ESET Threat Blog

Scumbags posts links on Facebook that can lead to malware infected websites, phishing forms, identity theft, financial losses, or worse. One hopes that all Facebook users have been warned about this by now, but how many have seen what these scams look like in action? When security experts advise "Do not click" with respect to … Read More…

I just looked in my junk box to find an “Amazing” sale on pirated software, but I have to act fast, as it’s only good until Halloween. My colleague Stephen Cobb points out the rate of effectiveness of scams would soar if the Nigerian scammers could afford a proof reader who spoke fluent English. David … Read More…

Here's an example of search poisoning somewhat similar to that predicted by Stephen Cobb using the death of Gaddafi as a hook, noted by our colleague Raphael Labaca Castro, of ESET Latin America. The original blog is in Spanish. Raphael reports an email that comes with the following title (in Portuguese, suggesting that Brazilian Internet … Read More…

Well, yes, that title is from a song by John D. Loudermilk, written with some (possibly accidental) prescience way back in 1962. Given the aggravation that 21st century phishing causes Google users, perhaps it's time for a new song dedicated to that particular pastime. In the meantime, I thought I'd mention a shoal of the … Read More…

Our friends at Threatpost have come across what they describe as a massive phishing attack against Tumblr users. It seems the lure of sexual content will work as many times as Lucy can pull the football out each time Charlie Brown tries to kick it.
According to the article, hijacked web pages of Tumbler users contain … Read More…

ICANN has just approved a new batch of individualized TLD’s (Top Level Domains), so now you can register your.brand, whatever yourbrand is, instead of the usual yourbrand.com, .net, etc., if you can prove to ICANN you deserve it. The problem? Users tricked by similar looking domain names have long been a boon for phishing exploits, … Read More…

Security vendor Trusteer blogged about a wave of fake LinkedIn emails that download malware on to your computer. The images Trusteer shows of the phish demonstrate how tricky the criminals are and how authentic the message looks, yet just yesterday I shared with you a foolproof method to prevent yourself from falling victim to such … Read More…

Security companies in general and, unfortunately, anti-malware companies in particular, are often accused of ‘hyping’ threats because of a perceived self-interest. However, in the main, legitimate vendors and researchers like those at ESET typically try to resist overhyping or playing up threats where possible, in favor of more balanced discussion that can help customers take … Read More…

You don't need more advice from me on avoiding phishing following the Epsilon fiasco: Randy, among others has posted plenty of sound advice, and I put some links to relevant articles here, though I don't know of anyone who's published a list of the whole 2,500 or so companies that are apparently Epsilon's customers, though comment threads … Read More…

My latest blog for SC Magazine's Cybercrime Corner looked at the recent APT (Advanced Persistent Threat) attack on RSA, in the light of Uri Rivner's blog on the implementation of the attack. 
Unfortunately, the exact nature of the target and damage remains somewhat obscure, so while I certainly consider Rivner's blog worth reading, I also found myself clarifying … Read More…