I have mentioned it before, Exotic Liability is an awesome podcast, so if you havent checked it out do so, but for your listening pleasure here are some sound clips.
Promo Clip #1
________________________________
Promo Clip #2
________________________________
Promo Clip #3
For various reasons milw0rm has not been as active as it once was, these guys are going to be picking up where milw0rm left off.
I dont think its any surprise, that people who are big fans of gaming use a PC, and the creative fashionable people of the world prefer to use a Mac.
Well now its official, trying to play games on your Mac, will result in data loss 🙂 Well thats the case with the OSX.Loosemaque virus in the Lose Lose Game.
Symantec have come across a creatively crafted space invaders type of game, that when you play it your actually deleting various files from your home directory, and it doesn’t even try and hide that fact. This is certainly interesting to find, and interesting that Symantec have classified it. From my quick research it looks like this popped up towards the end of September, and was featured on the Wired site to name a few.
I hadn’t heard about it before, so assume some of you guys haven’t also.
Here is a video showing the game in action:
If you want to try this out in your testing environment, the download is here. Obviously I am not responsible for your issues or data loss.
eurotrash security podcast
Hopefully you have heard about the new Eurotrash Security Podcast, but if not you have now 🙂
This is a new security podcast, covering European based security news and information. There are many great security podcasts out there, but many are US focus, this is where this podcast plans to be different. Obviously I am biased, as I am one of the hosts, along with Craig Balding, Chris John Riley and Wim Remes.
So what are you waiting for, check out the site and download the podcast NOW.
I think most people are becoming more and more familiar with the so called “Rogue Security Software” , if not an good example that has been popular this year was the AV program AntivirusXP. A user will download a product like this looking for some free AntiVirus software, or perhaps via a popup telling the user they have an infection. This software then gets on the machine and claims your machine is in really bad shape, but for a few quid all can be put right.
Needless to say, apparently the developers of this type of software are duping a fair amount of users into coughing up some cash, and making potentially some serious money. I personally have not had any time to do some serious investigation into this, but I was recently given a copy of Symantec’s research into Rogue Security Software, good timing huh 🙂
In total, Symantec has detected over 250 distinct rogue security software programs.   During the period
of this report, from July 1, 2008, to June 30, 2009, Symantec received reports of 43 million rogue security
software installation attempts from those 250 distinct samples. Of the top 50 most reported rogue
security software programs that were analyzed for this report, 38 of the programs were detected prior to
July 1, 2008. The continued prevalence of these programs emphasizes the ongoing threat they pose to
potential victims despite efforts to shut them down and raise public awareness.
I found this report really interesting, some of the findings I wouldn’t say are surprising to me, but it really does confirm that the general users still has a long way to go in even basic security education.
Some of the highlights for me that I thought was interesting, is just how many installation attempts were detected, I mean 43 million isn’t a small number by any standards, and then when you look at the possible payout per installation you can see why this is a worthwhile exercise to these guys. They obviously also spend a lot of time and effort to ensure that their products are highly ranked in search engines to further guarantee a successful hit, if only I could work out such good SEO 🙂
Symantec have also come up with some interesting stats on the possible financial impact to victims of this software, ranging from $30 – $100. I guess these depends on how badly there system was supposedly infected. As usual the US and UK were most impacted (we don’t do to bad for a small island do we), but its interesting to read affiliate networks have been setup to sell this stuff on. I guess it makes sense, I wonder how many of the affiliate networks are non voluntary.
I recommend you spare the few mins to have a read of this 14 page report, and perhaps share it with those you know who have fallen victim to this (I know a few who have more than once:( ).
If you would like to take a read of this report, you can down it here in pdf.
So if for some reason you are naive enough to think that your mindless twittering is somehow private, this should really make you think again.
It has been recently announced that both Microsoft’s Bing and Google search engines will now be featuring tweets in its search results, with Bing also having something going on with Facebook.
From the Google blog:
“Given this new type of information and its value to search, we are very excited to announce that we have reached an agreement with Twitter to include their updates in our search results. We believe that our search results and user experience will greatly benefit from the inclusion of this up-to-the-minute data, and we look forward to having a product that showcases how tweets can make search better in the coming months. That way, the next time you search for something that can be aided by a real-time observation, say, snow conditions at your favorite ski resort, you’ll find tweets from other users who are there and sharing the latest and greatest information.â€
So what does this mean to you? Well it means every time your tweet to the world you have had a bathroom break, or that your going on holiday, or your not at home, or your goldfish has died, the whole world will see this in their search results in Google and Bing.
Something to be mindful of perhaps?? Remember, there is no privacy on the Interwebs.