WebProNews

Beware the Emails of Halloween

Symantec's MessageLabs released its Intelligence Report for the month of October, and it reveals the that the spammers behind the biggest botnets – Cutwail, Rustock and Donbot – are using the upcoming major holidays and world events as the themes for their the latest spam runs. This is not particularly surprising news, but it is news that people should be aware of nevertheless.

"Kanye West Died" Rumor Used as a Scareware Tactic

A lot of people have been searching for queries like "kanye west died," "kanye west car accident," "kanye dead," etc. Obviously, this is an indication of a widespread rumor that Kanye West did in fact die (which he didn't). It appears that the rumor was used to perpetuate a "scareware" tactic.

Stealth Phishing Attack Looks Like Internal Email

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.

Symantec Urges Windows Users to Patch Systems

Microsoft's Patch Tuesday for this week has been the largest ever from the company. 13 security bulletins addressing 34 vulnerabilities were released. 22 of these vulnerabilities were considered critical. Microsoft has never addressed so many in a single month. The previous record, set in June, was only 31. Included in the most recent Patch Tuesday, were patches for two vulnerabilities previously made public: one in Server Message Block Version 2 (SMBv2) and the other in Internet Information Services.

Twitter: Don't Change Your Email, Username, or Password

Twitter has warned its users that changing their account information may put their accounts in jeopardy, as the company has received numerous reports of people who are getting shut out of their accounts upon trying to do so.

Google Launches New Webmaster Tools

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.

Email Attacks Put Other Types of Accounts in Jeopardy

You've probably seen reports of big webmail phishing attacks over the week. A spokesperson for Symantec's Message Labs tells WebProNews, however, that most reports have glossed over a key point to consider. That is that the potential impact on other aspects of victims' online lives are in jeopardy as well.

FBI Nets 100 People In Phishing Ring

The FBI has charged nearly 100 people in the U.S. and Egypt as part of "Operation Phish Phry," one of the largest cyber fraud phishing investigations ever. The people charged in Operation Phish Phry targeted U.S. banks and victimized hundreds of account holders by stealing their financial information and using it to transfer around $1.5 million to bogus accounts they controlled.

Microsoft Using Scare Tactics For Google Browser Extension?

Update: Not long after MIcrosoft talked about Google making IE less secure with its Chrome Frame plug-in, Google came out and contradicted the notion. From eWeek:

Earthquake and Tsunami Searchers Targeted By Malware

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.