“Rogue antivirus "biggest threat" facing Canadian PCs” plus 2 more

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• Rogue antivirus "biggest threat" facing Canadian PCs
• Attack defeats 'most' antivirus software
• Windows security software hole can cripple antivirus

Rogue antivirus "biggest threat" facing Canadian PCs Posted: 12 May 2010 02:49 AM PDT Rogue antivirus – also known as scareware – is one of the top PC security threats in Canada and proving an effective method for online fraudsters to profit from their exploits, say security experts. The malware tricks victims into thinking their computer is infected and provides a fake piece of software to fix the problem. After giving away credit card information and downloading the software, the victim actually is opening up a direct gateway for more malware to be loaded onto the computer and becomes a prime candidate for identity theft. The double-whammy attack is proving effective and becoming more popular among hackers. Microsoft Corp.'s security products removed scareware programs from 7.8 million computers worldwide during the second half of 2009, an increase of 46.5 per cent from the previous six-month period. That suggests scareware is providing better payoffs to cyber-criminals than other types of malware, according Microsoft Security Intelligence Report Volume 8. "The biggest threat facing Canadian PCs is fake security software," says Mohammad Akif, national security and privacy lead with Microsoft Canada Inc. in Missisauga, Ont. Related story Hackers exploit Polish president's death with massive scareware attack The top two scareware infections were removed nearly 230,000 times in Canada during the second half of 2009. That's close to double the second place infection rate in the country. It's a blemish on an otherwise gleaming report card for Canadian PC security. Only three in every 1,000 PCs are infected in Canada, Microsoft estimates. That's well below the global average of seven per 1,000 PCs, and an improvement over one and a half years ago when Canada had an infection rate of eight per 1,000 PCs. Sign up for our IT Business Newsletters Page Navigation 1) Scareware is on the rise in Canada compared to other malware. - Page 1 2) Rogue AV demands $84 to fix faked problems. - Page 2 3) Hackers are out to make a profit. - Page 3 << Back Share:  Twitter |   Digg |   delicious |   Google |   Technorati |   StumbleIt |   Yahoo! Five Filters featured article: The Art of Looking Prime Ministerial - The 2010 UK General Election. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Attack defeats 'most' antivirus software Posted: 11 May 2010 07:24 PM PDT Virtual world Second Life can find niche in virtual events, plus a peek at how schools are using the platform. Find out more @zdnetasia. 47 minutes ago by YQLiauZDNetAsia on twitter Five Filters featured article: The Art of Looking Prime Ministerial - The 2010 UK General Election. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

Windows security software hole can cripple antivirus Posted: 11 May 2010 05:48 AM PDT A just-published attack tactic that bypasses the security protections of most current antivirus software is a "very serious" problem, an executive at one unaffected company said today. Last Wednesday, researchers at Matousec.com outlined how attackers could exploit the kernel driver hooks that most security software use to reroute Windows system calls through their software to check for potential malicious code before it's able to execute. Calling the technique an "argument-switch attack," a Matousec-written paper spelled out in relatively specific terms how an attacker could swap out benign code for malicious code between the moments when the security software issues a green light and the code actually executes. McAfee antivirus to reimburse consumers for bad update | Fake antivirus software on rise, says Google "This is definitely very serious," said Alfred Huger, vice president of engineering at Immunet, an antivirus company. "Probably any security product running on Windows XP can be exploited this way." Huger added that Immunet's desktop client is not vulnerable to the argument-switch attacks because the company's software uses a different method to hook into the Windows kernel. According to Matousec, nearly three-dozen Windows desktop security titles, including ones from Symantec, McAfee, Trend Micro, BitDefender, Sophos and others, can be exploited using the argument-switch tactic. Matousec said it had tested the technique on Windows XP SP3 and Vista SP1 on 32-bit machines. Some security vendors agreed with Huger. "It's a serious issue and Matousec's technical findings are correct," said Mikko Hypponen, chief research officer at Finnish firm F-Secure, in an e-mail. "Matousec's research is absolutely important and significant in the short term," echoed Rik Ferguson, a senior security advisor at Trend Micro, in a blog post earlier Monday. Other antivirus companies downplayed the threat, however. "Based on our initial review of the public documentation, we believe this is a complicated attack with several mitigating factors that make it unlikely to be a viable, real world, widespread attack scenario," a McAfee spokesman said in an email reply to a request for comment. "The attack would require some level of existing access to the target computer, as the attack described by Matousec does not on its own bypass security software or allow malware to run." Five Filters featured article: The Art of Looking Prime Ministerial - The 2010 UK General Election. Available tools: PDF Newspaper, Full Text RSS, Term Extraction.

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