Infected Web Pages Nearly Triple

The rate at which Internet security company Sophos detected infected Web pages nearly tripled in the first quarter of 2008, the company said.

In its Q1 08 threat report released Monday, Sophos says that it discovered a new infected Web page every 5 seconds. In 2007, the company says, it saw new infected Web pages every 14 seconds.

“The Web continues to be the preferred way for malware authors to deliver their attacks,” the report says. “Our growing dependence on the Web for purchasing and gathering information makes it an ideal hunting ground for cyber criminals chasing poorly protected users.”

The rise in infected Web pages is related to a decline in infected e-mail. Sophos says that about 1 out of every 2,500 e-mail messages contained malware, compared to 1 out of every 909 messages monitored in 2007.

Sophos attributes this decline to a shift from infectious attachments to the inclusion of links that lead to infected sites.

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Malicious Flash on LiveJournal.com

Sounds more of an annoyance than it does “malicious” but the folks over at Spyware Sucks has an interesting post about a bad flash banner being posted on Livejournal.com.  I just thought I’d share.

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Logo Ease – Free Logo Design

Free logo maker. 100% free! Intuitive and simple design interface allows you to create your own free business logo designs in just minutes. You will receive various electronic files for both web and print use including the vector source files. File formats include eps, png, jpg and tiff. You can save and download as many as 10 free logo designs at any one time.

100’s of images to manipulate (soon to be thousands) and add fantastic font’s to as well. The number of variations of design layout, font and color provides an infinite number of logo design possibilities. Use these for presentations, a new company, an existing company or anything else you would want a logo for. See some of the free logo design samples in our logo samples section to get an idea of the endless amount of possibilities available to you. You design it, so you own it. Be aware that you will not be able to trademark any of the individual images but you should be able to trademark the finished design which includes layout, color, font and image together. You will need to seek legal advice first before trade marking your logo because the use of pre-made images in a logo is a grey area. It’s always best to use a professional logo design company for a unique logo that is to be used in business.

Check them out here…

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Microsoft sees huge rise in Web attacks

Criminals changed tactics in the last six months of 2007, dropping malicious email in favour of Web-based attacks, according to data reported to Microsoft by Windows users.

The company saw the number of Trojan downloader programs it removed from Windows machines jump by 300 percent, according to Jimmy Kuo, principal architect with Microsoft’s Malware Protection Center. These programs masquerade as legitimate pieces of software, but once installed they then download malicious software such as spyware or adware onto the victim’s computer. They are typically installed via the Web.

The shift to the Web has been forced onto criminals, as system administrators have become better at blocking executable files from being sent via email. So instead of sending their malicious software directly via email, the bad guys are now being forced to send out spam messages that trick victims into visiting the malicious websites. “Executables are often being stripped completely regardless of what they are,” Kuo said.

Many companies compile data on Web attack trends, but Microsoft’s is the most comprehensive – based on data from the approximately 450 million computers that run the Microsoft Malicious Software Removal Tool that ships with Windows.

Kuo said that there are still a lot of infected Windows boxes out there, although there are fewer than some have reported. On average, Microsoft removed malware from one out of every 123 computers it inspected each month during the period. In the US, that number was 1 in every 112. Japan was the least-infected country, with malware found on just one in 685 machines.

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Foxit Reader Malformed PDF Vulnerabilities

Foxit Reader is “a free PDF document viewer and printer, with incredible small size (only 2.1 M download size), breezing-fast launch speed and rich feature set. Foxit Reader supports Windows 98/Me/2000/XP/2003/Vista”. Two security vulnerability in Foxit Reader allow a remote attacker armed with a malformed PDF file to cause the reader to crash and execute arbitrary code.

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