New adware trojan targets OS X users

TUAW

Adware attacks against OS X are on the rise this year, says a report by anti-virus company Doctor Web. The Russian firm recently discovered another threat, Trojan.Yontoo.1, which has quickly become the most prominent adware trojan attacking Apple desktops and laptops.

The trojan worms its way onto your computer through websites that require you to install a plugin to view the content of the site. The most common vector are movie trailer websites that prompt you to install an HD Video player or similar plugin. Instead of a media plugin, unsuspecting users will download the trojan.

Never install a plugin that a web page is asking you to install. If there is an update to something like flash or Java, go to Adobe or Oracle and download from there.

Nearly 35% Of Android Apps In China Secretly Steal User Data

TechCrunch

Earlier this week, the Data Center of China Internet (DCCI) released a report (h/t Tech In Asia) that showed nearly 35 percent of the Android apps it surveyed were secretly stealing user data unrelated to the app’s functionality. The DCCI, a research institute, looked at 1,400 apps downloaded from different app markets and found that 66.9 percent were tracking users’ private data, with 34.5 percent collecting information that had no connection to the app’s usage.

Really secure.

Mac malware that infected Facebook bypassed OS X Gatekeeper protection

Ars Technica

Pintsized.A is a new family of Mac malware that uses an exploit to bypass Gatekeeper, an OS X protection that allows end users to tightly control which sources are permitted to install apps, according to an article published Monday by The Security Ledger. Mac antivirus provider Integosays the trojan masquerades on infected machines as Linux printing software known as cupsd, although it runs from a different location than the legitimate title. It’s unclear exactly how the malware gets around Gatekeeper.

Maybe we should run some kind of anti-virus as an extra precaution. Of course, the biggest security hole is the human using the computer so…

Android Accounted For 79% Of All Mobile Malware In 2012, 96% In Q4 Alone, Says F-Secure

TechCrunch

According to a report out today from security specialists F-Secure, Android accounted for 79% of all malware in 2012, up from 66.7% in 2011 and just 11.25% in 2010. On the other side of the spectrum, Apple’s iOS, the world’s second-most popular platform for smartphones in terms of new purchases, remains one of the least compromised, with 0.7% of malware on its platform.

Japanese Government Warns Against Google’s App Store

Fast Company

The Information Technology Promotion Agency has alertedJapan’s Android smartphone and tablet users to avoid a malicious app called “sexy porn model wallpaper,” and to avoid using Google’s official Android app store Play altogether.

受賞 (WINNING, or so says Google Translate)

In The Security World, Android Is The New Windows

ReadWrite VIA LoopInsight

“There’s so much malware on Android, you’d think it would be a huge deal,” Cobb said. And the growth of is “huge,” he added, “both in the number of malware exploits and their increasing sophistication. The rate of growth in Android malware is impressive, and scary.”

WINNING.

 

‘Fragmentation’ leaves Android phones vulnerable to hackers, scammers

Washington Post:

Fixes to known security flaws can take many months to reach individual smartphones, if they arrive at all.

The problem, security experts say, has contributed to making the world’s most popular mobile operating system more vulnerable than its rivals to hackers, scam artists and a growing universe of malicious software.

But, they are open…to malware.

Android malware emerges on Google Play which installs a trojan on your PC, uses your microphone to record you

The Next Web:

Kaspersky researchers have discovered a new piece of Android malware that masquerades as a “cleaner” app meant to free memory for Google’s operating system but wreaks havoc on your smartphone in the background and on Microsoft’s operating system when it’s connected to a PC.

Killing two birds with one shot. That’s a feature my iPhone and MacBook Pro don’t have, so yeah, Android is WINNING.

Viruses, Trojans, and worms, oh my: The basics on malware

From ArsTechnica

Malware masquerades as patch for Java

Computerworld:

The latest version of Java is Update 11. Trend Micro wrote on its blog that it was alerted to a fake “Java Update 11” present on at least one website. If a user installs the bogus update, a malicious backdoor program is downloaded.

Only install Java using the update utility on windows, software update on OS X, or go directly to Java.com