Russian hackers target U.S., Europe for profit and politics

When I saw this title, I said to myself - isn't that what I've been saying for over a year now??

Russian hackers target U.S., Europe for profit and politics -- chicagotribune.com

To ply online banking accounts, Russian hackers rely on viruses that record keystrokes as customers type log-ins and passwords. Russian-made viruses are believed to be behind several major online heists, including the theft of $1 million from Nordea Bank in Sweden in 2007 and $6 million from banks in the United States and Europe that same year.

it is, but I'll give it up to this writer, he said it better!

secure that laptop!

Recently I met with a couple of companies that assured me they didn't have any security concerns. They had a good IT guy, a firewall on every laptop, and a guard at the door. Certainly they were OK.

... not really!

Both firms I spoke with had a highly mobile workforce where they met with many clients while using their laptop as their primary computer. They'd enter in client NPI into the laptop, and then send it across the web to their corporate based application.

A couple thoughts occured to me - if there was a rootkit like infostealer on these boxes, they'd be easily compromised. Likewise if they were using non-secured hotspots for internet access. BUT the single biggest hole in the papers today is much more low tech - it's just stealing the whole laptop. Once in the hands of the badguys, they can take their time to harvest all the great NPI from files, emails etc

Here's a recent article describing options on how to secure these
New solutions to remotely secure a stolen laptop | IT Security | TechRepublic.com

burn me once, shame on you

burn me twice - shame on me!

Bottom line to the story below is simple - use Firefox as your browser (or any alternative to IE).

Hackers are in this to make a living, and for their new tools to have the biggest impact (IOW infect the most desktops) then they go after the most popular OS and browser. While Firefox is very popular, millions are still using Internet Explorer every day even though it has the most vulnerabilities!

New zero-day IE7 exploit is in the wild | Network Administrator | TechRepublic.com

17 MILLION dollars - heh heh heh

the title should be read in your best Austin Powers impression to make sense.

I was just getting ready to turn off the computer for the night, when I was sucked in by this email ...

From: Stella Oliever

Dear Beloeve one

Based on your profile, l am happy to request for your assistance because I beleive that you are not going to betrayed the trust which I am going to lay on you Dear Beloved i pray all is well with you and Other members of your family.

My name is Stella 20 years old and the only daughter of my late parents Mr.and Mrs Oliever, My father was a highly reputable busnness magnet-(a cocoa merchant) who operated in the capital of Ivory coast during his days. It is sad to say that he passed away mysteriously in France during one of his business trips abroad on 12th.November 2005.Though his sudden death was linked or rather suspected to have been masterminded by an uncle of his who travelled with him at that time, but God knows the truth!

My mother died when I was just 6 years old, and since then my father took me so special. Before the death of my Father on November 12th 2005 he called the secretary who accompanied him to the hospital and told her that he has the sum of (USD$17.5 000 000) Seventeen Milion five hundred thousand dollars left in a metalic trunk trunk box, wich he deposited in a Security Company here in abidjan, that he registered it as family valuable items for security reasons, he told the secretary that I should contact the Company for them to know me as his next of kin wich I have did as he instructed,

He also told the secretary that I should not let any of his relations to know about this because he was kiled by them and if they know about it, that they will do nothing but to kill me in other to take hold of every thing, He told her that I should seek for a foriegn partner abroad who will help me retreived the trunk box and also travel with him or her in other to continue my Live and Education and also to start a Bussines relationship with the person whom can take cear of me in the fucture,

My dear, this is why I have come in contact with you in order to help me retreive that trunk box from the Security Companys custody and send it direct to your country and also to make an arrangement for me on how I will come over to your country in other to continue my Live and Education and also to go into bussines relationship with you hence I am still a child and I dont know any thing about bussines,

I am just 20 years old and a university undergraduate and really don't know what to do. this is because I have suffered a lot of set backs as a result of incessant political crisis here in Ivory coast. The death of my father actually brought sorrow to my life, My dear, I am in a sincere desire of your humble assistance in this regards and your suggestions and ideas will be highly regarded.
Now permit me to ask these few questions:

1. Can I completely trust you?
2.Can you accept me as your own blood Sister (Or Doughter)?
3.What percentage of the total amount in question will be good for you?

