WyzGuys Tech Talk

When I teach my computer security classes, I am often asked “why do they do it?”  My answer is always “It’s the money.”  Most of the computer and network malware exploits are making money for the perpetrators one way or another, and as more traditional criminal organizations move into cybercrime, we see more traditional criminal elements.  In this case, spam email messages are sent out with a subject line of “You pig!” and a threatening note that the attached photograph ...

Yahoo Voices, which is a sharing site on Yahoo “where your expertise and perspectives take center stage!” and users can post their own articles, videos and slideshows was hacked recently by the “D33Ds Company” and they posted 453,491 email addresses and passwords online.  If you have an account on this website, you will want to change the password.  And try going with something harder than “123456, password, welcome, ninja, or abc123” which were the top 5 most used ...

A cybercriminal going by the name “Dr. Smurf was taken down by the FBI for selling stolen credit card information on the underground “Dark Market” in 2008.  What Dr. Smurf didn’t know id that the FBI had infiltrated the DarkMarket in 2006 and was using it to learn how the world of cybercrime really worked, and to find and apprehend the malefactors that buy and sell credit card information, malware, and ...

Have you ever reported content on Facebook as “abusive?”  Have you ever wondered just what happens.  Facebook has opened the door a bit to let users see inside, in a report they issued on June 19th.

Basically, there are four abuse teams working different issues.  The Safety Team focuses on violent and harmful behavior by it’s members.  The Hate and Harassment Team specialize in dealing with abusive speech.  The ...

This story is interesting because it shows just how powerful a Trojan Horse program can be.  Trojans make up over two-thirds of all malware infections, and the reason is that Trojan Horse programs are small, easy to conceal in another program like a game, or easy to install using a drive-by download from a compromised web site.  These programs allow the attacker to remotely access and control the computer at a later date, and install other malware applications such as ...

Ah…those daffy folks at the Googleplex really know how to keep my life interesting.  One of my clients was trying to install Carbonite, the online backup product, and got an error message saying that the download might be potentially dangerous, which is not all that unusual.   It sometimes happens with certain legitimate products that have components that are similar to certain malware exploits.  The client clicked on the “Download Anyway” button, and the following error message popped up.  “Confirm Download:  ...