Malware

A new round of targeted phishing is underway with attackers again trying to trick recipients into opening malware-laden attachments falsely claiming to originate from the federal government, researchers warned today.

Targeted phishing emails are attempting to infect the machines of users' who are tricked into opening malicious Microsoft Access Database (MDB) files, US-CERT (United States Computer Emergency Readiness Team) said in a warning this week.

A number of Hewlett-Packard notebook models are vulnerable to an ActiveX attack that could permit a hacker to execute malicious code.

Researchers today began noticing increased activity on ports directed to media players, a strong indication that attackers are actively screening machines for a new codec vulnerability reported over the weekend.

A targeted assault of phishing emails opened the door for hackers to glean the sensitive information of up to 12,000 visitors to the Oak Ridge National Laboratory, officials said Thursday.

Researchers at anti-virus vendor F-Secure have noted a 100-percent increase over last year in the amount of malware detected during 2007.

Researchers have spotted two active attacks and a new proof-of-concept (PoC) exploit that take advantage of a still unpatched vulnerability in Apple QuickTime.