ESET Threat Blog

Recently a security company was hired to test the security of a Credit Union. The security company (MSI) ran a penetration test and mailed a letter with a couple of CDROMS to the Credit Union. The letter appeared to come from a reliable source, but it was unexpected and the employee who received it was … Read More…

I forwarded this to myself from another account yesterday because I thought it was one of the laziest 419 scam messages I’d ever seen.
From: British Tobacco Company
Sent: 27 August 2009 19:46
Subject: Contact Mr Paul Adams
Congratulations! Your e-mail ID was among the selected lucky winners of £1,000.000.00 GBP in our BRITISH TOBACCO PROMO.Get back to … Read More…

Mac User has reported in a little more detail than I’ve seen elsewhere so far on the Trojan detection in Snow Leopard, quoting freelance OS X and iPhone developer Matt Gemmell. In fact, the meat of the story is Gemmell’s tweets, which state that:the system checks for only two known Trojans, RSPlug and iServices, and … Read More…

I really ought to be working towards some really urgent deadlines, but I can’t resist a quick comment on the antimalware detection feature in Snow Leopard – darn, I’m going to have to upgrade to get a proper look at it – since several AV people, including our own Aryeh Goretsky have commented.
I have to … Read More…

I feel like the learned judge in the ’60s who asked, in the course of a trial, "What is a Beatle?" since until recently I couldn’t have given you an accurate answer to the question "What is a Jessica Biel?"
In fact, I’d probably have said something like ""Wasn’t she in Flashdance?" (The answer is no: she … Read More…

Mac security firm Intego blogged about Apple’s decision to include an antimalware component in Mac OS X 10.6 "Snow Leopard" and we agree that it is a good step, security-wise, to provide some basic protection against malware.  Apple has long mocked Microsoft, up to and including this 2006 advertisement which implied there were no viruses … Read More…

Microsoft has released the patches required to make autorun work with only CD and DVD drives. There is one little catch, a USB drive can be configured to look like a CD, but this patch definitely helps reduce risk.
I highly recommend you install the patch so that you can connect most thumb drives, GPS systems, … Read More…

News came out today that Michael Jackson’s death has been ruled as a homicide.
Expect to see spam and hoax emails coming around soon trying to exploit this news. It seems that Michael Jackson just can’t die. It’s a good thing we didn’t have the internet when Elvis died.
If you get emails for pictures, videos, and … Read More…

Cristian Borghello, Technical and Education Manager at ESET Latin America, tells us that they’ve noted quite a few sites that pretend to provide information on the fire crisis in Athens, Greece, but actually download malware onto the user’s PC. (Mistakes in translation are down to DH!)
The criminals are using Black Hat SEO (Search Engine Optimization) … Read More…

Sebastián Bortnik, Security Analyst at ESET Latin America, has shared with me his translation of an FAQ written with Cristian Borghello, ESET Latin America'sTechnical and Educational Manager, about the malware ESET NOD32 detects as Win32/Induc.A.
I've done a little cosmetic editing on the original and added quite a lot of material (so any mistakes and misapprehensions … Read More…