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It is just an excuse to harvest your phonenumber.

For what purpose?

To sell it to Rachel from Cardholder Services, I expect.

What organizations have 2FA that might do this? I'm not saying there aren't any, but I can't think of any.

I don't know where Rachel from Cardholder Services got my cell phone number, but she certainly got it from somewhere.

Basically, what you posted in this thread can be summarized "oh, just trust them with the information, they won't misuse it. And anyway, I can't think of how I would misuse it, so obviously some corporation couldn't think of a way either."

...All information about a consumer is also a liability. Lots of organizations haven't figured this out yet,

Right the first time: Lots of organizations haven't figured this out yet.

but I think pretty much all of them savvy enough to be implementing 2FA understand it.

The historical record does not back you up on this.

  https://www.comparitech.com/blog/information-security/biggest-data-breaches-in-history/

  http://www.informationisbeautiful.net/visualizations/worlds-biggest-data-breaches-hacks/

  https://www.csoonline.com/article/2130877/data-breach/the-16-biggest-data-breaches-of-the-21st-century.htm

  https://www.techworld.com/security/uks-most-infamous-data-breaches-3604586/

This article has brief descriptions of six secure browsers and a secure plug-in. The article is pretty recent (August 1, 2007). The browsers and plug-in are
Epic Privacy Browser
Comodo Dragon/Ice Dragon
Brave
Tor
Dooble
HTTPS Everywhere (plug-in)
Yandex Browser

How many of these have been fixed via Play or otherwise for all Android versions still in use? http://www.techworld.com/secur...

You get stability, ease of use, timely updates, excellent security,

You can't be serious? What are these $300 android phones with "ease of use" (ie non brain dead skins), "timely updates" that don't take 6 months to make it through the carrier, if ever (at least in the US) and "excellent security" ? you have to be kidding me. FWIW I'm sitting here with an iPhone SE and an LG Nexus, so I'm far from a fanboy, but let's be honest with ourselves here. My LG is a cheap backup that lets me play with Android. I didn't buy it because it runs great after a couple years or has "excellent security".

Doesn't this seem the better option if you're able to get your mitts on it?

No Edge, Store/Apps, Cortana, and telemetry (even the extra bits) all stoppable. Essentially a clean desktop edition of Windows 10 that gets all major bug-fixes and security updates without all the extra cruft for a period of 3-5 years (depending on when they choose to integrate the current branch features and release the next LTSB).

Here's a couple links:

http://blogs.technet.com/b/ukt...
http://www.techworld.com/secur...

Now, I've looked around online and people seem to proclaim the end of the world if you would like to use this as a desktop OS: 'Oh you can disable all of that crap yourself and spend hours gutting and tweaking it to suit your needs. LTSB is meant for ATMs and nuclear subs and you won't get any of the new features, why wouldn't you want them? Blah blah blah'... Frankly in techminded circles that sort of reasoning flabbergasts me, it's spouting off of ideology on no basis of reality. (Though you see the same end-of-the-worlders rear their head when you talk about the pros/cons of disabling UAC.)

If you can legally acquire it, I'm really not seeing the downsides as you get many of the little quality of life updates from Win 8/8.1/10 (task manager, DX12, file copy dialogue) without many of the obnoxious ones (lockscreen ads, Candy Crush, 'helpful suggestions'). Not to mention nothing like the 'fall update fiasco' bulldozing your settings whenever MS pleases by providing and presenting an OS in-place upgrade as a normal Windows update.

New Malware Enlists Linux-Based Security Cameras For DDoS Botnet http://slashdot.org/submission...

XOR DDoS botnet launching attacks from compromised Linux machines http://www.net-security.org/se...

New Linux rootkit leverages GPUs for stealth http://www.itworld.com/article...

Unnoticed For Years, Malware Turned Linux Servers Into Spamming Machines http://linux.slashdot.org/stor...

New Linux Rootkit Emerges http://linux.slashdot.org/stor...

Linux servers turned into bots by IPTables http://news.techworld.com/secu...

---

* Want more? "Ask & YE SHALL RECEIVE"... & I've got truckloads of these as "evidences thereof".

APK

P.S.=> Top that off w/ what gaygirlie noted - routers using *NIX in them get suckered too... it's possible, on EVERYTHING - Windows & MS have 1 THING GOING FOR THEM - decades of experience in it vs. other OS'...

E.G. - Witness ANDROID (yes, it's a Linux variant using a Linux core & a STUPID java variant front-end largely), & for years around here the "std. FUD mantra" was "Linux = invulnerable" & Apple tried it too (We don't get viruses), well, time tells ANOTHER story:

You get used more? YOU GET TAKEN ADVANTAGE OF MORE (you now represent sufficient "ROI" to make the code to do it once you get more users)... apk

But google said that that it "....replicates data three times for redundancy. It can afford to be cavalier about hardware failures. So a drive fails. Log it, switch queries on that data to a replica and move on. It's all pretty instant".

Google doesn't make money processing your emails for marketing information?

how to write a Linux virus in 5 easy steps using the exact same tricks used to infect Windows. Say that is only hypothetical? How about some real world pwning like kernel.org and its not a fluke by any means. Oh and what happens when the "secure" Linux kernel gets used by a target worth hitting? A million plus infected systems that is what.

