Help! I've Been Web-Jacked

PCWorld.com at Yahoo - Help! I've Been Web-Jacked: "On December 22, an Internet investigator got a tip that child pornography was being housed on an adult Web site. When he visited the site to verify the information, he didn't find any illegal images. But what he did find was a Trojan horse that disabled the ActiveX security controls on his browser and took control of it.
'I heard my hard drive churning and clicked on my task manager and saw three executable programs were installing themselves,' says Chris Brandon of Brandon Internet Services. 'I knew I was in trouble when I couldn't get my task manager to cancel the programs.'
By the time he checked his registry, the Trojan had installed dozens of programs that replaced the default Web page with its own, and loaded its own IP addresses in his favorite places, short cuts and safe zones. When he tried to erase the programs and reboot the machine, the virus reinstalled.
Spyware Spreads
This program is a perfect example of spyware gone amok.
It installed itself by taking advantage of a vulnerability in Internet Explorer 4.x and 5.x that lets an unsigned applet to create and use ActiveX controls. Then it hijacked Brandon's browser, a term called 'Web-jacking.' But it could have been worse. Some variants evoke dialers to call up 1-900 numbers if the victim is using telephone dialup for Internet access.
'We're seeing more of this type of virus activity in recent months,' says Ken Dunham, director of malicious code for IDefense, a security intelligence firm in Reston, Virginia. 'Trojans promote going to certain pornography sites and other sites they affiliate with because they get money for the clicks from advertisers. They terminate regedit.exe [registry editor], and they can be very difficult to remove.'"

Spyware and adware are rivaling viruses as online pests, but not only consumers are concerned: Vendors and ISPs, who field the brunt of complaints, are gearing up for a fight.



"In the past 8 months we've counted 40 million incidents of nonviral 'malware' and since March, 11.4 million cases have been detected," said Bryson Gordon, senior manager in charge of antivirus vendor McAfee's line of consumer products and services. Like many antivirus vendors, McAfee has added spyware protection. "With 4.2 million Web dialers, nonviral threats are very serious concerns for consumers."

Average PC has 28 Spyware Programs on it

From January to March this year, Earthlink conducted a "Spy Audit" on one million computers. Earthlink found that the average PC had 28 spyware programs on it, and the company
discovered over 29.5 forms of spyware existing.
Adware was the most
common type of spyware Earthlink found. Matt Cobb of Earthlink adds: "While most spyware is adware-related and relatively benign, it's disturbing that over
300,000 of the more serious system monitors and Trojans were
uncovered."

He says: "This figure represents how real a threat identity theft or system corruption is for users."
The company that tracked these items hopes the results will better educate people to what is happening so they take steps to better secure their PCs.



Source: news.bbc.co.uk

*Urgent* Microsoft Notice

Cox High Speed Internet Customer Support: "Urgent Microsoft Notice 4/14/04

URGENT! Microsoft recently warned computer users about 3 critical flaws in the Windows operating system, and Microsoft Outlook Express. Any of these flaws may allow attackers to access computer networks, change or delete files, create new accounts and install destructive programs.

Click here for more information
"

Yahoo! News - Mac OS X Attacked by Trojan Horse

"Mac users are used to feeling safe as their Windows-based brethren scramble to address security flaws. Now a security firm has discovered what may be the first Trojan horse created to attack Mac OS X".

Called "MP3Virus.gen" or "MP3Concept," the Trojan horse appears to be a typical MP3 file. It is coded into the ID tags of the audio file and activates when users click on it to play the music.


The Trojan horse was discovered by Intego, a Mac security and privacy firm. According to security firm Symantec (Nasdaq: SYMC - news), MP3Concept has not yet been found in the wild. That is, Symantec acknowledged that the vulnerability is real, but the company has not yet found it circulating around the Internet.

But Intego CEO Laurent Marteau told NewsFactor that his company received a report of the Trojan Horse from a Mac user on April 6th.

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