Category: blog
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Anonymous petitions Obama Administration
“Make DDoS a legal form of protest.” Hacking/protest group Anonymous has petitioned the Obama Administration to recognize DDoS attacks as a legal form of protest. The petition suggests that, rather than being a form of hacking, DDoS attacks are more like a form of ‘occupy’ protest (a recognised legal form of protest), arguing that “Instead…
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Cat carries computer virus
Cat collared. Japanese police have captured a cat said to be carrying a computer virus on a memory card attached to its collar. The bizarre ‘arrest’ came after various Japanese media organizations were sent anonymous emails containing a series of riddles apparently designed to lead to the memory card – which is reported to contain…
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European Cybercrime Centre set for launch
Central cybercrime resource for EU member states. This Friday will see the doors of the new European Cybercrime Centre (EC3) officially open in The Hague. The EC3 – which will be run by cross-national law enforcement agency Europol – aims to bring resources, expertise and information together from across the EU to a single central…
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Correction to VBSpam results
Spamhaus and SURBL results re-evaluated. The most recent VBSpam results incorrectly stated that SURBL failed to detect a blacklisted URL in any of the emails in the Wombat feed of phishing emails; the performance of Spamhaus on the feed was also affected. We have since discovered that a technical glitch on our side meant that…
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Virus Bulletin announces VBWeb tests for web filters
Regular comparative tests will show which products offer best protection from malicious web traffic. Just as security companies can’t afford to neglect the major infection vector the web has become in recent years, those testing security solutions can’t afford to neglect web security solutions. It was with this in mind that Virus Bulletin began development…
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Latest spam filter test shows spam catch rates have bounced back
Spam catch rates improve, but performance on phishing lags behind that on other spam. Earlier this week we published the results of the 22nd VBSpam comparative spam filter test, which saw 19 products win a VBSpam award. Overall, products performed well and most products’ spam catch rates improved, thus reversing a trend we reported earlier…
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Do we need stronger email addresses?
Skype vulnerability allowed for account hijacking using only email address. A worryingly trivial vulnerability in VoIP service Skype became public this morning, which allowed anyone to take over a user’s Skype account using nothing but the email address linked to the account. The method – which was posted on Russian underground forums a few months…
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FBI agent receives first J.D. Falk award
Thomas X. Grasso praised for starting DNSChanger working group. The first annual J.D. Falk award has been given to FBI agent Thomas X. Grasso for establishing the DNSChanger Working Group. The award ceremony took place at the M 3 AAWG general meeting in Baltimore. The annual award was set up last year by M to…
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Weak cryptography keys allow others to add valid DKIM signatures to fake emails
512-bit key cracked within 72 hours. A Florida-based mathematician has caused a stir in the email community by adding a valid DKIM signature for google.com to an email after cracking the company’s private signing-key. When the first SMTP standard was published just over three decades ago, email spam barely existed. The email landscape has changed…
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Anti-virus software significantly shortens life of banking trojans
Security software causes malware to run for less than a third as long. ‘Does anti-virus software actually help?’ is a question often asked, even by security experts – who point to the fact that malware authors test their creations to make sure they aren’t detected by anti-virus products before releasing them, and to the fact…