Linux "security" is security by obscurity, simple as that. The "many eyes" myth was proven false by Heartbleed which sat there for fricking years without being caught, the ONLY advantage having the source gets you is the ability to keep old versions alive after the devs move on....that's it,that's all. Hell by the time one was to do even a piss poor code audit of even a tenth of a single distro release it would have been abandoned for 5+ NEW releases that your audit wouldn't cover, see how Ubuntu is on track to have 20 mainstream releases in the same support window as Win 7 for example.

Source code isn't magic and considering how many thousands of people work on the code that goes into a single distro sticking a state actor in the mix would be trivial if the state desired it.

Now that's because of Trusted Platform Module ; in order to support this DRM feature , each new windows PC has a chip on it that can override part of the OS. Now the German government thinks that this DRM features is also a Troyan horse that allows some agencies unlimited access to the PC ; now the Chinese government thinks the same. Too bad for Microsoft. Also see this article here for more info: http://news.techworld.com/secu...

Are Linux users? After all they are even more trivial to infect than Windows and Android, so beloved and claimed by the Linux community hit the 1 million infected mark last year, a full 9 years earlier than it took Windows to reach the same number BTW, so are they gonna pay or bugger off? Excuse me "go write a Bash script" would be the more apropos line.

Don't mistake security by obscurity for actual security as they are VERY different. The *BSDs with the constant code audits and insane amount of hoops required to put anything in mainline? That is REAL security, whereas with Linux...well let me put it THIS way, you have over 700 projects in your average distro which 1.- they never talk to each other, 2.- they are each "doing their own thing" without regard to what the others are doing, and 3.- they have ZERO care for anybody's project but their own, so if Torvalds futzes with the kernel and breaks the wireless subsystem? Too bad so sad.

The only reason Linux lasted as long as it did was less than 1% on the desktop. and don't waste your breath trotting out the "Linux runs on servers" TMRepo meme, as servers are stripped to the bone, running an OS that may as well be embedded for how little it has, and are managed by guys that spent many years studying to learn how to run servers securely. you give those same Linux admins a Windows server and they'll be just as secure, you can even have a headless server with only what you require installed thanks to WinServer Core.

So before you throw stones next time you might want to look at the glass house you are living in bud.

Flag on the field, 15 yard penalty for "magical thinking".

Would you too like to know how to write a Linux virus in 5 easy steps icebike? Its trivial and uses the exact. same. methods. that the Windows viruses use, in fact it would be quite trivial to make them cross platform! Oh but "that wouldn't work IRL" you say? Might want to tell that to the owners of all these infected Android systems. BTW please note the date of the second article, last figures I saw now had the number of infected over the million and a half mark but since I couldn't find a reliable source for those figures and didn't want anyone saying I'm picking facts I went with the older article.

Go ahead and try the first article for yourself icebike, you ARE running Linux, correct? It has step by step instructions and works just like the "KDE Look" bug that spread through the KDE community did a couple years ago. When you do and see that they infect the system just fine maybe then you'll accept that Linux security is security by obscurity and realize these companies buy windows FOR A REASON and its because you have one company to call that is in charge of the whole stack. Oh and don't bring up servers, those are stripped to the bone, have nothing running that is not absolutely required AND locked way the hell down. I can do the exact same with Windows embedded and NOT have to rewrite a couple hundred grand to a couple million in code to work on an OS that is unsupported unless I write big checks per unit to Red Hat.

Sorry icebike but no matter how you slice it? Your math don't work. if it did these banks would be happy to switch, think they have ANY loyalty to anybody but their own bottom lines? But just as al the retailers large and small refuse to carry your brand in house because they have found it wanting so too has the financial sector tried your OS and with the exception of a few server roles its been passed on.

Except with it stored unecrypted they don't NEED physical access, they merely need you to follow a few simple instructions and download their "free codec" or similar trick.

Linux fanboys can scream bloody murder and waste modpoints but that won't change reality and reality is its almost never the OS that is the weakest link, its PEBKAC. Hell look at Windows from Vista on up, you have the user running as a user and requiring elevation for anything more than trivial changes (sound familiar?) and it goes even one better than Linux by having the browser by default run with the lowest possible privileges, yet systems STILL get pwned, why? PEBKAC.

Linux users, like the Mac users before them got away with not having to worry about such things thanks to security by obscurity, but just as MacDefender signaled the end of that perk in OSX so too has the million Android infections signaled the end of SBO for Linux. I've seen Linux machines pwned in a week (look up the "KDE Look" bug for just one example) and I've seen Win2K boxes go from RTM to EOL without a single bug because at the end of the day its not the OS, although storing passwords in plain text is just stupid, but ultimately whether a system is secure or not comes down to whether the user has common sense and follows best practices.

Remember folks no matter how hard you work to foolproof a system the world will always come up with a bigger fool.

Sorry, gotta throw a flag, bullshit on the field. if anything Linux (which the community is quick to claim Android as their own) is MORE vulnerable than Windows as Android has reached over a million infections a full decade faster than Windows reached that milestone BTW, and unlike Windows which has several damned good sandboxing antivirus packages, including some really good free ones, Google has made sure that antivirus on android is useless as they have no way to uninstall or even stop a malicious app.

