The Italian Honey Project

A nice visualization method developed by Nicter.

Here is  the demo

The Kraken botnet — one of the Internet’s largest and most difficult to detect in 2008 — is rearing its ugly head again.

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So far, the resurrected Kraken is primarily a spam distributor, focusing most of its output on ads for male enhancement and erectile dysfunction, Royal says. The botnet’s performance is prodigious: a single node with a DSL-speed connection was detected sending more than 600,000 spam messages in a 24-hour period.

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The resurrected Kraken is usually installed by another botnet, using botnet malware such as Butterfly, Royal reports. It’s not clear whether Kraken installation is handled by the same criminal group as Kraken operations, but it may be an example of specialized criminal groups working together, he suggests.

via Kraken Botnet Making A Resurgence, Researcher Says – botnets/Security – DarkReading.

Due to the release of a new WordPress version, our website is going to be updated as well.
Some 404 errors could be found during the while because some plugins that we were using are not yet compatible.
We will fix everything as soon as possible.

According to a report in Belgian newspaper De Tijd, malware has been used to compromise the online portfolios of Belgian investors. The botnet was then used to influence stock prices, making the criminals more than 100,000 Euros. The investigation has remained secret until today.

“With a push of a button the botmaster instructs all the computers to buy or sell the same shares at the same time.“

via Belgian pump and dump botnet » CounterMeasures.

Although is an incident happened on April 2007, it should be seriously analyzed. Currently, Are the financial system’s security countermeasures so far away from 2007 ?  I think not.

In a talk at the hacker conference SummerCon last Friday researcher Jon Oberheide gave a demonstration of just how easy it may be to infect large numbers of phones running Google s Android OS with hidden software that turns the devices into a zombie-like “botnet” under the control of a cybercriminal–particularly if that software associates itself with a phenomenon as popular and tween-entrancing as the upcoming Twilight Eclipse film.

via Researcher Builds Mock Botnet Of ‘Twilight’-Loving Android Users « The Firewall – Forbes.com.

We recently received a report of a new phishing attack that originated from Mexico. It takes advantage of the controversial news about an allegedly missing four-year-old girl, Paulette Gebara Farah, who was later found dead in her own bedroom.

Users who are following the said news may fall prey to this attack by visiting the page http://www.knijo.{BLOCKED}0.net/fotografias-al-desnudo-de-la-mama-de-paulette.htm, which contains an article about Paulette and claims to show nude photos of her mother. When a user accesses this page, a fake dialog box pops up and requests the user to download and install Adobe Flash Player.

via Tequila Botnet Targets Mexican Users | Malware Blog | Trend Micro.

Penn State University is dealing with yet another data breach situation this week after school officials discovered that a university computer was essentially commandeered by a botnet and was revealing the names, social security numbers and other personal information of 15,800 students.

via Botnet Takes Control of Penn State Computer – www.esecurityplanet.com.

Very interesting initiative from the Australian IIA.It should be adopted by any ISP in the world . I would like to underline the “e” point , because it highlights the importance about collaborative actions against cybercrime.

e) Developing mechanisms for ISPs to share information and collaborate about
cyber security compromises and developments affecting other Australian ISPs.

Internet Industry code of practice

Russian-born Kaspersky said the botnet “looks and smells like it was made in Russia”.“Mariposa has a way about it that I believe says it was made in Russia,” Kaspersky told Computerworld Australia.“In Russia you can buy a botnet and they will demonstrate it for you before you pay.“I think [the three arrested men] did not know much about botnets. They just bought it and followed instructions.”Kaspersky said botnets are “out of control” in Russia. He said they said used by local businesses to attack rival companies and by criminals to launch international attacks.

via Mariposa might be Russian – security, kaspersky, denial of service – Computerworld.