Updates

A compilation of the latest information about viruses and worms, security issues and patches to rectify the same

Google removes Privila sites

Privila sites have been removed from Google’s index after the former was caught attempting to trick the search engine leader.

Chicago-based Privila has built portals which are designed to have a relatively high searc h engine ranking scores while presenting nothing but ads. The firm’s modus operandi involves buying sites after the original owner forgets to renew a registration.

wallofdove.com, previously owned by a stoner metal band called Dove is one such example. Further, bustem.com—the Web site of a brand-protection outfit, sailjworld.com—the former home of a Maryland sailing school, and soccerlove.com are few other examples of the same.

Privila fills these sites with custom-written material which are usually generated by unpaid interns. These articles are strangely worded so as to include the maximum number of keywords. Each site on the network contains a score of articles each around the 600 words mark.

These sites are then promoted by link exchange spam. But following a recent refinement in the technique users who visit these sites will see nothing but banner ads, created by again unpaid graphics interns unless they set their browser’s user-agent to match that of Google’s spider. By dropping the articles, Privila was able to fit in even more ads.

The trick came to light when researchers at Cambridge University’s Computer Lab received a link invitation spam email from a Privila-run site. 329 Web sites in the Privila network were discovered.

Google purged Privila sites from its index on 8 March, a day after scam was reported on Cambridge University’s blog. The sites remain unavailable.

Pentagon attacked stealing sensitive data

According to the US defense department CIO, the network intrusion at the Pentagon nine months ago which had resulted in the theft of an amazing amount of data, continues to pose a threat to national security. The stolen data included processes and procedures that could be valuable to US enemies.

Over the course of two months leading up to the attack, malicious code infiltrated several systems belonging to the Pentagon’s network and culminated in an exploit of a known Microsoft Windows vulnerability. That allowed attackers to send spoofed emails that appeared to come from Pentagon personnel. According to an article in Federal Computer week, somehow, the emails managed to steal login credentials for the network. Further, the network forensics shows that the hackers were able to access sensitive information, which they encrypted as they transmitted it back to their sites.

Attackers are not yet officially identified but according to some published reports, government investigators believe the breach originated in China. It took three weeks and $4m to clean up the mess. The Pentagon gets 70,000 malicious entry attempts per day, ranging from relatively innocent probes to more immoral attacks. Outside hackers can pinpoint new servers or software within minutes of them being deployed and intrusions quickly follow.

Businesses stressed With Spam and Phishing Attacks

Webroot recently conducted a survey of 1,494 e-mail security product decision-makers to explore their views about e-mail related threats and the latest methods to protect business e-mail.

According to that report, the ever-increasing amounts of spam attacks containing malware are placing corporate and customer information at the highest levels of risk. On one hand, companies are generating large volumes of e-mail and are putting in efforts to secure and store it and on the other hand, cyber criminals are targeting e-mail with the knowledge that data is valuable personal and corporate information. Companies need to be diligent in staying ahead of these would-be network attackers, both outside and inside their walls.

According to the survey, the volume of e-mail, the types of sensitive data contained in business e-mail, and the creative methods that would-be thieves devise to steal corporate e-mail have changed over time. The two things that stand out the most in this new report are the dramatic increase in attacks against businesses and the casual response from company officials about protecting their e-mail.

Infections from viruses and spyware are the primary e-mail security concern. These security worries are followed by data breaches and spam. More than half of the respondents experienced spyware and virus attacks in 2007. Over 40% dealt with a phishing attack.

Nearly half of the respondents indicated a significant concern about employees sending sensitive company information externally. However, despite those concerns, only half of organizations with more than 100 computers have policies in place to restrict employees’ personal e-mail use.

Several studies reveal that e-mail users at work pose increasing risks by failing to adequately recognize filtered e-mail as spam before opening it. According to the Webroot e-mail Security Survey, e-mail is critical to communicating with customers and providing customer support. The majority of companies and organizations surveyed also rely on e-mail as a communication and collaboration tool among employees and to process sales transactions.

Further, in a survey conducted by the Pew Internet & American Life Project from February to March 2007, researchers concluded that the growing volume of e-mail increases the likelihood that an e-mail user can inadvertently open spam. In fact, 27% of the Pew survey respondents said they occasionally open an e-mail message before realizing they are spam, according to Webroot summary of that report.