Current Events Archives - West Chester Computer Doctors

Nine members of a group that used Zeus malware for attacks were charged by the US Department of Justice. The malware was used to siphon money from Bank of America, First National Bank of Omaha, and other banks into over-sea accounts.
The group installed Zeus malware on computers associated the banks. They then used the banking information garnered from the compromised computers to pretend to be employees of the victims. They then contacted the banks and convinced them they had authority to transfer the funds to other accounts.

Out of the nine charged, the Department of Justice notes that four are still at large.

US takes out gang that used Zeus malware to steal millions- Network World

Verizon Releases 2014 Data Breach Report

Verizon just recently released their 2014 Data Breach Investigation Report with a slew of interesting statistics. The reports states to two thirds of data breach attacks used stolen credentials at some point in the process. It makes sense, as an attacker with valid credentials does not need to compromise a system to gain access, they only need to log in.

The report also noted 92 percent of attacks in the past decade use one of nine different attack methods. The report pointed out that, contrary to current media attention from the Target breach, Point of Sale attacks have actually decreased in frequency.

Stolen Passwords Used In Most Data Breaches- Dark Reading by Newsweek

Satellite communications, a critical part of many everyday functions, are not as secure as we might think they are. These communications are critical for organizing mass transit, military communications, emergency services, and more.
The attacks that could compromise a single satellite are very simple, some as simple as sending an SMS. And once one is compromised, a whole network could be brought down.

Apparently, recent research indicates that satellite firmware often has hardcoded credentials, backdoors, and weak protocols. While an attacker would have to have some knowledge of the firmware to accurately exploit it, gaining access would not be a problem for them.

Satellite Communications Wide Open To Hackers- Dark Reading by Information Week

Microsoft will be ceasing support to Windows 8.1 in May ,2014. This means that the software giant will no longer distributing security updates to 8.1 users. Microsoft plans to continue supporting Windows 8 and Windows 8.1 Update.

What does this mean for users? It means that if you currently have Windows 8.1 installed, you must get the 8.1 Update installed as well by May 2014. This will ensure that there is no gap in your security coverage. If you only have Windows 8, Microsoft assures us that they will continue 8 security updates.

Microsoft confirms it’s dropping Windows 8.1 support- InfoWeek

Recently a bug has been discovered in Google’s web browser, Chrome, that can allow websites to listen on a user through their computers microphone. While the defect cannot directly record audio, it can record a transcript of anything it hears using Chrome’s speech-to-text function. This bug has a potential to reach many people, as Chrome is used by more than half of web users.

The bug was originally reported to Google by Israel-based developer, Guy Aharonovsky, who discovered it while working with the speech recognition aspects of Chrome. Google, while have acknowledged the defect, has currently designated it as “low-severity”, which means there will be no immediate fix for the issue.

In the mean time, it does not seem that anyone is using this bug for malicious reasons yet.

Google Chrome Bug Could Allow Websites To Snoop On Conversations- International Business Times