Traditional Anti-Virus Can&#39;t Meet New Threats
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The need to defend networked electronic gear like PDAs and smart phones will drive anti-virus defenses away from the signature-based techniques of today and toward next-generation behavioral-based tactics.
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Over the past month, a new type of malicious software has emerged, using a decades-old technique to hide itself from antivirus software.The malware, called Trojan.Mebroot by Symantec, installs itself on the first part of the computer&#39;s hard drive to be read on startup, then makes changes to the Windows kernel, making it hard for security software to detect it.Criminals have been installing Trojan.Mebroot, known as a master boot record rootkit, since mid-December, and were able to infect nearly 5,000 users in two separate attacks, staged on Dec. 12 and Dec. 19, according to Verisign&#39;s iDefense Intelligence Team. In order to install the software on a victim&#39;s computer, attackers first lure them to a compromised Web site, which then launches a variety of attacks against the victim&#39;s computer in hopes of finding a way to run the rootkit code on the PC.Once installed, the malware gives attackers control over the victim&#39;s machine.The group behind this latest rootkit is the same one responsible for the Torpig Trojan, and it is believed to have already installed more than 250,000 Trojan programs, iDefense said in a report on the rootkit published Monday.The interesting thing about Trojan.Mebroot is that it installs itself on the master boot record (MBR). This is the first sector of the computer&#39;s hard drive and it is the place the computer goes to first whenever it wants to boot up the operating system. &quot;Basically, if you can control the MBR, you can control the operating system and therefore the computer it resides on,&quot; wrote Symantec researcher Elia Florio in a blog posting on Trojan.Mebroot.The criminals are using several different versions of this attack code, some of which are not currently being detected by some antivirus products, iDefense said.&quot;At the moment the AV detection is hit and miss across the board, however in the last day a number of vendors have added detection for it already,&quot; said Andrew Storms, director of security operations with nCircle Network Security. &quot;As for penetration, so far many people are showing it as having a low overall distribution. The concern is that the group which may be preparing to distribute the rootkit is well-prepared.&quot;Malicious software that infected the master boot record was common during the MS-DOS era, but it has not been used much in attacks in recent years.In 2005, however, researchers at eEye Digital Security gave a talk at the Black Hat security conference, showing how a rootkit could hide itself on the MBR. This Trojan.Mebroot software is derived from that code, iDefense said.Getting this kind of malicious software to work reliably is a technical challenge, and there have generally been easier ways for the bad guys to take over PCs in recent years, said Marc Maiffret, an independent security researcher who was chief technology officer at eEye when the code was first developed.Attackers were given a hand last year, however, when researchers at NV Labs published a proof of concept MBR rootkit.Maiffret said that while we may soon see more of these MBR rootkits, &quot;it won&#39;t take long for all the antivirus companies to react.&quot;&quot;It&#39;s not some new attack vector that&#39;s going to be hard to prevent,&quot; he said. &quot;It&#39;s just something that people haven&#39;t really paid attention to.&quot;
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Looks like the time has come when mobile users would have to seriously consider getting some protection for their devices. Mobile viruses are coming out pretty regularly now and trend seems to be pointing towards a frantic future.
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Unpatched vulnerabilities may leave computers open to remote attacks.
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Security pros have their say Anti-Virus vendorsâ¦
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The virus, dubbed W64.Shruggle by Symantec, seems mainly to be an experiment to test the concept of a 64-bit infecter and is not actively spread, said Alfred Huger, senior director of security at Symantec.
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Although some estimates are that spyware issues in the U.S. are decreasing, malware writers are still winning out because users --  afraid of change -- cling to outdated antivirus software and older, less-secure operating systems, antispyware experts said.
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One of the standard security tactics enterprises apply won&#39;t work when defending PCs against threats posed by the image processing flaw found last week in Windows and numerous applications, according to security experts.
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(CBS/AP) Though Microsoft Corp.&#39;s new security update package is all about protecting systems from worms, viruses and spyware, it can&#39;t do much about what&#39;s already on computers - and that could pose a problem.
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Roots you, sir Increased use of stealth techniques such as rootkits is leading to fewer reports of new viruses, according to a study by net security outfit VeriSign iDefense.â¦
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Experts say viruses don't pose a serious risk to handheld devices--yet.
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A new version of the Santy worm appeared over the weekend and poses a broader threat than its ancestors. A new version of the Santy worm appeared over the weekend, and according to analysis done by some security
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New version turns off security, attempts to download malicious programs from Net--but it's not likely to get far.
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Same old, same old Virus writers have run out of fresh ideas for the creation of malware, according to a study by Russian anti-virus firm Kaspersky Lab.â¦
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A vulnerability in Windows XP and other products means JPEG viruses may not remain just a hoary myth.
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When your antivirus, spyware stopper, or firewall keeps you from getting your work done, find an alternative.
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'Virtual security solution' is designed to slow virus and malware attacks.