Matthew Hines

Researchers are increasingly noting the use of botnet infrastructure as the primary delivery means for badware, adware, spam and everything else, with zombie networks having become so ubiquitous in general that well-known iterations thereof are frequently being rolled out for use specifically over certain events or holidays. No better example of this may exist than […]

Windows security software maker Sunbelt has signed on to play a more active role in the Harvard-based Stopbadware.org effort, which already boasts some powerful friendships in the form of its work filtering Web search results with Google — in addition to being backed by Harvard Law School, Oxford University and Consumer Reports WebWatch. The nonprofit […]

It’s all about the information baby. The central theme in the world of cyber-crime has been data theft for years, and despite the evolution of more complex models including cyber-espionage and cyber-terrorism, malware attacks of all kinds remain focused on stealing electronic information, regardless of what endgame they’re pursuing, according to a new research report. […]

Experts with Gartner tabbed botnet infrastructure as the primary delivery model for malware in years to come while presenting their research conclusions at the company’s ongoing Information Security Summit today. That’s likely no surprise to anyone who has been watching the major threat trends lately, as attacks including Gumblar and Conficker have ripped their way […]

Chinese sources have long been linked with scads of worldwide malware and spam campaigns, but new research contends that computers located in the nation are currently generating an overwhelming proportion of the world’s unsolicited e-mail. According to a report compiled by researchers at the U.S.-based University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB), Chinese infrastructure is accounting […]

Applications whitelisting technologies are gaining rapid adoption based on that fact that the tools serve as an ideal foil to the challenges that plague defensive IT security measures, and the ability of the products to integrate with memory-limited computing platforms such as SCADA control systems, backers of the solutions claim. As “blacklist” preventative AV controls […]

With all the focus that’s been placed on external hacking and malware threats, most CISOs are actually more concerned with insider attacks when it comes to defending their organizations against potential data theft, according to a recent survey. Unsurprising in the sense that privileged insiders are those who know exactly where an organization’s electronic crown […]

I have to think that somewhere at this moment Richard Stallman is either laughing or crying, or at least scratching his head. Stallman, of course, is not only the founder of the Free Software Foundation and all around computing pioneer, but he’s also known to have been one of the world’s first hackers at MIT […]

Lest anyone should think that attacks like the Gumblar botnet redirection campaign are something of a rare bird, researchers are noting the use of similar “mass injection” propagation techniques in following waves of malware. Experts at Sophos report that they’ve been following an entire “series” of such attacks in recent weeks. And oh yeah, Gumblar […]

Long revered as the operating system that deterred malware attacks based on its sheer fortitude, Apple’s OS X continues to be targeted more frequently by malware schemers, with two new samples emerging just this week. Researchers at AV giant Trend Micro reported the discovery of a pair of emerging Trojan threats that seek to trick […]

Researchers at Symantec report that they’ve seen a spike in spam over the last six weeks, driven in part by traditional pharmaceutical themed messages, and also by a rather new technique, that being, blank e-mails. That’s right, having exhausted (seemingly) every angle on erectile dysfunction, having used every variation of celebrity video site, spammers are […]

With so much online fraud aimed at users of Web-based banking and brokerage sites, experts have long postulated that financial services providers would eventually play a bigger role in helping end users defend themselves, such as via offering advanced security features and anti-malware tools directly to customers versus relying on end users alone to protect […]