November 2005 VECTORBLOG

November 30, 2005

spreading...cheer

New vectorspace posted today: Holiday Scheming (and in PDF). This article provides two examples of recent phishing attempts and tosses out a few interesting points regarding Internet shopping. Written in the wake of "Cyber Monday" press, the article notes that web retailing isn't losing money, even with the high rate of crime. 

November 26, 2005

braniac

After reading and considering the events unfolding around Sony/BMG, we decided to weigh in; not from the chastising view, but from the historical (which seems to a niche unexplored in the popular media so far, even weeks after the initial report from Mark Russinovich). Yes, they placed a rootkit on the machines of lots of unsuspecting users, yes, the kit was used by malware authors, and certainly Sony/BMG is at fault in what could be as big an infection base as Sober.X (anyone seen good numbers yet?). Anyway, read a quick report on the initial "integrity protecting" piece of malware: Brains Behind the Operation and PDF. 

Most interesting to the vectorblog on this one is the discussion of liability, which harkens back to the virus writer liability exploration from earlier in the year (see Virability). 

November, 24, 2005

happy thanksgiving

To all US readers, enjoy the holiday. 

One thing that shocked me recently was this article in "The Register" discussing how little impact the Sony/BMG rootkit storm has actually had on Sony:

http://www.theregister.co.uk/2005/11/22/analysis/  

Something for them to be thankful for at Sony I guess. 

November 23, 2005

no "sober" joke here

No, nothing "sobering" or "sobered up," etc. Check out the report on the latest iteration of Sober (known as CME-681 for those of you keeping score with the new system) which has become the worst outbreak of the year. The report on Sober.X/CME-681 and PDF this time.

November 20, 2005

i know you

We're back in action, after working on non-public/free stuff for a while - and just in time for a fresh batch of Bagle and Sober worming. Since it has been a while, feel free to send in a recommendation or request for public postings - just to jump start things again. 

November 10, 2005

monster

Microsoft's security advisory for November is out and includes just a single warning. See the report here.