Of course the whole thing just proves what many of us has been saying for years, that Linux is just as easy to infect if not more so than Windows and OSX and that once Linux gained any popularity, so that it was no longer benefiting from security by obscurity that it would pay the price. Oh and before anybody chimes in with the totally pointless tidbit about Linux servers? You see those are actually administered by these things called...wait for it..."server admins" that have had years of education and experience before being let loose on those systems. Linux benefited from security by obscurity in the consumer space because so few actually used it in that arena, Google ended that with android.

So ironically the act that Windows has functional sandboxing antivirus may actually help to keep these android systems from getting infected, instead of the other way around.

installed KVM as phony IT guy, were arrested and here are their names

this is all the information the article provides. no details of any kind. no picture of the (hopefully stealthy) KVM, how they were caught or anything of any interest at all!

Here's the real scoop:

A man dressed as a "maintenance engineer" (IT guy) claimed to be sent by a some company working for the bank. Then he goes to the bank branch's main server and plugs an external KVM-over-IP box connected to an ethernet to wifi adapter or at least that was the plan. The plan was thwarted at the last minute... no info as to why/how but I'm betting that the server either didn't have a PS/2 port or didn't have VGA output not that it matters without a username and password to login.

A spokesman for Santander insisted that the bogus engineer had not managed to install the device and no customer money was ever at risk.

We are pleased that we have been able, through the robustness of our systems, to prevent the fraud and help the police gather the evidence they needed to make the arrests. Santander operates multiple levels of controls to protect customers' funds and this attack would not have been successful.

Hours after the bogus engineer attempted to fit the device to the computer server, officers from Scotland Yard swooped arresting 12 men on suspicion of conspiracy to steal. As for how they were caught, I think someone just realized there wasn't supposed to be an IT guy there and then the cops got called.

Uhhh...you wanna explain how a million infected devices is 0.1% Miss AC? because i REALLY want to hear the logic hoops you pull out of your behind to explain the evidence away, i REALLY do.

Like it or not Android, which every Linux advocate has claimed as their own from day one, proves beyond a reasonable doubt what so many of us have said for so long...OSes are some of the most complex code ever written and because man is fallible there IS bugs which WILL be exploited once a target becomes big enough which tada! Is EXACTLY what happened when Linux on mobile went mainstream with Android.

So welcome to the club, the coffee is in the back, ignore the guy rocking in the corner as that is Mac who felt like you he had magic armor and then he got a beatdown from macDefender and Guardian and is still traumatized. I don't know what they did to him but considering he's been like that for awhile and keeps muttering "You shore are purty"? Probably best not to ask.

You know why you hate TMRepo, which BTW you should be fucking ASHAMED of comparing a JOKE SITE to Stromfront you douchebag, but you know why you hate it? Because like all good jokes its FUNNY BECAUSE ITS TRUE.

I can answer ALL of your arguments with the top 20 TMRepos, you know why? Its the SAME FUCKING EXCUSES the FOSSies have been using for a fricking decade, that's why! How do you think TMRepo came to be? a guy got tired of hearing the same old FOSSie bullshit and decided to just start listing them and tada! TMRepo.

So go back to your circle of loon, go back to pretending that the OEMs haven't all walked away from your broken mess because they got tired of the broken shit which even ESR can't make work while claiming that android is Linux.

Know what the definition of insanity is? Doing the same thing over and over and expecting a different result and that is Linux in a nutshell which is why me and every other B&M retailer and OEM have run away screaming from your mess, why even Dell hides it on a back page and gives you multiple warning before they will even sell it to you and just FYI unlike the Windows versions NO SUPPORT because even they know that shit is gonna break. I mean for the love of God fricking God Windows 8, the most hated windows since MSBob, got more users by its second month than Linux has in its entire history, what more proof do you fucking need that your current bullshit direction ain't working?

BTW know why I can produce so many citations and all you can produce is insults? because just like TMRepo I've heard the same excuses from FOSSies for so damned long i know EXACTLY what to type into a search engine to cut through your lies, but you hang onto your bullshit but if you have the balls take the Hairyfeet challenge, I dare you, double dare you to film it and upload it, you'll find that even giving Linux just HALF the support cycle of Linux it WILL fail, know why? Because the "let the devs do it" driver horseshit is just that,total fucking horseshit and IT DOES NOT WORK, it will NEVER work, and THAT is why even the other free OSes refuse to use his fucked up driver model!

Does he get paid in cash or in Bing points? And do they get paid by the hour, by the post, is there a prime time that they get paid extra for? Meh I use Bing and all I get is Bing points but at least that gives me a small slice of the pie, the way i see it if these search engines are gonna make money datamining my searches the least they can do is give me a slice. Plus i like their animated search page and the image search is quite nice.

As for TFA...sigh, we already knew that android was gonna hit its one millionth infection by this summer so while the fact that somehow (wow does TFA suck when it comes to details) they bypassed the checks as the guy that gets called when the stuff breaks i can tell you...they honestly didn't need to bother, people will happily infect their phones and tablets without a thought in the world. I swear its the damnedest thing, its like the SECOND you put it on another medium? all the old rules no longer apply. I've seen email scams that haven't worked on PCs in years, lame "just download our player" scams which again haven't worked on PCs in years, its like the second the device is in a different form factor it ceases to become a "computer" and instead becomes "a magic screen which i push that does stuff" so for some damned reason all the rules they learned when running PCs just aren't even applied to the new medium.

