trojan

The Russian security firm Dr. Web has uncovered another malware attempt on OS X systems that tries to exploit users with SMS fraud.

The new malware is a Trojan horse, dubbed "Trojan.SMSSend.3666," and is part of a family of Trojan malware for Windows and other platforms that have affected Windows users for years.

As with all Trojans, these pose as legitimate programs that are made available for download from a number of underground Web sites, with this current one for OS X appearing to be an installer for a program called VKMusic 4, a utility whose … Read more

Cybercriminals gangs are creating a surge in ransomware, says a new report from Symantec.

Ransomware is a type of malware best described as an online extortion racket. Malware locks or disables your PC in some way and then demands payment in the form of a "fine" to render your PC usable again. Like most scams, the ransomware message claims to come from a legitimate organization, such as the government or a public corporation, to try to convince victims that they did something wrong to incur the fine.

But paying the fine does nothing since the initial malware remains … Read more

In the past month a new multiplatform malware package called Jacksbot has been discovered, and while it was initially deemed a minimal threat, it might not stay that way for some Mac, Windows, and Linux users.

Jacksbot is in part a Java-based remote access Trojan (RAT) that appears to be built by a hacking group for the purpose of causing all-too-common malicious activity, including stealing passwords, forcing URLs to load (likely for click fraud), deleting and corrupting files, taking screenshots, logging keystrokes, and otherwise getting personal information.

Java is an attractive platform for criminals to use because being cross-platform means … Read more

One artist sees treasure in trashed keyboards of yesteryear.

Inspired by the tale of ancient Greece's infamously sneaky Trojan Horse and humankind's Internet gluttony, German artist Babis Pangiotidis created an elaborate model of a rocking horse known as "Hedonism(y) Trojaner" with skin made of thousands of forgotten keyboard keys. Babis states on his portfolio site that the shades of color found on the recycled keys range from ivory white to nicotine-stained yellow. … Read more

A friend of mine recently sent me a direct message on Twitter, it said "lol u didnt se them taping u" and had a link to Facebook. I hadn't remembered being taped in the past few days and I'd never seen my friend use this type of Twitter-shorthand, along with typos. To me, it was obviously spam.

I'm not the only one to be getting these spammy direct messages on Twitter that lead to bogus Facebook links. Apparently a lot of people have been complaining of these messages, according to Sophos analyst Graham Cluley who … Read more

Microsoft said today it will issue a fix soon for a security flaw that affects users of Internet Explorer versions 6 through 9.

Uncovered this past weekend, the security hole could compromise the PCs of IE users who surf to a malicious Web site. The flaw is being actively exploited to deliver a back-door trojan known as "Poison Ivy."

The software giant said in a security advisory this afternoon that a solution to the flaw would be released in the next few days.

"While we have only seen a few attempts to exploit the issue, impacting an … Read more

Comodo Internet Security is a free antivirus and PC security solution that combines a number of effective security tools into one easy-to-use package. It's one of the latest challengers to enter the expanding field of free security bundles, with which it shares some important characteristics, such as cloud-based virus scanning and behavior analysis to counter zero-day threats, a sturdy firewall, sandboxing, and anti-spyware -- all controlled from a single access point that takes the guesswork and program-swapping out of the security equation. Each strives to satisfy advanced users and absolute beginners alike. Comodo Internet Security passes all those checkpoints … Read more

A data-stealing Trojan capable of recording keystrokes, screenshots and audio and stealing text and image files has infected about 800 computers, mostly in Iran and Israel, over the last eight months, researchers said today.

The malware, dubbed "Mahdi" (also "Madi") because of references in the code to the word for the Islamic Messiah, included strings in Farsi and dates in the Persian calendar format in communications with a command-and-control server in at least one of the variants, and a server that was located in Iran for at least one campaign, according to a blog post from … Read more

Researchers at F-Secure have uncovered a new exploit that attempts to install a backdoor malware program on Windows, Linux, and OS X machines. As with other malware, this uses social engineering approaches to try tricking users, but in addition it runs a check to see what operating system the user is running and then issues a malware installer for that platform.

The attack was found on a Columbian transport Web site, where once visited, a Java applet would run using a self-signed certificate. On all platforms this certificate will flag a warning that notifies the user it is not from … Read more