Video Screencast Help
Search Video Help Close Back
to help

Security Response

Showing posts tagged with Endpoint Encryption
Showing posts in English
Malicious Gaddafi Death Spam Continues
Samir_Patil | 31 Oct 2011 19:04:30 GMT | 0 comments

Contributor: Anand Muralidharan

Recently, the death of Libyan leader Muammar Gaddafi triggered a malware attack which Symantec previously blogged about. We have observed spammers' continued delight with this news event through the sending of malicious attack and 419 spam messages.

In the spam targeting residents of Brazil, a video showing Gaddafi asking for mercy and containing disturbing images also carries malware. By clicking the link provided in the email, users actually download a malicious executable file. Symantec has identifed this threat as Trojan.Ransomlock!gen4.
 

 

The email...

Read more
Phishers Continue Celebrity Promotion with Selena Gomez and Demi Lovato
Mathew Maniyara | 25 Oct 2011 21:55:06 GMT | 0 comments

Co-author: Avdhoot Patil

Celebrity promotion has gained momentum in the world of phishing. In October 2011, we observed Indonesian rock star Ahmad Dhani was being used as phishing bait and phishers continue their stream of celebrity bait with popular singers Selena Gomez and Demi Lovato. Celebrities with a large fan following are phishers’ favorites (because they believe a larger audience will mean more duped users).

In today's example, phishers created phishing sites that spoofed the login pages of a popular information services website. The phishing pages contained a picture of the singer and the page altered to give the impression that users could gain access to additional content about the celebrity after entering their own login credentials. It should be noted good websites will never alter the format of their login page for celebrity promotions. After the...

Read more
Libyan Leader Muammar Gadhafi's Death Spam
Stephen Doherty | 24 Oct 2011 02:05:39 GMT | 0 comments

Threat Analysis: Alan Neville

As word spreads of the death of Muammar Gadhafi, cybercriminals are starting to take advantage. We are already seeing spam campaigns related to his death with malicious attachments. Here are a couple of examples of what we have seen so far.

This particular campaign claims that Muammar Gadahfi’s death may not be true. The attachment is a malicious help file that contains Backdoor.Misdat as the payload.

Another example follows, but the attachment was corrupt. Thus, an unsuspecting user would not, in fact, have infected their computer if they had attempted to open the attached archive.

We expect to see many more of these emails over the next few days, typically with...

Read more
Phishers Promote Indonesian Rock Star
Mathew Maniyara | 19 Oct 2011 00:10:04 GMT | 0 comments

Thanks to the co-author of this blog, Avdhoot Patil.

In the month of January 2011 Symantec reported adult scams that targeted Indonesian Facebook users. These scams claimed to have an application in which users could view adult videos of Indonesian celebrities, taken from hidden cameras.

It seems that phishers are now using specific celebrities as bait for their phishing sites. This is unlike the previous Indonesian adult scams whose phishing pages gave the impression that the adult video would be of a random celebrity. In October 2011 phishers continued their adult scams on Facebook, but this time they chose the Indonesian rock star Ahmad Dhani in particular. Dhani is the frontman of the rock bands “Dewa 19” and “Ahmad Band”. The phishing site contained a photograph of Ahmad Dhani and Indonesian singer Dewi Persik. The Indonesian caption of...

Read more
Spammers Pay Tribute to Icons with Atrocious Malware
Samir_Patil | 12 Oct 2011 01:07:37 GMT | 0 comments

Contributor: Christopher Mendes

When stalwarts pass away the world mourns their loss, tributes flow and emotions run high. Whenever we lose a legendary figure, their death brings shock or grief and people are hungry for any and every available piece of information about the "How" and the "Why" and the "When" related to the death of these important figures. We studied the aftermath of these icons’ passing and the eulogy written by spammers. The spammer’s sole motive is to use incidents to compromise weak systems.

On further examination of the collected data we traced a predictable pattern, the details of which are given below:

Michael Jackson Subject: Michael Jackson not dead
Subject: Michael Jackson seen alive
Subject: Michael Jackson lives		 ...
Read more
Backdoor.R2D2: The Long Arm of the Law?
Gavin O Gorman | 10 Oct 2011 06:41:55 GMT | 0 comments

On October 9th a German hacker group going by the name of the Chaos Computer Club (CCC) published an analysis of what they claim to be government spying software. The analysis is a 20 page PDF file describing how the software works. In addition, CCC made available a copy of the software on their website in the form of a .dll file and a .sys file (driver file). The CCC has not offered any proof of their claims that these are government affiliated samples.

Symantec has performed an initial analysis on the samples and has confirmed much of the functionality as described in the CCC document. The samples are malware--which Symantec detects as Backdoor.R2D2--that opens a back door allowing a remote attacker to access the compromised computer.

The back door .dll file, mfc42ul.dll, monitors chat and VOIP applications and is able to intercept status changes in the software, such as an incoming or outgoing call. It...

Read more
Phish Tastes Better Than Spam
Samir_Patil | 23 Sep 2011 21:39:48 GMT | 0 comments

Thanks to Shravan Shashikant and the Norton Confidential Online team for providing the data, and to Christopher Mendes for compiling it.

Does phish taste better than spam? Yes, perhaps it does. Allow me to explain.

The recent past has been one of the most volatile financial periods in history. World economies have reached a very critical stage—sovereign debt crises, bailouts, loan defaulters causing banks to shiver, sales shrinkages causing trade surplus, and bankruptcies. Add to all of this the fears of a double-dip economic recession theory making the rounds and it looks like a really dreadful picture.

But how does this affect the consumer from the point of view of email security? The consumer is the fulcrum point, the hinge of the story! All these negatives hits consumer spending in a very big way. The first wave of recession had definitely dented consumer confidence, and with the “Double Dip” theory lurking on the horizon it...

Read more