Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.

Trojans, vulnerabilities, spam and crime loom large. Symantec and Kaspersky have both released overviews of security dangers faced in the first half of 2006 this week, and both present a fairly gloomy picture. The Kaspersky study showed a steady rise in new trojans, and new variants of existing ones, particularly backdoors, downloaders and data-stealing spyware,…

Botnet-spotting system watches for bad DNS behaviour. Trend Micro has launched a new service, entitled InterCloud Security Service ( ICSS ), to look out for bot infestations within networks. The system uses DNS-level behavioural analysis to spot bot-infected computers reaching out to talk to their herders. Once infections are detected, machines can be cut off…

Spamhaus founder estimates spam levels significantly higher than other industry monitors. Spamhaus founder Steve Linford estimates that spam accounts for more than 90% of all email traffic on the Internet. Speaking to OUT-LAW Radio the founder of UK-based spam advisory organisation said: ‘Spam is over 90% of all email traffic on the Internet. The sheer…

Rootkit battles still going. Canadian public interest body CIPPIC ( The Canadian Internet Policy and Public Interest Clinic , also known as Clinique d’intérêt public et de politique d’Internet du Canada ) has filed a swathe of complaints against music publisher SonyBMG , in response to the disappointing outcome to a recent class action lawsuit.…

Security firms complain about monopoly tactics. New security features to be included in the next version of Microsoft Windows continue to present difficulties for AV and other security software vendors. With the first full release of Vista expected soon, and the home user version due in the new year, Symantec is sending representatives to Europe…

Security task force issues stop-gap fix for IE hole. A team of security experts and reverse engineers have created a patch for the latest zero-day vulnerability in Microsoft Internet Explorer . The emergency measure is intended to protect users until the full patch is released by Microsoft – which is expected to be in a…

Industry veteran joins others from McAfee. Jimmy Kuo, the widely respected virus expert and popular speaker, has left McAfee after over ten years working in their AVERT labs, to join the fast-expanding security response team at Microsoft . Kuo follows several other industry heavyweights leaving their respective posts in recent months, including former McAfee AVERT…

Serial spammer charged with more spamming. Software and security firm Infinite Monkeys & Company has announced that a lawsuit has been filed against ‘Spam King’ Scott Richter, head of ‘online marketing company’ OptInRealBig , along with numerous associate organisations, claiming $27 million in damages. They also hope to stop Richter from future spamming activities. Richter…

‘Extremely critical’ buffer overflow used to drop spyware. Researchers at anti-spyware firm Sunbelt Software have reported an new attack actively exploiting another unpatched vulnerability in the Microsoft Internet Explorer browser. Secunia has labelled the problem ‘extremely critical’. The exploit, first found on a malicious site serving pornography but since spotted on several other locations, broke…

AOL IM users at risk from botnet-building attack. Instant messaging security firm FaceTime Communications has issued an alert on a highly sophisticated blended attack targeting users of AOL Instant Messaging (AIM). The initial vector of the attack is a worm spreading via AIM buddy lists, persuading recipients to run one of several programs, disguised as…