Gadgetell | Tech News, Reviews, and Interesting Things

Almost everyone has run across it and perhaps some of you have fallen for it - rogue anti-virus programs.  Also known as scareware, these programs are infesting the net, and researchers say they net the scammers behind them a staggering $34 million a month.  They work very simply, either a… Continue Reading »

Three men have been indicted in what federal authorities are calling the largest identity theft case ever prosecuted.  The three men are accused of hacking into the files of Heartland Payment Systems between October 2006 and May 2008.  Heartland processes debit and credit card payment for over a quarter of… Continue Reading »

Everyone loves Facebook.  It’s fun, it’s useful, and it can be downright addicting.  Thanks to its ever increasing popularity it can also be dangerous.  Hackers and scammers are well aware of the large audience on Facebook and do what they can to take advantage of it.  Here are a few… Continue Reading »

Guests at the Rio Hotel in Las Vegas may have had their financial information stolen by ATMs infected with malware.  The possible breach was first discovered by a conference presenter at the Defcon hacker conference.  He used one of the hotel’s ATMs to make an attempted withdrawal of $200.  The… Continue Reading »

Today let’s take a look at botnets.  This is the tool of choice for spammers everywhere.  A botnet is a collection of computers, known as zombies, that have been infected by malware.  The malware enables the criminal in charge of the group, also known as the bot master, to control… Continue Reading »

When a large scale cyberattack began hitting the United States and South Korea over the July 4th weekend, the accusations and speculation regarding who was to blame began flying.  South Korea insisted North Korea must be to blame.  The U.S. wondered if it was the work of Russia or maybe… Continue Reading »

Security experts have found a silver lining in the recession: it’s hitting cybercriminals hard too, leading to a drop in malware. That’s right; there really are hard times all over.  A German security firm has released a report showing a 30% drop in unique malware signatures and says it’s no… Continue Reading »

This week we’re going to take a look at how spammers and scammers use news headlines to do their dirty work.  It’s an old and well worn technique, presumably because of its effectiveness.  Scammers and spammers love to send emails and links claiming to have exclusive info about a hot… Continue Reading »

We see it everyday.  It’s everywhere - in our mailboxes, our blogs, even on our phones.  I’m talking of course about unsolicited bulk email, better known as spam.  Spam, named after a classic Monty Python skit about a couple who goes to a restaurant that turns out to serve nothing… Continue Reading »

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