And I'll get hate for saying it but truth is truth, and hopefully the huge number of Android infections will lay to rest the lie that "Oh this OS is different, it doesn't get bugs" bullshit. ALL OSES, be they Windows, Linux, or OSX are frankly some of the most complex software platforms EVER created by man, and since man is fallible there WILL be bugs and if there are enough users to make it worth the trouble it WILL be exploited.The reason Linux and OSX got away with so few bugs as long as it did was because they just weren't a juicy enough target, and before anybody screams "servers!" don't waste your breath, servers are highly stripped down,locked down, and controlled by VERY smart guys with a shitload of education. Servers are as different from a user oriented OS as a router is,other than the fact they both run on hardware they really don't have much in common.

But give it a few years and the users will begin to learn to show common sense with these mobile devices, the ones writing the OSes for these devices will learn to harden the shit out of them, then we'll see malware infections drop for awhile...until the next new thing comes out which users will treat like a magic box and we'll be back at square one all over again, sigh.

Opera is not the first nor the last victim of certificate theft. There is evidence that the use of digitally signed malware is increasing since the Stuxnet incident gave this attack vector worldwide exposure.

Both Kaspersky Lab and BitDefender have confirmed seeing a steady increase in the number of malware threats with digitally signed components during the last 24 months. Many use digital certificates bought with fake identities, but the use of stolen certificates is also common, Craiu and Botezatu said.

Also, unless I'm mistaken, revoking stolen certificates do not prevent malware signed with it from running. Most casual users I think tend to trust certificates (that is what it's for, after all, to certify that its from a trusted source). Not many will bother to check the authenticity of the certificate.

1. I heard Microsoft and Verisign revoked the stolen Realtek certificate, does it mean I’m safe now?

Due to the way certificates work, a revoked certificate doesn’t mean the malware will not run anymore. You will still get infected by Stuxnet and the driver will still load without any warning. The only effect of the revoke process is that the bad guys will not be able to sign any further malware with it.

It might be premature to talk about its impact being limited until the full scope of the intrusion and loss of data is made known, and the number of users affected by the intrusion (not disclosed so far).

I can 1 million Android malware infections by the end of this year and since Linux claim Android is Linux you have to claim the malware as well, if that isn't good enough here you go and its not a fluke by any means.

Anybody believes that "If I use X then I am immune" is employing "magical thinking" and is full of shit as ALL modern OSes are some of the most complex systems ever created and where there is complexity? There is vulnerability.

The simple fact is ALL OSes can get malware unless they are either so locked down on permissions that they are basically read only or are thin clients which are locked down at the server, but even the Linux community claims Android as Linux and its going to reach a million infections any day now so the argument over whether Linux malware is a threat? Pretty much over, that is what happens when somebody uses it for something popular, popular equals large target. Welcome to the club, the Mac guys that joined a couple of years back can show you the ropes, coffee and donuts are in the back.

As for this specific case? As somebody who works on systems 6 days a week? Yeah...smells like he has an infection. Guys here can have a shitfit if they want but anybody who switches from an OS they know the ropes on to something completely new, I don't care if its Linux or Mac or Windows whatever? They are ALWAYS gonna be at higher risk than where they were simply because they don't know the new system and don't know what to watch out for. Hell he probably doesn't even know what should and shouldn't be running on his system or what to look for if there is a hijacked program or a backdoor installed.

In this case, as much as I fricking hate to say it as I've found you have to wade through a LOT of shit and douchebags than run on pure smug and leetness in them places but in this particular case i don't see any choice, he is gonna have to go to the forums of his particular distro and tell them what is going on. They will have the most experience with that particular build, will know what is supposed to be running and what isn't on build blah blah whatever, and will be able to spot something that doesn't belong a hell of a lot faster than anybody here would.

Oh bullshit, malware is a billion dollar business for crooks and they have ALWAYS gone where the money is, period the end. In case you haven't kept up with current events, more clueless people than ever have smartphones and tablets that are frankly more powerful than Windows was when it first got malware, so guess what their next big target is?

Oh and just FYI but android will hit one million malware infections any day now so keep up with the bullshit, the article proves that Linux (which the community was quick to claim Android as their own) is just as big a haven for malware as everything else. Surprise surprise, a modern OS can get pwned, who would have thought.

Hmmm... it appears that you are correct.

Word nerds trace the word bug to an old term for a monster - it's a word that has survived in obscure terms like bugaboo and bugbear and in a mangled form in the word boogeyman. Like gremlins in machinery, system bugs are malicious. Anyone who spends time trying to get all the faults out of a system knows how it feels: after a few hours of debugging, any problems that remain are hellspawn, mocking attempts to get rid of them with a devilish glee.

And that's the real origin of the term "bug." But we think the tale of the moth in the relay is worth retelling anyway. (TechWorld)

I didn't know 13.9% of Italian smartphone buyers lived in Redmond.

http://news.techworld.com/operating-systems/3421936/windows-phone-triples-uk-market-share-in-a-year/

I had to start using Office 2013. I went to IT and made them reinstall Office 2010. It HURTS to look at the UI. There is no contrast to help determine what is a button. http://cdn4.techworld.com/cmsdata/products/3370360/Excel_2013.jpg

That's even less contrast than slashdot...

