ZDNet Definition for: Cybercriminal

Additional Resources

Spooky Halloween - scareware or crimeware?

With all the "spooky" cybercrime trends taking place on a monthly basis, such as the death of CAPTCHA, the suspicious idleness of the Conficker botnet, the clear presence of government-tolerated and upcoming government-sponsored botnets, the inevitable migration from using malicious infrastructure to entirely relying on legitimate one, followed by the...

Tags: Search Engine Optimization, Campaign, Cybercriminal, Search, Marketing Research, Strategy, Security, Marketing, Management, Dancho Danchev

Blog posts 2009-10-29

New LoroBot ransomware encrypts files, demands $100 for decryption

Researchers from CA have intercepted a new ransomware variant encrypting popular file extensions (.zip; .rar; .pdf; .rtf; .txt; .jpg; .jpeg; .waw; .mp3; .db; .xls; .docx; .xlsx; .doc) and demanding a $100 for the decryption software. According to the message which replaces the desktop's background upon execution, the...

Tags: Decryption, SMS, Text Messaging/SMS/MMS, Telephony, Cellular Phones, Consumer Electronics, Personal Technology, Online Communications, Networking, Dancho Danchev

Blog posts 2009-10-27

Commonwealth fined $100k for not mandating antivirus software

According to a recently published SEC cease-and-desist order, the Commission has recently fined Commonwealth Financial Network $100,000, for not mandating antivirus software on the computers of its representatives, leading to a security incident which took place in November 2008, allowing the cybercriminal behind the attack to place eighteen unauthorized purchase...

Tags: Software, Electronic Banking, Antivirus Software, Commonwealth Financial Network, Banking, Security, Viruses And Worms, Financial Services, Dancho Danchev

Blog posts 2009-10-19

Weak passwords dominate statistics for Hotmail's phishing scheme leak

The recently leaked accounting data of thousands of Hotmail users -- Gmail has also been affected -- obtained through what appears to be a badly executed phishing campaign, once again puts the spotlight on the how bad password management practices remain an inseparable part of the user-friendly ecosystem. ...

Tags: MSN Hotmail, Password, Phishing, Security, Spam And Phishing, Dancho Danchev

Blog posts 2009-10-06

Citizens Financial sued for insufficient E-Banking security

If a fraudulent transaction ever takes place on one of your bank accounts due to their compromise, who's to blame - the bank, for not providing you as a customer with state-of-the-art security mechanisms that could have prevented it, or you, as a customer whose insecure online behavior led to...

Tags: Bank, Citizens LLC, Electronic Banking, Financial, Two-factor Authentication, Online Banking, Banking, Security Administration, Security, Financial Services, Dancho Danchev

Blog posts 2009-09-10

The most dangerous celebrities to search for in 2009

Searching for which celebrity has the highest probability of tricking you into visiting a malware-friendly web site? Last year it was Brad Pitt, but according to this year's McAfee report "Riskiest Celebrities to Search on the Web", it's Jessica Biel related searches that have "one in five...

Tags: Search Engine Optimization, Web, Digg, Malware, Keyword, Spyware, Adware & Malware, Cyberthreats, Channel Management, Viruses And Worms, Search, Security, Marketing, Dancho Danchev

Blog posts 2009-08-27

Research: 80% of Web users running unpatched versions of Flash/Acrobat

According to a research published by Trusteer earlier this month, 79.5% of the 2.5 million users of their Rapport security service run a vulnerable version of Adobe Flash, with 83.5% also running a vulnerable version of Acrobat. The company has also criticized Adobe by insisting that their...

Tags: Adobe Systems Inc., Web, Vulnerability, Cybercriminal, Trusteer, Security, Desktops, Hardware, Dancho Danchev

Blog posts 2009-08-25

Albert Gonzalez was hacking in high school...where were the safety nets?

We talk a lot in education about the idea of safety nets. These are support systems that we put into place to figuratively catch kids who might otherwise not be successful. They can be as simple as extra time after school for help or involve more significant remediation...

Tags: Hacking, Credit Card, Computer, Safety Net, Productivity, Sales Channel, Financial Services, Security, Sales, Christopher Dawson

Blog posts 2009-08-19

New Mac OS X DNS changer spreads through social engineering

TrendMicro is reporting on a newly discovered 4th member of the OSX_JAHLAV malware family. The latest variant is once again relying on social engineering, this time spreading under a QuickTime Player update (QuickTimeUpdate.dmg) with a DNS changer component enabling the malware authors to redirect and monitor the...

