ESET Threat Blog

I have a theory that says improving information system security–the security of our operating systems, network connections, and applications–just means the bad guys will focus more attention on our endpoints, the digital devices we use to access the information and systems we need to do our work.
Furthermore, as we improve endpoint security technology, the people … Read More…

Just published in SC Magazine's Cybercrime Corner, expanding on a conversation I had recently with Kevin Townsend, is an article on "Great Expectations" that discusses WPS, "Whoops!!!," the Grim Reaver, and what you can expect from anti-virus. In terms of vulnerability detection, that is.
I'm tempted to say "what the Dickens!" but perhaps I won't in case … Read More…

In recent years there has been a tremendous increase in the Russian region in the number of sites redirecting users to the Black Hole exploit kit. In most cases, successful exploitation of a vulnerability in client software leads to the installation onto the victim’s machine of either the trojan Win32/TrojanDownloader.Carberp or of Win32/Carberp (the version … Read More…

Since yesterday’s Much Ado About Facebook post in the ESET Threat Blog, we have written additional articles, received a few comments, and also received updated information on the “threat,” so it seems that now is a good time for a follow-up article.  Reports continue to come in of pornographic and violent imagery on Facebook, and … Read More…

Amidst a lack of fanfare this past weekend on a mailing list, a memory exhaustion hack popped up for the Apache webserver that may result in a Denial-of-Service (DoS) style attack. Since the Apache application serves up north of 65% of the websites on the internet, a plausible attack becomes quite an issue, especially if … Read More…

Facebook recently launched a facial recognition feature that allows you and others to “tag” photos with your name. As has been the norm for Facebook, this “feature” is turned on by default and users must take their own initiative to limit, or turn it off. The implications are wide-ranging, so if you or anyone in … Read More…

I notice that among the 17 security bulletins just released by Microsoft on Patch Tuesday, MS10-092 addresses the Task Scheduler vulnerability prominently exploited by Win32/Stuxnet.
We will be updating our Stuxnet analysis shortly, but what's really notable about this bulletin for me is the fact that it draws on cooperation between Microsoft, itself an AV vendor, … Read More…

Really – should any Alpha version be fed through a chipper-shredder like Diaspora has? The basics are simple:

The basic premise behind Diaspora is that it will allow users to have social networking functionality similar to that offered by Facebook, but with far greater control over personal data.
Diaspora was born earlier this year largely in response … Read More…

Brian Krebs thinks so:

Java is now among the most frequently-attacked programs, and appears to be fast replacing Adobe as the target of choice for automated exploit tools used by criminals.

Of the systems which I personally administrate as the ‘Chief Family Technology Officer’, the Java updates constantly annoy and confuse my mom who uses Vista… Vista … Read More…

While serving in the Marine Corps, one activity that I felt was effective in preparing both myself and my unit to be able to handle real-world scenarios, was getting as much experience as possible from military training exercises. In most cases multiple branches worked together or, as in the case with NATO exercises, multiple countries … Read More…