Gadgetell | Tech News, Reviews, and Interesting Things

This week let’s take a look at what’s happening in the news.  It seems malware is everywhere!

English government hacked

Our first report comes from England where it’s been discovered that hundreds of government run websites have been hacked.  Anyone visiting them is redirected to either a porn site or a shady pharmacy hawking discount Viagra.  What’s particularly disturbing about the attacks is that many of the websites hit belong to elementary schools and are used regularly by students.  That means children are being redirected to the porn and Viagra sites!

The U.K. government hasn’t made any comment on the attacks but experts say the sites were likely hit because of their high rankings in search results and were easily attacked because of poor programming and/or security.  As is the case in most website attacks, SQL injections and cross site scripting (the cause of most of Twitter’s ills as well!) were to blame.

Exploiting a tragedy

Malware is also in the news here in the U.S. as a new wave of malicious spam has been released.  This time it attempts to capitalize on the Air France tragedy which killed over 200 people last month.  Subject lines promise exclusive news about the crash and the links within direct people to fake news videos.  Any attempt to view them results in a pop up saying a codec needs updating, but what really downloads is a Trojan that steals passwords and other sensitive information. 

Additionally, the same cybercriminals are using black hat SEO techniques to poison search results related to the plane crash.  This is causing malicious sites to pop up high in search rankings.  Anyone who clicks on them is redirected to a site that attempts to push scareware on them in the form of a rogue anti-virus program.

Malware on ATMs

Finally, malware has even found its way onto ATMs!  Security researchers at SpiderLabs have confirmed that malware was found on an ATM in Eastern Europe and may be making its way to other ATMs around the globe.  The program records the information on the magnetic strip of any card inserted into the machine it is on.  To be installed someone would need access to a port inside the machine meaning it could be an inside job or that of a hacker who is also a very good lock picker.

There have been no reports of the malware being found on ATMs here in the U.S.  How can you protect yourself?  Stick to ATMs from well known banks and avoid the generic ones found in convenience stores and other high traffic areas.  Also keep a very close eye on your accounts so you can spot any trouble and nip it in the bud.

That’s all for this week!  Keep those shields up!