Locky, Cryptolocker, Teslacrypt, Keranger are just four flavors of ransomware that currently menace computers around the world. They especially target employees at public institutions and companies, but they aren’t neglecting individuals at home either.
The post 5 tips to avoid getting hit by ransomware appeared first on Avira Blog.
The subject line is very irresistible. And the email came from a friend of mine, that only I hear from every 10 months or so whenever she is in town. So imagine my concern when I saw the following message:
Am so sorry that i didn’t inform you about my trip. I’m writing this with tears in my eyes. I came down here to Odessa Ukraine for a short vacation unfortunately i was mugged at the park of the hotel where i stayed. all cash, credit card and cell were stolen off me but luckily for me i still have my passports with me.
I ‘ve been to the embassy and the Police here but they’re not helping issues at all and my flight leaves in less than hours from now but having problems settling the hotel bills. the hotel manager won’t let us leave until i settle the bills, I’m freaked out at the moment.
I could hear my friend’s voice in the body of the email. She is also a world traveler with a deep interest in Central and Eastern Europe, and is definitely one to pop over to Odessa for a long weekend to see the famed Potemkin Steps or visit the city as part of a larger trek around The Black Sea. The poor punctuation and strange spacing confused me. Then again, she was panicked and under intense time pressure.
In other words, I was hooked. So I replied.
The email long tail finds the weak minds
Using various communications channels to finagle money or information from someone has a long and varied history. Many of the scams rely on the promise of easy returns. The Nigerian Prince is a case in point. The scam is similar to the 19th Century Spanish Prisoner scenario, but has usually relied mainly on mail, faxes, and email as part of a multistage setup that targets people with enough money to supposedly help smuggle millions of dollars out of an African country, often Nigeria (hence the name). Those that take the bait and pay the (fake) transfer fees are promised exponential returns on their investments that never emerge. There are scores of variations on the scam. For instance, a long-lost relative leaves a person a pile of money; to get the inheritance, the person needs to pay all the legal fees. But in general, most of these scams rely on greed to hook interest.
By contrast, “stranded friend” phishing attacks take advantage of a reader’s good will. We all want to help people we know and like. I certainly do. In my case, the conmen had used malware (probably a Trojan) to hack my friend’s email account and access her contacts. The message I received was addressed to around two dozen people. It’s unclear whether the hackers created their shortlist of targets using the communications history between my friend and her contacts or their geographic locations, but it seems likely given that other scams employ similar tactics. For example, hacked mailing lists from charitable organizations allow bad guys to set up fake charities and target the people most likely to donate based on past activity.
And email is cheap and easy. By stealing or buying stolen databases, scammers can obtain access to hundreds of thousands of addresses. With a bit of segmentation, they put the odds in their favor that someone will bite on their hooks.
Failed the friendship version of the Turing Test
In my case, my fake friend replied that I should wire several thousand dollars to a Western Union in Odessa. Before agreeing, I asked her to name a mutual acquaintance who had once joined us for dinner. Of course she could not. So I then called my friend’s fixed line (in another country) and left a voicemail alerting her that her email account may have been compromised.
Now I like to believe I’m smart enough to not fall for such scams. But criminals have access to the same analytics as governments and major corporations. They’ve also been practicing their trade for decades (sometimes centuries), so have tremendous insight into how best to influence even the strongest of minds. To stay sharp, there are several things you can do:
The steps above may not be foolproof. But they can help ensure the adoption of a security mindset.
You are going to want to think twice before clicking on that LOLCat. A new proof of concept security vulnerability, dubbed Metaphor, could affect hundreds of millions of Android users.
NorthBit, an Israeli based software research company, has created an exploit in the same software library that the Stagefright vulnerability took advantage of. You may remember that last July 950 million Android devices were put at risk by Stagefright, in which it used an MMS (multimedia messaging service) software weakness that put Android customers at the mercy of hackers who could take complete control of their phone.
Metaphor, was demonstrated by NorthBit by sending an email message with a link to cat photos. The victim clicks the link to view the adorable and hilarious cat photos but unknowingly, in the background the malware is delivered. This exploit is a hole that allows a hacker to gain access. This access could be used to deliver malware that could potentially take control of key operations of your phone. In this particular example, the exploit is not instant – the user does need to engage with the content on this page for the exploit to be successful.
NorthBit’s research paper detailing the findings is not malicious, it’s for demonstrative purposes only. However, there is enough information provided that a professional hacker could use it to create their own fully working exploit and as you see in the video, to take control of some of the operations of your phone.
Since the original vulnerability was disclosed last year, Google released a number of patches that resolved Stagefright; but as we can see with this new disclosure, the media software still offers hackers a route to exploit devices.
The Metaphor exploit affects devices that are using Android Operating Systems: 5.1, 5.0, 4.0, down to 2.2 with some devices more vulnerable than others.
If you have an Android phone, what should you keep in mind?
And remember, the content could be targeted to something that you might be interested in, for me this would be motorbikes.
Follow AVG on Twitter @AVGFree
Follow me on Twitter @TonyatAVG
Google enhanced the way it displays Safe Browsing Alerts for Network Administrators this week, adding information about sites circulating malware and carrying out social engineering attacks.
Researchers discovered a Mac OS X variant of the Windows-based Pirrit adware that creates a proxy server on infected Mac computers and injects ads into webpages.
We have seen Andromeda spread via spam email campaigns with infected files attached (doc, xls, pdf, zip.), through illegal download sites, warez (infected cracks, keygens, ..), or infecting users via other phishing campaigns.
In recent months, the authors have mainly focused on spreading Andromeda via exploit kits (Neutrino, Nuclear, Angler,..) located on compromised websites or advertisement services. These exploit kits are mainly found on a dubious sites (p0rn, warez, video streaming sites, share sites etc.) but occasionally appear on trusted sites as well.
Adobe has been one of the favorite picks of the Hackers to mess with any systems devoid of any operating systems, as Flash Player is a front runner in all the browsers.
Hackers have already been targeting Flash Player for long by exploiting known vulnerabilities roaming in the wild.
Despite Adobe’s efforts, Flash is not safe anymore for Internet security, as one more critical
Researchers say reliance on an outdated Firefox extension platform opens the door for remote system attacks on Mac OS and Windows systems.
Researchers found a vulnerability in the classic compression standard Lhasa, once a mainstay for game developers in the mid-90s and still in use today.
Ransomware dubbed KimcilWare is targeting websites running the e-commerce platform Magento and encrypting website files.
