Thursday, April 3, 2008

April Fool's Day Warning, And Some Fun - Security Fix

April Fool's Day Warning, And Some Fun - Security Fix: "April Fool's Day Warning, And Some Fun

This post has been updated. Please read through to the end.

Original post:

The cyber criminal(s) behind the Storm worm want to make an April Fool out of you today.

The Storm worm author(s) likes to use holidays and other notable calendar occasions to launch new attacks. True to form, new versions of the Storm worm were blasted out yesterday as links in an e-mail that included a taunting image of an idiot in a fool's costume wearing a 'kick me' sign. Anyone foolish enough to follow the embedded directions telling recipients to 'click here, if your download doesn't start in 5 seconds,' will hand their PC over to the bad guys.

Image F-Secure.com

The security news on this first day of April isn't all hackers and viruses. In fact, you'd do well not to take anything you read online today too seriously. Below are a few of the more entertaining fake security news stories spotted so far today (hat tip to the SANS Internet Storm Center).

F-Secure: A new Trojan horse program that actually deposits money into your bank account.

Google: Introducing 'Gmail Custom Time.' Didn't send that presentation on time? No problemo! Now you can back-date your G-mail messages.

NASA: Giant Space Station Robot Turns on Crew (image)." [..]

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Brian Krebs on Computer Security. The Washington Post Company.

The Curious Case of Dmitry Golubov - Security Fix

The Curious Case of Dmitry Golubov - Security Fix: "The Curious Case of Dmitry Golubov

Earlier this month, Security Fix took a look at Dmitry Ivanovich Golubov, a Ukrainian politician once considered by U.S. law enforcement to be a top cybercrime boss.

Golubov took rather strong exception to the way he was characterized in that post, denying involvement in any type of cybercrime activity. The problem, Golubov claimed, is that the FBI confused him with someone else."

According to Golubov, he was the victim of identity theft. Someone gained access to his passport, scanned it and posted it online along with a note confessing his involvement in a multinational credit card theft ring. According to Golubov, the note read:

"I Dmitry Golubov, leading hacker, I hack banks, but I have nothing to fear because the police with me at the same time, and in order for you to believe me that I am not afraid I show you my passport, as well as my home address and home phone."

"I am not mentally sick; if I indeed engaged in such activities, you think I will write about this on the Internet?" Golubov wrote in an e-mail exchange with Security Fix.

It just so happened that a short time after I wrote about Golobuv's political activities, I heard from one of the FBI agents who worked on his case back in 2005. The agent traveled to Ukraine to visit Golubov while he was in prison there awaiting trial.



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Brian Krebs on Computer Security. The Washington Post Company.