Spyware, viruses, & security forum: NEWS - March 02, 2012

Anonymous supporters that joined Operation Megaupload got more than they bargained for when they downloaded what they believed was the Slowloris DoS tool from a Pastebin post.

Mere hours after the Megaupload raid and the arrest of its operators, an unknown individual copied and pasted a original Anonymous Pastebin entry offering the actual tool and replaced the download link with a Trojanized version.

"Later that same day, a separate Anonymous DoS guide was posted on Pastebin which included links to various DoS tools. Slowloris was included in this list of tools—the Trojanized version copied from the modified guide," Symantec researchers pointed out.

This last post went viral among Anonymous supporters. [Screenshot]

Once downloaded, installed and run, the Trojanized Slowloris version drops the Zeus botnet client and begins collecting and sending credentials and cookies to the crook's C&C server. In addition to all this, the botnet orders the Slowloris tool on the infected user's computer to attack Anonymous targets, and the illusion is complete.

Continued : http://www.net-security.org/malware_news.php?id=2021

Also: Anonymous web weapon backfires with hidden banking Trojan

In addition to reading the two ZDNet posts this morning, I also read the following:.

"Anonymous Members Hacked During Their Own DDoS Attacks"
http://gizmodo.com/5890130/anonymous-members-hacked-during-their-own-ddos-attacks

"In a Twist, Anonymous Supporters Hit by Cybercriminals"
http://www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/251242/in_a_twist_anonymous_supporters_hit_by_cybercriminals.html

"Anonymous web weapon backfires with hidden banking Trojan"
http://www.theregister.co.uk/2012/03/02/trojan_attack_tool_targets_hacktivists/

I ALMOST posted it again. While creating the post, the reference to Symantec kept nagging at me. That's when I decided to ......."have a look see" .. at last weeks news threads.

I too had a quiet chuckle when I read it.

Carol

In an attack on Monsanto, the multinational agricultural biotech corporation, Anonymous released a lengthy list of emails and contact information taken from servers belonging to the Bivings Group, Monsanto's public relations firm.

Anonymous targeted the company for its decision to file lawsuits against organic dairy farmers because the farmers labeled their products as free of growth hormones, a product Monsanto used to manufacture.

The attack was announced by the Twitter account YourAnonNews, "HACKED: Monsanto pwnt once more by #Anonymous - Old DB lifted and leaked." The tweet also linked to the database that was published on pastehtml.com, which contained a statement as to the reason for the hack.

Your continued attack on the worlds food supply, as well as the health of those who eat it, has earned you our full attention. Your crimes against humanity are too many to name on one page, you have put over 9000 small-time farmers out of business by using your enourmous legal team to bury them with your malicious patent lawsuits. You have continually introduced harmful, even deadly products into our food supply without warning, without care, all for your own profit," read the statement.

Continued : http://www.globalpost.com/dispatches/globalpost-blogs/the-grid/anonymous-monsanto-campaign-dairy-farmers

Also:
Anonymous Targets Biotech Giant Monsanto with Database Raid
Anonymous Leaks Monsanto Email Database

.. Accident

A "human error" carried out by the police resulted in thousands of websites being completely blocked at the DNS level yesterday. Danish visitors to around 8,000 sites including Google and Facebook were informed that the sites were being blocked by the country's High Tech Crime Unit due to them offering child pornography, a situation which persisted for several hours.

Censorship online is an emotive issue.

Some people believe that all information should be free and as adults it should be our right to be able to make our own choices in deciding what to view. In other countries that is not an option since oppressive regimes take control in order to maintain their power base.

In the West, online censorship takes different forms. In addition to censorship aimed at tackling serious criminality, increasingly entertainment companies are pushing to have sites blocked to protect their corporate interests. Opponents argue that a free and open Internet overrides the need to protect a rightsholder every time, and that mechanisms such as DNS blockades could break the Internet.

Continued : http://torrentfreak.com/google-facebook-and-8000-other-sites-accidentally-dns-blocked-120302/

This week has seen the annual Mobile World Congress event. For 2012, the giants of the mobile tech world are back in Barcelona to captivate the imagination of the tech press with their latest smartphone and tablet offerings.

The mobile industry trade show has certainly not disappointed. Announcements of smartphones with new quad core processors, phone cameras with huge numbers of megapixels crammed onto its sensor and 3 in 1 smartphone-tablet-netbooks have all provided much excitement.

However, these testaments to 'Moore's law' will also broaden the technological possibilities for new mobile applications.

It is fortuitous then that, on the opening day, the trade body host - the GSM Association (GSMA) - released their privacy enhancing standards for mobile application developers.

One of the main principles behind the guidelines is to ensure that new apps embody the concept of "Privacy by Design" (PbD). This seeks to ensure privacy-protective measures are a core part of the design process.

The GSMA states:

Continued : http://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2012/03/02/new-privacy-guidelines-for-mobile-app-developers/

Also: GSMA Announces New Initiative Addressing Mobile App Privacy

To the dismay of many privacy advocates, Google implemented some changes to its privacy policy on Thursday that will allow the world's largest Internet company to collect information about its users across all its products, services and websites and store it in one place.

The idea, Google says, is to create a comprehensive portrait of its users so it can offer more personalized services. But some people are uncomfortable with the idea of any one company compiling such a complete portrait of who they talk with, what they watch and where they go.

On Wednesday we provided some tips on how to keep Google from painting too accurate a portrait of your online habits, but many of our readers had additional questions.

We selected some of the most interesting ones and sent them to Google to see if the company would answer them for us. And what do you know -- it did.

If you are an Android user, have friends on Gmail or are worried you didn't clear your search history in time, read on.

1. I don't use Gmail myself, but if I send email to people who do have Gmail accounts, does Google collect information about me (i.e., my email address and info collected from the content of my emails)?

"If you send a message to a friend who uses Gmail, we store that message in our systems so they can access it. If your friend replies to your message, we might add your email address and name (if your email header includes it) to your friend's contacts list. We do this if your friend's 'create contacts for auto-complete' setting is enabled."

2. My Android phone requires that I log into my Google Account to use it. Are there any (simple) steps I can take to limit the amount of information Google collects about me while I use my phone?

Continued : http://www.latimes.com/business/technology/la-fi-tn-google-privacy-changes-q-and-a-20120301,0,640089.story

A security compromise at Linode, the New Jersey-based Linux cloud provider, has warned customers that hackers breached a Web-based customer service portal used by the company and emptied the Bitcoin accounts of eight Linode customers. One Linode customer reports the theft of Bitcoins totalling around $14,000.

In a post on the company blog Friday, Linode acknowledged the incident, which occurred early Wednesday, and said it had isolated the compromised support account, and that no customer credit card information or credentials were taken. However, the attackers appeared to have targeted a handful of Linode customers who used the service to host Bitcoin wallets, allowing them to pilfer thousands in virtual currency.

Linode did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Threatpost.

Bitcoin is a three year-old decentralized virtual cash system that relies on peer to peer networking, digital signatures and cryptographic proofs to trasact payments online. Bitcoins are the units of currency used in payments and are issued by the Bitcoin network.

In a post on the Web site bitcoinmedia.com, Marek Palatinus, a Linode customer from the Czech Republic said that a Bitcoin wallet he hosted on Linode was emptied of 3,000 Bitcoins early Thursday.

Continued : http://threatpost.com/en_us/blogs/linux-based-cloud-service-linode-hacked-accounts-emptied-030212

Also: Linode hackers escape with $70K in daring bitcoin heist