Threats

Fraud Analytics: You’re Doing It Wrong!

One of the most vexing problems in computer security today is distinguishing malicious from legitimate behavior on victim networks. Sophisticated cyber criminals and nation-backed hacking groups make a point of moving low and slow on compromised end points and networks, while victim organizations are (rightly) wary of disrupting legitimate business activity for the sake of spotting a breach. In this Security Ledger Podcast, Paul interviews Jason Sloderbeck, Director of Product Management at RSA, EMC’s security division.  Jason talks about RSA’s Silvertail fraud analytics technology, and the organizational and technology issues that keep victims from spotting attacks. One of the big mistakes organizations make when they investigate attacks, Sloderbeck said, is focusing too narrowly on a point in time during a web session that is felt to be a good indicator of compromise – like when a user authenticates to a service or “checks out” on an e-commerce web site. “There’s a whole […]

Continue Reading

Update: Google Says BadNews Malware Not-So-Bad After All?

Editor’s Note: Updated to add comments from Lookout Mobile Security. – PFR  6/10/2013 When reports surfaced about “BadNews,” a new family of mobile malware that affected Google Android devices the news sounded…well…bad. BadNews was described as a new kind of mobile malware for the Android platform-one that harness mobile ad networks to push out malicious links, harvest information on compromised devices and more. Now, six weeks later, a senior member of Google’s Android security team claims that BadNews wasn’t really all that bad, after all. Speaking at an event in Washington D.C. sponsored by the Federal Trade Commission, Google employee and Android team member Adrian Ludwig threw cold water on reports linking BadNews to sites that installed malicious programs. The search giant, he said, had not found any evidence linking BadNews to so-called SMS “toll fraud” malware. “We’ve observed the app(lication) and we’ve reviewed all the logs we have access […]

Continue Reading

Google Adds Detection For Obad Malware

Just a follow-up to our story from last week on Obad, the new family of mobile malware that affects Google Android devices: In an e-mail to The Security Ledger on Friday, Google acknowledged the existence of the Trojan horse program and has updated its detection tools to be able to identify it. In an e-mail, a Google spokeswoman said that the malware, dubbed “Obad” by Kaspersky Lab, was not found on the company’s Google Play application store. The company  added detection for the new malware to its Application Verification Tool, which protects Android users who tried to download it from a third-party application store or browser. Obad, or Backdoor.AndroidOS.Obad.a, is described as a “multi function Trojan” that primarily acts as an SMS Trojan, surreptitiously sending short message service (SMS) messages to premium numbers. It was first described in a blog post by Kaspersky Lab researcher malware researcher Roman Unuchek last week. Unuchek […]

Continue Reading

Podcast: Project Prism – Has Uncle Sam Gone Rogue?

It was hard to escape the big news this week: revelations from The Guardian and The Washington Post about a program of widespread surveillance of online social networks and mobile phone use. The news, both the result of high-level leaks of classified information, has embroiled the Obama Administration in the most serious questions about domestic spying since the Nixon administration. To discuss the week’s events, Paul sat down with Ron Gula, the CEO of Tenable Network Security (and a former NSA security ninja) and Rick Forno, director of the University of Maryland Baltimore County’s Graduate Cybersecurity Program and a Junior Affiliate Scholar at the Stanford Law School’s Center for Internet and Society (CIS).  While neither guest was surprised to read about the government’s monitoring of cell phone activity or data from social networks, the latest reports lay bare the dimensions of the U.S. government’s domestic spying post 9/11, and raise serious […]

Continue Reading

New Malware Exploits Android Glitch To Block Removal

A new malicious program that runs on Android mobile devices exploits vulnerabilities in Google’s mobile operating system to extend the application’s permissions on the infected device, and to block attempts to remove the malicious application. Writing on securelist.com, Kaspersky Lab’s research blog, malware researcher Roman Unuchek called the newly discovered Trojan the “most sophisticated” malicious program yet detected that works with Android phones. He cited the Trojan’s advanced features, including complex obfuscation techniques that complicated analysis of the code, and the use of a previously unknown vulnerability in Android that allowed it to take control of and maintain a foothold on infected Android devices. Kaspersky said it has contacted Google regarding the malware and the alleged vulnerabilities in Android. Google was unable to confirm that prior to publication. The malware, dubbed Backdoor.AndroidOS.Obad.a, is described as a “multi function Trojan.” Like most profit-oriented mobile malware, Obad is primarily an SMS Trojan, […]

Continue Reading
1 … 194 195 196 197 198 … 216