For several years now, antivirus researchers have observed increasing efficiency and sophistication in malware development and distribution. At the start of 2012, I began using the term "industrialization of malware" to describe this phenomenon. I also drew a picture of the fictitious enterprise "Malware, Inc." as a means of conveying the transformation that malware has … Read More…

On Thursday, September 12, Duo Security, a young-but-respected vendor of two-factor authentication devices, announced the preliminary results of a study of over 20,000 Android devices from a two month old study they performed. Based on the results, they calculated that over half of Android devices on the market have security vulnerabilities that are, as yet, … Read More…

Blackhat keynote speaker Shawn Henry, the former executive assistant director of the FBI’s Criminal, Cyber, Response and Service Branch, started off the day after opening remarks from Jeff Moss, founder of Blackhat. Moss wondered if now was the time for the cyber-security sector to take a more aggressive/offensive approach. Jeff mentioned working for a former … Read More…

Evidence that criminals are targeting the computer systems of small businesses continues to mount. The Wall Street Journal recently drew attention to the way cybercriminals are sniffing out vulnerable firms. The article highlighted the fact that about 72% of the 855 data breaches world-wide last year that were analyzed in Verizon's Data Breach Investigation Report … Read More…

With the recent announcements of password breaches at LinkedIn, and warnings from Google about state-sponsored attacks on Gmail accounts, it seems like a good idea now to review some password security basics.  In this blog post, we’re going to take a look at a rather low-tech solution to a decidedly high-tech problem:  How to guard … Read More…

 Here are some further thoughts arising from the ACPO National Cyber Crime Conference held recently in the UK*.

DAC Janet Williams, ACPO’s e-Crime lead, summarized the current initiatives along these lines (apologies if I’ve introduced too many of my own preconceptions):

The UK intends to tackle cybercrime and make this one of the safest places to do … Read More…

Scam artists and cybercriminals are looking to turn romance into profit now that Valentine's Day approaches, possibly taking over your computer in the process. According to ESET researchers in Latin America, we can expect the quest for love to be leveraged as an effective social engineering ploy to enable the bad guys to infect unsuspecting … Read More…

Yesterday’s announcement by the US Department of Justice that the operators of file-sharing site Megaupload had been indicted for operating a criminal enterprise that generated over $175 million by trafficking in over half a billion dollars of pirated copyrighted material has sent shockwaves across the Internet.  The accuracy of those figures may be questionable, but … Read More…

I want share with you what ESET Latin America’s Research team thinks will be the main trends in malware and cybercrime in 2012. In our office it is usual to produce an analysis of emerging trends in a year-end report and so, in keeping with recent postings by my ESET colleagues, I present a summary … Read More…

If you're a dedicated follower of Facebook, last week was a bit of a roller coaster. On Monday, Emil Protalinski at ZDNet reminded you that the stories appearing on Facebook about Lady Gaga being found dead in a hotel room are a “likejacking” scam. Then on Tuesday it was reported that Facebook has "introduced a … Read More…