The infamous Rustock botnet, responsible for almost half of all spam sent last year through its command-and-control system exploiting over a million compromised PCs, has suddenly slowed to a crawl, Symantec said today, noting the unexplained event has led to a substantial drop in spam.
One of the easiest ways for attackers to lure victims is by planting malware on seemingly innocent-looking Web sites, or actually compromising legitimate Web sites. Google is doing its part to help users make informed decisions about the sites they visit, and avoid having their PCs infected with a new hacked site identification feature being added to Google search results.
A new report from NSS Labs studies how various Web browsers perform when it comes to blocking socially-engineered attacks. The startling results show that Internet Explorer isn't just better than rival browsers like Chrome and Firefox -- but leaves competitors completely in the dust.
McAfee today revealed its McAfee Threat Report for the third quarter of 2010. Information like that provided by McAfee in these quarterly reports is valuable for IT admins -- enabling them to keep a finger on the pulse of malware, and to stay in touch with emerging attack techniques and trends.
With Black Friday quickly approaching, and retailers racing to outdo each other with earlier and earlier deals, it is safe to say that the holiday shopping season has begun. If you're shopping online, though, and paying with PayPal -- be warned. There is a phishing attack targeted just for you.
Microsoft has offered free protection with Microsoft Security Essentials (MSE) for some time, and it recently expanded the availability of the antivirus protection for small businesses. A recent move to push out Microsoft Security Essentials to Windows systems that don't have any antivirus protection, however, has some rival security vendors up in arms. From Microsoft's perspective, though, it's a little "damned if you do, damned if you don't".
Last week a malware threat emerged that impacted both Windows and Mac OS X systems. To be fair, the attack is more social engineering than PC exploit, but it impacts Mac OS X users just the same. ESET's David Harley has written a more detailed analysis of the Boonana threat, and identified some elements that are contrary to initial reports.
A new Firefox vulnerability reported on Tuesday affects primarily users of the browser on older versions of Windows, security firm Trend Micro has determined.
Targeted attacks via fraudulent and dangerous e-mail are on the rise, according to a Symantec report published today. These attacks are typically aimed at corporative executives, to fool them into opening malicious attachments or links so the perpetrators can take control of desktop computers.
Microsoft Security Essentials is fake. Well, it is and it isn't. Microsoft Security Essentials is a free antimalware protection program from Microsoft, but a new malware threat identified by security software vendor F-Secure is also masquerading as Microsoft Security Essentials. You want to avoid that one.
In the course of researching and preparing volume 9 of the Security Intelligence Report, Microsoft analysts discovered an interesting trend. According to Microsoft's findings, attacks against Java have recently surged to unprecedented levels -- dwarfing attacks against Adobe PDFs.
Everyone knows that the Mac OS X operating system is just inherently secure. Any Apple loyalist will gladly explain to you everything that is wrong with Microsoft Windows, and how happy they are with not having to worry about malware and exploits on their shiny new Mac. So, I guess Macs don't need security software and we have nothing left to talk about...
Microsoft this week unveiled the ninth volume of its Security Intelligence Report (SIR). The semi-annual assessment of the state of computer and Internet security and overview of the threat landscape generally yields some valuable information. This particular edition of the Security Intelligence Report focuses its attention on the threat posed by botnets.
Starting early next month, Microsoft Security Essentials, Redmond's anti-malware service for Windows PCs, will be free for small businesses to install on up to 10 PCs.
Tired of getting e-mail from Nigerian strangers offering to help you claim several million dollars? Don't want your inbox littered with offers to enlarge private body parts? Try Cloudmark DesktopOne Basic (free), which does an excellent job of killing spam before you ever read it. Even if you have a spam filter on your e-mail software, you'll find it useful.