Amazon and Greeting cards to distribute malware

We want to inform you of two different email messages we’ve been receiving lately in the lab in order to distribute malware designed to steal information.

One of them seems to have been sent by Amazon and informs you that they have received your payment and your order has been already sent. In order to check your tracking number, have a look at the attached document.

These messages have the following characteristics:

* Subject:
Amazon Shop! Your order has been paid! Parcel NR.XXXX (XXXX are random digits)

* Message:
The content of the message is always the same, except for the item that has been ordered. We’ve detected emails using the following gadgets among many others: Sony VAIO VGC-JS230J, Apple iPhone 3G and Nokia E65.

The following is an example:
Hi! Thank you for shopping at Amazon.com We have successfully received your payment. Your order has been shipped to your billing address. You have ordered ” Sony VAIO VGC-JS230J “ You can find your tracking number in attached to the e-mail document. Print the postal label to get your package. We hope you enjoy your order! Amazon.com

* Attachment: Postal_package_NRXXX.zip (XXX stands for random digits)

The attached file contains a copy of the malware, which has been detected as Sinowal.WVI.

For full atricle see here > http://bit.ly/cIlG8N

Undead botnets blamed for big rise in email malware

Malicious spam volumes increased dramatically in the back half of 2009, reaching three billion messages per day, compared to 600 million messages per day in the first half of 2009. But this is still a tiny fraction of the estimated global spam volume, thought to be about 200 billion messages per day.

A new report by net security firm M86 Security points the finger of blame for the torrent of malware, phishing and other scams (collectively defined as malicious spam) and junk mail more generally towards botnet networks of compromised machines. It reckons five botnets were responsible for 78 per cent of the malicious spam it fought in the second half of 2009.

Full article here - http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/02/17/spam_botnet_trends/

How to help prevent infections

There are various methods and approaches to keeping your system secure. First of all, ensure that you keep windows updated, patches and updates are released to to fill vunerabilites that are found in your system to stop them being exploited by malicious means.

For full article visit > http://www.thevirusman.com/stayingsecure.php

Hackers update rootkit causing Windows blue screens

Hackers behind the rootkit responsible for crippling Windows machines after users installed a Microsoft security patch have updated their malware so that it no longer crashes systems, researchers confirmed today.

The rootkit, known by a variety of names -- including TDSS, Tidserv and TDL3 -- was blamed by Microsoft last Friday for causing Windows XP PCs to crash after users applied the MS10-015 security update, one of 13 Microsoft issued a week ago.

For full article see > http://bit.ly/dkaWnD

Brought to you courtesy of www.thevirusman.com

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The Virus Man

Welcome to the blog spot for The Virus Man. Helping you stay secure online. Here you will find security news articles from various sources that I have posted in the publics interest. You can find my homepage at www.thevirusman.com