Haiti Earthquake Donation Sites - Please be careful of the scammers

Every major event of this type leads to phishing attacks and money not going where it's intended. Please only donate to mainstream sites like the Red Cross, special church funds, etc. Please avoid many of the sites that might appear in email or web searches.

Meanwhile, my deepest sympathy, prayers, and thoughts continue for those affected by this great disaster.

Read on: Do the Right thing.

Adobe hacked, China to blame

In what seems to be normal news this week, Adobe became a victim of what the company is calling "a sophisticated, coordinated attack" and is actively investigating the incident.

Given the size and scope of the attack, Adobe expects the full investigation to take quite some time to complete.

At this time there is no evidence indicating that any sensitive information was compromised.

It was not initially clear if this attack was related to the hacking incident in which China targeted Google, but Adobe did say that this attack against corporate network systems did target also other companies and they are working with them to get a clear picture of what happened.

In an e-mail exchange with Computerworld, Wiebke Lips, Adobe's senior manager of corporate communications said: "It appears that this incident and the one Google announced earlier are related."

Google did say that at least twenty other large companies have been targeted. It will be interesting to see what cybercriminals were looking for at Adobe and what companies have also been attacked.

Facebook Privacy Doesn't Really Exist

Facebook recently rolled out new privacy settings that provides additional publishing controls.

But, does this really make your profile info private? Think again. Read on here to see why.

Google hacked, plans to leave China

Although it does face a variety of cyber attacks on a regular basis, Google recently acknowledged the theft of intellectual property following a sophisticated attack on their infrastructure originating from China.

Investigation of the incident uncovered a more serious problem - at least twenty other large companies have been targeted as well. These are not only IT companies but doing business in a variety of sectors - finance, media, technology, etc. U.S. authorities are working with Google and the affected companies to try and understand the depth of the attacks.

It's not a secret that the Chinese government relies heavily on censorship as a way of control. There's evidence that these people are going the extra mile in order to retain control. Google suggests that a primary goal of the attacks was accessing the Gmail accounts of Chinese human rights activists although their apparently failed to gain access to the accounts during this attack.

Following these events, Google is reviewing the feasibility of their business operations in China and they are no longer willing to continue censoring their search results on Google.cn.

Full report here.

Spammers Target Brands To Spread Malware

Spammers continue to take advantage of the reputation of global brands such as UPS, DHL and Facebook to prompt opening of emails, according to a new report from Commtouch.

During the past quarter, cybercriminals focused on distributing the Mal-Bredo A virus, according to Commtouch's Threats Trend Report for Q4 2009. The number of variants decreased from 10,00 to 1,000 as compared to last quarter.

"As we review the Internet threats for this quarter, we can really see the creativity the cybercriminals use to ensure their messages are opened," said Asaf Greiner, Commtouch vice president, products.

"Whether we like it or not, their activities really demonstrate when society-wide activities - such as social media participation - reach critical mass. Essentially, if a spammer is using a specific brand to entice consumers to open their mail, it means that brand has achieved a strong, positive reputation."

Blended threats, including fake Swine Flu alerts and Halloween tricks, continued to circulate, while spammers introduced a few new ploys including MP3 spam and personal improvement spam targeting women.

Other highlights from the Q4 Trend Report include:

An average of 312,000 zombies were newly activated daily for the purpose of malicious activity.

Spam levels averaged 77% of all email traffic throughout the quarter, peaking at 98% in November and bottoming out at 68% at the end of December.

Sites in the "Computers & Technology" and "Search Engines & Portals" categories topped the list of Web categories manipulated by phishing schemes.

"Business" continued to be the Web site category most infected with malware for the third quarter in a row.

Pharmacy spam remained in the top spot with 81% of all spam messages; last quarter, it led with 68%. Replicas remained in the #2 spot, falling from 19% to 5.4%.

Brazil continues to produce the most zombies, responsible for 20.4% of global zombie activity.

Adobe predicted to Surpass Microsoft As top Malware Target in 2010

Adobe predicted to Surpass Microsoft As top Malware Target

Adobe Flash and Acrobat are popular standard tools for users. Any unpatched vulnerabilities provide wide targets for malware developers. It is essential to keep both of these products patched to ensure the best levels of safety. Also users should avoids avoid any suspicious items presented to them in email or web browsing.

Adobe predicted to Surpass Microsoft As top Malware Target in 2010
http://www.informationweek.com/news/security/vulnerabilities/showArticle.jhtml?articleID=222100263

QUOTE: Adobe Reader and Flash will surpass Microsoft Office applications as favorite targets of cybercriminals, a security vendor predicted Tuesday. In unveiling its 2010 Threat Predictions report, McAfee said the growing popularity of the Adobe products has attracted the attention of cybercriminals, who have been increasingly targeting the applications. Adobe Reader and Flash are two of the most widely deployed applications in the world. As a result of Adobe's success in client software, McAfee Labs believes "Adobe product exploitation will likely surpass that of Microsoft Office applications in 2010."

McAfee Threats prediction 2010
http://www.mcafee.com/us/local_content/white_papers/7985rpt_labs_threat_predict_1209_v2.pdf