Security Technology

Last March, I blogged about the Andromeda, a well-known botnet that surfaced in 2011 and is making a comeback this year. Just months after my report, we are still seeing notable activities from the said botnet, in particular a sudden boost of GAMARUE variants last week. The Andromeda botnet is a spam botnet that delivers GAMARUE variants, which are known backdoors and have a noteworthy way of propagating via removable drives. We’re keeping track of the GAMARUE infection for the past weeks and observed some noteworthy activities. For the past 30 days, we noticed a sudden spike of its variants on May 17. In particular, there was a 82% increase from May 16 – May 17 and another 32% on May 18. A significant bulk of these malware, specifically 63%, is WORM_GAMARUE variants. Figure 1. GAMARUE detection for the past 30 days (April 20 – May 31) In my initial blog entry, I reported that the bulk of infection came from Australia. Last year, Germany was also one of the most GAMARUE-affected countries. However, just months after my first post, we are seeing a trend in which a majority of WORM_GAMARUE variants are affecting India, Turkey, and Mexico. Figure 2. Top countries affected by WORM_GAMARUE Currently, we can not readily determine why GAMARUE variants increased on the said dates. If anything, this trend shows that the botnet is still active and poses risks to users. Andromeda Botnet: Old Threat Repackaged In our 2013 1Q Security Roundup, we concluded that during this quarter, cybercrime was characterized by old threats made new. The Andromeda spam botnet is a good example of this trend, this time with aid of the Blackhole Exploit kits (BHEK) and some new neat tricks. This threat arrives as a spammed message containing a malicious attachment (GAMARUE variants) or links leading to certain sites, which now include those compromised by the notorious Blackhole Exploit kit. GAMARUE variants are known to propagate via removable drives. It also drops component files instead of copies of itself to make detection difficult. Taking cue from threats like DUQU and KULUOZ, GAMARUE variants also uses certain APIs to inject itself to normal process to evade detection. Propagating techniques aside, GAMARUE variants have backdoor capabilities since it communicates with certain C&C servers to send and receive commands. This communication, in effect, gives a remote malicious user control over the infected system. Some of the commands the malware can execute include downloading other malware onto the system, most notably info-stealing threats like ZeuS/ZBOT variants. Because some Andromeda-related spam messages eerily looks like legitimate email notification from vendors, the usual criteria for determining a spam are not sufficient. As an alternative, you can verify to see if the email you’ve received is legitimate or not. Since BHEK is known to exploit software vulnerabilities like Java, you must always update your system with the latest security patch or re-consider your use of Java. For better protection, install antimalware software like Trend Micro, which protects your system from spam, malicious URLs, and malware. Post from: Trendlabs Security Intelligence Blog - by Trend MicroKeeping Up With the Andromeda Botnet

Over the past three days, security companies announced acquisitions.

For a while now, I have been thinking about what civil disobedience looks like in the Internet Age. Certainly DDOS attacks, and politically motivated hacking in general, is a part of that. This is one of the reasons I found Molly Sauter's recent thesis, "Distributed Denial of Service Actions and the Challenge of Civil Disobedience on the Internet," so interesting:...

TerraCom's website offers free cell phones to low income customers; its call center company gave customers' personal data away. Call it security through absurdity: a pair of telecom firms have branded reporters for Scripps News as "hackers" after they discovered the personal data of over 170,000 customers—including social security numbers and other identifying data that could be used for identity theft—sitting on a publicly-accessible server. The reporters claim to have discovered the data with a simple Google search; the firms' lawyer claims they used "automated" means to gain access to the company's confidential data, and that in doing so the reporters violated the Computer Fraud and Abuse Act with their leet hacker skills. The files were records of applicants for the Federal Communications Commissions Lifeline subsidized cell phone program for low-income consumers. The applicants' information was collected for the telecom providers YourTel and TerraCom by Vcare, an India-based call center service contracted to verify applicants' eligibility. To qualify for the program, customers need to submit proof that they are enrolled in a federal or state assistance program such as Supplemental Security Income, food stamp programs, and the federally-funded free school lunch program. Vcare and the telecom providers are explicitly required to not retain this data under the regulations of the FCC program. However, the data was retained on Vcare's servers and posted to an open file-sharing area—and apparently indexed by Google's search engines in the process. Read 3 remaining paragraphs | Comments

Attackers who raided Google in 2010 to learn information about Chinese human rights activists were also trying to gain insight on which Chinese intelligence agents were on the radar of U.S. authorities, according to a report.

