Virus For Android Smart TVs Launched

An increasing number of television sets to have "intelligent" capabilities, which often means that they are connected via a mini-computer with the internet. There are several operating systems to drive the smart televisions, including Android TV Google.

The Russian anti-virus company Doctor Web already had a virus for Android smartphones, but now has a product specifically for smart televisions, media players and consoles launched that run on the operating system. "With the advent of the Internet of Things (IoT) era are not only computers and smartphones that run the risk of becoming infected, so they need anti-virus protection," said the virus fighter.

It would be particularly Android devices that are connected to the Internet and allow users to install software from unofficial marketplaces or USB drives that run according to Doctor Web risk. In case the Android TV device supports a remote control, the remote control can also be used to control the virus.

Trend Micro: Simple Keylogger Costs Companies Millions

A simple commercial keylogger that is distributed has small and medium businesses worldwide millions of euros cost via e-mail attachments, claims the Japanese anti-virus company Trend Micro. It is the HawkEye keylogger offered on the Internet for a few bucks.

Once active, the keylogger is used to steal passwords from the browser and email client. This data is via e-mail, FTP and web panel sent to the attackers. With the stolen passwords to the email accounts of corporate executives, including the CEO and CFO acquired. Then there via the hijacked email accounts, a payment order sent to the accounting. This scam is also known as "Business Email Compromise" and would have caused worldwide last year to a loss of 216 million dollars.According to the FBI and Secret Service more and more American companies are affected by the fraud. The reason for the investigation services to a warning to deliver.

For the dissemination of the keylogger to send .exe and .zip files that are supposedly an invoice, purchase order or quote. In some cases, the criminals make first contact with the companies. Only after several e-mail exchanges, the keylogger will be sent. According to Trend Micro, the majority of victims of HawkEye in India, followed by Egypt and Iran. These are companies in different sectors, but mainly goods, transportation and manufacturing. It also appears that most companies are accessed via info @ email address.

Trend Micro made ​​a report ( pdf ) on HawkEye which also analyzed two Nigerian cyber criminals using the malware. According to the researchers HawkEye seem a simple keylogger, but is motivated cyber criminals more than sufficient to carry out malware attacks. Also by other security HawkEye was recently investigated as iSight Partners . The research shows that this security be used for the dissemination of keylogger files invoice.exe, payment and purchase slip.exe order.exe. ISight also argues that most victims are in India, but also see a lot of infections in Italy, the United States and Turkey. Furthermore, there are also infections observed in the Netherlands.

Expert: Mac Malware Invisible By Lack Of Anti-Virus

Because Mac users install anti-virus software is difficult for anti-virus companies to estimate how big the problem of Mac malware is actually. That says Bogdan Botezatu, an analyst of the Romanian antivirus company BitDefender. Previously, Apple had yet know that users could install a virus, but now it no longer does so.

"Apple is promoting these products as virus-free. They say you do not need a virus scanner, because they know that people hate anti-virus software. The tools often slow down your computer, so they themselves will not promote," Botezatu said front Digital Trends . Mac OS X, according to the analyst to deal with more serious vulnerabilities than all the different Windows versions added. Because Microsoft has always been attacked over the years would have learned to respond quickly to security threats.

Having vulnerabilities still says nothing about attacks on the platform. However, when it comes to Mac computers is missing important information to say something about this, the analyst noted. "The absence of virus scanners on Mac OS X hides the reality, because the malware is not reported. We know it happens on Windows because it is visible to us here, but with Mac OS X, there is often no anti-virus to give something back report. "

In addition, Mac users would not know that their computer is infected, because most malware these days is hardly noticeable."It's the same as with the PC. Hackers realized how silent they are, the longer they go unnoticed. Modern Mac and Windows malware slows down your computer, unless the bitcoin-miners are," said Botezatu. The large market share of Windows would, according to the analyst still ensure that cyber criminals are targeting this platform.

Kaspersky Denounces "Sensationalist Reporting" About KGB Ties

Eugene Kaspersky, founder of the Russian anti-virus company, has lashed out at a journalist from Bloomberg because of an article about alleged links between the virus fighter and Russian intelligence services. "It's a long time since I read an article from the first line felt so inaccurate," says Kaspersky.

