November 22, 2014
The Webroot Threat Blog has an article posted yesterday, November 21, by Tyler Moffitt, titled Vaporizer chargers can contain malware discussing a posting made by a Redditor to Reddit's TalesFromTechSupport subreddit titled "The boss has malware, again..." regarding an e-cigarette USB charger infecting a system when it was plugged into that system. I had heard of BadUSB, i.e., code in the firmware of a USB device that could be used to gain control of a computer to which it was connected or peform other nefarious deeds, but I hadn't heard before of such code being found on an an electronic cigarette vaporizer.March 9, 2014
Symantec reports a Trojan horse Android.iBanking is compromising Android devices. The malware poses as a mobile antivirus application. Once installed it displays an icon with a green and black shield on a green background.
The package name used by the app is
com.BioTechnology.iClientsService[NUMBER] where [NUMBER]
is one or more digits.
The app opens a back door to the Android device and may steal information from the device.
January 24, 2014
For January 24, 2014, Symantec reports Trojan.Cryptolocker.D as a new threat affecting Microsoft Windows systems. The malware is classified as a Trojan horse. It encrypts files on a user's hard drive and then demands payment for the purchase of a key to decrypt the files. Such malware is known as ransomware.A couple of months ago, a user contacted me when she was unable to open some Microsoft Office documents. When I checked her system, I found it had been infected by that type of malware. Unfortunately, the only way for her company to recover the data, since there were no backup copies of the files was to pay several hundred dollars to get the key. I informed the company that though it was likely that the malware purveyor would provide a key, since if it became widely known that they did not provide a key with payment, few would choose to pay, but that there was no guarantee that, even if they paid the ransom to decrypt their files, that the malware purveyor would provide a key to decrypt them. Her company chose not to pay.
