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ZDNet Author Biography: Dancho Danchev is an independent security consultant and cyber threats analyst, with extensive experience in open source intelligence gathering, malware and E-crime incident response. Dancho is also involved in business development, marketing research and competitive intelligence as an independent contractor. He's been an active security blogger since 2007, and maintains...; more about Dancho Danchev »

ZDNet Resources

EyeWonder malware incident affects popular web sites: During the last couple of hours, visitors of popular and high trafficked web sites such as CNN, BBC, Washington Post, Gamespot, WorldOfWarcraft, Mashable, Chow.com, ITpro.co.uk, AndroidCommunity; Engadget and Chip.de, started reporting that parts of the web sites are unreachable due to malware warnings appearing through the EyeWonder interactive digital advertising...; Tags: Web, EyeWonder, Malware, Web Site, Spyware, Adware & Malware, Cyberthreats, Viruses And Worms, Security, Dancho Danchev; Blog posts 2009-07-03
Manchester City Council pays $2.4m in Conficker clean up costs: How severe can the impact of the Conficker worm be on a single city council that has apparently not implemented basic security solutions in place? Pretty severe according to a recently released a report entitled "Service interruption resulting from ICT disruption in February 2009" which details the...; Tags: Infection, Patch Management, Worm, Conficker, Cyberthreats, Security, Patches, Viruses And Worms, Dancho Danchev; Blog posts 2009-07-02
Michael Jackson's death themed malware campaigns spreading: The sudden death of Michael Jackson quickly opened a window of opportunity for cybercriminals to capitalize on. With a malicious spam campaign, blackhat SEO search results poisoning which is serving scareware within the first 100 search results for Michael Jackson's death, and an opportunistic participant in Zango...; Tags: Malware, Social Engineering, Spam, Michael Jackson, Malware Campaign, Cyberthreats, Spyware, Adware & Malware, E-mail, Viruses And Worms, Security, Online Communications, Dancho Danchev; Blog posts 2009-06-26
Secunia: Average insecure program per PC rate remains high: With the time frame for an exploit to become an inseparable part of a web malware exploitation kit shrinking, and with the average Internet user's over-confidence in an antivirus scanner's ability to detect and block exploits (Secunia: popular security suites failing to block exploits) it shouldn't come as a surprise...; Tags: PC, Secunia, Desktops, Viruses And Worms, Security, Hardware, Dancho Danchev; Blog posts 2009-06-25
Remote code execution exploit for Green Dam in the wild: The recently exposed as vulnerable to trivial remotely exploitable flaws Chinese censorware Green Dam, has silently patched the security flaws (China confirms security flaws in Green Dam, rushes to release a patch) outlined in the original analysis detailing the vulnerabilities. However, not only is the latest Green...; Tags: Web, Flaw, Buffer, Web Site, Channel Management, Web Site Development, Security, Viruses And Worms, Marketing, Internet, Dancho Danchev; Blog posts 2009-06-24