The article by Bloomberg followed an article by Reuters , which stated that Kaspersky Lab kinds of American cyber-espionage operations would have revealed but would be reluctant to do this in Russian cyber operations. According to Kaspersky search journalists to conspiracy theories where the Kremlin is playing a role. However, the article by Bloomberg was full of false information, speculation and unfair conclusions is based on wrong facts.

"In their hunger for sensation journalists have turned things and ignored some obvious facts. Congratulations to the authors, they have scored well in bad journalism." The Russian fighter virus indicates that anti-virus company actually has unveiled espionage operations that have been attributed to Russian cyber spies. Furthermore, says Kaspersky he never worked for the KGB.

"I have studied mathematics at a school that was sponsored by the Department of Atomic Energy, the Ministry of Defence and the KBG. After I graduated, I worked for several years as a software engineer at Defence", let Kaspersky know. He also denies regular sauna visits with Russian intelligence officers. He also mentions the cooperation between Kaspersky Lab and all investigative agencies, such as Interpol and Europol.

According to Kaspersky, it is difficult for a company with Russian roots to become successful in Europe and the United States. "By default, we are trusted by no one. Our only strategy is to be 100% transparent and fair. It took years to explain who we were. Many people tried to find the" dirty laundry "and failed, because there is nothing to hide is. "

Politics

In response to the message sent by Reuters Kaspersky also been a reaction to various media. It let him know to choose a political side. "As governments and their spies treat the Internet as a battlefield, it is increasingly important for IT security to interfere in politics. There is no other way to examine all cyber threats and protect here. If you choose a side transfer your effectiveness at risk. If you ignore certain malware you are partially blind and unable to provide full protection. "

VirusTotal: "Google Picks Up False Positives By Virus Scanners To"

Virus scanners consider wrongly clean files as infected, the so-called false positives are a big problem for both anti-virus companies, software developers and end users, but the online virus scanner Google wants to change this. A new project was launched called "trusted source", with major software developers such as Microsoft share their software catalog.

VirusTotal, an online virus scanner from Google, will mark these files then separately as a trusted source. If a virus they erroneously regarded as malware, VirusTotal warns on anti-virus company, so that false positives can be resolved. In addition, files are scattered among anti-virus vendors also get the trusted source listing, so as to ignore erroneous warnings, which should prevent a snowball effect of false detections.

Since the project began a week ago has VirusTotal collaborated with Microsoft and the results look promising. More than 6,000 false positives were eliminated because. The developers of VirusTotal hope to expand their collection of reliable software. Large software companies are therefore called to share this information. Well VirusTotal lets you know that the project is not open to "potentially unwanted applications" (PUPs) and adware developers.

"Turla Linux Malware" - Researchers discover espionage virus for Linux

Researchers from the Russian anti-virus firm Kaspersky Lab have discovered a spy virus for Linux that may go unnoticed for years, although for the latter is no proof yet. It is a variant of the Turla malware, also known as Snake or Urburos which all other known specimens have been developed only for Windows.

The researchers knew that there are Linux versions of Turla existed but had never yet found in the "wild" so far. Turla according to Kaspersky Lab is one of the most sophisticated espionage campaigns ever discovered . Among others, the Belgian Ministry of Foreign Affairs would have become the victim of the campaign. The now discovered Turla variant supports Linux so that there can be infected with more systems attacked organizations.

"We suspect that this part years was active in an organization attacked, but have no concrete evidence to prove it," said Costin Raiu of Kaspersky Lab. Through the malware an attacker can communicate with infected systems and execute arbitrary code. Thereby Turla do not need elevated privileges. Also, the malware can not be found via netstat, a tool that system administrators use to get an overview of open network connections.

"It uses techniques that do not require root access, so it can move freely on the system of a victim. Even if it's a regular limited user launches can continue to intercept the incoming packets and execute commands on the system," says Raiu . He notes that the Linux malware especially in other public source code is based, in which the attackers a number of things have been added. How the malware spreads exactly is not reported.

"More openness required --> Antivirus companies on government spyware"

Regin Malware

Anti-virus companies have to be more open about the government spyware that they find, says security expert Bruce Schneier . Schneier reigns on the discovery of the highly advanced Regin malware , which would be by the US and British intelligence developed .

Anti-virus companies have known for some time of the malware, but made ​​the existence of Regin until the end of November to the public. It was the first that Symantec came out with a publication because it knew that another party would reveal the malware. This party was news The Intercept. After the report, Symantec also followed F-Secure and Kaspersky Lab with their own findings. All three follow the anti-virus companies said Regin years, where she copies of years ago found.