In the process of investigating and analyzing targeted attacks, we have seen that attacks which may not be related at first glance may in fact be linked; conversely attacks that may seem unrelated may turn out to be connected. Knowing which is which can provide useful information in determining how to respond to an attack. Why Are Separate Attacks “Related”? Before a cybercriminal or threat actor can launch an attack, many things have to be prepared in advance. The list of recipients have to be compiled, command-and-control (C&C) servers brought online, malware payloads chosen, etcetera. Ideally, attackers would use separate ones, but that isn’t the case: they are just as prone to reuse items or tactics that have worked before. Knowing these similarities between attacks can help determine what is an appropriate response. There are many ways that seemingly independent attacks can be correlated, but here are some of the most common ones: Same IP address sends different email messages Same email address sends different messages The same malware is attached to different messages Multiple (similar) backdoors use the same C&C server Different backdoor types use the same C&C server Multiple domains registered using the same email address Similarities in the way command-and-control network traffic is organized How can this information be used? Typically, organizations face two kinds of threats: highly sophisticated attacks that target them specifically, or more “random” attacks that are aimed at wider audiences. It can be difficult to tell just by examining the specifics of a particular attack which it is, but examination of the similarities above – using additional information provided by the Smart Protection Network – may be useful. It’s best to illustrate this with a hypothetical example. A company received an apparently targeted email that contained a malicious attachment. The malware installed tries to contact an external C&C server for instructions using HTTP. It would appear, at first, that this was a sophisticated targeted attack. However, more in-depth analysis would reveal that the malware only accessed two files on the C&C server: /kc1/data.bin and /kc1/gate.php. Accessing two files located in the same directory with the .BIN and .PHP extensions is common behavior by ZeuS/ZBOT variants. In addition, the domain of the C&C server was registered using an email address that was also used to register another domain on the well-known ZeuS Tracker blacklist. All this strongly suggests that it was not a sophisticated attack, but instead a more ordinary ZeuS/ZBOT infection. This can still pose a threat, but it’s a different nature compared to a sophisticated attack. This information can also be used to gauge the seriousness of an attack. For example, in October, we found a new Poison Ivy variant (BKDR_POISON.AB) had infected 15 different machines, belonging both to individuals and various organizations. What we also found was that there had been a similar attack earlier in the year which distributed a very similar Poison Ivy variant (BKDR_POISON.BJX). Similarities included the malware’s mutexes and the emails used to spread the attack. From there, one can conclude that both attacks were not meant to directly target anyone, but more to gather information across a wide number of possible targets that could be used for more direct attacks at a later time. The links between attacks can also be used to discover other potential attacks as well. For example, examining the email and IP addresses linked to domains used as C&C servers in a current attack can lead to other domains. The added information can be used as indicators for potential attacks that may not have been detected at the time. Conclusion Gathering information about the connections between attacks can reveal much about the attacks in the first place. Organizations that use this kind of threat intelligence can use it

The new legislation would amend the definition of "personal information" under the state's breach notification law.

The Internet has turned into a massive surveillance tool. We're constantly monitored on the Internet by hundreds of companies -- both familiar and unfamiliar. Everything we do there is recorded, collected, and collated -- sometimes by corporations wanting to sell us stuff and sometimes by governments wanting to keep an eye on us. Ephemeral conversation is over. Wholesale surveillance is...

The President Barack Obama administration went on record four years ago supporting a proposed international treaty to make books more accessible to the blind across the globe. Fast forward to today. As world leaders are readying to congregate in Morocco ...

Last month my blog post discussed Microsoft’s perspective on building a Cybersecurity Framework for critical infrastructure, which is part of President Obama’s Executive Order on cybersecurity. As a next step in the process of implementing the Executive Order, the Commerce Department recently requested comments regarding incentives to encourage critical infrastructure entities and others to adopt improved cybersecurity practices. These incentives would be aimed at encouraging participation in a new voluntary program (referred to as the Voluntary Program below) to support the adoption by owners and operators of critical infrastructure and other interested entities of the Cybersecurity Framework being developed by the National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST). Last week, Microsoft submitted comments to the Commerce Department about these incentives. Before discussing Microsoft’s comments, it is important to acknowledge that the Commerce Department has led an ongoing public discussion about how to incent broader adoption of cybersecurity practices, reaching back to Commerce’s Green Paper on Cybersecurity, Innovation, and the Internet Economy and our comments both prior and subsequent to the Green Paper. We appreciate the Commerce Department’s consistent focus on the important challenge of creating incentives to increase cybersecurity. Read more...(read more)