The police force in England’s second-largest city, the Greater Manchester Police (GMP), has suffered extensive disruption for several days following an infection by the Conficker worm.
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It’s been reported today that the UK security service, MI5 has accused China of bugging and initiating acts of espionage on UK business executives, to obtain sensitive commercial secrets.

The story, from a leaked MI5 document says that undercover intelligence officers from China’s People’s Liberation Army and the Ministry of Public Security have also approached UK businessmen at trade fairs and exhibitions with the offer of “gifts”. The gifts — such as USB memory sticks and other digital media — have been found to contain electronic Trojan bugs which provide the Chinese with remote access to users’ computers.

This is yet another example of the use of innocuous-looking devices in an attempt to harvest sensitive or confidential data. The best advice to protect your PC and corporate networks is to use only authorised, secure flash drives, preferably with on-board anti-malware scanning capability, and lock out unauthorised devices. After all, Trojan horses are no longer larger than life and made of wood.

It seems from a recent report that healthcare businesses have become a specific target for hackers in recent months. International managed security services company SecureWorks says that attempted hacker attacks launched at its healthcare clients doubled in Q4 2009, increasing from an average of 6,500 per healthcare client, per day in the first nine months of 2009, to an average of 13,400 per client per day in Q4 2009.

It’s suggested that there are two main reasons for this: the large amounts of identifiable data on patients stored within healthcare organisations, and the sheer number of possible attack vectors, including web-based attacks and attacks from devices (such as infected, unauthorised USB flash drives).

In some territories, such as the UK and Canada, healthcare bodies are rolling out extensive data security measures (such as secure USB drives with onboard anti-virus scanning). This is a sensible and practical response to the increase in data security risks.

This article at leading security portal Help Net Security summarizes 2009 from the point of view of the malware that was found in the wild.

As the piece points out, it was a year in which nobody that uses the Internet could ignore the dangers of malware, whether received by email, from Google’s search results, on social networks like FaceBook or Twitter, or even by direct injection from USB memory sticks, as was the case with Conficker and its variants. Read More »

If we needed any further reminders, new data has shown that malware which exploits the Windows Autorun vulnerability accounts for more than 35% of the top 10 global infections so far this year.  This is more than double the proportion found in the second half of 2008.

The key findings from Microsoft’s Security Intelligence Report Version 7 show that the Conficker worm, along with a Trojan called Taterf which steals passwords and license keys for popular computer games, were detected on 5.21 million and 4.91 million Windows computers respectively. 

Taterf is notable in that it spreads only via Autorun, and of course Autorun is one of the vectors by which Conficker can spread. 

While our Cruzer Enterprise secure flash drives with onboard McAfee antivirus scanning are able to stop this kind of malware spreading via USB, it’s worth remembering that many other types of portable storage devices are also vulnerable to AutoRun malware.  This includes mp3 players, digital cameras and even digital picture frames. 

We suggest being cautious in allowing any unauthorised devices to be used on the corporate network, and ensuring that antivirus software and software patches are kept fully up to date.

Earlier this year we posted on this blog about the continued rise of malware that exploits the Windows AutoRun feature to replicate onto removable media, such as USB thumb drives.  As we saw just a couple of weeks ago, a UK local government body suffered significant problems and incurred high costs as a result of a Conficker infection, which uses this exploit.

Of course, our Cruzer Enterprise flash drives with onboard McAfee antivirus scanning are able to stop this kind of malware spreading via USB, because they will quarantine and destroy the malware if copied onto the drive. 

But it’s also worth a reminder that that many other types of portable storage devices are also vulnerable to AutoRun malware.  This includes mp3 players, digital cameras and even digital picture frames.  While disabling Windows AutoRun is possible, it’s also inconvenient for users to manually launch a portable device or program they may need. 

We would suggest exercising extreme caution in allowing any unauthorised devices to be used on the corporate network, and ensuring that antivirus software and software patches are kept fully up to date.  These measures will help to minimise any risks.

After several years when the malware threat was steadily diminishing, the latest quarterly threat report from our anti-virus partner McAfee shows that it’s on the rise again. 

Zombie computers, which are controlled remotely by spam botnets, grew by about 12 million PCs in the first quarter - a 50% increase since the last quarter of 2008, McAfee said.  This also exceeds the previous record by 1 million.

And while the much-discussed Conficker worm has yet to reveal a malicious payload or real threat following its rapid spread earlier this year, it is a sign of things to come, said the report.  AutoRun-based malware, which can use USB drives to spread to new PCs, was seen in far greater numbers than Conficker in Q1 2009 this quarter.

So it’s wise to use secure USB drives like our Cruzer Enterprise, that features onboard, integrated anti-virus scanning, to stop Auto-run malware spreading this way.