Category Archives: Keyloggers

Software designed to record the keystrokes (and also, more recently, images of on-screen activity). Keyloggers frequently operate surreptitiously, to the detriment of the person whose computer is being monitored, but can also be used ‘in the open’ for legitimate business purposes, such as for monitoring the efficiency of data entry clerks.

Spamvertised ‘Your accountant license can be revoked’ emails lead to client-side exploits and malware

March 9, 2012 – 12:20 pm

By Dancho Danchev Cybercriminals are currently spamvertising a malicious email campaign that’s designed to trick you into clicking on a bogus complaint.pdf link which ultimately leads to client-side exploits and malware. The campaign is launched by the same gang that launched the “Spamvertised ‘Termination of your CPA license’ ” malicious campaign last month. More details:

By ddanchev | Also posted in Downloaders, Exploits, malware, social engineering, spam, Threat Research, Trojans | Comments (3)

A peek inside the Darkness (Optima) DDoS Bot

March 8, 2012 – 12:09 pm

By Dancho Danchev With politically motivated DDoS (distributed denial of service attack) attacks proliferating along with the overall increase in the supply of managed “DDoS for hire” services, it’s time to get back the basics, and find out just what makes an average DDoS bot used by cybercriminals successful. Continuing the “A peek inside…” series, in this [...]

By ddanchev | Also posted in Downloaders, malware, Threat Research, Trojans | Comments (2)

BlackHole exploit kits gets updated with new features

February 29, 2012 – 1:57 pm

By Dancho Danchev According to independent sources, the author of the most popular web malware exploitation kit currently dominating the threat landscape, has recently issued yet another update to the latest version of the kit v1.2.2. More details:

By ddanchev | Also posted in Botnet activity, Downloaders, Exploits, malware, rootkit, Threat Research, Trojans | Comments (1)

A peek inside the Elite Malware Loader

February 29, 2012 – 1:40 pm

By Dancho Danchev Just like today’s modern economy, in the cybercrime ecosystem supply, too, meets demand on a regular basis. With malware coding for hire propositions increasing thanks to the expanding pool of talented programmers looking for ways to enter the cybercrime ecosystem, it shouldn’t be surprising that  cybercriminals are constantly releasing new malware loaders, [...]

By ddanchev | Also posted in Downloaders, malware, rootkit, Threat Research, Trojans | Leave a Comment

A peek inside the Ann Malware Loader

February 25, 2012 – 2:32 pm

By Dancho Danchev The ever-adapting cybercrime ecosystem is constantly producing new underground releases in the form of malware loaders, remote access trojans (RATs), malware cryptors, Web, IRC and P2P based command and control interfaces, all with the clear objective  to undermine current security solutions. Continuing the “A peek inside…” series, in this post I will [...]

By ddanchev | Also posted in Downloaders, malware, Threat Research | Leave a Comment

Report: 3,325% increase in malware targeting the Android OS

February 17, 2012 – 11:36 am

By Dancho Danchev Which is the most targeted mobile operating system? According to the recently released 2011 Mobile Threats Report from our partners at Juniper Networks, that’s the Android OS. Key summary points from the report:

By ddanchev | Also posted in Android, malware, Passwords, social engineering | Comments (5)

Researchers intercept two client-side exploits serving malware campaigns

February 8, 2012 – 4:52 pm

By Dancho Danchev Security researchers from Webroot have intercepted two currently live client-side exploits serving malware campaigns that have already managed to infect over 20,000 PCs across the globe, primarily in the United States. Based upon detailed analysis, it can be concluded that both campaigns are launched by the same cybercriminal. More details:

By ddanchev | Also posted in Downloaders, Firefox, Google Chrome, Internet Explorer, malware, Passwords, Threat Research, Trojans | Comments (8)

Researchers spot Citadel, a ZeuS crimeware variant

February 8, 2012 – 1:35 pm

By Dancho Danchev Security researchers from “Tracking Cyber Crime” have spotted a new ZeuS crimeware variant, that’s based on the leaked ZeuS source code from last year. Dubbed Citadel, the crimeware is positioned as a universal spyware system, whose modular nature allows cybercriminals to offer flexibly priced value-added services such as managed malware crypting, and [...]

By ddanchev | Also posted in Downloaders, malware, Passwords, rootkit, Threat Research, Trojans | Leave a Comment

A peek inside the Smoke Malware Loader

February 3, 2012 – 5:07 pm

By Dancho Danchev The competitive arms race between security vendors and malicious cybercriminals constantly produces new defensive mechanisms, next to new attack platforms and malicious tools aiming to efficiently exploit and infect as many people as possible. Continuing the “A peek inside…” series, in this post I will profile yet another malware loader. This time it’s [...]

By ddanchev | Also posted in Downloaders, malware, Passwords, Threat Research, Trojans | Comments (1)

Cybercriminals generate malicious Java applets using DIY tools

January 30, 2012 – 3:22 pm

By Dancho Danchev Who said there’s such a thing as a trusted Java applet? In situations where malicious attackers cannot directly exploit client-side vulnerabilities on the targeted host, they will turn to social engineering tricks, like legitimate-looking Java Applets, which will on the other hand silently download the malicious payload of the attacker, once the [...]

By ddanchev | Also posted in Backdoors, Downloaders, Firefox, Google Chrome, Internet Explorer, malware, social engineering, Stupid malware tricks, Threat Research, Trojans | Comments (1)
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