The Vawtrak Is On The Attack

April 22, 2015 — Leave a comment

The latest cyber monster, which is after your virtual money, has a name. The Vawtrak malware has begun with its global domination in Japan. So far, the serious estimates say that more than 100,000 computers have been infected. This malicious software follows your online banking transactions.

It has a simple goal. The Vawtrak transfers your money to the third party bank accounts. The users all over Asia have already lost more than hundreds of millions of dollars. Now, when we are fully aware about this financial danger, what can we do in order to eliminate it, for good?

You can rest assured that quite a few busy little bees in the cyber security sector work day and night on an efficient solution. As always, it is a merciless race against the time itself. The Vawtrak is moving from the West toward the East. How much time we have left before the real trouble?

As soon as it hits the cyber shores of Europe and the USA, we will be facing the completely new level of the cyber disaster. One important piece of the cyber puzzle is missing, though. No one told us, how all of those computers got infected in the first place. That is worth knowing. Is not that right?

The Deadly Window

April 22, 2015 — Leave a comment

The busy little bee called the Cylance come up with the disturbing discovery. It turns out that every single Windows version, including the Windows 10 Technical Preview, can be hacked and passwords easily extracted. How? Who left the window open for the hackers? What about Cylance’s discovery?

It is a weak comfort, but the grandpa Microsoft has already acknowledged the “mistake”, which allows you to control a device in an unprecedented way. How? According to the Cylance, all you have to do is to infiltrate a malicious link into the targeted computer. And voila, you are in the full control.

While Microsoft is already working on an appropriate security patch, we have a simple question to ask. Even the most sophisticated and deadliest viruses known to the cyber community need a helping hand from the inside. Unless you open a door yourself, there is no real danger of the cyber doom.

We are hopelessly obsessed with the harmful effect of a certain virus that we completely neglect, how we got infected in the first place. That is the catch we are neglecting so easily. Do not be an easy target for a newbie or an average hacker. This is something you can really do. How hard could it be?

Virus vs Virus

January 20, 2015 — Leave a comment

What do you know, it turns out that there are two completely different types of viruses, which live in the different parts of our smartphones. On the one side, we have the good old cyber viruses, which like to move inside our shiny little gadgets we hold so dear and sometimes literally precious.

On the other side, you should be fully aware that there are some unwanted guests, which like to set up a camp on our smartphone’s surface. Both of them are equally dangerous and harmful for our health. The cyber viruses can seriously influence your mental health once they get into your smartphone.

When it comes to the living viruses, you cannot imagine what your smartphone represents for them. There is no more suitable surface for all kinds of the most serious viruses and bacteria you can possibly think about than your beloved smartphone. So, what is the moral of this story? What can we do about it?

Well, for what is worth, we should be equally careful about both sides of protection from the inside and on the outside. It is a nice thing to install and run an efficient antivirus software on your smartphone. However, you should also clean the extremely compromised surface every now and then. Right?

Rent Your Own Cyber Lizard

January 11, 2015 — Leave a comment

Unbelievable. One more time we have realized that there is no such category called the dumb hacker. Why in the world, would you attack some of the most popular gaming networks during the Christmas week? It just does not make any sense. Unless. Unless, you are promoting yourself, for real.

Let us put it this way. If you are making weapons, what is the best possible way to promote your products? Oh dear, you either have to shoot someone or even worse to initiate a war. Forget about the ethics for a moment, and focus on the effectiveness itself, shall you? What is the result?

The Lizard Squad, which literally played with both the PSN and Xbox Live, was actually promoting its DDoS tools. Now, just like you are buying a legit software or a book online, you can acquire a DDoS package, which can guarantee you down time for a certain server for no less than 100 seconds.

In addition, for an affordable price of just six bucks you can do such a nasty thing. If you want to eliminate a website for the period of eight hours, then you will have to pay $130. How about that for a change? They are selling DDoS attacks per kilos. Unbelievable. What is next? Renting viruses or Trojans?

Happy Hour Virus

November 23, 2014 — Leave a comment

Although, this idea is not quite compatible with our efforts to fight the unprecedented economic crisis, we cannot neglect or ignore its originality and brilliance. So, what is this app all about? In case you an urgent day off, here is a quick and simple solution. This app will give exactly what you need.

You have a several visual simulation of some of the worst computer malfunctions for your screen. This is supposed to give you a nice excuse in order to make a quick disappearance from your office. Oh no, my computer is broken, I have to go home. This is a simplified option. There are some additional options.

