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A massive database of 630 million email addresses used by a spambot to send large amounts of spam to has been published online in what appears to be one of the biggest data dumps of its kind. A French security researcher, who uses online handle Benkow , has spotted the database on an "open and accessible" server containing a vast amount of email addresses, along with millions of SMTP credentials from around the world. The database is hosted on the spambot server in Netherlands and is stored without any access controls, making the data publicly available for anyone to access without requiring any password. According to a blog post published by Benkow, the spambot server, dubbed "Onliner Spambot," has been used to send out spams and spread a banking trojan called Ursnif to users since at least 2016. Ursnif Banking Trojan is capable of stealing banking information from target computers including credit card data, and other personal information like login ...

Yes, you heard it right. If I tell you not to visit my website, but you still visit it knowing you are disapproved, you are committing a federal crime, and I have the authority to sue you. Wait! I haven't disapproved you yet. Rather I'm making you aware of a new court decision that may trouble you and could have big implications going forward. The United States Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit has taken a critical decision on the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act (CFAA): Companies can seek civil and criminal penalties against people who access or visit their websites without their permission. Even Sharing Password is also a Federal Crime... Yes, a similar weird decision was taken last week when the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that sharing passwords can be a violation of the CFAA, making Millions of people who share their passwords "unwitting federal criminals." Now, you might be wondering how visiting a publically open website could be a crime. We...

Vulnerability Management (VM) has long been a cornerstone of organizational cybersecurity. Nearly as old as the discipline of cybersecurity itself, it aims to help organizations identify and address potential security issues before they become serious problems. Yet, in recent years, the limitations of this approach have become increasingly evident.  At its core, Vulnerability Management processes remain essential for identifying and addressing weaknesses. But as time marches on and attack avenues evolve, this approach is beginning to show its age. In a recent report, How to Grow Vulnerability Management into Exposure Management (Gartner, How to Grow Vulnerability Management Into Exposure Management, 8 November 2024, Mitchell Schneider Et Al.), we believe Gartner® addresses this point precisely and demonstrates how organizations can – and must – shift from a vulnerability-centric strategy to a broader Exposure Management (EM) framework. We feel it's more than a worthwhile read an...

Any occasion that captures public attention – regardless of how sensitive – comes out to be an opportunity for spammers and hackers to snatch users' personal information and spread malware , and the tragedy of the crashed Malaysia Airlines flight MH17 is no exception. According to the U.S. intelligence officials, Malaysia Airline Flight MH17, a Boeing 777 aircraft carrying 283 passengers and 15 crew members, was struck by a ground-to-air missile. So far, it's unclear, whether the missile was launched by the Russian military or pro-Russian separatist rebels. Ukraine and the insurgents blamed each other. Spammers and cybercriminals are quick to take advantage of the tragedy and started spreading malware through the social media websites, abusing the mystery behind the crash of Malaysia Airline Flight MH17. Researchers at the anti-virus firm Trend Micro came across some suspicious tweets written in Indonesian language. The cybercriminals are using the trending #MH17 to lu...

Oh MY God! Is Tracy Morgan Really Dead? NO, Thankfully it's only a hoax, but scammers announced the popular comedian and actor Tracy Morgan dead. Another Facebook scam is circulating across the social networking website just a day before the former " Saturday Night Live " and " 30 Rock " star Tracy Morgan was critically hurt in a six-vehicle fatal accident on the New Jersey Turnpike that killed his friend and writer 62-year-old James McNair. With the rise in various scams on the popular social networking giant, Facebook that has more than one billion active users, it became very clear that not only does the social networking platform provide special opportunities for people to connect and share information, but serves as a great platform for scammers as well. TOTAL SCAM LEADS TO MALWARE Scammers spare no incident to target as many victims as possible, and this time they made use of this roadway accident to target users by spreading the fake Facebook videos proclaimin...

I am considering that you all must have read my last article on OpenSSL Heartbleed , a critical bug in the OpenSSL's implementation of the TLS/DTLS heartbeat extension that allows attackers to read portions of the affected server's memory, potentially revealing users data, that the server did not intend to reveal. The Heartbleed vulnerability made headlines around the world and my last article explains everything about probably the biggest Internet vulnerability in recent history, but still some readers are not aware of its nature, otherwise they would not have been a victim of the spam campaigns. Spammers are very smart on gaining from every opportunity they get, so this time they are taking advantage of the infamous Heartbleed bug and frighten the users into installing Anti-Heartbleed Software onto their systems, which is obviously a malware. The researchers at Symantec have unearthed a spam campaign targeting people by sending spam emails that warns them their ...

