Ads On Skype Spreading Ransomware

Cyber Criminals have managed to show ads to Skype users who were trying to infect computers with ransomware, says anti-virus firm F-Secure. Although the ads appeared within Skype, does not mean that the browser is not open to advertising.

In the case of observed infected ads which showed the browser unnoticed load a page with the Angler-exploitkit. This exploitkit uses known vulnerabilities in Adobe Flash Player to infect computers with malware. Users who had not patched their Flash Player could become so infected with the Tesla Crypt-ransomware. Like other ransomware encrypts Tesla Crypt sorts files for ransom. The ads on Skype came from the AppNexus-advertising platform, which in the past often for the spread of infectious advertisements used. Meanwhile, the offending ads are no longer displayed.

Russian Hospital Hacked Via Wifi And Old XP Flaw

A researcher has managed to hack a Russian hospital by a weak wifi password and a nearly 8-year-old vulnerability in Windows XP. The hack took place with the permission of the hospital in Moscow, let researcher Sergey Lozhkin know anti-virus company Kaspersky Lab.

He was using the Shodan search engine discovers a login portal of a CT scan machine hospital, which was only secured with a default password. Lozhkin had a friend who controlled the hospital and warned him. The hospital then agreed to an informal penetration test. The researcher decided to attack the hospital could do as a real attacker and began the Wi-Fi network of the hospital. He managed to retrieve the password through a brute force attack, let it faces Threat Post know.

After he had gained access to the wireless network he found a Windows XP machine that contained a vulnerability that Microsoft on October 23, 2008 had been patched. However, the update was not rolled out by the hospital. It was the vulnerability that also used the infamous Confickerworm to spread. Lozhkin then managed on the network to find the administrator panel of an MRI machine that was not password protected. Through the panel he had access to patient data and diagnoses were performed by the machine. According to the researcher shows his work that IT security too often forgotten by software developers, both in the medical industry and in other sectors.

Cyber Attack On US Tax System

One of the US IRS Tax system last month attacked by identity thieves who attempted to retrieve PINs that tax could be committed. The attacks were aimed at a web application that allows taxpayers, after entering their name, social security number, address and date of birth, their Electronic Filing (E-File) PIN to retrieve.

This PIN can then be used to apply for the tax refund. The identity thieves used the information to other parties was stolen to retrieve the PIN. In total, with 464,000 unique social security numbers tried to grab the code, which was successful at 101 000 social security numbers. According to the IRS , there was an automated attack. The Tax Administration claims that no taxpayers' data through IRS systems are won. In addition, the IRS will notify all individuals whose data were stolen by other parties.

British Tax Office Warns Of Return Over The Shared PC

UK Tax HMRC warns taxpayers to tax not do through shared computers such as in an Internet café. These criminals would save login details and then used to apply for fraudulent tax refunds.

HMRC would now have more than 17,000 fraudulent transactions intercepted by criminals 96 million pounds (124 million euros) were trying to reclaim. It is unclear how big the threat of the use of shared computers is exactly. Opposite the Mail Online allows a spokesperson for the British Tax namely also know that the HMRC is one of the most 'phished' brands in the world.

It often happens that criminals send phishing emails that attempt to lure them recipient to a fake version of the HMRC website to steal so then login details and other information. Because phishing attacks, there is a special page put online explaining how to recognize legitimate emails from the tax authorities.

American Bill Should Prohibit Encryption Backdoors

The US House of Representatives will today present a bill that prohibits US tech companies to add encryption backdoors to their products. In recent months warned some American politicians and investigative agencies, including the FBI, the use of encryption by criminals, which would hamper the investigation and prosecution.

The "ENCRYPT-law" of the Democratic delegate Ted Lieu and Republican Rep Black farenthold prohibits states companies may require to add an encryption backdoor to their products so that encrypted communications can be decrypted later.Recently had the US states of New York and California attempted to require encryption backdoors in smartphones.

According to Lieu technologically is unfeasible to handle individual states various encryption standards for consumer products."Apple is no different smartphones for California and New York and make the rest of the country," so let Lieu opposite Reuters know. Last year Lieu spoke even against the wishes of the FBI to weaken encryption.

"Democracy will always need to find a balance between security and freedom. We realize that it is a challenge for investigators to find that balance, we do not agree with the FBI's proposal to oblige companies to the safety of their products and weakening services by adding a "backdoor" which investigators encryption technology to circumvent, " says the deputy.

Google Stops From 2017 With Flash Ads

From January 2017 Google stops displaying Flash ads on their own ad networks, such as the Google Display Network and DoubleClick, as the Internet giant has over Google Plus disclosed. According to Google, it's important for advertisers to switch to HTML5 ads, so many people can be reached.

To accelerate this process will AdWords and DoubleClick Digital Marketing from June 30 to accept new Flash ads this year.From January 2, 2017 Flash ads will no longer be on the Google Display Network are displayed via DoubleClick. Google warns advertisers that they should have converted their ads to HTML5 for these dates. For now, the new measure does not affect video ads created in Flash.

