Mindblown: a blog about philosophy.

PC malware thought capable of using phones as vector. F-Secure has reported a new worm which attempts to spread via mobile phones. The ‘Mobler’ worm, once activated, copies itself to network shares and other writable media – including the memory cards of Symbian smart phones. From there, the worm could be passed to another PC,…

Business-related message carries trojan. A vaguely official-sounding email is being widely spammed, claiming to relate to some nebulous business activity between the sender and recipient, but actually forming another vector for spreading malware. The text reads like a variant of the classic 419 scam, but veers off into a lure to open the infected attachment.…

AV firm releases phone security beta. BitDefender has become the latest AV company to make a move into the mobile device market. It has released a beta of its mobile AV software, supporting the Symbian and Windows Mobile platforms and offering on-demand and on-access protection, along with ‘easy updates’ and tech support. Major players already…

Decent spelling and convincing design aim to trick users. Users of eBay , perennial subject of phishing scams, are currently being targeted by a more than usually well-crafted attack. An email, purporting to come from the web auction house, is neat in its layout and accurate in its spelling, enough to give even a jaded…

As T-Mobile hacker is convicted, AT&T reveals break-in. A 23-year-old Oregon resident has been sentenced to a year of ‘home detention’, after being convicted of hacking into the servers of mobile phone company T-Mobile USA . The man accessed personal details of many T-Mobile customers, including precious social security numbers, but claimed his actions were…

More badware accusations levelled at web giant. StopBadware.org , the international anti-malware coalition backed by Google and Sun among others, has labelled AOL ‘s current free offering as badware, citing a number of suspect actions performed by the software, both during installation and once it is in use. The numerous accusations include installing more software…

Testing organisation’s methodology slammed again. ConsumerReports.org , the online wing of American consumers association Consumers Union , is once again taking flak for its testing of security software, but this time for erring in the other direction. Just weeks after revelations that the company created thousands of viruses to test AV software, it has been…

Fake sales invoice includes downloader. A new spam campaign claiming to be information on an order for a new iPod is accompanied by a trojan which, when run, attempts to download more malware to the victim machine. The spam states a purchase of a new music player has been made at Yahoo Shopping , and…

Canadian stock-trading association warns of security breaches. The Investment Dealers Association of Canada (IDA), a national regulatory organisation, has released an urgent press release warning its members of several breaches of security, involving online users’ accounts being accessed and used in fraudulent deals. The victims’ stock portfolios were sold and account credit used to buy…

Zombie herder sentenced to 37 months behind bars. A Californian 21-year-old has been sent to a federal prison in the US, after being convicted of computer fraud and computer damage charges. The man, along with two underage accomplices, created and ran several sizeable botnets, infecting over half a million machines. They were used to scan…