Consider this and get back to me as soon as possible with your full assurance that you will not disapoint me in this issue so that i can give you the contact of the Security Company where my late Father deposited that trunk box for you to contact
them on how the trunk box will be retreived from their custody and deliver to your country,

Thank you soo much for your understanding and may almighty God bless you and your Family to the Glory of God Almighty,

My sincere regards,
Miss Stalla.

The best part is her email address is from japan! hahahahaha

Clearly they don't have very good writing courses on the ivory coast, and the plot is a little thin ... but all in all it just cries SCAM! I almost want to reply back to her, I'll treat you just like I do my current sisters (where IS my birthday present??), yes you can trust me fully - and give me ALL the money.

If anyone reading this feels like this is legit - email me. let's talk. I have a bridge to sell you first. ;)

the shell game of websites

This is one of those more advanced issues. If you know all about how individuals' browsers can find a website - just skip to the link

Otherwise - consider your computer is like you when you want to find out a phone number, or an address for a business you've heard of - but don't know the details about. As an individual, you trust the phone book to give you a correct number. As a computer, you trust the dynamic name space (DNS) lookup to give you the right address. For computers, this is the IP (internet protocol) address - looking something like 209.131.36.158 (this is the address for www.yahoo.com - if you go to your command window and type "ping www.yahoo.com" you'll see it along with the response time)

SO now that you know how the computer finds websites ... what would be the harm if a fraudster was to change the IP address? well - you could type in www.yahoo.com and instead of going to the correct address - you could be re-routed to a "yahoo" looking site hosted only by the badguys. ... not good!

for more of the details - read below!


New trojan in mass DNS hijack • The Register

Facebook ignores huge security hole for four months

I've written about the dangers of the social websites for a while now. In general I don't think minors should be allowed on them - there are too many wackos out there and it's too easy to disclose personal information that one could use against you.

Now I found this article describing a current 'hole' in their security. Facebook has known about, but not responded to a hole called Cross Site Scripting (XSS)

The cross-site scripting (XSS) error can be plainly demonstrated here and here. It allows a miscreant to trick a user into believing he is visiting Facebook when the vast majority of the content is being supplied by a website of the attacker's choice.

The danger of it is - a person can believe they are logged into Facebook and the scripts running on that page will be from the hackers website collecting information. hmmm - not good!

here is the original article
Facebook ignores huge security hole for four months • The Register

Popular Home DSL Routers At Risk Of CSRF Attack - DarkReading

Most of the people I talk to feel like their home environment for computing is 'safe'. The ones that feel MOST secure tell me how they're behind a router, so there is no way for them to be attacked. hmm, maybe they should read the paper below! In it a research has shown how a home router can easily be worked around by using an old technique called cross site request forgery (CSRF)

(Cross-Site Request Forgery) An online forgery that requires knowledge of which Internet-based institutions a person deals with. It is used to steal money or obtain valuable data such as credit card numbers. Also called an "XSRF," "sea surf" and "confused deputy attack," the CSRF is embedded in a fake link or bogus script on a Web page. In either case, the browser executes a malicious transaction such as a wire transfer to the cybercrook's bank.

The CSRF exploit only works if the user is already logged onto the institution's Web site that is being targeted or has recently logged on, in which case a stored cookie used for authentication may still be active.

Today's exploit is described as

A CSRF attack on a DSL router could be launched from a social networking site, Hamiel says, using an image tag on a MySpace page, for example. 'Everyone who viewed my MySpace page with AT&T DSL and the Motorola/Netopia DSL modem would be owned,' he says."

Popular Home DSL Routers At Risk Of CSRF Attack - DarkReading: