The Internet Threat Landscape

Cybercriminals Home in on Twitter

Twitter, being a successful technology platform, draws the attention of hackers who aim to leverage on its popularity for malicious intent. Exploiting a vulnerability in Twitter, a 17-year-old hacker compromised user accounts to post “tweets” with his content. 

Hackers Leverage on Facebook to Spread Spam & Malware

My brother-in-law started facebook-ing last month and has since been intensively exploring the related functions, applications and games. As a result, I get lots of email updates of his activities recently. For someone who is familiar with facebook, you will not be alien to the email updates, informing you of the latest on-goings from your list of contacts. This is probably why hackers are making spam to be facebook look-alike mails. Victims will not think twice that the spam mail is actually fake as they are used to receiving similar ones.

Data-for-ransom Syndicates Strike Online

Kidnapping for ransom is a typical plot in Hong Kong styled drama serial. The following malware is a very innovative scam that does a pseudo “kidnapping” of your PC’s data. Although the data is not physically removed or taken away, victims will be unable to access the information till the “ransom” is paid. However, the scam is so nicely disguised, victims may not even realize that they have been conned. Do read on:

Does it matter if I have the Trojan Horse virus as I do not have important documents in my computer?

Actually, as long as the computer is infected, it can potentially result in huge losses. You may think that the data in your computer is not worth much; however, a hacker can use your computer as a platform for his illegal acts. As a result, you get involved in police inquiry and bring tremendous disturbance to yourself to prove your innocence, as their investigations showed your IP address being involved.

Hence, even if you have done nothing wrong, you may still need to spend lots of effort to prove that your computer is indeed being used by a hacker as a springboard. Failure to do so may bring you even more distress. Do not think there is nothing in your PC that is worth hacking into. Unless you have zero transactions on the internet, else a hacker can also use your (eg. online auction) account and mislead other users to trade with you, while transferring the cash to his own. For such a situation, you will still be the highlight of the investigations as your IP, auction account, and email address are used for the transaction when you are infected with a backdoor program. There are actually more information in your PC than what you think, that can be used by a hacker for his unlawful activities.

Download free internet security software to protect you against Trojan Horse infection!

Cybercrooks Handing Out Malware Flyers

Virus on a parking fine ticket ?! This happened to be a true case in the US.

Do not be mistaken that this is due to the traffic warden’s unhygienic hands. Confused? The virus on the flyer originated from the World Wide Web but is really pinned onto cars windscreen.