Microsoft Says Recovery from Malware Becoming Impossible
In a rare discussion on the severity of the Windows malware scourge, a Microsoft security official said businesses should consider investing in an automated process to wipe hard drives and reinstall operating systems as a practical way to recover from malware infestation.
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4.4.2006 New defense again Malware in Windows Vista
Mike Howard talks about a new piece of technology coming with Windows Vista designed to help fight malware attacks. Called Address Space Layout Randomization (ASLR)
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27.5.2006 Windows Vista and protection from malware
On November 30, Sophos issued its monthly report on the top ten threats reported to them in November of 2006.
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20.12.2006 Half of pirated Vista is malware
Alleged "cracked" versions of Vista appearing on peer-to-peer networks often turn out to be Trojan horses. About half of the downloads claiming to be free versions of Microsoft's Vista operating system are actually malicious Trojan horse software, security vendor DriveSentry warned Thursday.
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26.1.2007 Microsoft apologises for serving malware
Microsoft has apologised for serving malware via its websites and Windows Live Messenger software.
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22.2.2007 Google: 1 in 10 webpages contain malware
One in 10 web pages scrutinised by search giant Google contained malicious code that could infect a user's PC.
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12.5.2007 Malware Is the No. 1 Killer of Windows Explorer
Windows crashes and blue screen have become without a doubt the stuff of popular culture, with Microsoft's operating system being derided, criticized and mocked for its luxuriant variety of issues, independent
of the actual version of the platform.
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21.5.2008 Legitimate Screensavers Used in Malware Attacks
Malware writers turn to all kinds of techniques in order to trick people, infect their computers and reach their goal, no matter if we're talking about stealing some
data or just luring them on malicious websites.
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29.5.2008 Malware Distribution Across Operating Systems
Depending on your background, you may find different sections of the newly published Microsoft Security Intelligence Report (SIR) to be of more interest.
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22.4.2009 Russinovich: Malware will thrive, even with Vista’s UAC
Despite all the anti-malware roadblocks built into Windows Vista, a senior Microsoft official is lowering the security expectations, warning that viruses, password-stealing Trojans and rootkits will continue to thrive as malware authors adapt to the new operating system.
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24.4.2007 Microsoft Previews New Malware Protection Center
Microsoft may be a desktop software powerhouse, but when it comes to security tools it is still bulking up.
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27.4.2007 Beware: Fake Microsoft patch malware
“We received some questions from customers about an e-mail that’s circulating that claims to be a security e-mail from Microsoft.
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15.10.2008 Malware breaks Win 7 UAC defenses
A recently conducted test by malware researchers reveals that eight out of ten malware samples used in the test, successfully bypassed Windows 7’s default UAC (user access control) settings.
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7.11.2009 Vista SP1 and XP SP3 Vulnerability Hit by Malware
Microsoft issued a warning related to the detection of new examples of malicious code in attacks attempting to exploit a vulnerability affecting various Windows client and server releases.
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6.11.2008 Michael Jacksons death themed malware campaigns spreading
The sudden death of Michael Jackson quickly opened a window of opportunity for cybercriminals to capitalize on.
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26.6.2009 Windows 7, XP SP3 and Vista SP1 Vulnerability Exploit Included in Malware Kit
The exploit for a vulnerability affecting the Server Service on all supported versions of Windows has been included in a commercial malware kit, available for sale.
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17.11.2008When antivirus products (and Internet Explorer) fail you
When Didier Stevens recently took a closer look at some Internet Explorer malware that he had
found, something
surprised him somewhat.
He discovered that the IE-targeted malware had been obfuscated with null-bytes (0x00) and when run
against VirusTotal, he found that fewer than half of the products identified the sample as malware (15 of 32). When all null-bytes were removed, the
chances of successful detection improved, though not as much as would normally be expected (25 of 32 detections).
When Didier
tried adding more null-bytes to the sample he found that the number of successful detections decreased steadily until, with 254 0x00 bytes between
each character, McAfee was the last one standing.
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30.10.2007Seagate to pay refund over gigabyte definition
Seagate Technology, the world's largest hard-drive maker, is offering customers a five percent refund on drives bought during the last six years
following a lawsuit over the definition of a "gigabyte". As an alternative, customers can choose to receive free backup software.
Four people sued the company, saying they expected its drives to offer greater capacity than that actually provided. Seagate manufactures its
drives based on powers of ten, with 1KB equalling 1,000 bytes. The claimants argued that 1KB of storage should compromise 1,024 bytes.
On a 1GB drive, this would make the difference between one billion bytes of storage, and 1,073,741,824 bytes. Other manufacturers, such as
Samsung and Hitachi, also measure hard-drive capacity with 1KB equalling 1,000 bytes, whereas all operating systems are based on 1KB equalling 1,024
bytes.
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29.10.2007Kneecapped malware host tries to rise again
InterCage (a.k.a., Atrivo), the network provider notoriously fingered as a major purveyor of malware, found its way back online after a days-long
shutdown cheered by anti-malware and anti-spam activists...
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25.09.2008Microsoft Finalizes Malware Portal
Microsoft on Tuesday took the
wraps off what it calls
version 1 of its new Malware
Protection Center Portal. The
site offers a malware
encyclopedia for investigating
threats, downloads of
Microsoft's latest antivirus
and anti-spyware signatures,
listings of the top threats
and other tools...
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10.07.2007Security companies forge an anti-malware standards organization
Security computer companies recently met in Spain to officially create the Anti-Malware Testing Standards Organization (AMTSO), with the objective of
formulating new guidelines for the proper review of anti-malware software...