Tags: Apple Macintosh, DNS, Malware, Social Engineering, Spyware, Adware & Malware, Cyberthreats, Apple Mac OS X, Apple Mac OS, Viruses And Worms, Security, Operating Systems, Software, Dancho Danchev

Blog posts 2009-08-11

ImageShack hacked by anti-full disclosure movement

During the weekend, ImageShack, among the Web's top ten most popular free image hosting services got compromised, with the millions of images hosted on it redirected to a single one explaining why it was hacked. The anti-sec group responsible for the compromise describes itself as a "movement...

Tags: Web, Malware, Exploit, Zero-day Bug, Spyware, Adware & Malware, Channel Management, Cyberthreats, Security, Viruses And Worms, Marketing, Dancho Danchev

Blog posts 2009-07-13

Transmitter.C mobile malware spreading in the wild

Researchers from NetQin Tech. are reporting on a newly discovered mobile malware variant (Transmitter.C) distributed through a modified version of legitimate mobile application. Upon execution, the malware attempts to automatically spread by SMS-ing hundreds of messages linking to a web site where a copy of it (sexySpace.sisx) can be found....

Tags: Message, Software, Phone, Mobile, Malware, Cell Phone, Virus, Malicious Software, Mobile Malware, NetQuin, Dancho, Transimitter.C, Cyberthreats, Advertising & Promotion, Viruses And Worms, Spyware, Adware & Malware, Security, Marketing, Dancho Danchev

Blog posts 2009-07-08

Cybercrime doesn't pay: well it does, and very well

A large part of me is worried about writing this post because in some way, I could be considered as promoting the idea or inciting people to commit cybercrime. Well, that's not my intention as such - instead I'm taking a more back seat approach to denounce why people commit...

Tags: Cybercrime, Web Site, Hacker, Cybersecurity, Attack, Security Industry, Web Site Development, Government, Phishing, Web Technology, Security, Hacking, Internet, Spam And Phishing, Zack Whittaker

Blog posts 2009-06-25

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

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

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's  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

Inside BBC's Chimera botnet

Earlier this month, the controversial BBC purchase of a botnet and modifying the infected hosts in the name of "public interest" sparked a lot of debate on the pros and cons of their action. Condemned by certain security vendors, and naturally, at least from guerrilla PR perspective, applauded and encouraged...

Tags: British Broadcasting Corp., Malware, Chimera Botnet, Spyware, Adware & Malware, Cyberthreats, Viruses And Worms, Security, Dancho Danchev

Blog posts 2009-03-30

USAID.gov compromised, malware and exploits served

The Azerbaijan section at the United States Agency for International Development (azerbaijan.usaid.gov) has been compromised and is embedded with malware and exploits serving scripts approximately around the 1st of March. The malicious script is taking advantage of a series of redirects which are dynamically loading live exploits, or rogue security...

Tags: Malware, Cybercriminal, USAID.gov, Cn, Cn/check/check.php, Spyware, Adware & Malware, Cyberthreats, Viruses And Worms, Security, Dancho Danchev

Blog posts 2009-03-06

Microsoft: 'Consistent exploit code likely' for IE vulnerabilities

Microsoft today shipped four bulletins with patches for at least 8 documented security vulnerabilities affecting Windows users and warned that "consistent exploit code could be easily crafted" to launch attacks via the Internet Explorer browser. The Patch Tuesday batch includes fixes for a pair of code execution...

Tags: Vulnerability, Microsoft Exchange Server, Server, Exploit Code, Microsoft Internet Explorer, Microsoft Corp., E-mail Servers, Groupware, Web Browsers, Security, Enterprise Software, Software, Internet, Ryan Naraine

Blog posts 2009-02-10

Fake Antivirus XP pops-up at Cleveland.com

Have we reached the phrase when targeted advertising would equal evasive malware campaigns pushed through third-party ad networks, to a geolocated set of visitors only? Could be. During the weekend, rogue antivirus XP pop-ups were served to visitors of Cleveland.com, according to visitors' complaints which I also managed to verify....

Tags: Advertisement, Network, Antivirus, Ad Network, Spyware, Adware & Malware, Viruses And Worms, Networking, Security, Dancho Danchev

Blog posts 2009-02-10

Fake Windows XP activation trojan goes 2.0

Known as Kardphisher and "in the wild" since April, 2007, last week the malware author of this trojan horse mimicking the Windows XP activation interface while collecting the credit card details the end user has submitted, has made significant changes to visual interface and usability of the trojan, consequently improving...

Tags: Microsoft Windows XP, Credit Card, Trojan Horse, Malware, Social Engineering, Microsoft Windows, Spyware, Adware & Malware, Spyware, Sales Channel, Viruses And Worms, Financial Services, Security, Sales, Dancho Danchev

Blog posts 2008-11-18