Banker Trojans comprised more than 60 percent of new threats created in Q1

March 31, 2010 · Filed Under Internet Software, Security Software, Software News · Comment 

PandaLabs Q1 report shows resurgence in traditional viruses after decline in recent years

BlackHat SEO attacks using Apple and Facebook are among cybercriminals preferred strategies

Panda Security involved in takedown of Mariposa, one of the largest botnets on record

PandaLabs  has published its Q1 2010 report, analyzing the IT security events and incidents of the first three months of the year. The report can be downloaded for free at: http://www.pandasecurity.com/homeusers/security-info/tools/reports.htm.

As forecasted by PandaLabs, the amount of new malware in circulation has continued to increase at a record pace. In this first quarter, the most prevalent category was once again banker Trojans, accounting for 61 percent of all new malware. Interestingly, the second most prevalent type was traditional viruses, comprising more than 15 percent of all malware, despite having shown a dramatic decrease in recent years. A graph of the types of malware samples received by PandaLabs in Q1 is available at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/panda_security/4461973069/

“The growing prevalence of banker Trojans signals to us that online accounts for both consumers and businesses continue to be increasingly attractive financial targets for cybercriminals,” said Sean-Paul Correll, threat researcher at PandaLabs. “In addition, the widespread availability of DIY kits online has spurred new, less technical individuals into the cybercrime business as evidenced by the Mariposa case. The simultaneous growth in traditional virus activity is an interesting trend and we suspect this means that cybercriminals are attempting to draw the attention of anti-virus laboratories away from other seemingly more harmful threats.”

In other areas of IT security, botnets have seen considerable activity in 2010. For example, Panda Security played a key role in dismantling Mariposa, one of the largest botnets known to date, and subsequently detected Mariposa malware on y Vodafone devices. Mariposa stole account information for social media sites and other online e-mail services, usernames and passwords, banking credentials and credit card data through infiltrating an estimated 12.7 million compromised personal, corporate, government and university IP addresses in more than 190 countries. The botnet was shut down and rendered inactive on December 23rd, 2009, thanks to the collaborative effort of different security experts and law enforcement, including Panda Security, Defence Intelligence, the FBI and Spanish Guardia Civil.

In addition, popular online search topics, including Apple’s iPad and Facebook applications, were once again used in BlackHat SEO attacks. Similarly, cybercriminals continue to use social networks to distribute malware, a trend that saw a considerable uptick in 2009 and will continue throughout 2010.

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Consumers don’t relate bot infections to risky behavior as millions continue to click on spam

March 25, 2010 · Filed Under Internet Software, Security Software, Software News · Comment 

MAAWG 2010 Email Security Consumer Survey Expands to North America and Western Europe

A significant percentage of consumers continue to interact with spam despite their awareness of how bots and viruses spread through risky email behavior, according to the Messaging Anti-Abuse Working Group (MAAWG) based on a new survey it released today covering North America and Western Europe. Even though over eighty percent of email users are aware of the existence of bots, tens of millions respond to spam in ways that could leave them vulnerable to a malware infection, according to the 2010 MAAWG Email Security Awareness and Usage Survey.

In the new survey, half of users said they had opened spam, clicked on a link in spam, opened a spam attachment, replied or forwarded it – activities that leave consumers susceptible to fraud, phishing, identity theft and infection. While most consumers said they were aware of the existence of bots, only one-third believed they were vulnerable to an infection.

“Consumers need to understand they are not powerless bystanders. They can play a key role in standing up to spammers by not engaging and just marking their emails as junk,” said Michael O’Reirdan, MAAWG chairman.

“When consumers respond to spam or click on links in junk mail, they often set themselves up for fraud or to have their computers compromised by criminals who use them to deliver more spam, spread viruses and launch cyber attacks,” O’Reirdan said.

The research findings on awareness of bots, email security practices, and attitudes toward controlling spam were generally consistent with the first MAAWG consumer survey in 2009 covering North America. The new 2010 survey was expanded to cover Western Europe and looks at consumers’ attitudes in Canada, France, Germany, Spain, the United Kingdom and the United States.

It Won’t Happen to Me Syndrome

Less than half of the consumers surveyed saw themselves as the entity who should be most responsible for stopping the spread of viruses. Yet, only 36% of consumers believe they might get a virus and 46% of those who opened spam did so intentionally.

This is a problem because spam is one of the most common vehicles for spreading bots and viruses. The malware is often unknowingly installed on users’ computers when they open an attachment in a junk email or click on a link that takes them to a poisoned Web site, according to O’Reirdan.

Younger consumers tend to consider themselves more security savvy, possibly from having grown up with the Internet, yet they also take more risks. Among the survey’s key findings:

  • Almost half of those who opened spam did so intentionally. Many wanted to unsubscribe or complain to the sender (25%), to see what would happen (18%) or were interested in the product (15%).
  • Overall, 11% of consumers have clicked on a link in spam, 8% have opened attachments, 4% have forwarded it and 4% have replied to spam.
  • On average, 44% of users consider themselves “somewhat experienced” with email security. In Germany, 33% of users see themselves as “expert” or “very experienced,” followed by around 20% in Spain, the U.K. and the U.S.A., 16% in Canada and just 8% in France.
  • Men and email users under 35 years, the same demographic groups who tend to consider themselves more experienced with email security, are more likely to open or click on links or forward spam. Among email users under 35 years, 50% report having opened spam compared to 38% of those over 35. Younger users also were more likely to have clicked on a link in spam (13%) compared to less than 10% of older consumers.
  • Consumers are most likely to hold their Internet or email service provider most responsible for stopping viruses and malware. Only 48% see themselves as most responsible, though in France this falls to 30% and 37% in Spain.
  • Yet in terms of anti-virus effectiveness, consumers ranked themselves ahead of all others, except for anti-virus vendors: 56% of consumers rated their own ability to stop malware and 67% rated that of anti-virus vendors’ as very or fairly good. Government agencies, consumer advocacy agencies and social networking sites were among those rated most poorly.

The survey was conducted online between January 8 and 21, 2010 among over a thousand email users in the United States and over 500 email users in each of the other five countries. Participants were general consumers responsible for managing the security for their personal email address.

Both the survey’s key findings and the full report are available at the MAAWG Web site, www.MAAWG.org. The 2010 research was conducted by Ipsos Public Affairs, and the full report includes country comparisons for many of the questions along with detailed charts.

The Messaging Anti-Abuse Working Group (MAAWG) is where the messaging industry comes together to work against spam, viruses, denial-of-service attacks and other online exploitation. MAAWG (www.MAAWG.org) represents almost one billion mailboxes from some of the largest network operators worldwide. It is the only organization addressing messaging abuse holistically by systematically engaging all aspects of the problem, including technology, industry collaboration and public policy. MAAWG leverages the depth and experience of its global membership to tackle abuse on existing networks and new emerging services. Headquartered in San Francisco, Calif., MAAWG is an open forum driven by market needs and supported by major network operators and messaging providers.

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New LabQuest software makes handheld device more versatile for science educators

March 22, 2010 · Filed Under Educational Software, Software News · Comment 

‘Vernier showcases support for video, wireless printing and periodic table graphing’

Vernier Software & Technology showcased at the National Science Teachers Association in Philadelphia new features of the LabQuest 1.4 software update and also gave teachers a sneak peek at technology in development for the upcoming school year.

Available now, LabQuest 1.4 ships with two popular features — wireless printing and periodic table graphing. Using the Vernier Wi-Fi USB adapter, teachers and students can print wirelessly to most Wi-Fi enabled printers, including those that set up their own adhoc network. Secondly, the periodic table application permits students to create periodic table plots, such as atomic weight versus atomic radius, and graph them to view trends. Many chemistry courses introduce periodic trends by having students graph by hand. With LabQuest, chemistry students can now navigate through the periodic table to observe elements with similar properties reoccurring at regular intervals.

Vernier also gave educators a sneak peek at two features in development. In the next school year, LabQuest will be able to play full screen video. This allows educators to download short instructional videos on how to set up experiments or pose questions for student investigation. In addition, science students will be able to wirelessly transfer data from the LabQuest to a remote computer.

“Science teachers around the country provide us with inspirational ideas for improving data-collection technology in the classroom,” said David Vernier, co-founder of Vernier and a former physics teacher. “Our goal is to improve science education by innovating new sensors and developing new software features for LabQuest. We think LabQuest’s new features showcased at NSTA help science educators teach both simple and advanced concepts with state-of-the-art technology.”

Availability and Pricing

Current LabQuest customers can download the LabQuest 1.4 software at www.vernier.com/labquest/updates. A list of compatible Wi-Fi printers may be found at http://www.vernier.com/labquest/printers/

The LabQuest sells for $329. Vernier is also offering its handheld solution at a newly reduced price of $299 per unit when purchasing eight or more units. For more information visit the web site at http://www.vernier.com/labquest/updates/.

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Wordfast Pro 2.3 for Windows

March 17, 2010 · Filed Under Business Software, Productivity Software, Software News, Utilities and Operating Systems · Comment 

Wordfast officially releases Wordfast Pro 2.3 for Windows, with over 100 new features and improvements that address the needs of corporations, language service providers, and individual translators. Mac and Linux versions will follow shortly.

With over 30,000 licenses in active use, Wordfast is the second most widely used translation memory tool in existence and the world’s leading platform-independent translation-related technology.

Wordfast Pro 2.3 New Features:
– Support for PDF files
– Support for MIF files
– Support for TTX files
– Wordfast Aligner(TM) BETA
– Built-In TM administration module
– Machine Translation integration
– User-Defined segmentation
– MS Office Spellchecker option
– Enhanced Search functionality in source and target languages
– Terminology Search

  • To download Wordfast Pro 2.3: http://www.wordfast.com/store_download.html
  • For more information on how existing Wordfast Classic licensees can receive Wordfast Pro for free: http://www.wordfast.com/support_relicensewfp.html
  • Wordfast also offers a beta version of the world’s most advanced free web-based TM tool, featuring complete privacy and confidentiality:http://www.freetm.com/

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Panda Security reports over 13 Million users affected by Mariposa Botnet

March 15, 2010 · Filed Under Internet Software, Security Software, Software News · Comment 

India, Mexico, Brazil and Korea Hardest Hit by Massive Attack

Following the worldwide shutdown of the Mariposa botnet last week, Panda Security reported today that the massive botnet had infected 13 million computers in 190 countries and 31,901 cities. The take down was the result of a collaborative operation spearheaded by Panda Security, Defence Intelligence, the FBI and Spanish Guardia Civil, resulting in three arrests.

According to Luis Corrons, Technical Director of PandaLabs, “The highest infection ratios are found in countries where computer security education is not a priority. However, in countries where cyber security awareness campaigns have been prioritized over the last few years, like the United States, Germany, UK and Japan, the number of infections was significantly lower.”

The cities most affected by Mariposa were Seoul (5.36 percent of compromised IP addresses), Bombay (4.45 percent) and New Delhi (4.27 percent). The top 10 infected cities are as follows:

1 Seoul 5.36%
2 Bombay 4.45%
3 New Delhi 4.27%
4 Mexico City 3.89%
5 Bogota 2.68%
6 Lima 1.98%
7 Kiev 1.68%
8 Bangalore 1.39%
9 Islamabad 1.24%
10 Tehran 1.23%

When looking at the infection rate by country, India leads the ranking (19.14 percent of all infections), followed by Mexico (with 12.85 percent) and Brazil (7.74 percent). The U.S. ranked 20th out of the 190 countries where computers were infected (with 1.05 percent).

The top 10 infected countries are as follows:

Country %
1 INDIA 19.14
2 MEXICO 12,85
3 BRAZIL 7.74
4 KOREA 7.24
5 COLOMBIA 4.94
6 RUSSIA 3.14
7 EGYPT 2.99
8 MALAYSIA 2.86
9 UKRAINE 2.69
10 PAKISTAN 2.55

An image of the above Mariposa infection breakdown by country can be found at http://www.flickr.com/photos/panda_security/4419015337/.

“The coordinated effort of all Mariposa Working Group members led to the worldwide shutdown of the Mariposa botnet on December 23 at 11:00 am ET. On that date, we seized control of the communication channels used by Mariposa, effectively severing the botnet from its criminal creators and redirecting all requests to a server controlled by us. At that time we realized the huge number of IP addresses controlled by the bot, almost 13 million, and determined the astonishing number of affected countries and cities. The compromised IP addresses include personal, government and corporate computers,” explains Corrons.

An image of the global infection map can be found here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/panda_security/4419780176/.

The Georgia Institute of Technology has plotted the progress of the Mariposa Botnet in an animation available at http://fritz.cc.gt.atl.ga.us/mariposa/mariposa_major_victim_areas.avi. According to David Dagon, Ph.D. Candidate at the Georgia Institute of Technology, “I think a remarkable aspect of this botnet is that it reverses the normal expectations about infections. Usually, the press tells us that ‘eastern’ botmasters are attacking ‘western’ victims. In Mariposa’s case, we tend to see the opposite: some botmasters in the west, and victims in the east. The lesson learned is that we all face a common threat.”

Panda Security recommends that all users – home users and companies alike – perform an in-depth scan of their computers to make sure they are not infected by the Mariposa bot. Individuals and businesses can do so by using the company’s free online scanner Panda ActiveScan or downloading its free cloud-based antivirus service Panda Cloud Antivirus from www.cloudantivirus.com.

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