6 posts and columns on cybercriminals

News Byte

McAfee Releases Annual "Top Scary Reasons to Buy Our Software" List

in News on December 28, 2010 at 11:33 am PT

Security outfit McAfee today unveiled its 2011 Threat Predictions report, and sure enough, the biggest threats are aimed at “2010′s most buzzed about platforms and services, including Google’s Android, Apple’s iPhone, foursquare, Google TV and the Mac OS X platform, which are all expected to become major targets for cybercriminals.” Another in a long list of non-shocking (but still sobering) predictions: “Politically motivated attacks will be on the rise, as more groups are expected to repeat the WikiLeaks paradigm.” The report’s bottom line: Anything you do online carries risks. Which is undeniably true.

Cybercrime Capitalizes on Swine-Flu Fears

in News on November 18, 2009 at 10:48 am PT

Cybercriminals are capitalizing on swine-flu fears by pitching sales of fake Tamiflu, security firm Sophos said. Networks of fraudsters use spam and malware to direct Web traffic to phony pharmaceutical sites, wrote Graham Cluley, a technology consultant for Sophos.

Hotmail Phishing Attacks Spread to Other Email Services

in News on October 6, 2009 at 12:16 pm PT

Phishing attacks that affected customers of Microsoft’s Hotmail Monday have compromised more than 30,000 email accounts, including those of Gmail, Yahoo Mail and other services. Microsoft blamed phishing, in which cybercriminals try to trick consumers into revealing personal information through fraudulent emails, for a list of Hotmail account passwords that appeared online.

Australian Hacking Sting Backfires

in News on August 19, 2009 at 7:41 am PT

A sting operation led by Australian federal police against a well-known hacking ring ended in embarrassment after the police computer system was hacked by the very cybercriminals they’d aimed to wipe out, according the Sydney Morning Herald.