Latest news for PandaLabs

Beware of Valentine's day infections, warns PandaLabs

(09/02/2012)

Once again, this year it will be no surprise to see numerous emails in circulation with links for downloading romantic greeting cards, videos, gift ideas, or Facebook and Twitter messages related to Valentine’s Day. Malware that uses events like Valentine’s Day, Christmas or Halloween as a lure to trick users and infect computers is now a well-established feature of the IT security calendar. Storm Worm Social engineering is cyber-crooks’... [more]

Cyber-criminals are using social engineering to trick victims and infect them with malware

(18/02/2011)

In the past weeks, new malicious codes that use Facebook to ensnare victims have been wreaking havoc. The recent trend for developing computer threats designed to spread by exploiting the most popular social media continues to gather pace. One of these, Asprox.N, is a Trojan that reaches potential victims via email. It deceives users by telling them that their Facebook account is being used to distribute spam and that, for their security, the... [more]

The cyber-crime black market has diversified its business model and now sells a much broader range of hacked confidential information

(21/01/2011)

The cyber-crime black market, which has traditionally centered on distributing bank and credit card details stolen from users around the world, diversified its business model in 2010, and now sells a much broader range of hacked confidential information including bank credentials, log-ins, passwords, fake credit cards and more. PandaLabs, Panda Security’s anti-malware laboratory, has released an investigative report on the current cyber-crime... [more]

2011 security trends, hacktivism and cyber-war

(14/12/2010)

According to PandaLabs, hacktivism and cyber-war; more profit-oriented malware, social media, social engineering and malicious codes with the ability to adapt to avoid detection will be the main protagonists in 2011. There will also be an increase in the threats to Mac users, new efforts to attack 64-bit systems and new zero-day exploits but few radical innovations in cyber-crime. Luis Corrons, Technical Director of PandaLabs explains: “Once a... [more]

The proliferation of fake antiviruses

(18/11/2010)

Fake antiviruses, also known as rogueware, are programs that enter user computers and warn of massive infections. Then, they ‘invite’ users to buy a solution to their problem. However, once users have given away their credit card data and money, they are left with a useless solution for a non-existent problem. Even though this is a relatively recent phenomenon (fake antiviruses appeared some three years ago), 11.6% of all computer threats gath... [more]

Most of new threats are Trojans, most of them banker Trojans

(04/10/2010)

PandaLabs, Panda Security’s anti-malware laboratory, has published its quarterly report on global virus activity. This third quarter has once again seen Trojans in the spotlight, as 55% of all new threats created were in this category. Infection via email, traditionally the most popular vector for spreading malware, has declined in favour of more modern methods: use of social media, such as the clickjacking attacks using the Facebook “Like” bu... [more]

How bots transparently control computers

(26/02/2010)

Paul gets home and sits in front of his computer, as he does most days. He connects to the Internet, updates his Facebook profile and starts chatting with friends. What he doesn’t know is that he’s not alone; his computer is being controlled by a Russian mafia. This is because his computer is infected and controlled by a bot. Generally speaking, bots (from the word robot) are small programs that contain instructions allowing them to act indepe... [more]

Don't fall victim to Valentine malware

(12/02/2010)

Valentine’s Day is coming up and hackers are preparing. This year, hackers will likely concoct a special Valentine potion that uses the promise of being secretly admired combined with our prevailing addiction to sharing personal information on social networks like Facebook. How will it work? First, hackers easily get a complete list of friends for many users. Then, hackers send to that certain someone a Valentine messages seemingly coming from... [more]

 

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