If you are a user of the American On-Line (AOL) mail service then you are advised to change your password as soon as possible. AOL Inc. on Monday confirmed the company suffered a massive data breach that may have affected a "significant number" of email accounts. The company has issued a warning to users that their personal information including email addresses, postal addresses, address books, encrypted passwords and the encrypted answers to security question-answers, has been stolen by attackers, the New York-based company said Monday. " The ongoing investigation of this serious criminal activity is our top priority, " AOL said in a blog post . " We are working closely with federal authorities to pursue this investigation to its resolution. Our security team has put enhanced protective measures in place, and we urge our users to take proactive steps to help ensure the security of their accounts ." AOL said it began investigating the ...

The Mysterious Malaysian Airlines flight MH370 , a Boeing 777-200 aircraft that has gone missing by the time it flew from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. The Malaysian Prime Minister had also confirmed that the Malaysia Airlines plane had crashed in a remote part of the southern Indian Ocean. Cyber Criminals are known to take advantage of major news stories or events where there is a high level of public interest and now Scammers are also targeting tragedy of MH370 to trap innocent Internet users. Just a few days before we warned you about a Facebook malware campaign claimed that the missing Malaysian Airlines ' MH370 has been spotted in the Bermuda Triangle ' with its passengers still alive and invites users to click a link to view breaking news video footage. This week, Security researchers at FireEye have revealed about various ongoing spear phishing and malware attacks by some advanced persistent threat (APT) attackers. According to the researchers, the Chines...

You all are quite aware of phishing attacks , and for those who are not, Phishing scams are typically fraudulent email messages, masquerading as a well known and trustworthy entity in an attempt to gather personal and financial information from victims. However, phishing attacks have become more sophisticated recently. The Pro-hacker group, Syrian Electronic Army (SEA) is also popular for its advance phishing attack and had purposely targeted twitter account and websites of various popular brands like Forbes, Microsoft, Obama, Facebook, CNN, eBay and PayPal in the past using phishing techniques. Security researchers have seen an increase in the number of phishing attacks every day, but recently a tricky scam came across by the researchers at the Symantec , which is targeting Google Docs and Google Drive users. Under this phishing scam, an email with a subject of " Documents ", tricks recipient to view an ' important document ' stored on the Google Docs by cli...

Hackers are very smart on gaining from every opportunity they get and this time the lost  Malaysian Airlines flight MH370  gave them a chance to hijack, not the plane, but you all sitting over their operating your Facebook account and having an eye on every news related to the Mysterious Malaysian plane. Spammers are taking advantage of the lost Malaysian plan and spam spreading malware on the Facebook, abusing the mystery behind the Malaysia airplane MH370 that has gone missing by the time it flew from Kuala Lumpur to Beijing. The hackers are redirecting Facebook users to the malicious websites using a fake Facebook post, claims that missing Malaysian Airlines flight MH370,  a Boeing 777-200 aircraft  has been found in the Bermuda Triangle with its passengers still alive and invites users to click a link to view breaking news video footage. Title of the fake video: Malaysia Plane MH370 Has Been Spotted Somewhere Near Bermuda Triangle. Shocking Videos Release T...

The Major US Financial institution, Bank of America is being targeted by a stealthy malicious financial malware campaign, according to AppRiver report. Last month the researchers at AppRiver has noticed enormous volumes of traffic through their data centers, with the peaks of traffic reaching three or four times than their normal network traffic.  They caught and blocked a malware campaign that was using the new and novel tactics designed specifically to beat the filtering engines. Last Wednesday the company experienced huge spam traffic i.e. 10 to 12 times the normal amount of their normal routine traffic. " These spikes have been driven by a tremendous increase in the number of incoming messages being sent with viruses attached. " and some user experienced delays in sending and receiving mail. They found the malware campaign, distributing a Financial Trojan designed to target, the Bank of America customers, known as ' Bredo virus ', capable of stealing inf...

