Beware of New Android Trojan

Kaspersky, one of the top IT security organizations has reportedly discovered the “most sophisticated” android trojan yet.

known as “Backdoor.AndroidOS.Obad.a” it is able to send SMS to premium-rate numbers, download, install, and infect the device (and other devices via bluetooth) with malware, and remotely perform commands in the console.

“One feature of this Trojan is that the malicious application cannot be deleted once it has gained administrator privileges: by exploiting a previously unknown Android vulnerability, the malicious application enjoys extended privileges, but is not listed as an application with Device Administrator privileges,” said Kaspersky Lab Expert Roman Unuchek.

we know that there are lots of PINOYs using android devices, so be aware and please share.

read more @ [www.mashable.com]

Beware of Fake Anne Curtis’ Nip-Slip Virus

IT PINOYs should beware, cybercrooks are @ it again as they ride the recent infamous swimsuit mishap of Philippine actress, Anne  Curtis.

just like in the past virals (e.g. Fake “Ondoy” Antivirus), criminals would do everything and jump on every occasion just to wreak havoc by spreading new FAKEAV variants to the cybercommunity.

using blackhat (a search engine optimization/content leeching technique), cybercriminals were able to make their malicious links the top-ranking results when users search for videos of the Anne Curtis’ nip-slip incident.

read more: [blog.trendmicro.com]

Symantec Lists Top Threats in Internet History

in time for the 40th anniversary of the Internet, Symantec have just rolled out a list of the “Top Web Threats in the History of the Internet.”

At number 10: Morris (1988), Robert Morris claims that he wrote the worm in an effort to gauge the size of the Internet (duh!), unfortunately it had a bug that infected computer multiply times and thus came the “Denial-of-Service” attack.

9: Storm (2007), at the center of a denial-of-service attack was http://www.microsoft.com, where during Symantec’s test on an infected machine, it sends out almost 1,800 e-mails in a five-minute period.

8: Sasser (2004), this worm exploited vulnerable network ports, meaning that it could spread without user intervention.

7: Blaster (2003), just like storm, this caused a denial-of-service to windowsupdate.com, which included the message, “billy gates why do you make this possible? Stop making money and fix your software!!”

6: Code Red (2001), Web sites defaced by the phrase “Hacked By Chinese!”

5: Nimda (2001), within 22 minutes, Nimda became the Internet’s most widespread worm (yeah that fast!).

4: Slammer (2003), a worm that was mistaken by some countries to be an organized attack against them.

3: Melissa (1999), i thought this story was quite amazing… see Melissa was an exotic dancer, and David Smith was obsessed with her (and also with writing viruses). this virus was so know it rocked the internet world between 1999 and 2005.

2: Conficker (2009), the newest kid on the block yet promising to be the worst. the Conficker worm has created a secure, worldwide infrastructure for cybercrime. the worm allowed installation of softwares to infected machines and many have yet to figure out what it would do!

last and the least, perhaps the most dear to us IT PINOYs, is the I Love You virus. who wouldn’t open an email from someone telling they love you. well, many got fooled! by May 2000, 50M infections had been reported, which included The Pentagon, the CIA, and the British Parliament. certainly nothing for us IT PINOYs to be proud about but, hey it landed us on the IT map!

read more [abcnews.go.com]

Cybercriminals Hitches Ride on Cory Aquino’s Death

the outpour of search queries for the recent passing of former Philippine President Cory Aquino has caught the attention of cyber crooks as they used these times to redirect users to malicious sites.

abs-cbnnews reported that Trend Micro recently alarmed users that search queries containing “corazon aquino’s death” would lead users to sites, which auto-redirects them to a single site that downloads the malware.

so IT PINOYs, stay clean. stay vigilant!

read more [abs-cbnnews.com]

April Fools Day Viruses in the last 10 Years

it’s april fools day and for some reason the virus developers seem to like this date and time the release of their “babies.” i did some research (what i got is not much so feel free to correct me) and listed the top april 1 viruses (or viruses that appeared/current in this month) in the past decade.

1998 – Join the Crew, CIH
1999 – Melissa
2000 – Email – prettypark (this was also when the infamous IT PINOY-made iloveyou virus swept the US, UK etc.)
2001 – Laroux/Divi/VCX.A
2002 – Magistr (on this year, the creator of melissa virus got a 20yrs sentence)
2003 – WTC Survivor (a virus spin-off to the 911 attacks)
2004 – Netski/Sober/Bagle
2005 – Zafi/Netski
2006 – w32.0401.worm infects humans! (okay this one is scary, kindda “johnny mnemonic” stuff, it claims this virus affects ordinary humans via “neural interface”)
2007 – Fubalca/Sollow
2008 – Tilebot-KT
and this year, it would be Conflicker.c!

reviewing the viruses in the past 10yrs, we would see how they have matured… which is kindda kewl (what? yeah let’s admit it!) nonetheless, these are but some things people do that spices up our tech life…

Windows Virus now affects 9M Users!

— VIRUS ALERT!!! —-

there’s a fast-spreading virus that is now lurking through the usa, europe and asia, this in fact has affected around 9mil users already.

F-Secure’s chief research officer, Nikko Hypponen, also noted that it is migrating “more rapidly through corporate networks than anything seen in years.”

The worm called MS08-067, also known as “Downadup” or “Conflicker,” has indeed been spreading like a plague.

John Biggs of CrunchGear best describe how this worm works!

so to my fellow IT PINOYs – stay vigilant! stay clean! or you can always of course switch to LINUX! haha 🙂

read more [here]

a brief history of worms

my last post about DTI’s website being hacked prompted me to do some research on internet viruses and worms.

according to snowplow.org, the term “worm” originated from a science fiction story called “The Shockwave Rider” written by John Brunner in 1975. the story is about a totalitarian government that controls its citizens through a powerful computer network. a freedom fighter infests this network with a program called a “tapeworm” forcing the government to shut down the network, thereby destroy its base of power.
although worms now are considered malicious, however did you know that worm programs were actually originally designed to facilitate better usage of a network?

in 1971 Bob Thomas developed a program that help notifies air traffic controllers about plane movements called “creeper.” the “creeper” travels from screen to screen in a network displaying the message, “i’m creeper! catch me if you can!”

in the early 1980’s, John Shock and Jon Hepps of Xerox’s Palo Alto Research Center developed 5 worms, each of which were designed to perform helpful tasks around the network. one that stands out was the “vampire” worm which remains idle during the day, but @ night did complex tasks. kewl di ba?

well, as the movie says – “with great powers come great responsibilities.” good things when misused becomes harmful as well.

on november 2, 1988, Robert Morris, Jr., a graduate student in Computer Science @ Cornell, wrote an experimental, self-replicating, self-propagating program and injected it into the internet. Morris released it @ MIT and soon spread around the country crashing machines and putting them in ‘catatonic’ state – as usual it had a bug!

he along with a friend tried to anonymously remedy the situation but was too late. a team of programmers worked non-stop to contain the situation.

Morris later was convicted of violating the computer Fraud and Abuse Act and was sentenced to three years of probation, 400 hours of community service, a fine of $10,050, and the costs of his supervision.

in the recent years the worm have mutated in several ways. and of course, IT PINOYs didn’t want to be left behind, do you still remember the “ILOVEYOU” virus which spread throughout the globe in just one day? well that’s another blog-worthy story..