Provided by CommunityDNS, the information in this post consists of news items in the security-based Internet community.

Internet Has Never Been More Dangerous, Report Says

A recent study spotlights the proliferation of malware keeps setting new records.

Between January and June, 2009, the number of rogue antivirus programs grew by 585%.

Banking Trojans for obtaining account information from financial sites has increased by 186%.

The number of infected computers rose more than 66% between fourth quarter, 2008 and June 2009.

One such cyber gang’s LuckySploit efforts attracted 90,000 visitors in 22 days resulting in a 7.5% infection rate, or 6,400 infected computers. This endeavor yielded $438,000.

The number of infected computers grew more than 66% to reach 12 million, or 54% of the computers scanned for the period of Q4 2008 and June 2009.
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Botnet buries commands in image files

Researchers have found something new on the botnet scene. Instead of using traditional forms of a botnet’s command and control structure when communicating with its respective bots through IRC channels and now through Google Groups and Twitter, the DIKhora botnet communicates with its bots through image files.

The DIKhora botnet is primarily geared towards the downloading of other malware strains.

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Malware ecosystem thrives thanks to pay-per-install fees

Using the affiliate model cyber criminals are making it easy for users to earn cash based upon the number of computers they can infect.

In addition to providing the malware people can purchase the software tools that allow for inspecting anonymously. In addition services are offered to ensure malicious webpages are prominently featured.

While price of infection varies based upon which country the computer resides, there is no money to be made for infecting computers that reside in Russia or the former Soviet Republic.

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FBI warns of social networking fraud, malware escalation

News Bits has reported on the growing trend of hackers targeting people on social networks. Social networks carry with it an inherent network of trust, the hardest part for hackers to overcome when trying to engage innocent users. For hackers, people on social networks are the “low hanging fruit”. Just recently hackers found a way to automate the process of building a user page on Facebook that bypasses the entering of CAPTCHA information. As a result many Facebook profiles are able to quickly spring up; all from which hackers begin their work on other Facebook members.

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US urges ‘cyber hygiene’ effort

October is National Cyber Security Month in the US. Calling on all computer users, citizens, industry and government alike, everyone needs to play a role in combating cyber crime by practicing good “cyber hygiene”.

87% of August’s e-mail is spam. Within an hour of someone receiving a phishing e-mail 60% of the recipients click on the link found in the rogue e-mail.

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U.S. broadband lags Asian nations

As the Internet plays an increasing role in the lives, businesses and governments of respective countries, it is interesting to see the progression of Internet expansion.

A recent study concluded that the top 10 countries most advanced with their Internet offerings were:

• South Korea

• Japan

• Hong Kong

• Sweden

• Switzerland

• Netherlands

• Singapore

• Luxembourg

• Denmark

• Norway

To determine the rankings the study examined:

• Broadband leadership

• Number of wired households

• Broadband Internet quality

• Quality of service outside of major cities

• Digital divide between urban and rural areas

• Broadband quality for future applications in the next 3 years.

• Broadband quality regarding upload and download speeds, network latency and capacity.

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