Author Archives: Jovi Umawing
Fake Flash Player App is an SMS Trojan and Adware
Adobe marked August 15, 2012—exactly a week ago—as the last day when users could download and install Flash Player on their Android devices if they didn’t have it yet. The company made this announcement so they can focus on Flash on the …
Secure Cloud Computing 101
If you, dear Reader, have been closely following the news on hacking this week, you already know by now what happened to Wired‘s Gadget Lab Senior Writer Mat Honan. In response to this hi-profile break-in, Apple and Amazon—whose services the hackers used to …
Fraudsters Use Legit AV Brands to Mask Boxer
SMS scammers targeting Android smartphone users are showing no sign of ceasing. As long as Android has a big chunk of the consumer market, threats targeting this OS will never go away. So far, we’ve seen bogus mobile Internet browsers, such …
The Skinny on Password Security
ENISA, the European Network and Information Security Agency, got it right. Securing passwords is a joint effort of both user and service provider, and this kind of “partnership” can span a lifetime. In a recently released Flash Note (in PDF), …
Scammers Prey on London 2012 Mobile Game Players
Not long ago, organizers of this year’s Olympic Games released London 2012 – Official Mobile Game, a fun smartphone app for Android, iOS, and Blackberry users. Screenshots taken from Google Play (click to enlarge) According to this website: “The …
Survey Spam Also Bank on 2012 Olympics Fever
It’s no surprise to see that criminals are banking on a highly anticipated sporting event such as the 2012 Olympic Games, which will be held in London, England. And as early as 2010, Olympic-themed spam has been out there. There’s …
New Android Malware Comes Bundled with Real Opera Mini
Avid readers of this blog can attest that we have been documenting a number of noteworthy and malicious binaries affecting smartphones, and users running Android, specifically, are affected mostly by these threats. One malware we have featured is called OpFake, a family …
The Integration of GFI SandBox and Metascan
In a press release last week, GFI Software announced that the company, in collaboration with OPSWAT, Inc., launched an integrated software appliance that “will make dynamic malware analysis more accessible to cyber-security professionals who are tasked with defending against advanced persistent threats …
Umbra Loader Botnet Behind Fake 123greeting.com Spam Campaign
For years, we’ve seen reports about criminals preying on internet users using prefabricated email appearing to originate from legitimate e-card companies. Criminals had used the brands of Regards.Com, AmericanGreetings.Com, GreetingCards.Com, and Hallmark.Com, just to name a few, on their campaigns. Malicious e-card …
Vulnerability in Instagram App Found
Sebastián Guerrero, an independent security researcher, found a flaw in the Instagram app. The said flaw allows an attacker to add themselves to a target’s Instagram account as “Friend” without the target’s knowing, which in turn gives attackers access not …
