Security Response

Recently, Symantec observed a modified variant of Zeusbot/Spyeye which uses peer-to-peer (P2P) architecture to communicate. The original Zeusbot communicated directly with its C&C server to download configuration data and upload stolen information. This was a major point of failure for the bot because the C&C server could be blocked or taken down, and the attacker would lose control of the botnet. The bot did have a fallback strategy: if the C&C server was down it generated pseudo-random domain names to contact. The attacker could of course predict those domain names and register one in order to gain back control of the bot, but the solution was not very efficient. (Terminology note: although we use the term “C&C” for the main server controlled by the attackers, this server is not a typical C&C in its functionalities, but is mainly a collector of information from the drones.)

To overcome these limitations the attackers have now decided to use...

The terms targeted attack, spear phishing, and advanced persistent threat (APT) get bandied around in the media a lot these days. With the spate of recent headlines concerning companies being hacked, every company is on its guard to prevent becoming the next victim—and big headline. One of the major problems associated with targeted attacks is identifying whether or not your company is the actual target of any malware found and not just a random victim of a malware gang. There are several ways to try to do this, such as attempting to find the initial source of infection and analyzing the malware itself. However, attackers are clever and deception is part of their game.

If an attacker’s malware is discovered at any point during the initial stage of a targeted attack, the best-case...

I received reports this week of emails that reference transactions of which the recipients have no knowledge. The  email includes a link for more detail, which then attempts to download a ZIP attachment. Nothing new here; most savvy users would know better than to open an attachment in an unsolicited email.

The interesting thing about this email, however, is that it includes a password previously used by the recipient. Seeing private data in an email like this would definitely raise suspicions that the sender has some kind of connection to the recipient, or worse, has comprised their account details. The ultimate goal for the sender is that the user’s curiosity would be piqued sufficiently to open the attachment which would, of course, deliver the inevitable malware payload.

Symantec detects the file as Trojan.Zbot, also called Zeus, which is a Trojan horse that...

Symantec’s telemetry has shown over 12 million Intrusion Prevention Signature (IPS) hits on sub domains of the ‘CO.CC’ domain in the last six months. Anyone somewhat familiar with the top-level domain-naming hierarchy might be lead to believe that CO.CC is actually an official second-level domain similar to CO.UK; this, however, is not the case. .CC is the Internet country code top-level domain (ccTLD) for Cocos (Keeling) Islands...