PCR Tech and IT retail, distribution and vendor news
This week’s security news reveals mobile adverts prose a bigger threat to mobile security than pornography and ‘black phones’ could make users a target for hackers.
According to a new security report by Blue Coat, malvertising – mobile adverts which leave users vulnerable to attacks – has replaced pornography as the biggest threat on mobile devices, with the threat having tripled in size from 2013.
KPMG’s Stephen Bonner has highlighted that owners of the new stealth ‘black phones’ may be susceptible to attacks from cyber criminals.
“By owning a ‘black phone’ a user could become a target as it acts as a red flag to criminals, highlighting that there’s something to hide. As the devices attract and house high value data, attackers will be inclined to break in – it’s a bit like carrying family photos in a security van full of gold, when the van is targeted and raided the gold will not only vanish but the photos will probably go too, it’s better for the photos to just be kept at home where nobody will look twice at,” he commented.
A new threat report from F-Secure Labs revealed that web-based malware attacks doubled in the second half of 2013, with threats targeting Android accounting for 97 per cent of mobile threats for the whole year.
The top ten countries reporting Android threats saw a little over 140,000 Android malware detections.
Kaspersky Lab researcher has found that an average of 900 hidden online resources are active on the Tor network.
Tor is primarily unrestricted, free software operating via the Internet that lets users enter sites, exchange messages on forums and communicate in IMS while remaining completely anonymous.
Recently, cybercriminals have started actively using Tor to host malicious infrastructure. A quick look at Tor network resources revealed lots of resources dedicated to malware.
A new study by Bitdefender has revealed that scammers are turning to Facebook for targeting.
Scammers are increasingly taking advantage of Facebook targeting tools and user trust to push cheap pharmaceuticals, designer replicas and other products in a trend reminiscent of traditional spam.
The Bitdefender research on 50,000 unique domains revealed that pharmacy products account for 33 per cent of suspicious Facebook adverts. Replicas comprise 30 per cent, gambling covers 18 per cent and dating accounts for 19 per cent.
