Hasta La Gadget!

Kaspersky Labs’ namesake Eugene Kaspersky is worried that widely distributed and potentially state-sponsored malware like Flame and Stuxnet pose dire threats to often lightly protected infrastructure like communication and power plants — whatever your nationality, it’s clearly bad for the civilian population of a given country to suffer even collateral damage from cyberattacks. To minimize future chaos and literally keep the trains running, Kaspersky and his company are expanding their ambitions beyond mere antivirus software to build their own, extra-secure operating system just for large-scale industry. The platform depends on a custom, minimalist core that refuses to run any software that isn’t baked in and has no code outside of its main purposes: there’ll be no water supply shutdowns after the night watch plays Solitaire from an infected drive. Any information shared from one of these systems should be completely trustworthy, Kaspersky says. He doesn’t have details as to when the OS will reach behind-the-scenes hardware, but he stresses that this is definitely not an open-source project: some parts of the OS will always remain confidential to keep ne’er-do-well terrorists (and governments) from undermining the technology we often take for granted.

Filed under: Software

Kaspersky Labs preps its own OS to guard vital industry against cyberwarfare originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 16 Oct 2012 13:28:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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We’ve all had it happen to us before: we’re browsing the web when we’re greeted with a pop-up alert claiming that our computer is infected and that our immediate action is required. Most tech savvy people wouldn’t be tricked into falling for that, but for a while, these scams had many computer users legitimately scared. A handful of people involved in one of these scareware scams have been ordered by a US District Court to pay out a whopping $163 million FTC fine today, after it was discovered that they scammed more than 1 million people out of money.

Those people, Kristy Ross, Sam Jain, and Daniel Sundin, were hit with the $163 million fine to repay the victims they ripped off throughout the years. In addition, Ross has been banned from selling software that interferes with a user’s computer. Ross and co. were responsible for one of these seemingly endless scareware schemes, alerting Internet-goers to non-existent problems on their computers, and then charging $39.95 and up to “fix” the issues. The scam ran from 2000 to 2008, and in that time, the trio pulled in tens of millions of dollars from confused and scared PC users.

Three other people involved in the case, Marc D’Souza, Maurice D’Souza, and James Reno, settled with the FTC in 2010, and aren’t required to pay back the $168 million. The group operated under the name of Innovative Marketing Inc., which bought space for legitimate-looking ads on major websites. When users would click on the ads, they would be taken to an Innovative Marketing website, where they were told that any number of malicious programs were discovered on their computer and then urged to purchase bogus software to fix the issues.

This is a big step in the right direction for the FTC, but unfortunately, scareware still runs rampant today. It’s a problem that probably won’t ever go away entirely, so users need to stay vigilant when it comes to surfing the Internet and believing those illegitimate alerts. This may not be the last we’ve heard of scareware, but it’s definitely the last we’ve heard of Innovative Marketing Inc.

[via Threat Post]

FTC slaps scareware distributor with $163 million fine is written by Eric Abent & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Having recently wrapped up the Motorola Mobility acquisition, Google’s now moving onto different pastures and spending its cash elsewhere — more specifically on an outfit known as VirusTotal. And, as the internet security company confidently points out, the deal is “great news for you, and bad news for malware generators because Google’s infrastructure will ensure that our tools are always ready, right when you need them.” As for the Android creator, well, let’s just say it, too, is happy to have the VirusTotal team aboard — who, in the process, joins the likes of Sparrow and QuickOffice as part of Mountain View’s most recent purchases. Google’s official response on the matter can be found below, courtesy of The Next Web.

Security is incredibly important to our users and we’ve invested many millions of dollars to help keep them safe online. VirusTotal also has a strong track record in web security, and we’re delighted to be able to provide them with the infrastructure they need to ensure that their service continues to improve.

Filed under: Internet, Software

Google quietly snaps up internet security firm VirusTotal for an undisclosed amount originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 07 Sep 2012 21:22:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Kaspersky Labs discovered a new computer virus recently dubbed Gauss that targeted banking systems and financial information. According to Kaspersky Labs, the virus has infected over 2,500 computers, primarily located in Lebanon, and targets specific banks and financial institutions such as BlomBank and Credit Libanais. Now, web-based tools have been released that allows anyone to check if they’ve been infected by Gauss.

Kaspersky detects the virus by checking systems for a font that’s included when the virus infects a computer. The font, Palida Narrow, could be a play on words of Paladin Arrow, according to one Kaspersky Labs researcher. While the virus is primarily used for gathering financial information, there are parts of the code that obfuscate other abilities.

The information that the virus gathers isn’t limited to sensitive banking details, however, with the malicious software also targeting web browsing histories and passwords. The virus also creates a detailed snapshot of the targeted computer’s hardware, designed to help aid any future attacks. The origins of Gauss aren’t known, but experts believe it could be a state-designed virus due to the specific banking institutions it’s targeting. It could be an attempt to gather the financial activity of a group like Hezbollah or the Iranian government.

Even stranger, after the virus was first discovered by Kaspersky Lab back in July, the remote systems used to control it were abruptly shut down. The makeup of the virus also shares features with other espionage related viruses, further backing up the belief that it’s a state-designed effort. Other security experts, however, believe it could simply be the work of coders and criminals that have copied state designs.

[via The Washington Post]

Researchers develop Gauss detection tools is written by Ben Kersey & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

This “Xbox 360 Elite HDMI cable” should be just like any other HDMI cable in the planet, right? Wrong! According to the box, it’s a “100% Mylar” double shield 1.3c grade cable with anti-virus protection to reduce virus noises and to obtain perfect image transmission.” More »