Ryan Naraine

Ken Dunham, you could say, spends his life peeking into the bowels of the Internet. As director of the Rapid Response Team at VeriSign-owned iDefense, of Dulles, Va., Dunham—along with his team of malware hunters—infiltrates black hat hacker forums, chat rooms and newsgroups, posing as online criminals to gather intelligence on the dramatic rise in […]

A Microsoft security official said businesses should consider investing in an automated process to wipe hard drives and reinstall operating systems as a practical way to recover from malware infestation. “In some cases, there really is no way to recover without nuking the systems from orbit,” said Mike Danseglio, program manager in the Security Solutions […]

Virus researchers at Kaspersky Lab have found proof-of-concept code for a cross-platform virus capable of infecting both Windows and Linux systems. In an alert posted to Viruslist, Kaspersky said the sample virus has been given a dual name—Virus.Linux.Bi.a/ Virus.Win32.Bi.a—and highlighted the way attackers are targeting multiple platforms in malware attacks. “The virus doesnt have any […]

Anti-spyware activist Ben Edelman has flagged a spyware-powered click-fraud scam using Yahoos Overture advertising service to fleece advertisers. Edelman, a security researcher renowned for his meticulous work exposing the dark side of the adware business, has published a detailed report that documents a complicated syndication network that ends with a spyware program faking a click […]

Microsoft Research has released a new tool to help pinpoint large-scale typo-squatters that are known to be gaming pay-per-click domain parking services. The lightweight prototype, called Strider URL Tracer, builds on the work within Microsofts Cybersecurity and Systems Management group to keep tabs on a sophisticated typo-squatting scheme that uses multilayer URL redirection to make […]

Anti-virus security specialist McAfee has wasted no time gobbling up SiteAdvisor, a 1-year-old startup that rates the Web to determine if a sites content includes spyware, spam, viruses, browser-based exploits or online scams. McAfee announced April 5 it is acquiring the tiny Boston-based company that counts respected anti-spyware activist Ben Edelman among its roster of […]

LAKE BUENA VISTA, Fla.—In a rare discussion about the severity of the Windows malware scourge, a Microsoft security official said businesses should consider investing in an automated process to wipe hard drives and reinstall operating systems as a practical way to recover from malware infestation. “When you are dealing with rootkits and some advanced spyware […]

Eolas Technologies says the decision by Microsoft to modify its Internet Explorer browser at the expense of a seamless user experience is a “disappointment” and a “shame.” Reacting to news that the next cumulative IE security update will require an extra mouse-click to interact with certain embedded multimedia content, Eolas Chief Operating Officer Mark Swords […]

The ongoing zero-day attacks against users of Microsofts Internet Explorer browser have taken an ominous, social-engineering twist. According to an alert issued by Websense Security Labs, in San Diego, excerpts from actual BBC News stories are being used to lure IE users to Web sites that launch drive-by downloads of bots, spyware, back doors and […]

Malicious hackers have fitted rootkit features into the newest mutants of the Bagle worm, adding a stealthy new danger to an already virulent threat. According to virus hunters at F-Secure, of Helsinki, Finland, the latest Bagle.GE variant loads a kernel-mode driver to hide the processes and registry keys of itself and other Bagle-related malware from […]

Two well-respected Internet security companies have shipped unofficial patches for a critical flaw in Microsofts Internet Explorer browser a full two weeks before the software makers scheduled release of a comprehensive update. With a wave of zero day attacks underway, eEye Digital Security and Determina offered separate hotfixes to provide temporary protection for IE users, […]

Microsoft is moving full steam ahead with a plan to permanently modify the way Internet Explorer renders multimedia content on Web pages, but in what amounts to an admission that the changes could be disruptive, the software maker plans to give Web developers an extra 60 days to continue making preparations. The IE update, which […]