Many of you have read the last few weeks that we published posts on trends for 2012 in the field of malware and cybercrime. In this series I wrote a post based on the document that the Education and Research team of ESET Latin America put together, entitled “2012 Predictions: More mobile malware and localized
If you use Facebook you’ve probably heard of Timeline, a “new” feature that replaces the “traditional” profile page. However, you may be confused by Timeline–I know I am–and confusion could make you the target of a growing number of Timeline-related scams. As of January 3rd, the watchful folks at Inside Facebook were reporting 16 Timeline-related
As expected, malware developers and scam artists have greeted the death of North Korea's dictatorial leader, Kim Jong-il, with Black Hat SEO and Social Engineering attacks. The Supreme Leader of the Democratic People's Republic of Korea suffered a heart attack on a train journey last month and a steady stream of schemes to exploit the
Okay, you got the wrapping paper off the new tablet hotness, fired it up and now cannot put it down. But what should you be doing in the New Year to properly feed, protect, and care for your newly found addiction? Well here are some of the basics – things that are easy to do
ESET researchers examine the evolution of bootkit threats targeting 64-bit Windows over 2011.
You just got a new wireless router for Christmas, but when you set it up it asks about wireless security. Do you want WEP, WPA, WPA2 or any of the other alphabet soup options they give? While it’s easiest to just pick the default setting, are you setting yourself up for trouble from aspiring hackers?
Dazzlepod is saying ... if your account name comes up, change your current password ... why not assume that your account is compromised and go ahead and change it anyway and everywhere?
SOPA as currently constructed can never work as intended. I'm not going to get into the reasons we don't like it because of its oppressive implications or because it is against our first amendment rights nor for any other reason (there's been so much other commentary on those issues that it would be superfluous). I
Recently we noted that unencrypted credit card storage was on the rise in 2011, and also highlighted the expense involved to the company in the event of a credit card breach. Now we see personal data – including unencrypted credit card information – being paraded out as a part of the recent Stratfor hack. Also,
Hacktivism, the hacking of information systems to advance a social or political agenda, was clearly a major trend in 2011, which is why hactivism was noted several times in our cyberthreat predictions for 2012 (in other words, we think you're going to see more of it). That prediction was underlined by the news on Christmas
Exactly how people will abuse digital technology for their own ends is difficult to predict, but organizations must plan ahead to protect data and systems. That's why we have been posting our "best guess" cybersecurity predictions on the Threat Blog this month. Today we present 9 of the most important predictions in the form of
Ransomware, the practice of providing fake notifications that “you’re infected” and then selling a fake solution that removes the fake malware they just installed, has been a boon for scammers. Now, they’re taking it a step farther, throwing in a law enforcement scare. In this latest scam, an official-looking banner appears on infected machines, purporting
I want share with you what ESET Latin America’s Research team thinks will be the main trends in malware and cybercrime in 2012. In our office it is usual to produce an analysis of emerging trends in a year-end report and so, in keeping with recent postings by my ESET colleagues, I present a summary
We’ve noted recently that many companies store credit card information in an unencrypted form, sometimes several years' worth. So what happens if your systems get hacked before you get around to securing that credit card data? Sure, there’s the embarrassment of telling your customers their data has been exposed–a legal requirement in more than 40
...there's an uptick today in rogue "Eat for Free at Cheesecake Factory!" wall posts...it's a survey scam with no payoff. Well, not for you. The scammers seem to be doing quite nicely out of it.
To round out our series of malware and cybercrime predictions here are some of my thoughts on what the next 12 months will bring. I expect more high profile arrests of cyber-criminals but no abatement in criminal activity that seeks to profit at the expense of data owners. Some of these arrests will occur in
We recently noted that the data broker industry, in conjunction with social media outlets will become increasingly relied upon as a kind of shadow credit score for judging candidates’ qualifications. Now we see a startup that uses your Facebook profile directly to determine a “credit score” used for microloans. We hear horror stories of lost
While I share the reluctance of my colleagues to predict the future, I think there are some trends that can be classified as “reasonably likely to occur” in 2012. I make no promises, but here’s what I think we will see, in no particular order of importance or certainty. We will see increased interest in
This article was written in collaboration with my colleague Jean-Ian Boutin. The Wigon botnet (also known as Cutwail) is being used in a massive spam campaign. A multitude of ruses are used to get the user to click on a link: fake LinkedIn or Facebook notifications, free Windows licenses, fake deliveries etc. The links are
In 2011 we saw an increase concern about, and scrutiny of, what exactly social networking sites do with the data you input, both internally as well as what gets shared with third parties. But in 2012 some of that scrutiny will shift to those third parties as more people ask: What are they doing with
