McAfee Report: Mobile Malware is New Frontier of Cyber Crime

The first quarter of 2011 has proven to be a busy time for cyber criminals who are now making mobile malware the new frontier of cyber crime, according to McAfee’s Labs’ most recent Threats Report.

The security company revealed in its research that Q1 2011 was the most active first quarter…

FBI Warns of Illegal Wire Transfers to China from Compromised Computers

The FBI is warning the public about a growing trend in which cyber criminals use exploited online banking credentials of U.S. businesses to send unauthorized wire transfers to Chinese companies.

Between March 2010 and April 2011, the FBI identified 20 incidents in which the online banking credentials of small- to medium-sized U.S. businesses were compromised and used to initiate wire transfers to Chinese economic and trade companies near the…

FBI Warns of Malware-Laced Email Sent to Private-sector Companies

Recent FBI analysis reveals that cyber criminals engaging in ACH/wire transfer fraud have targeted businesses by responding via email to job postings online.

The bureau said more than $150,000 was recently stolen from a U.S. business via unauthorized wire transfer as a result of an email the company received that contained malware. The malware was embedded in an email response to a job posting the business placed on an…

McAfee 2011 Threat Index: Sophisticated Cyber Threats Hiding in Plain Sight

2010 was a breakout year for cybersecurity: from the revelations of the attack on Google, Operation Aurora, and the controversy surrounding WikiLeaks, to the Stuxnet worm, which targeted Iran’s critical infrastructure and spawned a number of cyber conspiracy theories.

But like a block-busting, splashy Hollywood sequel, cybersecurity in 2011…

Europe Crowned New King of Spam

Europe is now the top spam-producing country in the world, bypassing North and South Americas, and Asia-Pacific, according to the Trend Micro semi-annual 2010 threat report.

Spam continued to grow between January and June 2010, stalling briefly during April. Despite common perception, porn consists of only 4 percent of all spam. Commercial, scams-based and health/medical categories comprise 65 percent of the spam generated…

Zeus Trojan Spreading Through Zip Files

The Zeus Trojan is back again, looking to spread through zip files. Zeus, which is one of the most commonly found pieces of malware, is believed to be one of the most prevalent on the Internet, infected millions of users.

Researchers with F-Secure have found a new spam set working to disseminate the Zeus malware through infected zip files.

“Just now we’ve been watching a spam run with malicious ZIP files…

Scotland Yard Nabs Teen Cyber Criminals

British police have arrested two teenagers for alleged involvement in a large English-language cyber crime forum. Both were detained by appointment in London by the Police Central e-Crime Unit (PCeU) based at Scotland Yard.

Following an eight-month investigation, police discovered the forum contained around 8,000 members who traded malware, stolen account information and cyber crime tips. Tools available for purchase included the Zeus Trojan.

Police have recovered approximately 65,000 credit card…

Zeus Malware Distributed via Terror-Themed Spam

Spammers are notorious for latching on to the most recent trend in an effort to increase click rates. Recently, a spam campaign containing Zeus malware utilized recent concerns over terrorism to send messages which appeared to be sent by the Department of Homeland Security, TSA and DoD.

Researchers at Sophos Labs have discovered the low-yield campaign which targets government users with enticing subjects like “Report on Defending and Operating in…

Crime Friendly ISP Offline

A cyber crime friendly Internet service provider (ISP) has been knocked offline on Friday after its upstream provider had its service cut off, according to Zeus Tracker.

PROXIEZ-NET, a Russian based ISP that hosted at least 13 known Zeus command and control channels, lost its connection after its upstream provider, DIGERNET, had its Internet connection cut. It was withdrawn from Internet routing tables, according to an AS Report.

PROXIEZ-NET…

Despite Hitting Back at Botnets, Spam Remains Level

In recent months, several botnets have been taken down through a variety of legal and technical methods. However, according to Google survey, spam levels have remained stable despite these supposed disruptions.

In spite of the recent take-downs of the Mariposa, Zeus and Waledac botnets, Google Postini has found that these actions had little long term effects on spam numbers.

“This suggests that there’s no shortage…