Once again, criminal hackers are targeting a worldwide event to deposit their malicious software on victims' PCs, according to one security vendor.

Within the last six months, MessageLabs has found at least 13 new Trojan horse programs associated with e-mails bearing subjects such as "The Beijing 2008 Torch Relay" and "National Olympic Committee and Ticket Sales Agents."

The problem is, according to a MessageLabs representative, that the hackers' e-mail messages employ an embedded Microsoft Office database file within the zipped attachment. Microsoft said in a recent security advisory that customers not running Windows Vista or Windows Server 2003 are vulnerable to allowing remote attackers to gain full access to a compromised machine.

Posted by Sean Cannon at 16:06

New Diagnostic Tool Offers “Deep Dive” of System Processes; Targets Tech Support, Network Administrators


SAN DIEGO – April 23, 2008 – ESET, the leader in proactive threat protection, today announced the release of SysInspector, a “deep dive” diagnostic tool. This comprehensive utility examines various operating system elements, including running processes, registry content, startup items and network connections to identify malware and other malicious content. With ESET SysInspector, security personnel, network administrators, malware researchers and support engineers are able to quickly and effectively diagnose computer and network related problems caused by malware.

Posted by Sean Cannon at 15:54

Trojan attacks jump by 300 percent, but publicly disclosed vulnerabilities reach three-year ebb

Here’s another reason to hold onto your laptops: 57 percent of publicly disclosed security breaches came from lost or stolen equipment in the second half of last year, compared with only 13 percent from hacking and malware, according to Microsoft’s latest Security Intelligence Report, which was released today.

The new Microsoft report, which focuses on vulnerability and exploit data it gathered from July through December of 2007, found that exploits, malware, and hacks made up only 23 percent of security breach notifications between 2000 and 2007.

Posted by Sean Cannon in Virus & AntiVirus News at 11:00