From the monthly archives:

September 2008

Antispyware Pro XP Analysis and Removal

by Shanmuga

Antispyware Pro XP or Anti spyware Pro XP is one of the many variants belonging to the family of rogue security software. The following is an account of my experience with this rogue.

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Understanding Search Engine Privacy and How to prevent Snooping Part I

by Shanmuga

Search engines keep records of every search, ever made in a way that can be traced to individuals. They retain users’ search data -anonymized or not- to eternity. They put web cookies on their computers that makes it possible to match search queries to their computer address, their name…if they are logged in…and possibly more

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XP/Vista Antivirus 2008 Analysis and Removal

by Shanmuga

This rogue anti-malware application mostly installs via encoded re-directs from hacked web pages. When you happen to visit a hacked web page on a otherwise legitimate website your browser is automatically redirected to a rogue ware hosting website which shows a popup with a the text “Your computer is running slower than normal, maybe it

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Microsoft Plugs Critical Security Holes

by Shanmuga

"Microsoft released four "critical" security bulletins for September’s Patch Tuesday, including a massive update for Microsoft Windows GDI+ that affects multiple products.

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Google cuts data retention period again

by Shanmuga

"last year, it bowed to pressure from the EU and shaved six months off its retention of identity information. In a further move to avert potential legislation, Google announced yesterday that it would cut the figure in half: IP addresses in its logs will now be anonymized after nine months.

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EstDomains Inc: A Superlative Scam and Spam Site Registrar

by Shanmuga

"According to RegistrarStats.com, EstDomains is the 49th largest domain name registrar, with more than 270,000 domains. Security Fix is still working on cataloging all of those domains, but for the purposes of this analysis we’ll examine some 10,000 Web site names that are both registered through EstDomains and using the company’s various domain name servers

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Google issues first patches for Chrome

by Shanmuga

"Just days after it rolled out Chrome, Google Inc. issued an update after Vietnamese security researchers reported a critical vulnerability in the beta browser.

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McAfee’s Artemis Putting Malware Signatures in the Cloud

by Shanmuga

"Essentially the idea is to offload some malware checks to an online database. When the software detects a program or file as being suspicious, probably through behavior checks, it takes some form of hash of the files involved and submits it in a database query to their most updated malware database. If a hit is

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Celebrity Malicious Spam Analysis and Removal

by Shanmuga

Recently my inbox was filled with spam containing subject lines "Re: Offical Update 2008" and number of catchy celebrity themed storm worm lines… I opened one of the spam mail with the paris hilton subject line and clicked on the single link which promised to let me view a previously unseen video of the celebrity.

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Fake XP SecurityCenter Analysis and Removal

by Shanmuga

XP SecurityCenter is rogue antimalware application installed through dubious means like a link in a spam mail or through a link in a hacked website. It’s look-alike of the legitimate Windows Security Center and it does what other rogue antimalware apps do that is to scare the unfortunate victim by throwing various pop-up messages about

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Google Chrome: Security and Privacy Implications

by Shanmuga

Google’s new browser named Chrome and released as a beta version is drawing flak for its (non)implementation of browser security and privacy.

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Is Rock Phish cybergang set for a comeback?

by Shanmuga

"”Rock Phish is making an investment in their own infrastructure by upgrading their botnet,” says Sean Brady, product marketing manager at RSA. RSA, whose FraudAction Research Lab has posted a blog item on the topic, says the end result could be a surge in phishing attacks in the near future.

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Researchers Build Malicious Facebook Application

by Shanmuga

"The researchers developed an application called "Photo of the Day," which serves up a new National Geographic photo daily. But in the background, every time the application is clicked, it sends a 600 K-byte HTTP request for images to a victim’s Web site.

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RAM raiders: inside secrets of the cyber hackers

by Shanmuga

"I have just found a new best friend and his name is Pyr0. I didn’t choose him because he is entertaining or fun to be with – although he is both. Nope, it’s just that, more than anything, you wouldn’t want Pyr0 to be your enemy.

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Malware: Rootkit evolution

by Shanmuga

"This article focuses mainly on Windows rootkits – they are the most numerous, they are continuing to evolve, they pose a serious threat for users and because Windows is the most popular OS today, they are widely used by virus writers.

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Privacy: Microsoft slams Google on privacy

by Shanmuga

""Google’s a great company, got some great products, but you know in some respects I think Google is where Microsoft was 7 or 10 years ago," Peter Cullen, Microsoft’s chief privacy strategist told CNET News sister site ZDNet Australia.

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Internet Explorer 8 to get privacy features

by Shanmuga

"Microsoft on Monday described some new privacy features that will come with IE8, the next release of its browser. The features are designed to make it easier for people to delete and control information about their Web browsing history.

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