Security Response

For those of us who are not hardcore gamers (yours truly included),but have fond memories of playing Pitfall on the Atari 2600 or Pirateson an old Apple, the world of online gaming has been experiencing aperiod of explosive growth in recent years. The rapid increases inplayers and dollars flowing into the gaming industry go well beyond theconsole-based games such as Sony’s PS3 and Nintendo’s Wii and extend toPC-based games such as the hugely popular World of Warcraft (WoW) whichenjoys a thriving online population that recently reached over 6 million users worldwide.WoW is a massively multiplayer online game (MMOG) that allows playersfrom across the globe to interact socially in a persistent world wherethe player is represented by their in-game avatar who increases inskills, gains possessions and presumably builds relationships overtime. The MMOG market...

We recently hit a big milestone here at Symantec Security Response:30 VB100 awards in a row! This means that for every VB100 test forwhich we have submitted a product, we’ve detected all the threats onthe latest WildList without missing a threat and without triggering afalse positive on a clean file. For a little perspective, this streakstretches all the way back to the last century (OK, 1999) with theNovember 1999 VB100 test for Windows 98. We think this a prettyremarkable achievement in consistency and reliability.

There were a couple other notable items in the latest test, not theleast of which was that it was the first VB100 that covered Microsoft’snew Vista operating system. We were one of several security companieswho notched a win on the inaugural Vista VB100, but there were a few ofus who didn’t quite make the cut.Note that malware on...

We’re happy to report that so far today, Peacomm and Mixor.Q activity is lighter than the maelstrom of activity we’ve seen in previous days. We’ve noted no new spam runs today, with the malware submissions and activity levels tapering off a bit as well. Phew! Our Security Response team in Pune, India, has pulled together a slick Flash-based run through of the attack, which can be viewed using the following URL:
http://www.symantec.com/content/en/us/home_homeoffice/media/flash/peacomm.html

Just a little more info on this threat you may have not heard before—it is communicating over peer-to-peer using the Overnet protocol and network (of eDonkey fame). After connecting to the network, the threat then searches for some particular hashes (searches are done by hash, not by specific filename) and eventually it receives a reply that includes some 'meta tag' information...

We’re happy to report that so far today, Peacomm and Mixor.Qactivity is lighter than the maelstrom of activity we’ve seen inprevious days. We’ve noted no new spam runs today, with the malwaresubmissions and activity levels tapering off a bit as well. Phew! OurSecurity Response team in Pune, India, has pulled together a slickFlash-based run through of the attack, which can be viewed using thefollowing URL:
http://www.symantec.com/content/en/us/home_homeoffice/media/flash/peacomm.html

Just a little more info on this threat you may have not heardbefore—it is communicating over peer-to-peer using the Overnet protocoland network (of eDonkey fame). After connecting to the network, thethreat then searches for some particular hashes (searches are done byhash, not by specific filename) and eventually it receives a reply thatincludes some 'meta tag' information. The meta...