Fake Microsoft patches themed malware campaigns spreading: Researchers from Computer Associates (NASDAQ:CA) and Sophos are reporting on three currently active malware campaigns using fake Microsoft patch themes as a social engineering tactic to spread over email. The first one is spreading as an "Important Windows XP/Vista Security Update" and is offering a bogus Conficker...; Tags: Patch Management, Malware, Social Engineering, Microsoft Corp., Malware Campaign, Spyware, Adware & Malware, Cyberthreats, Microsoft Outlook, Viruses And Worms, Security, Microsoft Office, Office Suites, Software, Dancho Danchev; Blog posts 2009-06-18
Iranian opposition launches organized cyber attack against pro-Ahmadinejad sites: Approximately 24 hours ago, the Iranian opposition coordinated an ongoing cyber attack that has successfully managed to disrupt access to major pro-Ahmadinejad Iranian web sites, including the President's homepage which continues returning a "The maximum number of userÃ‚Â reached, Server is too busy, please try again later..." message. ...; Tags: Denial Of Service, Web, Server, Web Site, Site, Cyberattack, Distributed Denial Of Service, Tool, Iran, Attack, Presstv.ir, SupportIran.php, Web Site Development, Security, Internet, Dancho Danchev; Blog posts 2009-06-15
China confirms security flaws in Green Dam, rushes to release a patch: China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology has instructed the developers of the Green Dam censorware, to briefly release a patch in regard to last week's published analysis detailing the possibility of remotely exploitable vulnerabilities within the software. Jinhui Computer System Engineering Co, developer of Green Dam,...; Tags: Software, China, Tools & Techniques, Security, Management, Dancho Danchev; Blog posts 2009-06-15
Researchers demo wireless keyboard sniffer for Microsoft 27Mhz keyboards: Researchers from Remote-Exploit.org, the home of the BackTrack pen-testing Linux distribution, have recently released an open source wireless keyboard sniffer Keykeriki, capable of sniffing and decoding keystrokes of Microsoft 27Mhz based keyboards through on-the-fly deciphering of XOR based encryption. Their wartyping -- decoding signals from wireless keyboards...; Tags: Wireless Keyboard, Microsoft Corp., Wireless, Keyboards, Hardware, Peripherals, Dancho Danchev; Blog posts 2009-06-12
Mac OS X malware posing as fake video codec discovered: Researchers from ParetoLogic are reporting on a newly discovered Mac OS X malware variant posing as fake video ActiveX object found at a bogus Macintosh PortTube site. The use of fake video codecs is a social engineering tactic exclusively used by malware targeting Windows, and seeing it...; Tags: Video Codec, Apple Macintosh, Malware, Social Engineering, Video, Spyware, Adware & Malware, Cyberthreats, Apple Mac OS X, Apple Mac OS, Viruses And Worms, Security, Operating Systems, Software, Dancho Danchev; Blog posts 2009-06-11
Overall spam volume unaffected by 3FN/Pricewert's ISP shutdown: Following last week's shutdown of 3FN/Pricewert's operations by the FTC, wishful thinkers expected a major decline in the overall spam volume, with botnet masters once again caught off guard just like it happened in November, 2008 with McColo's shutdown. However, according to numerous vendors that doesn't seem...; Tags: Internet Service Provider, Malware, FTC, Spam Volume, 3FN/Pricewert, Marshal8e6, Rustock, Pricewert, Internet Service Providers (ISPs), Cyberthreats, Spyware, Adware & Malware, Business Security, Viruses And Worms, Security, Internet, Business Operations, Dancho Danchev; Blog posts 2009-06-10
Cybercriminals hijack Twitter trending topics to serve malware: A currently ongoing malware serving campaign across Twitter, is continuing to abuse the momentum offered by Twitter's trending topics in order to trick users into visiting bogus exclusive video sites and infect them with malware. The campaign, spreading since last week, is relying on a growing number...; Tags: Malware, Video, Twitter, Tweet, Corporate Communications, Spyware, Adware & Malware, Cyberthreats, Viruses And Worms, Marketing, Security, Dancho Danchev; Blog posts 2009-06-09
Malware poses as fake Yellowsn0w iPhone unlocker: Researchers from Malware-database.net are reporting on a newly discovered malware posing as a bogus iPhone unlocker, promising a working Firmware 2.2.1 yellowsn0w exploit as a social engineering tactic. The now down -- Wordpress blog yellowsn0w221.wordpress.com was promoting Yellowsn0w-iPhone-Unlock-3G-2-2-1-final.exe at the following IP 74.52.118.244 which is now returning...; Tags: Apple iPhone, Malware, Firmware, Spyware, Adware & Malware, Cyberthreats, Viruses And Worms, Security, Dancho Danchev; Blog posts 2009-06-08
Microsoft study debunks profitability of the underground economy: Cybercrime, what cybercrime and millions of dollars in profits?! A newly released paper presented by Cormac Herley and Dinei Florencio at this year'sÃ‚Â Workshop on the Economics of Information Security 2009 entitled "Nobody Sells Gold for the Price of Silver: Dishonesty, Uncertainty and the Underground Economy" debunks...; Tags: Web, Credit Card, Seller, Malware, Microsoft Corp., Cybercriminal, Economy, Cybercrime-as-a-Service, Spyware, Adware & Malware, Cyberthreats, Sales Channel, Viruses And Worms, Financial Services, Security, Sales, Dancho Danchev; Blog posts 2009-06-05
419 scammers using NYTimes.com 'email this feature': What do Burkina Faso and the New York Times have in common? As of recently, a peak of 419 scams promising you the Moon and asking you for advance-fees via emails sent through the NYTimes.com's 'email this feature' in order to successfully bypass anti-spam filters. The tactic...; Tags: New York Times Co., E-mail, Online Communications, Dancho Danchev; Blog posts 2009-06-03
Email service provider: 'Hack into our CEO's email, win $10k': A newly launched startup called StrongWebMail is aiming to add a new layer of secure authentication for its customers - phone verification prior to logging in and alert services for potential email compromises. The company is in fact so confident in its approach that it's currently offering...; Tags: Phone, Password, Spamming, Feature, Computer, CEO, Dancho, E-mail, Telecom & Utilities, Online Communications, Dancho Danchev; Blog posts 2009-06-02
The Web's most dangerous keywords to search for: Which is the most dangerous keyword to search for using public search engines these days? It's "screensavers" with a maximum risk of 59.1 percent, according to McAfee's recently released report "The Web's Most Dangerous Search Terms". Upon searching for 2,658 unique popular keywords and phrases across 413,368...; Tags: Search Engine Optimization, Web, Cybercriminal, Keyword, Search, Marketing Research, Marketing, Dancho Danchev; Blog posts 2009-05-27
Inside the botnets that never make the news - a gallery: If you ever wanted to take an inside view of targeted-botnets primarily run by novice cybercriminals sometimes utilizing outdated, but very effective methods - this ZDNet photo gallery is for you. It offers an inside view of those "beneath the radar" botnets that never make the news....; Tags: Spamming, Cybercriminal, Spam, Security, Spam And Phishing, Dancho Danchev; Blog posts 2009-05-20
Inside the botnets that never make the news: This gallery offers an inside view of those "beneath the radar" botnets that never make the news. The images have been collected throughout the past year by using open source intelligence, namely, by either joining the command and control IRC channel upon infection, or monitoring ongoing communications between the botnet...; Tags: Internet Relay Chat (IRC), Aerospace & Defense, Open Source, Internet, Manufacturing, Security, Botnets, Malware, Targeted Attacks, Screenshots, Dancho Danchev; Image galleries 2009-05-20
D-Link router's CAPTCHA flawed, WPA passphrase retrieved: It took only a week for the researchers at SourceSec to find a flaw in the CAPTCHA implementation of D-Link's recently introduced CAPTCHA in its routers, originally aimed to prevent DNS changing malware from automatically achieving its objective. According to SourceSec, the flawed...; Tags: WPA, D-Link Systems, CAPTCHA, Passphrase, Router, Malware, Routers & Switches, Spyware, Adware & Malware, Cyberthreats, Network Technology, Networking, Security, Dancho Danchev; Blog posts 2009-05-19