Malware: It's not just for illicit websites anymore

[Borg 386]

New research pours scorn on the comforting but erroneous belief that Windows surfers who avoid smut and wares on the web are likely to avoid exposure to malware.

Many computer users are comforted by the belief that as long as they stay away from "bad Internet neighborhoods" - websites that host adult content or illegal software and music downloads or that cater to hackers - they're pretty safe from the threat of malware. But a recent study showed that may no longer be true - it found 99 infected legit domains for every infected "adult" web site. Just goes to show that no matter how nice your neighborhood, you still need to take measures for protecting yourself.

Read More

Regular domains beat smut sites at hosting malware • The Register

 

[Richardc269]

Doesn't surprise me in the least. All these peckerheads trying to screw up machines. And for what? Just for laughs?

 

[HQuest]

Doesn't surprise me in the least. All these peckerheads trying to screw up machines. And for what? Just for laughs?

Free CPU cycles means power to compute illicit data.

 

[malexous]

Trojan attacks now almost solely from legitimate websites - The H Security: News and Features

According to its current "MessageLabs Intelligence Report" Symantec has come to a similar conclusion. The report shows the share of legitimate web sites among manipulated web sites rose from 80% in 2009 to 90% this year. Recently, for example, Chinese attackers managed to manipulate tens of thousands of Web servers via SQL injection vulnerabilities.

 

[Consequences]

Fix those vulnerabilities. This news must ruin some peoples' sense of security regarding their computers.

 

[Layback Bear]

I sure do hope my security programs keep up with new trend of infection what use to be some what safe sites. I spend much more of my time on security sites trying to keep up on the new bad things. I'm glad I'm not paranoid. If I was I wouldn't go on line ever again. My question is. Is part of the problem that web sites are cutting cost of there I.T. security people and programs. It will look good on the Profit and Loss ledger for a short time. To my thinking, people who make out Profit and Loss statements and act upon them don't have computer security on there minds just there commission checks that are figured off the bottom line.

 

[Thorsen]

Doesn't surprise me in the least. All these peckerheads trying to screw up machines. And for what? Just for laughs?

Theres a lot of money to be made. Mining computers for personal data is a big business.

For example: have you ever entered your credit card number into your computer?

 

[Borg 386]

You're not kidding Thorsen....there are some sites where you can actually RENT malware kits, the owner gets a cut & they come with full tech support if you have problems setting them up

 

[Consequences]

You're not kidding Thorsen....there are some sites where you can actually RENT malware kits, the owner gets a cut & they come with full tech support if you have problems setting them up

Seriously?

That's messed up.

 

[Borg 386]

Unfortunately - yes....seriously

Rent-A-Bot services: Who needs to buy a botnet when you can lease a perfectly good one by the hour at a fraction of the price? Available in abundance this season, such botnet services are designed to let average spammers deliver a gazillion copies of their malware without them having to invest in the infrastructure needed to do so, Schipka said. For as little as $100 to $200 per hour, spammers can get access to a fully functional botnet capable of delivering the finest image spam and body part enhancement ads to millions at the click of a button, he said.

Ye Olde Malware tools. Do-it-yourself enthusiasts have a wider range than ever before of malware tools, including Trojans, zero-day exploits, rootkits, spyware programs and keyloggers, according to Jackson and Schipka. For around $3,000 to $3,500, serious shoppers can find sophisticated polymorphic malware capable of delivering all sorts of nasty code on vulnerable computers while constantly morphing to evade detection. Variants can be purchased separately for less than $10 on average to about $20 a piece. In some cases, variants can be delivered at the rate of one new variant every 59 minutes, or precisely one minute less than the hourly cycles many anti-virus vendors use to push out new virus signatures, said Schipka.

Read the rest of the story:

A Hacker's Holiday Shopping List - PCWorld

 

[pparks1]

Hopefully this opens peoples eyes who would normally say,

"but I don't keep anything on my computer that a hacker would want....and even if they got on my machine....there isn't anything of value".