A single cybercrime gang using advanced malware was responsible for two thirds of all phishing attacks detected in the second half of 2009, according to a new report by the Anti-Phishing Working Group (APWG).

The report authors found the Avalanche phishing gang was responsible for 66 percent of all phishing attacks launched in the second half of 2009. Avalanche successfully targeted some 40 banks and online service providers, and domain name registrars and registries.

A single cybercrime gang using advanced malware was responsible for two thirds of all phishing attacks detected in the second half of 2009, according to a new report by the Anti-Phishing Working Group (APWG).

The report authors found the Avalanche phishing gang was responsible for 66 percent of all phishing attacks launched in the second half of 2009. Avalanche successfully targeted some 40 banks and online service providers, and domain name registrars and registries.

A single cybercrime gang using advanced malware was responsible for two thirds of all phishing attacks detected in the second half of 2009, according to a new report by the Anti-Phishing Working Group (APWG).

The report authors found the Avalanche phishing gang was responsible for 66 percent of all phishing attacks launched in the second half of 2009. Avalanche successfully targeted some 40 banks and online service providers, and domain name registrars and registries.

McAfee and Adgregate have partnered on what they’re calling the industry’s first secure advertising. WebProNews spoke with Brent Remai, VP of Consumer Marketing at McAfee about what this means for advertising.

Easter is coming up, and of course that means spammers are taking advantage. They do this with most holidays. And like they do with other holidays, they are using the holiday to disguise malicious emails. Symantec shared some examples with us.

"MessageLabs Intelligence has intercepted Easter ‘e-card’ spam emails offering a ’2010 Easter 3D e-Card,’" a representative for Symantec tells WebProNews. "Spam authors are attempting to use the recent surge of interest in 3D media to increase the likelihood of people falling for their scam."

Google said it has detected malware targeting Vietnamese-language users opposed to bauxite mining in the Communist country.

The malware infected the computers of "potentially tens of thousands of users" who downloaded Vietnamese keyboard language software, Google Security Team member Neel Mehta wrote on the company’s security blog. The attacks targeted opposition to the mining of bauxite, an ore used to make aluminum.

The past year set a new record for malware creation with 25 million new strains, according to a new report by PandaLabs.

The latest surge of activity included new examples of banker Trojans, which accounted for 66 percent of all new samples, as well as a number of fake antivirus programs.

During 2009, spam was also highly active, accounting for 92 percent of all email traffic. The tactics used to dupe potential victims into opening these spam emails have focused on exploiting current events and dramatic news stories.

The Tiger Woods car accident has had the web abuzz over the weekend. Like nearly anything else that creates such buzz, cyber-criminals will find a way to exploit it. This incident is no exception.

Symantec has released two new reports for the month of November – the State of Spam, and the State of Phishing (both PDFs). The reports highlight a dramatic increase in spam that contains malware. On top of that, junk and malicious email now accounts for close to 9 out of 10 email messages.

Security company Trusteer Research issued a security advisory this week, dealing with a stealth new Zeus/Zbot phishing attack, which is aimed at harvesting enterprise log-in credentials for web banking, financial, HR, and SaaS accounts.

Google has launched a couple of new Labs features for Webmaster Tools. One is "malware details" and the other is "fetch as googlebot."

Google is providing snippets of code from pages it considers malware, in order to help webmasters eliminate the malware on their sites quickly.

You have probably heard about the Indonesian Earthquake that took place last night, claiming the lives of many. Shameless cybercriminals have not wasted anytime exploiting the disaster targeting people around the world who search for information on the subject.

Microsoft has launched a new free anti-malware tool called Microsoft Security Essentials. The service is designed to protect consumers from viruses, spyware, and other malicious software.

The service has two very strong elements going for it. For one, it is from Microsoft, which means it comes from a well-known brand that practically all consumers are familiar with. Secondly, it’s free, and that is another word that resonates with consumers.

Security company Panda Labs has discovered an online service that promises to hack into Facebook accounts for $100. They claim they will provide "clients" with login and password information to access any account on the social network. Do you feel like your information is secure on Facebook? Comment here.

There is an online banking Trojan out there that is bypassing up-to-date anti-virus programs as much as 77% of the time, according to security company Trusteer. The Zeus Trojan is also known as Zbot, WSNPOEM, NTOS and PRG. It is the most prevalent financial malware on the web, Trusteer says.

Social Media’s rise in popularity has created some very real problems for the Internet and its users. Social networks like Facebook and Twitter have seemingly opened the floodgates to security troubles, and over the past few weeks, this has been accentuated by a number of issues and studies.

Google is sharing some interesting statistics on malware, such as the number of entries on the Google Safe Browsing Malware List that have occurred over the last twelve months, and search results containing a URL labeled as harmful.

"We’re glad to share this sort of data because we believe that collaboration and information sharing are crucial in driving anti-malware efforts forward," says Niels Provos of Google’s Security Team.

Spammers are taking particular advantage of the heightened interest in health-related issues like swine flu and healthcare reform to distribute large shortened-URL spam runs using the Donbot botnet, according to Symantec’s MessageLabs.

Security firm F-Secure discovered that Twitter has begun blocking links to malicious sites when users try to post them. Twitter has not acknowledged this with an announcement yet, but users (at least some) are getting the following message when trying to post a link to a known malware site:

"Oops! Your tweet contained a URL to a known malware site!"

BPM Forum and AVG Technologies released some interesting findings from the Protect the Press Poll, a survey of the cyber security habits of the working press. The biggest takeaway is that the supposedly well-informed members of the press are no better at protecting themselves online than the average user.

Whether you think about it or not, the issue of safety probably affects just about every decision-making process.  After all, even if you favor a grocery store based on its low prices and convenient location, you must also on some level recognize that muggings don’t occur there every day.  And Microsoft wants to make sure you feel safe using Bing, too.