I had to start using Office 2013. I went to IT and made them reinstall Office 2010. It HURTS to look at the UI. There is no contrast to help determine what is a button. http://cdn4.techworld.com/cmsdata/products/3370360/Excel_2013.jpg

First of all a public service announcement: To everyone that writes "M$" in 2013...This...Is...YOU! and this is what everyone sees and instantly dismisses when you write that lame ass M$ in 2013. You could write the most brilliant post in the history of Slashdot but a good 80%+ will NEVER read it because they see M$ and think "douchebag" and move on. So don't waste your time unless you want people posting your group photo as the very next post.

Second of all lets get something VERY clear for those that don't seem to understand how these things work, okay? ALL OPERATING SYSTEMS that would be what we consider "modern" are some of the most complex pieces of software EVER written, we are talking millions of LOC in the kernel alone and thousands of little sub-programs that ALL have to work in concert to give the user the illusion that its all one program that "just works". Is Linux even close to immune? Not only is that a big NO but to even suggest it is is a symptom of what is known as "magical thinking" such as "If you buy (product X) then you will magically be safe!". We in IT have seen magical thinking used to sell everything from OSes to firewalls to routers and reality will blow holes in that lie every single time.

So if Linux is vulnerable why don't we see Linux attacks in the news? We do only they are called "Android attacks" and in fact its predicted that later in the year Android will reach the one million infected mark which considering that Android isn't even a decade old is pretty impressive.

Look its actually VERY simple, and evidence has bore this out time and time again. Criminals ARE LAZY and want to do the least amount of work for the biggest bang so they want to go after the biggest targets to yield the most infections they possibly can. I mean writing a OS/2 virus today would probably be the most trivial thing in the world yet you don't see anybody doing it, why? Because the fact is even though eComstation still sells OS/2 there are too few using it to make it a juicy target. But the malware writers WILL go where the targets are, used to be it was always Windows, then Vista bombs and everyone in the press starts talking about how Mac adoption is climbing, what happens? Mac Guardian and Mac Defender. Android phones and tablets explode in usage, what happens? Thousands of Android malware released weekly.

So anybody who thinks their OS is gonna magically protect them from malware because "(product X) doesn't get bugs!" is merely deluding themselves with magical thinking. There are even articles that helpfully helpfully explain this and point out how switching platforms just for the sake of magical thinking (in the article OSX for Linux but you can insert any from and to in there and it still fits) just doesn't work. Be it Linux, Mac, or Windows you can find plenty of bugs, I could spend 5 minutes and cover this page in reports of bugs for all 3, I already listed the 2 biggest Mac bugs of recent memory, TFA is a Windows bug, and just off the top of my head there was the KDELook theme bug and the infected Quake 3 that was served up by most repos for a year and a half on Linux. NO OS is safe, NO OS is immune, and if you are gonna claim security by obscurity is actual security you might as well run Win95 or BeOS because hey, there aren't any bugs circulating targeting those OSes either.

My backup plan is to encrypt my Tor exit node with TrueCrypt FDE. Yes, it means I have to run Windows, since FDE support is not available for Linux yet. However, the FBI has not been able to defeat TrueCrypt. They can say the traffic came from your internet connection, but they cannot prove that you viewed any of it.

that's not a backup plan. all that will do in a case like this seem that you did stash the illegal material on your own machine and drag the case on forever.

the real backup if any is keeping a log about every packet, so you can pass the blame.

My backup plan is to encrypt my Tor exit node with TrueCrypt FDE. Yes, it means I have to run Windows, since FDE support is not available for Linux yet. However, the FBI has not been able to defeat TrueCrypt. They can say the traffic came from your internet connection, but they cannot prove that you viewed any of it.

I think you're thinking of Freiburg

http://news.techworld.com/operating-systems/3411884/openoffice-dumped-as-freiburg-plots-return-to-microsoft/

It was on /. but I can't seem to find the story

-=-
Linux users targeted by password-stealing 'Wirenet' Trojan

Open source gets some attention

By John E Dunn | Techworld | Published: 12:58, 31 August 2012

http://news.techworld.com/security/3378804/linux-users-targeted-by-password-stealing-wirenet-trojan/
-=-
"Malware writers are interested in Linux after all. Russian security firm Dr Web has reported[1] finding a shadowy Trojan that sets out to steal passwords on the open source platform as well as OS X.

Technical details of Wirenet.1â(TM)s operation and technique for spreading are sparse for now, but the company reports that the backdoor program targets browser passwords for Opera, Firefox, Chrome, Chromium, and as well as applications such as Thunderbird, SeaMonkey, Pidgin.

Under Linux it copies itself to the ~ / WIFIADAPT directory before attempting to connect to a command and control server hosted at 212.7.208.65 using an AES encrypted channel. That at least offers a simple way of blocking communication and any further payloads.

Dr Web made a name for itself earlier this year reporting on the infamous Flashback Trojan[2] that hit Mac users on an unprecedented scale.

Itâ(TM)s not clear whether Wirenetâ(TM)s cross-platform capabilities extend to targeting Windows systems but it is possible that avoiding Microsoftâ(TM)s OS is a way of keeping off the radar of security firms.

Cross platform malware is rare but not unheard of, the usual technique being to hook into Java in search of victims using OS X.

Malware specifically designed to steal credentials from Linux systems is almost unheard of but might, on the basis of this new discovery, become a little less so in future.

