cybercrime

Study: Two-thirds of Web surfers fall prey to online crime

About two-thirds of Internet users globally and nearly three-quarters of Web surfers in the U.S. have been victims of online crime, according to a study to be released on Wednesday.

The top countries as far as reported victims are China, Brazil and India tied for second, and then the U.S., according to the findings of the study, titled "Norton Cybercrime Report: The Human Impact." More than 7,000 adults in 14 countries were interviewed for the study.

While one-quarter of respondents said they expect to be victimized by online crime, only half said they would change … Read more

Symantec safety expert on why some cities are risky

If you live in Seattle, Boston, Washington, D.C., San Francisco, or Raleigh, N.C., then you're in one of the top five riskiest cities when it comes to cybercrime.

But, it's not where you live that makes it more dangerous, it's the type of acclivities that people in these cities tend to do, according to Symantec Internet safety advocate Marian Merritt.

"Some of the common factors for residents of those cities would be highly educated, affluent, a lot of people using tech all day long in a variety of fashions," Merritt said. "It'… Read more

Norton ranks riskiest cities for cybercrime

You may want to start keeping a closer eye on where you click if you live in Seattle.

Among 50 U.S. cities studied for their vulnerability to cybercrime, Seattle came out on top as the riskiest place, followed by Boston, Washington, D.C., and San Francisco, according to the report "Norton's Top 10 Riskiest Online Cities," released Monday.

In an effort to study and rank the nation's riskiest cities for cybercrime, Symantec partnered with research firm Sperling's BestPlaces. The two companies used their own internal research and also checked out key facts and figures … Read more

Cutting-edge crooks keen on the cloud

Executives unsure of the viability of cloud computing need look no further than criminal fraternities for a ringing endorsement of the technology, according to one security expert.

Cloud computing has been enthusiastically taken up by criminals for a range of activities, Rik Ferguson, senior security adviser at security firm Trend Micro, told delegates Wednesday at a Westminster eForum in England.

"One of the things that persuades me personally that the cloud is absolutely a viable model and has longevity is that it has already been adopted by criminals," Ferguson said. "They are the people who are leading-edge … Read more

More attacks expected on Facebook, Twitter in 2010

Social-networking sites like Facebook and Twitter can expect more attention from cybercriminals in 2010, according to a new report (PDF) released Tuesday by McAfee Labs. Also at risk are users of Adobe Systems products including Acrobat Reader and Flash. And move over Microsoft; the security firm predicts that Google's Chrome OS will "create another opportunity for malware writers to prey on users."

The company also anticipates smarter and more dangerous Trojans that "follow the money," as well as a "significant trend toward a more distributed and resilient botnet infrastructure that relies much more on … Read more

Kaspersky CEO: You need an Internet 'passport'

Eugene Kaspersky once told a competitor to his face: "I will eat you."

The co-founder and CEO of Kaspersky Lab was certainly not into cannibalism, but was hell-bent on winning over the majority market share his competitor had in the company's base in Russia.

That was in 1995, the year Windows 95 was launched. Contrary to Kaspersky's strategy to develop new software optimized for the Microsoft operating system, its domestic rival saw no need to do so. Today, Kaspersky has the pleasure of saying he had the last laugh since his company is now the market … Read more

Malware worldwide grows 15 percent in September

A rise in malware has caused the number of infected PCs worldwide to increase 15 percent just from August to September, says a report released Tuesday from antivirus vendor Panda Security.

Across the globe, the average number of PCs hit by malware now stands around 59 percent, an all-time high for the year. Among 29 countries tracked, the U.S. ranked ninth with slightly more than 58 percent of its PCs infected. Taiwan hit first place with an infection ratio of 69 percent, while Norway came in lowest with only 39 percent of its PCs attacked by malware.

The study … Read more

Kaspersky impressed by botnet slickness

Cybercrime fighter Eugene Kaspersky can't help but be impressed by the slick operations behind the Conficker botnet, and says that it could have been worse had the botnet been after more than just money.

"They are high-end engineers who write code in a good way," Kaspersky told ZDNet.com.au Wednesday. "They use cryptographic systems in the right way, they don't make mistakes--they are really professional."

Kaspersky says he's "60 percent certain" that Conficker is being controlled from the Ukraine, but can't be certain. And while the threat posed by … Read more

Attacker reportedly holds Virginia patient data hostage

An attacker tried to extort $10 million after breaking into a Virginia state Web site used to track prescription drug abuse and allegedly holding the data hostage, according to a posting on the Wikileaks Web site.

The ransom message on the Virginia Prescription Monitoring Program site read:

"I have your [expletive]! In *my* possession, right now, are 8,257,378 patient records and a total of 35,548,087 prescriptions. Also, I made an encrypted backup and deleted the original. Unfortunately for Virginia, their backups seem to have gone missing, too. Uhoh :(For $10 million, I will gladly send … Read more