'Adware' attack on privacy tool
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Software that promises users increased privacy while surfing the web has been accused of including adware.
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If you use shared or public computers, you have a new privacy risk to consider: Google Desktop Search.
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Handling of images could allow an attacker to take over your PC.
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A toolkit designed to exploit a recently-disclosed Microsoft JPEG vulnerability has been released onto the net. The toolkit (screen shot from AV firm F-Secure here) makes it trivially easy for maliciously-minded
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The apparent release of searches made by hundreds of thousands of users is raising privacy concerns.
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Ads and adware have a new way to get on your computer--through files that appear to be music and video.
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By Anonymous  WAN lessons learned  Plus: How to hide your online footprints.
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GNUCitizen is describing an apparent vulnerability that could trick people into revealing personal data.
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A screensaver targeting spam-related websites appears to have been too successful.
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From disguising applets to look like part of Windows to co-opting security tools, Web crooks use a variety of methods to bypass your system's safeguards.
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roundup Free-roaming source code breeds new Netsky pest. Also: From IE to Opera, browsers are a likely prey.
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Downloader.Lunii, a new Trojan horse program that attacks and removes troublesome advertising software, also modifies the configuration of Windows machines and attempts to download files from a remote location, according to Symantec Corp.
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Hole could allow remote attackers to access your local search results.
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(InfoWorld) - The social networking site MySpace.com is under what one computer security analyst calls an "amazingly virulent" attack caused by a worm that steals log-in credentials and spreads spam that promotes adware sites. The worm is infecting MySpace profiles with such efficiency that an informal scan of 150 found that close to a third were infected, said Christopher Boyd, security research manager at FaceTime Communications. MySpace, owned by News Corp., is estimated to have at least 73 million registered users. The worm works by using a cross-scripting weaknessÂ found around two weeks agoÂ in MySpace and a feature within Apple Computer's QuickTime multimedia player. The exploit starts with a user who visits a MySpace profile infected with an embedded QuickTime movie. The movie loads JavaScript code that overlays a row of menu options on a MySpace profile with a bogus menu. A QuickTime function, called the HREF track, can direct the player to use JavaScript commands to load Web pages into a browser frame or window. The JavaScript feature in QuickTime has legitimate uses, "but there are a lot of legitimate uses for technology that can be misused," said Ross Paul, senior product manager with Websense Inc. If an option in the bogus menu is clicked, the user is directed to a fake log-in page hosted on another server where the person's log-in details are captured. Websense has posted a screenshot of the fake log-in page. MySpace's "seemingly random tendency" to expire user sessions or log out users makes it less noticeable to victims that an attack is under way, according to a Nov. 16 advisory by the Computer Academic Underground . Additionally, the worm places an embedded QuickTime movie on the user's profile, which will then repeat the infection process for anyone who visits the profile. The worm has another malicious function. Once a profile is infected, the worm sends spam to other people in the user's contact list. Those spam messages contain a file that appears to be a movie but instead is a link to a pornographic site that also hosts adware from Zango, Boyd said. Zango, formerly 180 Solutions,Â settled last monthÂ with the U.S. Federal Trade Commission for $3 million over complaints it didn't properly ask the consent of users before its adware was installed. Boyd said he's heard anecdotal stories of users removing the worm's JavaScript manually from their profile, but the worm reappears after some time if one of their friend's profiles is infected. Several variants of the worm have also appeared, he said. While some of the Web sites hosting the malicious QuickTime movie have been taken down, others have appeared, Boyd said. The Firefox 2.0 browser was flagging some of the bogus log-in sites as phishing sites, Boyd said. However, phishing sites can be active for several hours before they are flagged, he said. MySpace officials in London couldn't immediately comment Monday morning.ADVERTISEMENTNEW IT SERVICES FROM IBM: EASIER TO BUY AND IMPLEMENTDiscover a simpler, more cost-effective way to get the solutions your company needs to grow more flexible and efficient.
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Blog: Researcher finds a basic cookie-handling error that could compromise Windows PCs.
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If you haven't updated your Windows computer in more than one year, you could be subjected to a barrage of unwanted adware.
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Advertisements placed by Google in  Web pages are being hijacked by so-called trojan software that  replaces the intended text with ads from a different provider,  Romanian antivirus company BitDefender says.