Natural gas pipeline operators in the United States have reportedly been the target of sophisticated phishing attacks since last year, and the Department of Homeland Security has been helping firms deal with incidents since March. “DHS’s Industrial Control Systems Cyber Emergency Response Team has been working since March 2012 with critical infrastructure owners and operators in the oil and natural gas sector to address a series of cyber intrusions targeting natural gas pipeline companies,” ...

Microsoft researchers recently discovered a piece of Mac OS X malware that exploits a three-year-old flaw in old versions of Office for Mac. The threat uses a multi-stage attack, just like a Windows virus would. While Microsoft did fix the problem in 2009, the software giant notes that not every machine is up-to-date. The company’s data indicates, however, that the malware is not widespread. “No operating system that exists outside a laboratory is entirely immune to malware,” Microsoft stat...

Hacked websites are frequently used to infect PCs with malware, however the team at Lookout Mobile Security has discovered that hacked websites are specifically targeting Android-powered mobile devices for the first time. The malware, called NotCompatible, is a Trojan that poses as a system update but acts like a proxy redirect. After visiting an infected website, the Android mobile web browser will automatically begin downloading the NotCompatible malware, which is named “Update.apk.” Like any dr...

People who browse religious websites are more likely to have their computers infected with a virus than those who visit pornographic websites, according to Symantec’s annual “Internet Security Threat Report.” The firm found that websites with religious or ideological themes had triple the average number of threats than those featuring adult content. “It is interesting to note that websites hosting adult/pornographic content are not in the top five, but ranked tenth,” Symantec said. ̶...

The United States House of Representatives voted last Thursday to pass a piece of legislation called the Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act, or CISPA. The controversial bill now sits in the hands of the Senate and faces further modifications if it hopes to gain approval from the White House, which has already gone on record with a veto threat. Legions of Internet users expressed outrage when the bill was passed, and numerous protests are being staged. According to President Obama’s office, ...

A new security vulnerability in Skype has been discovered that allows a third-party script to reveal users’ remote and local IP addresses, according to GHacks. The script, which was uploaded to Github, allows users to lookup the IP addresses of any online Skype accounts. The code then initiates the contact addition process, but does not complete it. The log file will instead display the local and remote IP of the requested Skype user, even if the user is not added to the list of contacts. An IP addr...

The “Flashback” virus that originated on a series of WordPress blogs and went on to infected more than 600,000 Mac computers last month may have generated its creators thousands of dollars each day. According to antivirus software firm Symantec, the Flashback malware has been generating revenue for its authors by hijacking users’ ad clicks, and due to the widespread nature of the infection, the authors could have been generating up to $10,000 per day. “Flashback specifically targets se...

The United States House of Representatives has voted to pass the controversial Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act (CISPA), talk of which has swept the Internet over the past few weeks. The House vote was moved up to Thursday night, and CISPA passed as 248 members of Congress voted for the bill and 168 voted against. The bill is sponsored by Representatives Mike Rogers (R-Michigan) and Dutch Ruppersberger (D-Maryland), and it now faces further modifications in the Senate if it is to avoid being ve...

Apple may be the most valuable company in the world, but when it comes to security, the Cupertino-based company doesn’t hold a candle to Microsoft. Kaspersky Lab co-founder and chief executive Eugene Kaspersky on Wednesday told CBR that Apple is a decade behind Microsoft in terms of computer security. ”I think they are ten years behind Microsoft in terms of security,” Kaspersky said. “For many years I’ve been saying that from a security point of view there is no big difference...

Security firm Sophos on Tuesday indicated that a surprisingly high level of malware has been found on Mac computers — the firm’s research revealed that one in every five Mac computers is harboring some kind of Windows malware. Of the 100,000 customers sampled through Sophos’s antivirus offerings, 20% of users were found to be carrying one or more instances of Windows malware. The firm highlighted that Windows malware on a Mac won’t cause any harm, however, unless the computer also runs a W...

Security firm Trusteer warned this week of a trojan that is capable of stealing an individual’s credit card information from hotels. The firm’s intelligence team discovered the remote access trojan being sold on underground forums for $280. The malware is designed to capture screenshots from point-of-sale applications that access credit card numbers and expiration dates. These systems are located on front-desk computers at hotels, and they are often unmanaged and do not contain anti-virus protecti...

The “Flashback” trojan virus affecting at least 600,000 Macs was discovered last week that is capable of intercepting passwords and other private data. The discovery prompted Apple to release a Java update for OS X users that removed a number of common variants of the virus. Securelist on Saturday found another Mac trojan that is also spread through Java exploits, however. The malware, called Backdoor.OSX.SabPub, can take screenshots of a user’s current session, execute commands on an infected...

Trend Micro on Wednesday named Research In Motion’s BlackBerry 7 OS as the most secure mobile operating system in a new report titled “Enterprise Readiness of Consumer Mobile Platforms.” The security firm compared four of the top mobile operating systems — Android 2.3, iOS 5, Windows Phone 7.5 and BlackBerry 7 — and found the Waterloo-based company’s platform best met the demands of enterprise users. BlackBerry 7 scored a 2.89 rating, which was based on a number of factors includi...

The security of the Android mobile platform has always been a topic of debate. Due to Google’s open ecosystem and less invasive app policing policies, researchers argue that the Google Play marketplace is home to numerous malicious apps. Reports have surfaced over the past few years that claimed even applications from legitimate companies — such as Facebook, Skype and Path — were exploiting Android permissions and secretly accessing data. Paul Brodeur of Leviathan Security had a simple question: wha...