Should Linux users be worried? Probably not. the details of how this malware might grab root mode on a Linux system are unknown. Atacking Linux users would also be a pretty rarified activity unless it was part of a highly-targeted attack.

"We do not have explicit evidence that it uses Java. To my knowledge it does not. This file was received from Virustotal," Dr Web analyst Igor Zdobnov told Techworld."

[1] http://news.drweb.com/show/?i=2679&lng=en&c=14
[2] http://news.techworld.com/security/3353152/flashback-trojan-still-on-650000-macs-security-company-discovers/
-=-

-=-
Linux users targeted by password-stealing 'Wirenet' Trojan

Open source gets some attention

By John E Dunn | Techworld | Published: 12:58, 31 August 2012

http://news.techworld.com/security/3378804/linux-users-targeted-by-password-stealing-wirenet-trojan/
-=-
"Malware writers are interested in Linux after all. Russian security firm Dr Web has reported[1] finding a shadowy Trojan that sets out to steal passwords on the open source platform as well as OS X.

Technical details of Wirenet.1â(TM)s operation and technique for spreading are sparse for now, but the company reports that the backdoor program targets browser passwords for Opera, Firefox, Chrome, Chromium, and as well as applications such as Thunderbird, SeaMonkey, Pidgin.

Under Linux it copies itself to the ~ / WIFIADAPT directory before attempting to connect to a command and control server hosted at 212.7.208.65 using an AES encrypted channel. That at least offers a simple way of blocking communication and any further payloads.

Dr Web made a name for itself earlier this year reporting on the infamous Flashback Trojan[2] that hit Mac users on an unprecedented scale.

Itâ(TM)s not clear whether Wirenetâ(TM)s cross-platform capabilities extend to targeting Windows systems but it is possible that avoiding Microsoftâ(TM)s OS is a way of keeping off the radar of security firms.

Cross platform malware is rare but not unheard of, the usual technique being to hook into Java in search of victims using OS X.

Malware specifically designed to steal credentials from Linux systems is almost unheard of but might, on the basis of this new discovery, become a little less so in future.

Should Linux users be worried? Probably not. the details of how this malware might grab root mode on a Linux system are unknown. Atacking Linux users would also be a pretty rarified activity unless it was part of a highly-targeted attack.

"We do not have explicit evidence that it uses Java. To my knowledge it does not. This file was received from Virustotal," Dr Web analyst Igor Zdobnov told Techworld."

[1] http://news.drweb.com/show/?i=2679&lng=en&c=14
[2] http://news.techworld.com/security/3353152/flashback-trojan-still-on-650000-macs-security-company-discovers/
-=-

* Hardware Backdooring Is Practical

- The News (HTML):
http://news.techworld.com/security/3372954/

- The Paper (PDF):
http://www.toucan-system.com/research/blackhat2012_brossard_hardware_backdooring.pdf

From Cryptome: http://cryptome.org/

There are some things that need to be added to this.
1) Browser history clearing should not be necessary. If a browser leaks history information that is a vulnerability that needs to be addressed. But I've found the ability to search the history very valuable and it isn't something you'd want to deprive yourself of.

Actually, it's still best to clear out your history regularly. The old methods for a web site to trawl through it using Javascript and CSS exploits (tested in the browserspy.dk site I linked to) don't work with relatively modern browsers, but this method does.

4) It doesn't matter if you can view the cookies you have. Most of the time they're filled with seemingly gibberish. If you can't read them, they're still secret. But remove them and the site stops working.

I remove my cookies regularly (all of them), and they are always deleted when the browser exits. Sites don't "stop working"; at most, you have to log in again the next time you visit. However, this should be the default (as it is for banking sites and for making purchases at reputable sites), and not the "keep me logged in so I can forget my userID and password" option that is preferred by those who don't know or don't care about how easily they can be tracked.

Some of your other points are partly valid (the parts alluded to in my post), but there is much that you got wrong, also. For example, I don't use any of my browsers maximized on any of our Linux PCs at home or on the Windows PC at work, and have never encountered a website which required my browser to be maximized. Are you perhaps using a screen with an insufficient resolution, and making an unsupportable generalization therefrom?

Right. And here's a Related article about Jeanette Horan's mobile strategy from earlier this year.

For reference, this is IBM's CEO

Here's an intesting read: http://blogs.techworld.com/war-on-error/2010/04/the-truth-about-mac-malware-its-a-joke/index.htm

Don't just read the headline, RTFA (I know, I know). Yes, all the malware he lists is old news and yes, most of it is variants of the same code. Read all of it, up to the part where he points out that, as old as those examples are, they're all still out there because nobody on a Mac gives security a second thought (hey, they're on a Mac and Macs are invinceable, they "Just Work"); read to where he points out that this doesn't happen on Windows, because Windows virii are detected and added to antivirus definitions fairly quickly.

Maybe, and I could be wrong here, I mean, I only work in information security so I probably don't know what I'm talking about, but please hear me out anyway... Maybe malware authors aren't writing as many MAc virii because they don't need to? Follow my logic here, for a moment:

• Windows virus comes out, gives hacker full access to system.
• Windows virus is detected and added to AV definitions.
• People update their AV.
• Virus now next to useless.
• Author abandons it and writes a new one.
• --OR--
• Mac virus comes out, gives hacker full access to system.
• Nobody cares.
• Author never has to write a new one.

Follow?

