China's mobile Internet security grim as malicious programs increase.

China's mobile Internet security grim as malicious programs increase. (IcrossChina).

Mobile Internet security is facing a great threat as malicious programs rose by 52 percent year on year in 2015, official data showed Friday.

More than 1.45 million cases of malicious mobile Internet programs that charge money compulsorily or steal personal information were found, according to the National Computer Network Emergency Response Technical Team/Coordination Center.

The center has blacklisted 29,000 programs and 120,000 mobile web site addresses.

Meanwhile, China has been tightening checks on mobile Internet app developers, apps stores and security software to curb the rise of malicious programs.

What's the Odds of 21 Th Century plague? NY rats carry 18 new viruses - scientists.

What's the Odds of 21 Th Century plague? NY rats carry 18 new viruses - scientists. (RT).

The research was conducted by a team from Columbia University's Mailman School of Public Health, who analyzed viruses in Manhattan rats.

“Everybody’s looking all over the world, in all sorts of exotic places, including us. But nobody’s looking right under our noses,” Ian Lipkin, a professor of neurology and pathology at Columbia, told the New York Times.

The initial report was published in mBio magazine on Tuesday and focused on 133 rats scientists had analyzed that had demonstrated a variety of pathogens. Some of them transmit food-borne diseases, and some, like Seoul Hantavirus, have never been seen in New York before. Finally, there are at least 18 completely new pathogens to science.

Two pathogens are similar to one that causes Hepatitis C and could help the researchers fight the disease.
"We ... identified a wide range of known and novel viruses from groups that contain important human pathogens," the researchers said in their study.


"Rats are sentinels for human disease. They're all over the city; uptown, downtown, underground. Everywhere they go, they collect microbes and amplify them. And because these animals live close to people, there is ample opportunity for exchange," Lipkin said.

Once the rats were caught, scientists tested their blood, urine, feces and tissues, extracted DNA from samples in order to get pathogens.

First, bacterias that trigger food poisoning, Salmonella and a strain of E. coli known to cause terrible diarrhea, were found. Also, pathogens that cause fevers were discovered: Seoul Hantavirus and Leptospira.

Luckily, scientists didn’t find one of the most hazardous germs that infects rats in other countries: Yersinia pestis, which causes bubonic plague.

Experts are already ringing alarm bells over the findings.

The study was called “shocking and surprising” and “a recipe for a public health nightmare” by Peter Daszak, the president of EcoHealth Alliance.


The findings were described as “groundbreaking” by David Patrick, the director of the School of Population and Public Health at the University of British Columbia.


“These viruses may or may not have any links to human illness, but it is good to be able to describe them in detail,” he stressed. Read the full story here.

"Red October" virus reaches Iran, local experts neutralize the threat

"Red October" virus reaches Iran, local experts neutralize the threat.(TI).A computer virus by the name of "Red October" has been discovered in Iran, according to country's Communications and Technology Ministry, ILNA reported.
Iran's deputy communications and technology minister Ali Hakim-Javadi confirmed the information, adding that Iranian experts were able to fight the infection, and prevent local agencies and organizations from being compromised.
"The way we understand it, the virus tried to penetrate local computer networks, and diplomatic centers to acquire sensitive, classified information," Hakim-Javadi said.
About a week ago, Kaspersky Lab said that the primary focus of the campaign was targeting countries in eastern Europe, "former USSR Republics and countries in Central Asia.
Kaspersky Lab said "there is strong technical evidence to indicate the attackers have Russian-speaking origins."
Kaspersky said Red October also infected smartphones and collected login information to test on other systems.
Red October, which is named after the Russian submarine featured in the Tom Clancy novel The Hunt For Red October, has what Kaspersky Lab called a unique "resurrection" module that hid in Adobe Reader and Microsoft Office programmes that allowed the attackers to regain access if the virus was discovered and removed.Read the full story here.

"Stuxnet going Rogue?" - Malware infects US power facilities through USB drives.

"Stuxnet going Rogue?" - Malware infects US power facilities through USB drives.(TW).By Grant Gross.Two U.S. power companies reported infections of malware during the past three months, with the bad software apparently brought in through tainted USB drives, according to the U.S. Department of Homeland Security's Industrial Control Systems Cyber Emergency Response Team (ICS-CERT).
In one case, the industrial control system at a power generation facility was infected with "common and sophisticated malware" apparently through an employee's USB drive, according to the ICS-CERT Monitor for October to December 2012.
The publication did not name the malware discovered.
The tainted USB drive came in contact with a "handful of machines" at the power generation facility and investigators found sophisticated malware on two engineering workstations critical to the operation of the control environment, ICS-CERT said.
Investigators didn't find malware on 11 other workstations examined, ICS-CERT said.
ICS-CERT recommended that the power facility adopt new USB use guidelines, including the cleaning of a USB device before each use.
In the second incident, a power company contacted ICS-CERT in early October to report a virus infection in a turbine control system. About 10 computers were affected, ICS-CERT said.
An outside technician used a USB drive to upload software updates during equipment upgrades, ICS-CERT said. The malware delayed the plant's reopening by three weeks, the organization said.Hmmm....Whodunit.....Stuxnet......China.....Iran?Read the full story here.

Grant Gross covers technology and telecom policy in the U.S. government for The IDG News Service. Follow Grant on Twitter at GrantGross. Grant's e-mail address is grant_gross@idg.com.

'Rude awakening' for Mac users as cyber attack infects 550,000 of Apple's 'virus free' machines, UK and U.S. worst hit.

'Rude awakening' for Mac users as cyber attack infects 550,000 of Apple's 'virus free' machines, UK and U.S. worst hit.(DailyMail).A new computer trojan has infected 550,000 machines running Apple's Mac OS X - and many could still be vulnerable. The infected machines are now part of a 'botnet' of zombie machines which can be controlled by cyber criminals and 'told' to download new malicious software. The attack has been described as a 'rude awakening' for Mac users.The new attack was spotted by Russian anti-virus vendor Dr Web. 'We conducted research to determine the scale of spreading of Trojan BackDoor.Flashback that infects computers running Mac OS X,' says the Russian antivirus vendor. 'The botnet encompasses more than 550 000 infected machines, most of which are located in the United States and Canada. 
'This once again refutes claims by some experts that there are no cyber-threats to Mac OS X.' Many Mac users believe that the system is 'immune' to viruses and trojans - but in reality hackers rarely choose to write viruses that afflict Macs, simply because there are relatively few Macs compared to the huge number of machines that run Windows. Hackers want their attacks to spread rapidly, so they usually target the OS that offers the most potential 'victims'. Describing the attack as a 'rude awakening' for Mac OS X users, blogger Adrian Sanabria said, 'Despite what Apple's marketing department would have you believe, Macs are not invulnerable to attacks and malware targeting OS X does exist.' The attack works using a vulnerability in Java, and is delivered via infected web pages. Just visiting the web pages is enough to infect a machine, downloading a file which then downloads further malicious software from elsewhere. Dr Web claims that more than four million web pages are infected with the trojan. 'Over 550 000 infected machines running Mac OS X have been a part of the botnet on April 4,' says Dr Web. 'These only comprise a segment of the botnet set up by means of the particular BackDoor.Flashback modification. Most infected computers reside in the United States (56.6%, or 303,449 infected hosts), Canada comes second (19.8%, or 106,379 infected computers), the third place is taken by the United Kingdom (12.8% or 68,577 cases of infection) and Australia with 6.1% (32,527 infected hosts) is the fourth.'Read the full story here.