"Why were all these companies Regin long secret and why they showed us all this time vulnerable?" Schneider asked. Self thinks the expert that the anti-virus companies no incomplete picture wanted to express. Unlike malware cybercriminals is the effect of government spyware much more complex. In addition, Regin was only used against specific targets, which makes it difficult to obtain copies.

"If you're big in the press comes with a newly discovered malware copy you want to have the whole story. Apparently no one thought they had it with Regin," said Schneier. The expert, however, find this no excuse. "Now government malware more often will come we will often not have the whole story." As long as nations will fight each other over the internet, according to the expert, some individuals or organizations are the target and the residual risk to be hit inadvertently by this type of malware.

Even more

Schneier believes that anti-virus companies are at the moment even more incomplete stories on all government malware. "But they should not do. We want and need that our anti-virus companies us all about these threats tell as soon as they can, and not wait for the appearance of a political story so they can no longer remain silent."

Kaspersky - Regin Malware Copy 1999

The Russian anti-virus firm Kaspersky Lab has a copy of the advanced Regin-espionage malware found in 1999. This involves the oldest copy that is known up to now. Earlier, a specimen was labeled in 2003 as a senior. The existence of Regin was recently made ​​public by several anti-virus companies.

Regin Platform Diagram

An analyst at Kaspersky Lab named the malware even more sophisticated than Stuxnet . Yet there was also criticism of the anti-virus companies as long as they would have waited to disclose the information. The Russian anti-virus company this refers to a comparison of Sean Sullivan from F-Secure. He likened the search for Regin with the work of paleontologists who found the bones of an unknown dinosaur. Everyone has a bone, but the entire skeleton is missing.

In the case of Regin Kaspersky Lab discovered in 2012 damaged "bone" of a hitherto unknown malware. Figuring out the size of a particular campaign or espionage malware family can sometimes take months or years, the company notes. As it sometimes worked with other parties who may have other parts of the malware possession. "It makes little sense to publish your discovery until you can confirm that the samples really are big and dangerous," said the Russian anti-virus company.

Most Regin copies date from 2007, 43 pieces in total, followed by 35 copies in 2009. Kaspersky also addresses accusations that anti-virus companies, the existence of Regin would have concealed. "We have never been asked by a customer or government agency to whitelist certain malware or to pass through. We would never meet such a request, no matter who it comes from."

ESET & Facebook Works Together To Fight Against Malware

To protect users from malware, Facebook has signed a cooperation agreement with ESET's online virus scanner and will of the Slovak anti-virus company now offer to users. The online virus scanner is to start directly from Facebook.

"We have cooperated with ESET to add their security software directly to our detection and prevention systems, just as we did earlier this year with the other providers," says Facebook engineer Chetan Gowda. Facebook previously signed a similar agreement with the Finnish F-Secure and Japanese Trend Micro online virus scanners which were already integrated into Facebook.

If the computer of a Facebook user behaves erratically and shows signs of a malware infection, a message appears that an online virus scan is offered. Then, the user can perform the scan, the results and remove malware without the need to first log out of Facebook.

According Gowda help the three anti-virus companies in this way in blocking malicious links and malicious websites in the news feeds and messages from the 1.35 billion Facebook users. Users often miss the most basic security to prevent infection and remove, observes the engineer on.

Popular Virus Shield App apparent scam

Security conscious Android users were disappointed this week when it emerged that their Virus Shield anti-virus app was nothing more than a simple image on the screen of their mobile phone or device.
According maker Deviant Solutions Virus Shield prevents malicious apps end up on the mobile device of the user. In addition, the apps, settings, files, and media in real time would scan the app and would protect the private information of the owner. All this, with minimal impact on battery and without showing ads.

Google Play Store
The app received a whopping 4.7 stars in the official Google Play Store, cost $ 3.99 and was within a week of the best-selling paid app in the Store.

Scam
Unfortunately, the promise proved too good to be true. When the Android Police glanced at the source code, it was found that the only functionality of the app consisted of a picture of a shield with a cross and a shield with a check mark where the user could switch by tapping on the screen. between This would produce the so-called security should be off. Or in Deviant Solutions, however, proved "failed" to have an effective anti-virus application after the on-off button to hang up.
Virus Shield has been removed from the Google Play Store.