Google has long been working to make Flash unnecessary. As YouTube videos are automatically played through HTML5. In the case of Flash ads that are distributed through AdWords, which are automatically converted to HTML5 since February last year. Since September 1st of last year, most Flash ads automatically in Google Chrome paused .

Last year, also called Alex Stamos, the new Chief Security Officer (CSO) of Facebook, which with Adobe Flash technology to stop , so that it can be switched completely on HTML5. HTML5 is natively supported by modern browsers and allows playback of videos and other "rich content" without installing additional plug-ins possible.

Microsoft Will Now Provides More Information About Windows 10 Updates

Microsoft will now provide more information about updates for Windows 10. The reason is the customer feedback, so let a spokesman opposite Follower Windows Paul Thurrott know. "To make it easy to create organizations and users to view information on new releases, we have two new pages created will be updated alls changes occur," says Microsoft's Michael Niehaus on a Microsoft blog.

The first page contains the " release notes ". It is in this case to details on every new Windows 10 update, singling out both security- and non-security-related fixes. In addition, a " release information page " with information about current releases as well as a list of all updates that have appeared. Microsoft had to endure a lot of criticism since it first little information about Windows 10 updates, so users do not know what the update did exactly.

Major Updates For Windows, IE, Office And Edge

During the February Patch Tuesday, Microsoft released 13 security updates for critical vulnerabilities in Windows, Internet Explorer, Microsoft Edge Office, Microsoft Server Software, the .NET Framework and Adobe Flash Player. Six of the updates are rated as critical.

In this case, an attacker could execute arbitrary code on the computer with hardly any user interaction. It involves, for example just visiting a malicious or hacked website. The remaining updates are for vulnerabilities that an attacker who already had access to a system to increase its rights or cause a denial of service.

Two of the vulnerabilities in Microsoft SharePoint and Windows, were already known before Microsoft had released an update.These vulnerabilities would not be attacked active. Most problems have been resolved in Internet Explorer. It involves a total of 13 vulnerabilities. There are also two critical vulnerabilities in the built-in PDF reader in Windows 8.1 and later. Via a malicious PDF document, it was possible for an attacker to take over your computer. An overview of all updates on this page to find. Updating is done on most Windows computers automatically.

Gmail Notifies Users Of Unencrypted Messages

Google Gmail users will now warn if they receive unencrypted messages, as the Internet giant has on Safer Internet Day 2016 announced . Google itself uses TLS encryption for encrypting messages. Gmail users can send encrypted messages to each other in this way. TLS is not yet used by all email providers.

This allows messages that Gmail users received via this e-mail providers, or send to this, be read. Gmail will therefore present a warning showing that the email provider of the addressee no encryption support, or if a message is received that is not encrypted via TLS. There will also be a warning if the sender's domain could not be authenticated. Gmail recently did not know that more and more support major email providers tls and domain authentication.

From investigation of Google, the University of Michigan and the University of Illinois show that from December 2013 to October 2015 the number of encrypted emails rose Gmail non-Gmail users received from 33% to 61%. In the same period, the number of emails were encrypted using TLS and Gmail to non-Gmail users was sent from 60% to 80%. Further uses 94% of the incoming email for Gmail, a form of authentication to protect against phishing and spoofing.

John Rae-Grant Google argues that not all e-mails which warned is dangerous. "But we advise you to be extra careful when answering or opening links in messages that you have doubts about. And by this update, you have the resources to make that decision."

Adobe Close Critical Vulnerabilities In Flash Player And Photoshop

Adobe has patched critical vulnerabilities in Flash Player and Photoshop computers could allow an attacker to take complete. In the case of Flash Player is about 22 critical vulnerabilities which allowed an attacker to execute arbitrary code on the computer, such as installing malware by just visiting a hacked website or see it from an infected ad.

There was no further interaction required from users. As far as known vulnerabilities are not attacked on the Internet. Since attackers often develop after the release of Flash Player updates exploits to attack unpatched users, Adobe advises to update to Flash Player version 20.0.0.306 within 72 hours. This can be done via the automatic update function or Adobe.com. In the case of Google Chrome, Internet Explorer 10 and 11 on Windows 8 and 8.1 and Internet Explorer 11 and Microsoft Windows 10 Edge Embedded Flash Player will be updated using the browser. Through this Adobe page can be verified that the system version is installed.

There is also a security update for Adobe Photoshop CC and Adobe Bridge CC appeared. The update fixes three critical vulnerabilities that an attacker could take over your computer if opened a malicious file. Because Photoshop traditionally not been a target for attackers, Adobe advises users and administrators to install the update if it suits them. Updating via the built-in updater of drawing programs. In the case of Photoshop CC 02.04.2014 is the update to download only via Adobe.com.