Why?

Your laptop running a Live linux distro and USB drive. Untraceable, or do you think that Mac addresses can not be changed.

It is perfectly safe to use the same laptop for good and evil.

Topping that, why even bother spoofing your mac address when you can get a "disposable" usb wifi adapter for less than 10 $.

Because unless you dispose of it regularly, if the cops confiscate it and find that it matches the MAC address linked with questionable activity at a coffee shop, then you're screwed. If you set your MAC address to some randomly generated number on each visit, then they can't easily link your hardware to the coffee shop logs. (i'm ignoring other fingerprinting that they could be doing to identify your hardware since if someone is interested in you enough to do advanced network analysis to find you, they're interested enough to track down your Wifi signal the next time you get online.)

But if you are worried about Wifi fingerprinting, then the disposable Wifi adapters you mentioned would be the way to go - as long as you really do dispose of them.

Actually, it isn't completely clear what the arrangement is with RIM and the various intelligence services. RIM allegedly have some kind of data-sharing/intercept agreement with U.S. agencies, and also allegedly caved to China and route everything through a government-monitored messaging server there. As for India:

"RIM had earlier agreed that it would provide the IP address of the enterprise server, located in the customer’s premise, as well as the PIN and the IMEI number of each BlackBerry mobile phone used by a subscriber to enable security agencies access the data in a readable format. But this failed to appease the government’s concerns." Register.

Obviously the BlackBerry uses encryption, but there are numerous ways that the encryption could've been weakened in order to facilitate access by friendly intelligence agencies. Has there ever been any external audit of the code? How are the encryption keys generated? What algorithms are used to package and send the messages? How come ElcomSoft are selling software to law enforcement that breaks the on-phone encryption, if it's so secure.

If you really care, use GPG - it has been extensively audited, the algorithms *and the implementation* are open, and it's free.

Rather than using some obscure thingo nobody's heard of, made by whats-his-name, I would speculate that the FreeBSD is safer, because they have people who understand crypto.

Philip Zimmer (of PGP fame) used to say that most people screw up in the implementation part.

Now, TrueCrypt you can trust, because it was used in a high-profile financial case in Brazil (it was mentioned here in Slashdot) and the Feds from Brazil and the USA (Brazilians asked for help) couldn't get the data out.

All charges against the banker Daniel Dantas (although this had nothing to do with TrueCrypt).

http://news.techworld.com/security/3228701/fbi-hackers-fail-to-crack-truecrypt/

Needs translating:
http://g1.globo.com/politica/noticia/2010/06/nem-fbi-consegue-decifrar-arquivos-de-daniel-dantas-diz-jornal.html

See subject-line, & this quote from yourself:

"I would not call the malware situation on OS X anywhere near rampant. Rampantly reported, maybe." - by Stupendoussteve (891822) on Wednesday June 01, @10:49PM (#36315642)

OK Then - Refer to this list of malware related incidents, + security flaws on MacOS X then (over 50++ of them easily & I have more than this IF you would like them as well):

---

MacOS X - Techworld.com - Third worm hits Mac OS X:

http://www.techworld.com/security/news/index.cfm?NewsID=5429

MacOS X - Slashdot Apple Story | Apple Quietly Goes After Mac Trojan With Update:

http://apple.slashdot.org/story/10/06/19/1811203/Apple-Quietly-Goes-After-Mac-Trojan-With-Update

MacOS X - Slashdot | Worm Threat Forces Apple to Disable Software?:

http://it.slashdot.org/it/07/08/03/1451217.shtml

MacOS X - Slashdot | Two Trojans For Mac OS X:

http://it.slashdot.org/it/08/06/25/0032226.shtml

MacOS X - Slashdot | Mac OS X Root Escalation Through AppleScript:

http://it.slashdot.org/article.pl?sid=08/06/18/1919224

MacOS X - First Rogue Cleaning Tool for Mac - F-Secure Weblog : News from the Lab:

http://www.f-secure.com/weblog/archives/00001362.html

MacOS X - Mac malware authors release a new, more dangerous version | ZDNet:

http://www.zdnet.com/blog/bott/mac-malware-authors-release-a-new-more-dangerous-version/3385

MacOS X - Mac OS X backdoor Trojan, now in beta? | Naked Security:

http://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2011/02/26/mac-os-x-backdoor-trojan-now-in-beta/

MacOS X - Mac Malware Evolves - No Install Password Required - Slashdot:

http://it.slashdot.org/story/11/05/26/1355243/Mac-Malware-Evolves---No-Install-Password-Required

MacOS X - New 'MACDefender' Malware Threat for Mac OS X - Mac Rumors:

http://www.macrumors.com/2011/05/02/new-macdefender-malware-threat-for-mac-os-x/

MacOS X - New Backdoor Mac OS X Trojan Surfaces - Slashdot:

http://slashdot.org/submission/1485038/New-Backdoor-Mac-OS-X-Trojan-Surfaces

MacOS X - New Mac fake-defenders similar to Windows scareware â The Register:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2011/05/20/mac_scareware_win_rogue_similarities/

MacOS X - OS X Crimeware Kit Emerges MacDEFENDER- Slashdot:

http://apple.slashdot.org/story/11/05/02/2120203/OS-X-Crimeware-Kit-Emerges

MacOS X - OSX/Pinhead-B Trojan (OSX_HELLRTS.A, OSX/HellRTS.D) - Sophos security analysis:

http://www.sophos.com/security/analyses/viruses-and-spyware/osxpinheadb.html

MacOS X - Fake security software catches out Apple owners:

htt

Hate to break it to you, but the US has lost the moral high ground when it comes to internet freedom.

