Fake Microsoft Updates pages Used in Attacks Targeting Firefox on Windows

Cyber criminals are now using fake Microsoft update website to launch fake Antivirus attack targeted at users of FireFox on Windows.  Chester Wisniewski, a Senior Security Advisor at Sophos Canada is warning of the new “distribution model” of a fake antivirus which attempts to fool customers into thinking they’re actually downloading and installing a security solution from Microsoft Update. 
Cyber crimials have created a fake page which looks like original Microsoft update page but the property of this web page is that it only comes when you are surfing on firefox on windows. This type of social engineering has been used many times to launch this type of attacks. In this attack a warning is shown to users with a message that Critical update is needed.
Users update their system to protect from attackers but they are actually infecting their system with a malicious software.

StumbleUpon overtaken facebook, accounts for half of all U.S. social media traffic on Web

According to report on StatCounter, StumbleUpon has beaten facebook and drive traffic to over 50% websites in U.S. StumbleUpon was rival in this field but lost market to facebook. As on the month August,  facebook has fallen down to 38% in US. Stumble upon has only 12 million users while facebook has more than 750 million users. This is really a great achievement for the company.
But if we consider the worldwide traffic, facebook is still market rival and makes upto 60% web traffic on the web while stumbleupon is on 2nd with 28%.
StatCounter’s measurements do not include HTTPS traffic though. The service is unable to track social sharing with HTTPS security and it’s possible that Facebook’s drop in traffic is a result of users turning to HTTPS to protect Web browsing.  
StumbleUpon recently passed a milestone of 25 billion clicks of the Stumble button which translates to an average of about 2000 clicks of the Stumble button per user.

FBI Warns Consumers About bin Laden Emails, Facebook Posts

The U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation warned computer users Tuesday that messages claiming to include photos and videos of Osama bin Laden's death actually contain a virus that could steal personal information.

The FBI said in a press release that emails with supposed links to bin Laden death photos or videos could unleash a virus that can damage computers.

The warning comes as security companies said that they've spotted the first samples of malicious software disguised as photos of the dead Al Qaeda leader.

U.S. authorities do have photos of bin Laden, who was shot in the head during an early morning raid Monday in Pakistan. But these photos have not been released publicly.

The FBI warned Internet users to watch out for fake messages on social network sites and to never download software in order to view a video. "Read e-mails you receive carefully. Fraudulent messages often feature misspellings, poor grammar, and non-standard English," the FBI warning stated.

As a major international news event, bin Laden's death has shown the amazing way information can spread online. Many learned of the terrorist leader's death through Twitter, where the story first broke, or Facebook. But it also underscores how the unfiltered media can quickly spread bad information worldwide.

Cybercriminals, looking to get your personal information by having you click on a link, or spammers trying to get you to buy rogue anti-virus software the same way, are also "liking" Facebook - and Twitter - a lot in recent days to "spread malicious links claiming to be images of bin Laden's death.

Cyber Security Expert Shubham Sahu said that criminals are e-mailing a password-stealing Trojan horse program called Banload to victims, and Symantec said its seen criminals spamming victims with links to fake "Osama dead" news articles that launch Web-based attacks on visitors.

Scammers have also used a technique called search engine poisoning to try to trick search engines into listing hacked Web pages that are loaded with malware in their search results. “It's unlikely you'll find pictures or videos of Bin Laden's death online - but searching for one will certainly take you to sites with malware”

Cyber Security Researcher Mukesh Tiwari says that users are encouraged to cut and paste malicious JavaScript code into their browser, which then sends the message to all of their Facebook friends and never to cut and paste scripts into the browser.

Recommendations for computer users:

•Adjust the privacy settings on social networking sites you frequent to make it more difficult for people you know and do not know to post content to your page. Even a "friend" can unknowingly pass on multimedia that's actually malicious software.

•Do not agree to download software to view videos. These applications can infect your computer.

•Read e-mails you receive carefully. Fraudulent messages often feature misspellings, poor grammar, and nonstandard English

Publish date :- 06.05.2011 (Central Chronicle)