A massive data breach at Hannaford Brothers Cos. was caused by a "new and sophisticated" method in which software was secretly installed on servers at every one of its grocery stores, the company told Massachusetts regulators this week.

The unauthorized intrusion the company disclosed on March 17 stemmed from software that intercepted card data from customers as they paid with plastic at store checkout counters, and sent the data overseas, Hannaford's top lawyer said in a letter sent to Attorney General Martha Coakley and Governor Deval Patrick's Office of Consumer Affairs and Business Regulation.

The software was installed on computer servers at each of the roughly 300 stores operated by Hannaford and its partners. Hannaford did not say how the software might have been placed on so many servers, and company spokeswoman Carol Eleazer said the company continues to investigate how the software was installed and other specifics of the breach. The Secret Service, which pursues currency crimes, is conducting its own investigation.

Posted by Annette King in Adware, Spyware and Trojans at 14:56

SAN DIEGO – March 26, 2008 – Consumers Digest has named ESET Smart Security a “Best Buy” in its April 2008 issue. In an article entitled “Protecting Your Home Computer,” ESET Smart Security finished first in the mid-priced category of security suites, scoring high in detection and speed.

“This security suite won’t slow your PC anywhere near as much as its competitors, and caught 97.6 percent of viruses, which ranks high,” states the article.

Posted by Sean Cannon at 08:48

Greater vigilance is necessary to combat the threat posed by malware, a new report warns this week, as the criminals distributing it get more sophisticated.

"There are countless examples where trusted sites have been compromised to host malware, or code that will redirect the user to a malware site," Chenxi Wang of Forrester Research warned.

Posted by Sean Cannon in Virus & AntiVirus News at 12:26

A notorious malware gang that rented out botnets by the hour has resurfaced after being knocked off line two months ago by a rival band of criminals.

The Loads.cc group has been spotted by researchers at Sunbelt Software pushing toxic 3D screensavers on unsuspecting end users. The software installs malware that points to a server controlled by Loads.cc and then lies in wait for instructions from a command and control server.

Posted by Sean Cannon in Virus & AntiVirus News at 10:18