When was the last time the US Gov blocked / turned off the Internet to deprive the people freedom of speech? Did they block WikiLeaks? No they did not. Your ideological rant is not supported by, you know, actual facts.

I wouldn't use WikiLeaks as an example, since US politicians are calling it treason (protip: you can only be a traitor to your *own* country)

But you should check your news - while other countries turn off the internet within their own borders (which, while abhorrent to us techies, is within their legal rights), the US seized over 80,000 domain names recently - and those sites are blocked not only in the US, but everywhere in the world. Let me repeat that - the United States blocked over 80,000 web sites from being accessed not only inside their borders, but everywhere in the world.

Oh, and by the way, the US government would like the ability to block the internet within their borders as well.

[...]Does this mean that the drives understand NTFS and are actually zeroing out data on the drive when the OS simply deletes the entry from the FAT table? [...]

Yes, it means exactly that. When the drive detects, that the OS running supports TRIM commands, it relies on that. If it detects that there are the OS does not support TRIM commands, it tries to interpret the filesystem to detect which blocks belong to deleted files. It then brings these blocks back to a prisine state to make them faster writable. During this process all data on the block is cleared. When you bring back the file using an undelete tool or access the according blocks directly (e.g. using a sector editor), you will only get blocks with zeroes.

Or to phare it in another way: When you set some bits in certain blocks to zero, the drive will find it safe to wipe some other blocks on the drive, without being told so by the OS. If your file system in NTFS with the right version, this assumption is true. If you use a different file system, this might not be the case. The details are unknown because the firmware is closed source.

You can find the details in the paper (PDF) cited in the fine article.

You're waiting days are over!

http://news.techworld.com/security/5392/worlds-first-os-x-virus-hits-apple/

It's amazing to me how you even mention that OS X might be susceptible to malicious users, and all the mac boys start foaming at the mouth.

I suspect the *real* strings of this plan will be revealed in the fine print--where license terms will require carriers to police "IP infringement," agree to the Obama's kill switch, and allow the NSA and FBI free reign to monitor individual users.

According to this article, it's Senator Joe Lieberman's idea and "other sponsors of the bill are Senators Susan Collins, a Maine Republican, and Tom Carper, a Delaware Democrat."

Personally, I don't care whose idea it is, I think it's a bad idea period.

Sigh. I may not believe in links, but I guess you don't believe in search engines. But since you asked so nicely here's a quote from the second search hit:

Senator Joe Lieberman and other bill sponsors have refuted the charges that the Protecting Cyberspace as a National Asset Act gives the president an Internet "kill switch." Instead, the bill puts limits on the powers the president already has to cause "the closing of any facility or stations for wire communication" in a time of war, as described in the Communications Act of 1934, they said in a breakdown of the bill published on the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee website.

There are other references to this in the press, but as you said, I don't believe in links. Or maybe they aren't links I can believe in. Or maybe one of us just isn't believing hard enough.

but won't stop people with supercomputers.

Pfffft, tell that to Daniel Dantas, whos encrypted (w/ TrueCrypt) hard drive withstood the FBI's prying eyes for over 5 years...

If someone with a supercomputer is trying to break your encryption, I would think you have bigger problems to worry about.

Yes, in this case you do have big problems to worry about, whether or not your secret files stay secret doesn't have to be one of them. Note: If the strength of your encryption is what protects you from even bigger problems then perhaps it's wise to not overlook encryption.

I concede that today's encryption may eventually be broken by future computers -- I take comfort in such assumptions. Unlike information lost to dead languages, the future's Setec Astronomy might be able to decode their archives of today's data -- However, today's people will have gone long since the data could have been detrimental to anyone.

CAPTCHA security - more worthless by the day (23 July 2008)

The article suggests using the Quantum Random Bit Generator Service sign-up approach; you do know your maths through at least calculus ... right?

Again - see my earlier references on this thread to Microsoft as a "Stalking Horse" for COICA type legislation and the "Obama Internet Kill Switch".

Tuesday, I get to be in an audience of security pros, being addressed by Bill Clinton. I have already heard Richard Clarke, on a number of occasions. I suspect that his messaging will be an intelligent and warm, friendly advocacy for increased controls on Internet access - in the name of financial and national security.

This is an inevitable push. Our digital technologies will be turned against our civil liberties - under the guise of defending our financial stability. The best we can hope for is a "Digital Singapore" - versus a "Digital East Germany".

The difference between Government control of Internet access in China and the US/EU? In China the state is a mechanism to enforce the mandate of a Party elite. In the US/EU Government is a mechanism to enforce the will of elite Oligarchal capitalists. This business elite deflect the unpopularity of social control from themselves towards the straw-man of "big government", which they pretend to oppose, but secretly employ towards their objectives.

It is no mistake that "the Big Dog" is being brought out to address this issue, at a time when "government control" of Internet access is being pushed as an urgent contingency.

Keep watching what develops.

Why not just hack a normal ATM instead
http://news.techworld.com/security/6943/atm-cashpoints-hacked-via-google/