Skype has been targeted by cyber criminals again this week. Users are receiving a new Spam Email with subject " You received a new message from the Skype voice mail service. ", that actually leads to Zeus Malware . Zeus is a Trojan horse that attempts to steal confidential information from the compromised computer. It specifically targets system information, online credentials, and banking details, but can be customized through the toolkit to gather any sort of information. The email is sent from the spoofed address " Skype Communications " and seems to be genuine, it has similar body content and the official Skype logo that usually comes with a legitimate Skype voice mail alerts. " This is an automated email, please don't reply. Voice Message Notification. You received a new message from the Skype voice mail service. " the email reads. The fraudsters have also tried to make the emails look genuine by adding real links back to the Skype website. According to MX Lab , ...

The UK's National Crime Agency has given out an urgent national alert that a mass spamming event targeting 10 million UK based email users with a piece of malware called CryptoLocker that encrypts your files and then demands a ransom money to restore access. The agency has said that the people who are majorly receiving targeted spam emails that appear to be from banks and other financial institutions. Each email comes with attachments that look like files such as a voicemail, fax, an invoice or details of a suspicious transaction, but is in fact Cryptolocker Ransomware malware that encrypts the user's computer. The public should be aware not to click on any such attachment. On Infected system, The Cryptolocker Malware screen will then display a countdown timer that demands the payment of 2 Bitcoins in ransom, worth around £536, for the decryption key. The NCCU is trying to trace that who is sending the emails. " We are working in cooperation wit...

A popular scam that always seems to pop up around the holiday shopping season has once again resurfaced.Have you gotten a text message promising a free gift card? All you have to do is click on a link? However, it was a scam. Case :  A text message has been popping up on Central New Yorkers' phones saying they've won a Target gift card worth $1,000. It's a scam – do not click on it and quickly delete it. Links within the message connect you to bogus websites that are designed to collect sensitive, private information from people who think they've really won a prize. The text messages most frequently come from Target, Best Buy or Walmart. How did someone get your number?   How many times have we filled out things for either restaurant surveys or fill out this survey and get a coupon? If that information isn't being properly secured, it's very easy to get that data if its saved in clear text or unencrypted data. People have their cell phone ...

Last month we reported a worm targeting Skype users with spam messages designed to infect machines with the Dorkbot ransomware has been discovered. This malware is spreading through a question/ phrase sent to the users by someone and the question is: " lol is this your new profile pic? " Same spam now targeting most of the Indian skype users, Indian CERT (Computer Emergency Response Team) issue a warning about this ongoing spam attack via advisory. A number of Indians use 'Skype' to communicate with their friends, relatives and other contacts within and outside the country. " A malicious spam campaign is on the rise targeting Skype users by sending instant message which appears to come from friends in the Skype contact list ," the advisory reads. Security researchers from Avast had intercepted this Darkbot malware campaign, and they estimate that this affecting millions of Skype users. " The worm is reported as stealing user credentials, engaging in click fr...

A spam message is circulating on Facebook that WWE wrestler Rey Mysterio has died in a stunt gone wrong. Social media is now full of spam messages like this. Last week scammers trick users with " John Cena is died " and this week, rumors about the death of Rey Mysterio. The message actually includes a link that supposedly provides more information about the accident, but in real spammer is just tricking users to redirect on survey website using his referral url. Complete message read," ReY Mysterio of WWE was dead on arrival on the hospital, suffering from 6 broken ribs after perfecting thombstone stunt with co-star The BIG SHOW. Local Police are now investigating and looking for evidences. THE Big SHOW is now facing murder charges. Watch the practice video from WWE and how The BIG SHOW failed to execute the stunt. (for 18yrs & above) " " But that's not all. The user is then presented a webpage that promises him/her the chance to win an ...

Symantec has reported an increase in spam messages containing .gov URLs. Cybercriminals are using 1.usa.gov links in their spam campaigns to trick users into thinking the links lead to genuine US government Web sites. Spammers have created these shortened URLs through a loophole in the URL shortening service provided by bit.ly. USA.gov and bit.ly have collaborated, enabling anyone to shorten a .gov or .mil URL into a trustworthy 1.usa.gov URL. The click rate of the campaign has been significant, redirecting more than 16,000 victims over a five day period to a malicious website designed to look like a CNBC news article pushing several work from home scams. According to researchers from security firm Symantec , they simply leveraged an open-redirect vulnerability present on the official government site of Vermont (Vermont.gov) . Therefore, something like 1.usa.gov/…/Rxpfn9 takes you to labor.vermont.gov/LinkClick.aspx?link=[spam site] which then redirects you ...