Win32/Quervar (a.k.a Dorifel, XDocCrypt) is a virus family that has been in the news recently, especially in the Netherlands. It has been reported to be causing havoc on computers of several notable Dutch institutions. In our analysis, we provide additional technical details about the workings of the virus and compare it to another virus, the

A crime wave of malware that demands money from victims to avoid prosecution by the FBI has been alarming web surfers across America. Victims suddenly find their computer frozen, and an official-looking  page, like the one shown below, is displayed in their web browser. The FBI and the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3) have received

Last week, reports of a new malware named Gauss emerged, a complex threat that has attracted a lot of media attention due to its links to Stuxnet and Flame and its geographical distribution.  Since ESET has added detection for this threat, we are seeing geographical distribution of detection reports similar to those detailed by Kaspersky.

Win32/Gataka is an information-stealing banking Trojan that can read all of your web traffic and alter the balance displayed on your online banking page to hide fraudulent transfers. It exhibits a modular architecture similar to that of SpyEye, where plugins are required to achieve most of the malware functionality. In our previous blog post, we

Sharing details of the hack that “wiped his life” has earned Mat Honan a place in the annals of information system security; the specific inter-dependence of flawed authentication systems that cost him so dearly–encompassing Apple, iCloud, Amazon.com, Gmail and more–would probably still exist if Mat had not gone public. Wired has the full story here

Part of my daily routine here at ESET is to inspect URLs for new trends and malware campaigns identified by our systems. A couple of weeks ago I noticed a group of URLs with a similar pattern. When I investigated further, I found out that the URLs pointed to copies of legitimate web sites with

For years scammers and hackers  focused largely on Windows x86-based platforms, in many ways because that’s where the bulk of the users were. But times change, and new targets emerge. At Blackhat and Defcon last week we saw a flurry of talks on Mac OSX/iOS security,  trying to illuminate possible chinks in the armor. From

After my colleague Stephen Cobb stood in a huge line at Defcon waiting to get into the Friday keynote by NSA chief General Alexander, plus a swarm of interest shown at the two-part Meet the Fed panel presentation the next day, it’s becoming clear that multiple agencies of the federal government are focused on hackers,

If your organization’s website runs on Apache, and many do, you might wonder if the webserver’s .htaccess controls are securely configured. If you believe the demo we saw yesterday at Blackhat by Matias Katz and Maximiliano Soler, the answer is a resounding ‘NO!’ What Katz and Soler described in their session is not some rare

Blackhat keynote speaker Shawn Henry, the former executive assistant director of the FBI’s Criminal, Cyber, Response and Service Branch, started off the day after opening remarks from Jeff Moss, founder of Blackhat. Moss wondered if now was the time for the cyber-security sector to take a more aggressive/offensive approach. Jeff mentioned working for a former