Incidents

Social engineering: the latest chapter

A user notified us about a suspicious link being spread via MSN. Normally we would assume that there’s a new IM-Worm out there, since we’ve had quite a few of them this year.

However, the link itself attracted our attention:

http://www.vbulettin.com/[removed]

Naturally, anyone who follows information security knows Virus Bulletin: one of the oldest and most respected publications in the AV industry. Getting a VB award is a must for any reputable antivirus.

No, their site has not been hacked. If you read the URL carefully, you’ll notice that the word bulletin is misspelled – bulettin. Moreover, Virus Bulletin can be found on-line at a slightly different URL: www.virusbtn.com.

Most of us only scan URLs at best, and the malicious version is certainly close enough to the real thing to fool people. Virus writers are at it again: masquerading as a respected AV publication is a good way to get people to trust you.

Oh, before I forget… a new version of Backdoor.Win32.Landis is lurking at this link. If you receive this link, don’t click on it. There’s no IM-Worm involved, by the way – Landis sends the link out on command from its owner.

We’ve added detection for this new Trojan to our databases, so update just in case.

Social engineering: the latest chapter

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Reports

APT trends report Q1 2024

The report features the most significant developments relating to APT groups in Q1 2024, including the new malware campaigns DuneQuixote and Durian, and hacktivist activity.

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