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05.02.2008StopBadware Calls Malware Trends 'Worrisome'
Malware on mainstream Web sites are becoming an increasingly larger problem as hackers are finding ways to infiltrate them, and place code that
infects whomever visits the site...
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12.10.2007Malware testing gains some structure
An international group formed in May to lay some ground rules for anti-malware testing has delivered a pair of documents setting forth basic
principles...
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11.11.2008Malware, mayhem, and the McColo takedown
The takedown of the McColo hosting service led to a gratifying, if temporary, decrease in spam this week -- but it could also portend a rise in
malware infections...
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14.11.2008SSDs to Reach Portable Devices in 2008
Memory maker Micron Technology on Wednesday introduced a line of solid-state drives (SSDs) and said it would plug the technology into portable storage
devices by mid-to-end 2008. Micron's new RealSSD hard drive, announced at an event in San Francisco, will come in sizes of 1.8-inches and
2.5-inches with storage capacities of 32G bytes and 64G bytes. Micron also announced embedded SSD modules for blade servers with storage capacities of
1G byte to 8G bytes.
Purported by many to be the future replacement of hard drives, the growth of SSDs has been stymied by high pricing,
longevity and storage issues. However, the power-efficient and ruggedness of SSDs may attract users, said Dean Klein, vice president of memory system
development at Micron.
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29.11.2007ZoneAlarm Pro misidentifies Yahoo Messenger as a Trojan...again
It's getting more difficult to keep track of the various stages and permutations of malware, whose definition has expanded to mean "anything you
didn't ask for and don't want running." But since when did Yahoo IM become malware?..
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12.06.2008Microsoft security report points to downtrend in malware
There's fewer reports of malware in the wild for the entire industry, Microsoft said this morning -- an indication, it says, that the security field
is getting smarter. But once again, do undisclosed vulnerabilities simply not count?..
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04.11.2008Sophos: Google's Blogger hosts 2% of world's malware
Security research and analysis firm Sophos has released its cybercrime report for the first half of 2008 and found Blogger, a property of Google, to
be the prime distributer of malware today...
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24.07.2008New information revealed about Microsoft's new anti-malware product
Liveside has reported some new information about Microsoft's new anti-malware product codenamed "Morro", formally named Windows Live OneCare.
According to Liveside, Microsoft considering the following names for it's new anti-malware program: Microsoft Security Essentials, Microsoft
Antivirus Plus, Microsoft Personal Security, and Microsoft Security Fundamentals. "Morro", has been in limited alpha testing, will be available for
free to all licensed Windows users, and while there is no confirmed release date yet, it's possible that the product will be available the second
half of 2009. The goal of this product is to deliver high quality protection against malware while having a low impact on system performance and
making it easy to install. So, Neowin, which name do you think best fits?
Read full story.....
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01.05.2009Lavasoft broadens its malware scope with Ad-Aware 2008 releases
It was perhaps the first great advertising tracker purging system, and may have single-handedly redefined the public's notion of malware. Now,
Ad-Aware is growing up, becoming more of a fully-fledged anti-virus product...
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21.05.2008Security Admins Love Social NetworksThey're Just Wary of Malware
Social networks such as Facebook, LinkedIn and MySpace make security administrators nervous about malware, phishing, security threats and data
leaksjust not enough to stop using social networks themselves. Symantec found that 70 percent of security administrators use social networks despite
concerns over data leakage, malware and productivity loss.
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19.08.2008Mobile malware menaces money
Kaspersky is reporting this morning that a Trojan affecting Symbian systems looks to transfer money from the accounts of users of a certain
mobile-phone operator and into the accounts of someone else, presumably the person or persons responsible for the malware. The Trojan's not new --
but the target certain is...
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22.01.2009Symantec: Windows Update Downloader Can Spread Malware
Researchers at Symantec have
published a report
highlighting how the
Background Intelligent
Transfer Service (BITS) -- a
main component of Windows
Update -- is being used by
Trojans to download malware
that bypasses firewalls and
security controls...
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15.05.2007Gigabytes vs. gibibytes class action suit nears end
A long-running California lawsuit over whether all megabytes and gigabytes are created equal may have reached its end on Friday.
The class action lawsuit against Kodak, Sandisk, Lexar Media, and other memory card makers alleges that the defendants intentionally
misrepresented the capacity of their flash memory devices by using decimal definitions, in which a megabyte is 1,000,000 bytes. The suit says a binary
definition is appropriate, meaning that one megabyte equals 1,048,576 bytes and that the memory card sizes were overstated by 4 percent to 5
percent.
When memory capacity was smaller, the difference didn't mean much. A decimal kilobyte, at 10^3=1,000 wasn't very
different from 2^10=1,024.
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05.12.2007Pints of Guinness all 'round! 8.3 million Firefox 3 downloads
The early estimates from the Mozilla organization show its servers (when they were up and running) cranked out enough bytes to cover 11.07 million
downloads of Firefox 3.0, and were registering as many as 283 downloads per second...
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19.06.2008Australians miss out on Seagate kilobyte refunds
Although a discrepancy between the traditional and modern definitions of kilobyte has led to Seagate Technology offering a rebate on its hard drives,
a Seagate representative confirmed that Australians will not be eligible for the refund.
Earlier this week, Seagate Technology,
the world's largest hard-drive maker, announced it would offer customers a five percent refund on drives bought during the last six years following a
lawsuit over the definition of a "gigabyte".
The case for a rebate began in 2005 when Sarah Cho and Michael Lazar started a
class action in the US because Seagate defines one kilobyte as 1,000 bytes while operating systems define it as 1,024 bytes. Cho and Lazar felt that
Seagate was mis-labelling its drives, leading consumers to believe they were getting more than they were.
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31.10.2007
