Matthew Hines

If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. That’s what the malware community appears to be saying, as the time-honored Trojan attack model, in all its varied iterations, continues to dominate the threat rankings, researchers report. While it’s true that a lot of different types of attacks, from simple malware downloaders to annoying adware to sophisticated […]

Badware distribution schemes hidden under the guise of legitimate anti-virus applications continue to suck in unsuspecting end users, according to new research released by AV vendor Panda Software. According to a paper issues by Panda on Thursday, the fake AV technique is actually growing in popularity among attackers, likely in response to the growing publicity […]

Here’s to the power of the press, the blog, the Web and intelligent debate. Not to pat ourselves on the shoulder too heartily, but I’m always enthused when a post on this blog moves someone to comment and share their own ideas on security. When the blog itself can become a place where parties involved […]

FaceTime Communications researcher Chris Boyd, aka Paperghost, is back at it again with Zango, the long-criticized adware distributor that has been promising to clean up its act and go legitimate. After several years of scrutiny from many researchers, including Boyd, and a $3 million settlement with the FTC over charges of “Deceptive Failure to Disclose […]

A new position paper issued by anti-spam expert company Cloudmark calls out ISPs and other service providers such as e-mail vendors for failing to do more to protect their customers from multifaceted attacks that combine various techniques to reach and exploit users. As many other security pundits have noted, e-mail users remain in the crosshairs […]

A number of security research groups are reporting on a new set of malware threats being disguised as fake overnight parcel tracking receipts. Along with Fed Ex-themed attacks reported by BitDefender and others, researchers at Sophos have detailed a more generic “Airmail Express” example which aims to lure end users in by e-mailing them the […]

According to a new report issued by the mighty fine spam-fighting folks over at KnujOn, there are tons of “phantom” registrars — registrars that do not seem to exist other than to distribute URLs to providers of unwanted e-mail and malware — that have gained accreditation from ICANN. In the report posted by KnujOn Aug. […]

As anyone who was watching likely noticed, I’ve been on vacation from just about everything, including this blog, for the better part of the last two weeks. After a massive push here at my day job at Core Security around Black Hat — where we relaunched the entire company and its products — it was […]

Here’s a near perfect example of two core problems that reside at the heart most IT security and electronic privacy issues, those being, ignorance and denial. This particular act of stupidity is currently being played out in the courts at the hands of non other than the very bureaucracy that is charged with trundling my […]

In a move that highlights the level of suspicion that still exists between Americans and our Chinese counterparts, or at least between our respective governments, the NCIX (Office of the National Counterintelligence Executive) has issued a new set of best practices for U.S. citizens traveling abroad with their electronic devices. And while the NCIX in […]

It was another impressive year in the desert at Black Hat last week, with a record-sized crowd, tons of cutting-edge research and all the usual hoopla that goes along with the IT security industry’s annual Las Vegas hacking summit. From the presentations themselves to the vendor buzz to the undeniably vibrant and colorful social scene […]

Time machine alert: I’m still working to unload my Black Hat bloggers’ notebook, as I was caught up doing work for my day job most of the time I was in Las Vegas. And, you know, hitting all the parties. One of the cooler demonstrations that I had the chance to attend was the aptly […]