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PandaLabs Uncovers Alarming Statistics on Cyber-Crime Black Market
PandaLabs discovered a vast network selling stolen bank details along with other types of products in forums and more than 50 dedicated online stores. This is a rapidly growing industry and cyber-criminals are aiding and abetting each other’s efforts to steal personal information for financial profit. After posing as a cyber-criminal to infiltrate the network, PandaLabs made some alarming discoveries which are available in the full report here: http://press.pandasecurity.com/usa/press-room/panda-white-paper/.
The cyber-crime black market, which has traditionally centered on distributing bank and credit card details stolen from users around the world, diversified its business model in 2010, and now sells a much broader range of hacked confidential information including bank credentials, log-ins, passwords, fake credit cards and more. But as openly available as this information is, PandaLabs discovered that it can only be accessed by personally contacting the hackers who are promoting their information for sale on forums and in chat rooms.
Making the Sale
By having access to bank credentials, criminals can easily defraud any bank or credit card account long before the hack is discovered. Alarmingly, this data can be purchased for as little as $2 per card, but this level does not provide additional information or verification of the account balance available. If the buyer wants a guarantee for the available credit line or bank balance, the price increases to $80 for smaller bank balances and upwards of $700 to access accounts with a guaranteed balance of $82,000. Read more
PandaLabs Recaps Year of Malware With Its Virus Yearbook 2010
Mariposa, Stuxnet and MSNWorm listed as most noteworthy malware
PandaLabs is closing the year with a look at some of the unique and noteworthy viruses that have appeared over the last twelve months. The list of viruses is vast and varied, since in 2010, PandaLabs received more than 20 million new strains of malware.
This compilation does not contain the most prolific threats or those that caused the most infections, but is simply some of the viruses that caught PandaLabs’ eye. The viruses that are included in the ‘Virus Yearbook 2010′ are:
- The Mischievous Mac Lover: This title was earned from a remote-control program with the unsettling name of HellRaiser.A. This virus only affects Mac systems and needs user consent to install on a computer. Once installed, it can take remote control of the system and perform a host of functions, including opening the DVD tray. Read more
Security Trends for 2011
Hacktivism, cyber war and social engineering tactics expected to be among the most widely-used methods for spreading encrypted and dynamic malware
PandaLabs has forecasted several radical innovations in cyber-crime for 2011. Hacktivism and cyber-war; more profit-oriented malware; social media; social engineering and malicious codes with the ability to adapt to avoid detection will be the main threats in the coming year. There will also be an increase in the threats to Mac users, new efforts to attack 64-bit systems and zero-day exploits.
Following is a summary of what PandaLabs predicts as the ten major security trends of 2011: Read more
New Hacker Campaign Targets Holiday Trending Topics on Twitter to Spread Malware
Numerous Twitter accounts have been created to spread malicious code through festive messages
PandaLabs announced that cyber-criminals are exploiting Twitter to spread malware using festive-themed messages. Using methods akin to Black Hat SEO techniques, hackers are taking advantage of trending topics to position malware distribution campaigns. As the holiday period has begun, topics such as “Advent calendar,” “Hanukkah” or even “Grinch,” are among the most popular subjects used by hackers to entice users.
Thousands of tweets have been launched using holiday-related phrases, such as “Nobody cares about Hanukkah,” or “Shocking video of the Grinch,” along with short URLs pointing to malicious websites. To see an example of a tweet like this, please visit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/panda_security/5226147792/
Users who click the link will be taken to a page that infects systems with false codecs. These exploit a security hole in PDF files (CVE-2010-2883) and try to trick users into downloading a codec that is really a downloader Trojan, which in turn downloads more malware onto the compromised computer. You can see this image here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/panda_security/5225551137/
In addition to subjects related to Christmas, cyber-criminals are using other hot topics to spread their creations, including the Sundance festival, the AIDS campaign, the Carling Cup and tweets about the actor Morgan Freeman.
According to Luis Corrons, Technical Director of PandaLabs, “Social networks are becoming increasingly popular among hackers as a vehicle for spreading malware. Facebook and Twitter are commonly exploited with malicious intent, giving their ever-increasing number of users the false sense of security that they’re safe posting content on these sites. This is why the number of clicks, and therefore infections, tends to be very high.” Read more
One-Third of All Malware was Created in the First 10 Months of 2010
PandaLabs reported today that one-third of all malware in existence was created in the first 10 months of 2010.
The average number of malware threats created every day, including new malware and variants of existing families, has risen from 55,000 in 2009 to 63,000 in 2010 – a rate increase of 14.5 percent.
The research lab also revealed that the average lifespan of 54 percent of malware has been reduced to just 24 hours, compared to a lifespan of several months that was more common in previous years.
Panda’s Collective Intelligence database, which automatically detects, analyzes and classifies 99.4 percent of the threats received, now has identified 134 million separate files, 60 million of which are malware (viruses, worms, Trojans and other threats). According to PandaLabs, 34 percent of all active malware threats were created in the first ten months of 2010. Approximately 20 million new strains of malware have been created already this year; the same total for the year of 2009 in its entirety.
This shortened lifespan of malware and increased number of variants is proof of a significant shift in the cybercrime landscape: many malware variants are created to infect just a few systems before they disappear. As antivirus solutions become able to detect new malware more quickly, hackers modify them or create new ones so as to evade detection. The quickly changing malware strains make it incredibly important to have protection technologies such as Collective Intelligence, which can rapidly neutralize new malware and reduce the risk window to which users are exposed during these first 24 hours. Read more