A new type of computer virus breached some 75,000 computers in 2,500 organizations worldwide, including user accounts from popular social networks, according to internet security firm NetWitness.
The latest virus - known as "botnet Kneber - collects data from access to online financial systems, social networking sites and email systems from infected computers and transferring information to hackers, NetWitness said in a statement. A botnet is an army of infected computers that hackers can control from one central machine.
The company said that the attack was first discovered in January during a routine operation NetWitness software.
Additional investigations firm based in Herndon, USA, revealed that many commercial and governmental systems were affected, including 68,000 corporate connection credentials and access to electronic mail systems, e-banking sites, Yahoo, Hotmail and social networks like Facebook . "The conventional protection against malware and intrusion detection systems are signature-based, by definition, inadequate to meet or Kneber most advanced threats," he said in a statement the company's CEO, Amit Yoran.
Showing posts with label computer viruses. Show all posts
Showing posts with label computer viruses. Show all posts
U.S. companies and agencies affected by computer virus
Security experts have discovered a network of 74,000 computers infected with a virus that stole internal information from companies and government agencies.
The unusual fact about what happened is that infiltrated the computer network was uncovered. The incident demonstrates the dangers of keeping important data computers connected to an open Internet.
More than 2,400 organizations, including financial institutions and energy companies, as well as federal agencies have been infiltrated by the virus, according to security firm that discovered NetWitness Corp..
NetWitness not name the companies or agencies whose computers were exposed. The Wall Street Journal newspaper said the companies affected include Merck & Co., Cardinal Health Inc., Paramount Pictures and Juniper Networks Inc.
Merck said in a statement Thursday that a computer company had been infiltrated by the virus but did not steal crucial information. The other three companies did not return calls from The Associated Press.
The victims appear to have been the target of cyber attack, unlike other computer attacks with Google Inc. that forced the popular Internet browser to threaten to withdraw their offices in China. That's an important distinction because it shows how the secrets on the Internet may fall into wrong hands even when the criminals do not specifically seek them.
"These problems are out there and are ubiquitous," said Amit Yoran, president of NetWitness and former manager of cybersecurity at the Department of Homeland Security.
Parts of the virus detected by the firm are likely active. He said the network appears to come from computers in Eastern Europe and China but it is not clear whether the attackers are found there.
The virus in this case acted as a "botnet" is concerned that computer networks end up being run by remote control and act like robots. Computers are infected when their owners go to Internet portals or risky material open an email attachment.
The unusual fact about what happened is that infiltrated the computer network was uncovered. The incident demonstrates the dangers of keeping important data computers connected to an open Internet.
More than 2,400 organizations, including financial institutions and energy companies, as well as federal agencies have been infiltrated by the virus, according to security firm that discovered NetWitness Corp..
NetWitness not name the companies or agencies whose computers were exposed. The Wall Street Journal newspaper said the companies affected include Merck & Co., Cardinal Health Inc., Paramount Pictures and Juniper Networks Inc.
Merck said in a statement Thursday that a computer company had been infiltrated by the virus but did not steal crucial information. The other three companies did not return calls from The Associated Press.
The victims appear to have been the target of cyber attack, unlike other computer attacks with Google Inc. that forced the popular Internet browser to threaten to withdraw their offices in China. That's an important distinction because it shows how the secrets on the Internet may fall into wrong hands even when the criminals do not specifically seek them.
"These problems are out there and are ubiquitous," said Amit Yoran, president of NetWitness and former manager of cybersecurity at the Department of Homeland Security.
Parts of the virus detected by the firm are likely active. He said the network appears to come from computers in Eastern Europe and China but it is not clear whether the attackers are found there.
The virus in this case acted as a "botnet" is concerned that computer networks end up being run by remote control and act like robots. Computers are infected when their owners go to Internet portals or risky material open an email attachment.
New computer viruses are aimed at banks and social networks
Cybercriminals increasingly directed their attacks against hundreds of millions of users of social networks and against the holes in security systems for banks, according to various security software vendors.At the same time, the messages of spam rose sharply in the third quarter, Symantec said.
And while Facebook in September reached 300 million accounts, networks and social media continue to attract criminals, said retail research firm F-Secure in a quarterly report on viruses.
"As Twitter has grown in popularity, has also been increasingly target worms, spam and account hijacking," said F-Secure. Cybercriminals widely used choose goals that allow them to go after more potential victims.
"Cyber-crooks continue to pursue the money," said Yuval Ben-Itzhak, chief technology officer of the small security software vendor Finjan, which on Wednesday unveiled a new method criminals use to steal money from bank accounts and hide their tracks.
Finjan said it expects to grow a tendency to use new software that replaces bank reported on screen, hiding the true amount of the transaction to trick account holders and their banks, and then sending the stolen money to accounts of third parties. "By combining the use of sophisticated Trojans theft and" mules "to transfer stolen money into their accounts, reduce chances of being detected," said Ben-Itzhak.
In the third quarter, the amount of spam increased to represent a 88.1 per cent of total email traffic, from 81 percent a year ago, said MessageLabs, Symantec, in its quarterly report .
MessageLabs said that botnets, networks of computers that run software independently, are now responsible for sending 87.9 percent of all spam.
Hackers exploit the vulnerability of computers to set traps on web pages with malicious code that are loaded into the machine. The infected computers become part of a 'botnet', a network of hijacked computers. They are used for identity theft, sending spam and other cyber crimes.
"During the past year, we saw a number of Internet service providers (ISP, its acronym in English) disconnected by host botnet activity, with (...) the consequent change in the power of botnets," he said in a statement MessageLabs analyst Paul Wood.
"However, this is not always the case, since the botnet technology has also evolved since late 2008 and the recent closures of ISPs now have less impact on the resulting activity, since the disconnection only lasts a few hours, instead of weeks or months before, "said Wood.
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