Threats in the News for October

Mobile malware continued to be a top story in October even though there were some reports that claim it fails to make money for the cybercriminals. However, other news items highlight how premium-rate SMS Trojans are being used in attacks and other mobile malware seems to be “testing” new techniques, such as updates and QR codes.

PC-based malware doesn’t have any issues making money for the hackers. In October, we saw PayPal accounts being sold for 8-12% of the balance available for higher in-credit accounts and the Zeus Banking Trojan continuing to evolve and become more sophisticated.

Here are October’s top news items you should be aware of:

• Social Malice: One In 60 Facebook Posts Are Malicious
  Oct 28, 2011 — Dark Reading

• Premium-rate SMS trojan shares code with SpyEye variant
  Oct 27, 2011 — SC Magazine

• Exploit-powered Android Trojan uses update attack
  Oct 25, 2011 — Computerworld

• Flash Bug Allows Miscreants to Remotely Operate Your Web Cam
  Oct 20, 2011 —Wired

• New Mac OS X malware disables Apple’s malware protection
  Oct 19, 2011 — ZDNet

• New Version Of Zeus Leverages Peer-To-Peer Technology
  Oct 14, 2011 — InformationWeek

• Sony Freezes 93,000 Online Accounts Following Hack Attempt
  Oct 12, 2011 — SecurityNewsDaily

• Android Mobile Malware Fails To Make Money
  Oct 11, 2011 — InformationWeek

• How much is your stolen PayPal data worth?
  Oct 05, 2011 — Infosecurity

• Rigged QR Tag Infects Android Phones
  Oct 03, 2011 — SecurityNewsDaily

This post is by no means exhaustive and you can find more articles in our Industry News section. You can also find the latest list of home network infections and Internet threats as reported by Kindsight Security Labs.