Posts Tagged ‘malware’

Child Pornography Web Hosting Service Shut Down

May 22nd, 2010

The U.S. Federal Trade Commission has shut down 3FN, a web hosting service associated with various online criminal activity. 3FN was accused of  hosting child pornography, spammers, and malware creators. According to the FTC, over 4,500 harmful software programs were controlled by the firm’s servers. The company was ordered to liquidate all assets and surrender 1.08$ million in illegal profits.

The court order was handed down by Judge Ronald Whyte of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California in San Jose, who said “[security] experts had analyzed data derived from internet searches which establish that defendant, an internet service provider, was engaged in widespread illegal activity. There seems to be little doubt from the information provided that [it] functioned primarily as an internet service provider for illegal activity.”

3FN avoided detection by frequently changing IP addresses. FTC officials said 3FN and its other alias companies were distributing malware capable of keystroke logging, password stealing other data theft using hidden backdoor remote control programs to steal personal information and spread spam.

Recommended Web Hosting Services

Remeber Conficker?

May 16th, 2010

Even if you have already forgotten all about the mysterious Conficker worm – it still remembers you. The fact of the matter is, that an unknown number of computers around the world (probably millions – no one knows) are infected with Conficker – and still no one knows why, what it wants and who is behind it.

A great article on Atlantic Magazine tells the story of Conficker and the battle against it – a losing battle, to be exact. The writer has a flare for the dramatic, mind you, but that doesn’t change the fact that the best computer security researchers are still baffled by Conficker.

“You know you’re dealing with someone who not only knows how botnets work, but who understands how the security community works,” Andre’ DiMino told me. “This is not just a bunch of organized criminals that, say, commission someone to write a botnet for them. They know the challenges that the security community faces internally, politically, and economically, and are exploiting them as well.”

As of today, Conficker has a very big botnet. No one knows for sure how many computer are infected, because Conficker now utilizes peer-to-peer communications, so it no longer needs to check in with an outside command center, which is how security experts kept count. The rough estimate is that 6.5 million computers are infected.

Conficker Removal Tools

If you are using Windows XP – there’s a chance you might be infected with Conficker – even if you are protected by a firewall and an anti-virus. There are quite a few Conficker removal tools out there – here are some of them:

Mozilla Cleans Out Two Malicious Add-Ons

February 7th, 2010

Add-ons are a great thing – they make your software more useful and much more to your taste.

Firefox has tons of wonderful add-ons, that turn the browser into a mean piece of software for web developers, web designers or power internet users.

Apparently, the popularity of add-ons also made them a target for malware creators. Two add-ons in the experimental section of addons.mozilla.org were found to be containing malware – Version 4.0 of Sothink Web Video Downloader and all versions of Master Filer.  Mozilla has since increased the number of scanning tools, and will be taking additional steps to minimize the risk of further incidents.

This vulnerability is known to affect Firefox on Windows only, if either Master Filer or Version 4.0 of Sothink Web Video Downloader are installed. Versions of Sothink Web Video Downloader greater than 4.0 are not infected.

Simply removing the ad-ons won’t clear the trojans, so you need to scan your computer with an anti-virus.

Be careful out there…