and

As you'd expect, there have already been reports of Black Hat SEO (Search Engine Optimization) being used to lure people looking for news of the earthquake and subsequent tsunami onto sites pushing fake AV. (Stop me if you've heard this before…) My colleague Urban Schrott, however, offered some pretty good advice on what to look out

CBS in San Francisco is reporting a rather novel cash machine attack. . It seems that crooks are applying superglue to the clear, enter, and cancel buttons on cash machines at banks. A customer goes to the cash machine, inserts their card and enters their PIN. Then the victim notices the enter key is not

Kelly Jackson Higgins in a Dark Reading article tells us that Malware Attacks Decline In SCADA, Industrial Control Systems, quoting a report published by the Security Incidents Organization drawing on its Repository of Industrial Security Incidents (RISI) database. One aspect that’s attracted attention on specialist lists is the mention of a large US power company

…It’s a common plot device, of course, but our increasing dependence on the technology does make it more viable…

I've been coming across several references to an email and Facebook hoax relating to a YouTube that's claimed to show 92-year-old Ginger Rogers dancing with her great-grandson. Of course, it isn't: she died in 1995 in her 80s. This isn't a threat: it's a genuine movie and an interesting enough story to stand on its own,

…today I’m waxing nostalgic about a piece of malware. Not one of those anniversaries that have filled so many blogs, articles and videos recently (happy birthday, dear Brai-ain….), but something that just popped into my mailbox…