05/29, 3:51pm
Complex data vacuum likely government-backed
Russian security firm Kaspersky has uncovered a massive malware attack, referred to as Flame, that is believed to have gathered sensitive data from a wide array of countries, including Israel and Iran. The malware is said to be modular and expandable in a manner reminiscent of a smartphone app library. The BBC reports that the complexity of the malware has led experts to believe that it could only have been developed with the assistance of a government entity.
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05/14, 5:12pm
Firm says review is entirely self-driven
Security firm Kaskpersky Lab is denying claims that Apple has asked it to research vulnerabilities in OS X, a statement reveals. "On Monday, April 14, computing.co.uk published an article titled 'Apple OS 'really vulnerable' claims Kaspersky Lab CTO' that includes an inaccurate quote regarding Apple and Kaspersky Lab," the company writes. "The article reports that Kaspersky Lab had 'begun the process of analyzing the Mac OS platform at Apple's request' to identify vulnerabilities. This statement was taken out of context by the magazine -- Apple did not invite or solicit Kaspersky Lab's assistance in analyzing the Mac OS X platform. Kaspersky Lab has contacted computing.co.uk to correct its article."
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04/11, 10:20am
Says botnet now includes over 670,000 systems
Security firm Kaspersky Lab has released a free software utility for removing the Flashback Trojan, which has infected a number of Macs worldwide. People who think they're affected can visit the company's Flashback check website first, but the tool will conduct its own scan. Kaspersky normally refers to the Trojan under the less common term Flashfake.
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04/10, 12:30pm
Company not communicating with security firms
Apple recently asked a web registrar, Reggi.ru, to shut down a domain belonging to the Russian security firm Dr. Web, the latter company's CEO has revealed. Boris Sharov says the registrar informed him about the request on Monday. Apple's reasoning was that the domain was being used as a command-and-control server for computers infected with the Flashback Trojan. Sharov notes, though that the domain is actually hosting a "sinkhole," a spoofed C&C server used to monitor computers linked in the Flashback botnet.
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11/30, 3:20pm
Scaled back from full-scale Anti-Virus for Mac
Kaspersky has released a new Mac security app, simply called Virus Scanner. The title is being sold on the Mac App Store, and is explicitly designed as a "lightweight" version of the company's existing Mac software. It detects and removes both Mac- and non-Mac malware, using automatically updated definitions.
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06/28, 6:25pm
Symantec says Android slipping vs iOS on security
Symantec in a study Tuesday (below) gave Android and iOS an advantage over computers in security but gave Apple the edge. Both the Apple and Google mobile platforms are more secure than on many computers, especially Windows, since they prevent "drive-by" app installs and often can't get as many privileges. The presences of app signatures on either adds a layer of security that desktop platforms don't always have.
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06/17, 4:00pm
AV maker Kaskpersky wants iOS opened up
Kasperksy's chief technical officer Nikolay Grebennikov in a discussion Friday argued that Apple had a mandate to open iOS to non-App Store titles. He believed that Apple "simply can't continue" with its contained approach and, to eliminate the drubbing in market share, had to loosen restrictions. In spite of Apple's self-contained system keeping out rogue apps, he told Computing he didn't believe the company could properly contain malware and needed antivirus firms like Kaspersky to take care of the code.
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04/22, 11:00am
Ivan Kaspersky held for 3m euro ransom: reports
The son of Yvegny Kaspersky, the CEO of a global data security company Kaspersky Lab, has been kidnapped, according to reports. Ivan Kaspersky was said by a daily Russian newspaper to have been taken in Moscow on Thursday afternoon. Little other official information exists about the 20-year-old's fate.
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11/05, 9:15am
New Mac anti-virus software protects files
Kaspersky has introduced Anti-Virus for Mac, a port of its long-running Windows and Linux software designed to cope with threats such as worms, Trojans and bots. Some features include e-mail and attachment protection, as well as download scans, and alerts on blocked files and programs. The software recognizes up to 30,000 threats; self-protection functions guard settings with a password, and attempt to prevent techniques from being modified or deleted.
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06/11, 9:35am
MS Antivirus Launches Soon
Microsoft late Wednesday said it's nearing the release of its first self-made antivirus software. Although mentioned in the past under its Morro codename, the new software is now known to compete directly with software from Kaspersky, McAfee, Symantec and other relatively low-cost apps. It will only focus on removing spyware, trojans and viruses as the company already has a built-in firewall for Windows.
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