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From the monthly archives:

March 2008

Security: Windows Vista SP1 available for download…do you need it?

by Shanmuga

"PC World’s in-house tests with the RTM version of Vista SP1 have shown mixed results. In file copying tests, the service pack proved noticeably faster than the original Vista OS. Other tests, on the other hand, showed little improvement (or actually performed worse than Vista without the service pack). For instance, our preliminary file compression

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Security: Apple releases massive security update

by Shanmuga

"Known as APPLE-SA-2008-03-18 Security Update 2008-002, it contains more than 40 specific fixes for versions of Mac OS X. The most significant updates include Apache, ClamAV, Emacs, OpenSSH, PHP, and X11. To get the update, go to the Software Update pane in System Preferences, or Apple’s Software Downloads Web site. The update "is recommended for

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Vulnerabilities: Malicious subtitle file could harm VLC media player

by Shanmuga

"A flaw in the widely-used open-source VLC media player could allow an attacker to execute harmful code on a PC. The problem stems from a buffer overflow that can occur when the player processes subtitle files used for movies, according to a security advisory.

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Hacking: Ongoing IFrame attack proving difficult to kill

by Shanmuga

"One of the factors that make an ongoing malware attack so difficult to stop is the speed with which the assault can evolve. Over the past 12 days, an IFrame injection attack that originally focused on ZDNet Asia has been spreading across the ‘Net, changing targets and payloads on an almost daily basis. An iFrame

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Hacking: Second mass hack exposed

by Shanmuga

"Researchers at McAfee estimated that the attack has been active for roughly one week, and in that time frame has managed to place itself on roughly 200,000 web pages.

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Encryption: TrueCrypt developers consider complaint against Microsoft

by Shanmuga

"The developers of the TrueCrypt open source encryption tool are considering submitting a complaint against Microsoft to the EU Commission if Microsoft is not prepared to lay open the Windows hibernation API. From version 5.1 TrueCrypt supports hibernation for encrypted system partitions.

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Vishing: The Anatomy of a Vishing Scam

by Shanmuga

"A series of well-orchestrated wireless phone-based phishing attacks against several financial institutions last week illustrates how scam artists are growing more adept at fleecing consumers by exploiting security holes in seemingly unrelated Internet technologies.

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Hacking: Trend Micro Details Its Recent Failed Web Attack

by Shanmuga

"The code inserted in some Web pages of the site was meant to redirect the visitor to a malicious server that would download malware capable of stealing passwords on an infected computer, Trend Micro spokesman Michael Sweeny said. The attempt, however, failed.

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Spam: Spam king pleads guilty to federal wire fraud

by Shanmuga

"A man once described as one of the world’s top e-mail spammers pleaded guilty Friday to federal charges of mail fraud, wire fraud and failure to file a tax return.

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Hacking: Cyber-attack launched from 10,000 web pages

by Shanmuga

"The web pages have been modified to silently redirect visitors to sites laden with malware that attempt to break into the user’s PC. McAfee Avert Labs described the assault as "one of the largest attacks to date of this kind".

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Trend Micro website infected users with Trojan

by Shanmuga

"Antivirus vendor Trend Micro Inc. confirmed Thursday that "some portions" of its site had been hacked earlier this week, but hedged when asked if those pages had been serving up attack code to unsuspecting visitors.

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Security: The top five internal security threats

by Shanmuga

"Criminal attacks are particularly likely to happen from the inside: one recent study estimated that 90 percent of criminal computer crimes were committed by employees of the company attacked.

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Microsoft fixes a dozen critical Office flaws in four patches

by Shanmuga

"Microsoft released its March 2008 security bulletin, which includes four bulletins, all deemed critical by Microsoft. The most serious of these affects Microsoft Excel, which alone has six specific "Common Vulnerablities and Exposures" vulnerabilities noted, one of which has been exploited in the wild.

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Mozilla adds 900 fixes and upgrades Firefox 3 beta

by Shanmuga

"Mozilla released the latest beta of Firefox 3, including some 900 bug fixes and highlighting for users that it is for testing purposes only. The release comes less than a week after Microsoft showed off the next version of its browser – Internet Explorer 8 – at its annual Mix show for developers.

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Spam: Why spam isn’t going away soon

by Shanmuga

“Recently, Symantec said in its February 2008 State of Spam report that 78.5 percent of all e-mail is spam; they also said most of that is now coming from Europe. That’s a change from previous reports that had suggested servers in North America were responsible. What the Symantec report doesn’t explicitly state is that much

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Malware: The MonaRonaDona Extortion Scam

by Shanmuga

"According to an analysis by Russian anti-virus maker Kaspersky Lab, MonaRonaDona is noisy because its author is hoping the victim will conduct a Google search for instructions on how to remove it. The second result in a Google search for "monaronadona" is a Digg.com article linking to an anonymous blog entry with instructions on downloading

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Growth of Anti-Botnet Startups Points to AV Deficiencies

by Shanmuga

"A slew of software companies new and old are shipping tools aimed at slowing the botnet epidemic, but the emergence of this new market is seen by some analysts as an indictment of the existing anti-malware industry. With reliable statistics showing a dramatic rise in botnet-related computer infections, venture capitalists are now pouring money into

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