MySpace again under phishing attack
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(InfoWorld) - Phishers have been using compromised MySpace.com accounts to attack unsuspecting Web surfers, security experts said Thursday. The attack is thought to have infected several thousand PCs according to reports from ISPs, said Johannes Ullrich, chief research officer for the SANS Institute. Ullrich has documented the issue on the SANS Internet Storm Center blog. Lawrence Baldwin, chief forensics officer with security vendor MyNetWatchman, discovered the threat Tuesday, and The Washington Post reported on it late Wednesday. Criminals have managed to install fake navigation bars on the top of MySpace.com user profile pages that, when clicked, lead to malicious computers that attempt to infect the victim's computer. The attack uses several known Internet Explorer flaws that have been fixed, so users who have installed the latest Microsoft patches are not at risk, security experts said. The code was installed on "maybe a few dozen," MySpace.com pages, most of which have been removed by administrators at the social-networking site, Ullrich said. MySpace.com representatives did not respond to requests for comment on Thursday. Two components comprise the attack. It attempts to install malicious botnet software on victims' computers, and it uses these infected computers to try to steal MySpace credentials in a phishing attack. Computers that are compromised by the attack become infected with malicious botnet software known as "flux bot," which makes them unwitting participants in the phishing scam. After the malicious Web site attempts to install the flux bot code, it then presents victims with a fake MySpace.com login page, which tries to extract their MySpace.com user name and password. Baldwin allowed one of his test computers to be infected with flux bot and found that attackers were remarkably successful at stealing passwords. "I operated as a flux node for about 12 hours and did a full audit of all the traffic coming into my machine. I was probably getting close to 60 MySpace users an hour surfing to my flux node. And at least a quarter of those actually gave up their credentials." Baldwin estimates that the attackers were using another 200 compromised flux bot machines in their attack. Because MySpace.com allows users to install their own HTML code and isÂ visited by such a large number of technically unsophisticated users, it has becomeÂ an attractive target for these types of attacks. Last December, hackers created a worm that quickly spread across MySpace.com, stealing user names and passwords. That worm exploited a flaw in Apple's QuickTime media player.
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Computer criminals are making phishing more potent by automating attacks. Anti-Phishing Working Group (APWG) analysts reckon fraudsters are using automated tools and botnets to ramp up attacks.
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Did you notice when Slashdot's  search was down for the past few days? (It's back up now.)  Turns out that in a stunning case of irony, it had been hammered into  submission by thousands of people attempting to use it.        However, unlike CmdrTaco's regimented DDoS attacks, this one is carried out  with malicious intent as opposed to mere sociopathic inconsiderateness.  It also highlights a potential threat from one of the biggest weblogging  services out there.
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There&#39;s now one more reason to be security-conscious while using MySpace.com: fake Microsoft updates.Using a hacked MySpace profile, online criminals are trying to trick victims into downloading a malicious Trojan Horse program by disguising it as a Microsoft update, according to researchers at security vendor McAfee.The attack is certainly not widespread -- McAfee has seen it used on only one MySpace profile -- but it does show how sites like MySpace can be abused by criminals.Web surfers are presented with what appears to be a popup window advising them to download the latest version of Microsoft&#39;s Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool, which was just released this Tuesday. This software is distributed by Microsoft to help Windows users rid their systems of malware.In reality, the popup window is just part of a larger image that takes up most of the computer screen. If the user clicks anywhere on this image, his computer will then begin to download the Trojan program.The Trojan, known as TFactory, is a well-known piece of code that has been used by criminals for well over a year, according to Dave Marcus, a security research manager with McAfee.Hackers were able to launch this attack because they either discovered a flaw in the MySpace code or found a way of taking over user accounts, Marcus said. &quot;Our best guess is [the owner of the one MySpace profile] just got their password and user name phished,&quot; he said.Social networking sites allow their members to use an array of powerful Web programming tools that are increasingly coming under the scrutiny of hackers looking for ways to misuse them.In November, hackers found a way to serve up Web-based attack code from the MySpace profiles of Alicia Keys and a number of other musical artists.
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Short-lived spike in phishing traffic If it seems like every Tom, Dick and Harry with a MySpace account was getting his account hijacked a couple of months ago there's a reason. Starting in mid-March, the number of page views generated on phish sites increased five-fold, with almost all (95 per cent) targeting the popular social networking site.â¦
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Some Web sites are now offering surfers the chance to download free &quot;phishing kits&quot; containing all the graphics, Web code and text required to construct the kind of bogus Web sites used in Internet phishing scams.
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Rains down spam, opens door to users accounts A handful of enterprising people - at least one of them a teen - have devised a Javascript that allows its owner to temporarily access the browser's MySpace account, according to a security professional who was among the first to publicly write about the service.â¦
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Software maker SCO Group has been targeted by hackers once again. This time, the company&#39;s Web site was defaced. The attacks began during the long holiday weekend and were first noticed
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Popular Web sites like MySpace and Photobucket has banner ads containing malicious code that could lead to the compromise of a computer.
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A second MyDoom offshoot is taking advantage of an unpatched security hole in Microsoft's Web browser to spread.
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Flaw could enable attackers to compromise usernames and passwords, security researcher warns, citing exploit on MySpace.
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Rains down spam, opens door to users accounts A handful of enterprising people - at least one of them a teen - has devised a Javascript that allows its owner to temporarily access the browser's MySpace account, according to a security professional who was among the first to publicly write about the service.â¦
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Security have warned about a new Web browser security hole which could allow scammers to launch phishing attacks from pop-up windows on trusted websites.
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New features designed to alert users if the site they are visiting is legitimate or a phishing site.
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Browser flaw may leave you vulnerable to phishing attacks.
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New versions of SpamKiller and personal firewall aim to hook phishers, as online fraud continues to grow.
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AgainstHate writes &quot;Netcraft has released an Anti-Phishing Toolbar that provides detailed information about the website you are visiting (sites&#39; hosting location, country, longevity and popularity) at all times to help users to validate fraudulent URLs.