malware
Threat Spotlight: “Kyle and Stan” Malvertising Network 9 Times Larger Than Expected
3 min read
This post was authored by Armin Pelkmann. On September 8th, Cisco’s Talos Security Intelligence & Research Group unveiled the existence of the “Kyle and Stan” Malvertisement Network. The network was responsible for placing malicious advertisements on big websites like amazon.com, ads.yahoo.com, www.winrar.com, youtube.com and 70 other domains. As it turns out, this was just the tip of the iceberg. Ongoing research now reveals […]
Threat Spotlight: “Kyle and Stan” Malvertising Network Threatens Windows and Mac Users With Mutating Malware
9 min read
This post was authored by Shaun Hurley, David McDaniel and Armin Pelkmann. Update 2014-09-22: Updates on this threat can be found here Have you visited amazon.com, ads.yahoo.com, www.winrar.com, youtube.com, or any of the 74 domains listed below lately? If the answer is yes, then you may have been a victim to the “Kyle and Stan” […]
The increasing prevalence and complexity of malware
2 min read
In recent months, many organizations are becoming more interested in the information security landscape and how these threats can affect their business today. In the recent Cisco 2014 Midyear Security Report, the results showed that 90% of select customer networks were found issuing DNS queries to domain names known to be associated with malware distribution. […]
Putting a Damper on ‘Lateral Movement’ due to Cyber-Intrusion
2 min read
Analysis of high-profile cyber breaches often reveals how intruders gain their initial footprint in the targeted organizations and bypass perimeter defenses to establish a backdoor for persistent activities. Such stealthy activities may continue until intruders complete their ultimate mission—claiming the “crown jewels” of the victim organization. “Lateral movement” is a term increasingly used to describe […]
Cisco 2014 Midyear Security Report: Exploit Kit Creators Vying for ‘Market Leader’ Role
1 min read
Even in the world of cybercrime, when a top “vendor” drops out of the market, competitors will scurry to fill the void with their own products. As reported in the Cisco 2014 Midyear Security Report, when Paunch—the alleged creator and distributor of the Blackhole exploit kit—was arrested in Russia in late 2013, other malware creators […]
Securing Mobile Data: What’s Your Plan?
1 min read
As a business or technical leader, you know you need to protect your company in a rapidly evolving mobile ecosystem. However, threats are not always obvious. As malware and attacks become more sophisticated over time, business decision makers must work with technical decision makers to navigate security threats in a mobile world. This blog series, […]
Old and Persistent Malware
2 min read
Malware can find its way into the most unexpected of places. Certainly, no website can be assumed to be always completely free of malware. Typically, there are many ways that websites can be compromised to serve malware:
Threat Spotlight: “A String of Paerls”, Part 2, Deep Dive
1 min read
This post has been coauthored by Joel Esler, Craig Williams, Richard Harman, Jaeson Schultz, and Douglas Goddard In part one of our two part blog series on the “String of Paerls” threat, we showed an attack involving a spearphish message containing an attached malicious Word doc. We also described our methodology in grouping similar samples based on Indicators of Compromise: static and […]
The Expanding Burden of Security
2 min read
[ed. Note: This post was updated 7/9/2014 to include new information not available to the author at the time of original publishing] I just returned from the Gartner Security Summit at the Gaylord Resort in National Harbor Maryland. Each morning I took my run along the Potomac River and passed this sculpture of a man […]
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