Advocate (Dr.) Prashant Mali's Blog

2014 Internet Security Threat Report Highlights from the 2014 Internet Security Threat Report Key Findings 91% increase in targeted attacks campaigns in 2013 62% increase in the number of breaches in 2013 Over 552M identities were exposed via breaches in 2013 23 zero-day vulnerabilities discovered 38% of mobile users have experienced mobile cybercrime in past 12 months Spam volume dropped to 66% of all email traffic 1 in 392 emails contain a phishing attacks Web-based attacks are up 23% 1 in 8 legitimate websites have a critical vulnerability

Citadel : The Banking Trojan wanna buy one .. Citadel  is a banking trojan based on the Zeus source code. A few months after the Zeus source code was leaked, a threat actor using the moniker "AquaBox" was observed on a Russian-language eCrime forum offering Citadel 1.1, a new derivative of Zeus malware. Citadel retained basic Zeus functionality but added modifications to improve the functionality and security of this banking trojan. Citadel developed a community of customers and contributors around the globe that suggested new features and contributed code and modules as part of an ad hoc criminal social network. Capabilities included AES encryption of configuration files and communications with the C2 server, an ability to evade tracking sites, the capacity to block access to security sites on victims' systems, and the ability to record videos of victims' activities. The network of Citadel contributors continued adding innovative features to the trojan, makin...

Cyber Weapon : Duqu I have been analyzing an  malware threat identified as the Duqu trojan. This Trojan horse has received a great deal of attention because it is similar to the infamous Stuxnet worm of 2010. I had put countermeasures in place  to detect Duqu C2 traffic, and they continue to monitor for new Duqu samples and update protections as needed. What is Duqu? The Duqu trojan is composed of several malicious files that work together for a malicious purpose. The first component is a Windows kernel driver that searches for and loads encrypted dynamic link library (DLL) files. The decrypted DLL files implement the main payload of Duqu, which is a remote access trojan (RAT). The RAT allows an adversary to gather information from a compromised computer and to download and run additional programs. In addition to the RAT, another piece of malware was recovered with Duqu in one instance. This malware is an information stealer designed to log user keystrokes and other ...

Evaluate Your Cyber Security Strategy with focus on DDoS & APT’s The Cyber Law Consulting Team(CLC) has observed cyber threats becoming more advanced as hackers seek new ways to breach information security or disrupt operations. Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attacks and Advanced Persistent Threats (APTs) are a big concern. Organizations must evaluate and develop their IT security controls to protect themselves from these sophisticated and unpredictable cyber-attacks. DDoS Attacks and DoS Attacks In a  Denial of Service attack , hackers try to disrupt a website, network or machine. The goal may be solely to prevent people from connecting to the website that is being attacked, but a Distributed Denial of Service (DDoS) attack is often used to distract a business so attackers can conduct other attacks behind the scenes while the business is focused on getting its website back up. Many times, hackers conduct a DDoS test-run on an organization to see whether it is ...

WordPress Vulnerabilities WordPress is an open-source blogging platform and content management system (CMS). Since its inception in 2003, WordPress has become widely used and is very active. It is made up of more than 200,000 lines of code (written mostly in the PHP scripting language) and is used by more than  64 million websites  on the Internet. Although WordPress is considered a mature platform, regular updates address serious security vulnerabilities that may be used by an attacker targeting a WordPress site. WordPress vulnerabilities are even more of a threat when combined with recent large-scale brute-force attacks targeting WordPress websites. These threats are important considerations if you host a website on wordpress.com or use the platform on a different host. If you use WordPress, have you taken steps to secure your installation? Basic security precautions, a strong password policy, and a regular update schedule can have multiple benefits: Helps ensure you...