You can use it as a prank as well. Yet, we do not recommend it to your friends, who have some weak heart issues. On the other hand, we have even a better idea. How about the cyber security version of the Happy Hour Virus app? This is supposed to be much more effective compared to a broken computer.

Your IT staff will allow you to move away from your office much more willingly, as soon as you report a virus attack. However, this is not something you should make jokes about. So much trouble for a single day off. How about calling your office and telling them that you are under a flu attack, for a change?

No Name Is (Never) To Blame?

November 4, 2014 — Leave a comment

We are in the good mood today. We are not going to keep you waiting. Here it is straight to the point. Here is the catch. You have better chances to prevent a serious malware attack with a non name antivirus software solution, than with a well-known brand name in the world of the top cyber security.

How could that be? Are you surprised or shocked? Or maybe, a little bit of both. There is actually quite a simple solution for this unusual phenomena. The hackers are doing their best to avoid the most popular and widely used antivirus software on the market. There is nothing wrong with your protection.

However, the malware in this case is specially designed to overcome the most common protection systems. Now you get it. The so-called no name software is not necessarily better compared to the major brands in this field. Nevertheless, these no name guys are not so heavily exploited as their well-known counterparts.

It turns out that the less likely paradox we could possibly think of is our best available protection. Yet, this could be a nice indication in which direction we need to change. Both hackers and cyber guardians do their best to move in the most unpredictable ways. Think about it. You may find it being extremely useful.

When Enough Is Enough

September 29, 2014 — Leave a comment

It seems that the US financial institutions just enough. They are apparently sick and tired of constant and damaging cyber attacks. So, they have decided to do something about it. It may sound as some kind of a bad joke, but of all the business entities in the world, they can certainly afford it.

So, what they have done? The Soltra is born. It comes as the direct result of a special partnership between the Financial Services Information Sharing and Analysis Center (FS-ISAC) on the one side and The Depository Trust & Clearing Corporation (DTCC) on the other side. Really impressive, indeed.

However, is it enough to ensure the adequate protection for the US finance engines? For what is worth, this is a remarkable change. It is not enough to take hands and dance in a circle hopping for the best. Yet, as soon as you join forces, resources and start information exchange you are on something serious.

The next step definitely worthy of our admiration would be to have the international financial security system launched as soon as possible. That would be something really special, wouldn’t it? If the hackers all over the world can easily unite and work together, so should we. No matter who we are and what we do.

Heartbleed’s Heartrate

September 3, 2014 — Leave a comment

Here are some extremely disturbing Heartbleed related statistics. Nowadays, the Heartbleed hackers attack 3,47 times per second. So what, one may see? Well, the trouble with the Heartbleed curve is that this menace has become an inevitable race against the time, with the very poor odds in your favor.

Although, the time gaps and discretely opened doors are left open and undefended for a very short time period, this is more than enough for the highly skilled hackers. Before you are able to come up with the life saving update or patch, you can rest assured that your heart has already bled.

And, there is not much you can do about this one. You are doomed to race against the single second of time you have to identify and eliminate a certain security flaw. Now, you see the whole picture. Now, you realize why it is hard to deal with the Heartbleed security threat adequately.

After this amusing, but a little useless lecture, you can ask yourself what can we really do about it? Maybe, the smartest and easiest solution would be to make one of the former heartbleeders to bleed for us, for a change. Otherwise, it is highly unlikely that we win the one second race. For now.

The Malware Human Rights

August 2, 2014 — Leave a comment

The things are getting serious with hacking, aren’t they? Apparently, so serious that even The European Court of Human Rights (ECHR) has to intervene. What happened? It seems that the Latvian creator of the Gozi Trojan, which is specially designed to attack banks, thought he will face some unfair treatment by the US Justice Department.

Unlucky for him, in its opinion the ECHR sent a message that Gozi’s father has to answer for his wrongdoings, and that a legal treatment across the ocean will be just fine in this case. This was his last chance to prevent the extradition to the USA, and it has failed.

This obviously talented 29 year old hacker has every right to fight his legal battles. Why? Well, he is facing a 67 years of imprisonment penalty in the USA. You can do the math, can’t you? In other words, this a lifetime sentence. And, the message is strong. Who will dare to attack the US banks after this one?

Maybe, this Latvian hacker can make some kind of a deal with the US government. He can become the US version of Nikita. Why not? In exchange for his freedom he can provide training or even his own personal hacking services to the government. Who knows? He knows too much to work in the prison’s library. Right?

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