The U.S. Department of Justice announced today that the Gameover Zeus (GOZ) botnet has been taken down in an effort dubbed “Operation Tovar.” The action was the result of a multinational effort between government agencies, law enforcement, and private companies to shut down the massive botnet responsible for more than $ 100 million in losses for victims. The cooperation necessary to take down the botnet is impressive, but there will be more, and it’s important for individuals to understand how to avoid falling victim to these threats.
Latest eBay flaw is a rookie mistake for a website
When it rains it pours for eBay. Less than a week after the popular website revealed it was the victim of a massive data breach and directed users to change their passwords, researchers have discovered that it is vulnerable to serious flaws that could allow an attacker to access user accounts. Individuals need to know how to guard against falling victim to these security issues, and other businesses need to learn from eBay’s mistakes and do a better job of protecting resources on the Web.
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Categories: General.
eBay hack could result in social engineering schemes
You’ve probably heard by now that eBay is the latest victim of a massive data breach. The popular site has asked users to reset their passwords as a precautionary measure, but the data that matters most is already compromised, and there is nothing you can do to “reset” it.
Details are still sketchy—sort of standard operating procedure for data breach incidents. What we know is that the breach occurred between February and early March, but was just recently discovered. eBay claims that email addresses, encrypted passwords, names, addresses, telephone numbers, and user’s birth dates were compromised.
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Categories: General.
Why a larger Surface Pro makes more sense
Microsoft is hosting a media event in New York tomorrow, ostensibly to unveil new models of its Surface tablet line. Most of the speculation suggests Microsoft will announce some sort of “Surface Mini,” but a larger “Surface XL”—or something to that effect—would be much more useful.
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Categories: General.
Attack of the clones: detect fake antimalware with these tips
Security researchers have been stressing the dramatic rise in mobile malware for a few years now—which naturally leads to more users downloading and using some sort of mobile antimalware app. But now even malware protection has become a risk: last month the popular Virus Shield Android app was outed as fraud, and this week Kaspersky announced the discovery of a pair of fake apps using its name in the Google and Windows Phone app stores.
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Categories: General.
FCC puts first nail in the coffin of net neutrality
The FCC has voted to start the formal process of establishing new “Net Neutrality” rules. More accurately, the FCC has begun the process of killing the concept of net neutrality in favor of a system that lets broadband providers make money from both sides and charge companies for faster, priority delivery of Internet content.
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Categories: General.
Brandpost: Report: Phishing scams increasingly using mobile apps to bait victims
When it comes down to it, spam and phishing scams rely primarily on exploiting trust. If the attacker can find a way to make the message appear to be from a known source, the odds that a user will take the bait are much higher. This has led to malware infections that access your contacts and send out infected emails on your behalf to everyone you know, and those same basic techniques have been adapted for instant messaging, social networks, and even SMS text messaging. According to a new report from Kaspersky Lab, Mobile apps are the new frontier.
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Categories: General.
IE zero day is the first sign of the XPocalypse
Well, it took a bit longer than many security experts expected, but the first big security threat for Windows XP users has arrived. The zero day vulnerability will be quickly patched by Microsoft—for supported platforms at least. That means that this will be the first of many open wounds for Windows XP—known vulnerabilities left exposed because the OS is no longer supported by Microsoft.
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Categories: General.
Report: Attackers have their sights set on the cloud
If you want to catch trout, you have to fish where the trout swim. That same logic applies for cyber criminals—they will focus their efforts wherever there is a fair chance of finding targets to prey on. This is underscored by a new report from Alert Logic that reveals a dramatic rise in cloud-based attacks as more businesses and individuals migrate applications and data to the cloud.
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Categories: General.