malware

Earlier in the week, we told you about a CCleaner breach that infected somewhere in the area of 2.27 million users with malware. Though Avast, the company that distributes CCleaner, initially said it was able to "disarm the threat before it was able to do any harm," it turns out that may not actually be the case. According to new findings, this could have been a more sophisticated attack with some very specific targets.

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In the grand annuls of software irony, apps that explicitly promise to make your computer more stable being used to secretly distribute malware are top of the list, especially when they happen to be owned by anti-virus specialists. It's a cluster of coincidences that makes news that CCleaner, the free system tune-up tool offered by Avast, was unwittingly used to load a backdoor in users' PCs. During the period it was compromised, 2.27m people installed the infected app.

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It seems almost too ironic that the Google Play Store has been secretly invaded by even more malware after it has promoted its Google Play Protect security platform for Android. Boasting of technologies like machine learning and artificial intelligence, Play Protect promises to protect Android users more thoroughly without having to increase manpower. Alas, it seems that another malware, named ExpensiveWall, has gotten past the Play Store’s security and this lapse is costing users a lot more than just peace of mind but actual money as well.

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There are pros and cons to the way Apple screens apps that go into its App Store and the way Google prefers to rely on automation to preserve the quality and security of Android apps. The latter methods is more efficient and more open to the hundreds of apps submitted to the Google Play Store. Unfortunately, that does mean that some less than innocent apps do slip in through the cracks. Case in point is a family of spyware collectively named “SonicSpy”, which was able to bypass Google’s automated bouncer, allowing infected apps to join the Google Play Store list, potentially infecting unsuspected Android users.

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Investigators are following the trail of the WannaCry attackers' Bitcoin ransom, with one digital currency asset change service confirming they were used to convert the nefarious funds. The notorious ransomeware took advantage of security loopholes in older versions of Windows to seize control of users' systems, locking up their files until they coughed up $300 or more. That cash, amounting to more than 50 BTC, had been sitting in digital wallets until earlier this week.

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Earlier this year, the WannaCry virus infected computer systems around the world. Most notably, the ransomware was responsible for crippling hospital systems in the UK, but it also spread to countries like Russia, German, Turkey, and Spain before it was brought down. This week, one of the researchers responsible for stopping WannaCry was arrested in Nevada.

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Bitcoin wallets related to the WannaCry ransomware attacks and stuffed with more than $140,000 worth of the cryptocurrency have been emptied, experts say. The balance of the various accounts, which amounted to 52.2 BTC, was unexpectedly drained overnight. Funds began to mount in early May 2017, as victims of WannaCry coughed up the virtual cash needed to unlock their data.

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They say good things never last and bad things last for ages. That seems to be the case with AdUps, a Chinese “technology firm” that was blatantly installing spyware on countless of Android smartphones worldwide. Despite being involved in a scandal that even got the US Homeland Security’s attention, AdUps’ operation continues and its spyware still infects entry-level and budget smartphones, even Blu Product’s own, which was at the heart of that scandal.

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It’s 2017 and we are still under constant threat from viruses, even biological ones. In fact, malware has taken on an even darker tone, including strains that have no purpose but to destroy your files, whether you pay a handsome ransom or not. And yet the anti-virus industry isn’t on the rise despite the rise in threats. Sensing a disturbance in the force, Kaspersky, one of the more popular names in the AV market, has finally released a free version of its eponymous software. While free is good, it’s timing is also too good to be true.

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A piece of mobile ransomware that mimics the methods of WannaCry malware has leaked online. The source code for the malicious software has been spilled to the web, allowing this "SLocker" to be downloaded and spread ad infinitum. The source code might also give security experts an easy way to ramp up protection against the malicious code - but the potential costs far outweigh the potential benefits.

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Over the past couple of years, the Android-based malware known as CopyCat infected 14-million devices. This monster of a smartphone infection is based in rooting the smartphone, thereby giving it access to the entirety of the device's innards. There's only one known way for CopyCat to make its way into an Android device - installation through a non-Google Play app market.

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It smelled like a ransomware and talked like a ransomware but, in fact, it was worse than a ransomware. Although it has been labeled as a strain of a 2016 ransomware, this year's "Petya" malware has been mislabeled. According to cybersecurity outfit Comae Technologies, the so-called Petya.2017 is actually a wiper masquerading as a ransomware, doing irrecoverable damage to data on drives. To add insult to injury, this wiper was specifically designed to look like the first Petya in order to fool media into thinking that it is.

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