Java called favorite target for hack attacks this year

Java was the most targeted development platform for exploit attacks during the first half of the year, and attacks have increasingly shifted to zero-day vulnerabilities, according to F-Secure's new threat report.

"Of the top five most targeted vulnerabilities, four are found in the Java development, either the Runtime Environment (JRE) or the browser plug-in," according to the report, based on information about attacks detected through F-Secure's sensors and telemetry systems. The company notes that it's not surprising Java is an appealing target since "next to the Windows operating system (also a popular target for exploits), Java is probably the second most ubiquitous program in an organization's IT setup."

Analysis of attacks shows the top five exploited vulnerabilities accounting for 95 percent of all attacks, with the U.S. the geographic location most targeted. F-Secure estimates 78 out of every 1000 users in the U.S. saw a detection identifying an exploit of a specific vulnerability in the last six months. Germany also saw a fairly high number of attacks with about 60 out of 1000 users hit within the same time frame.

"Unfortunately, removing either the runtime or plug-in may not be a feasible option for companies that use Java in business-critical instances," the F-Secure report points out. Defense and mitigation strategies might involve something more complicated than uninstalling a program, such as "some combination of tweaking Java's security settings, configuring web browser settings to minimize unwanted applet execution (or installing other third-party plug-ins to do so) and monitoring network traffic."

F-Secure says 70 percent of the exploit-related attacks are carried out by means of five kits: BlackHole, SweetOrange, Crimeboss, Styx, and Cool. All of these remain under active development.

Another security threat to be reckoned with in the first half of 2013: Mac malware. F-Secure reports it saw the "first Mac malware signed with a valid Apple Developer ID," an ominous event because this allowed the malware to bypass Apple's first line of defense. After independent researcher Jacob Appelbaum identified the malware, Apple was swift in revoking the misused developer ID attributed to "Rajinder Kumar" (hence this malware has been dubbed "Kumar in the Mac").

While this is noteworthy, malware targeting Android continued to dominate mobile threats in the first half of the year, according to the report. Of interest is the discovery of Android malware dubbed Stels, which is designed for distribution via spam e-mails and a bot that uses Twitter to update its command-and-control server addresses.

The rise of Bitcoin as a crypto-based computer-based digital currency is also luring the online criminal underworld as a money-making option, F-secure says.

Bitcoin is not linked to any existing currency, but it does have value based on what people think it's worth for use in instant transactions, notes Mikko Hypponen, chief research officer at F-Secure Labs. "Today, there are massively large networks of computers mining Bitcoins and other competing crypto currencies (such as Litecoin)," Hypponen says in the report. Because at least six members of the peer-to-peer network have to confirm Bitcoin transactions before they go through, the Bitcoin system rewards users participating in this needed mining with Bitcoins.

"The basic idea behind mining is easy enough: if you have powerful computers, you can make money," Hypponen says, but adds, "unfortunately, those computers don't have to be your computers."  

In analyzing malware, F-Secure has found that infected computers taken over by cybercrimals can also be commandeered to make Bitcoins, and that's what has happened in some instances.

There has been a rise in the first half of the year in several types of malware targeting Bitcoin, and a botnet based on the ZeroAccess family of malware includes a powerful rootkit to hide its presence. F-Secure has spotted a large ZeroAccess botnet operator running a Bitcoin mining operation with various plug-ins on infected PCs. "We estimate them to be make over $50,000 a day by mining Bitcoins on infected computers," Hypponen says. "If such operations are already happening today, it's easy to see that mining botnets will become very popular for online criminals in the future."

Ellen Messmer is a senior editor at Network World. She covers news and technology trends related to information security.
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Microsoft received 37,000 end-user data requests in first half of year

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Apple beats Coca-Cola to emerge as most valuable global brand

Apple has emerged as the most valuable brand in the world, passing Coca-Cola which held the top position for 13 years, according to a report released by brand consultancy Interbrand.

The maker of high-profile products like the iPad and iPhone, which was ranked second last year, saw its brand value grow 28 percent this year to US$98.3 billion. Other tech companies that figured in the top five rankings for 2013 were Google at number two and IBM and Microsoft at fourth and fifth place, respectively. Google was number four in 2012, while IBM was third and Microsoft held the fifth position last year.

"Few brands have enabled so many people to do so much so easily, which is why Apple has legions of adoring fans," Interbrand said in the report released Monday. Apple has set a high bar for aesthetics, simplicity and ease of use that other tech brands have to match, and Apple itself will have to continually exceed, the report said.

Competitor Samsung Electronics, at number eight, saw its brand value go up 20 percent to $39.6 billion, as the brand continues to strengthen its position globally, spending more than $4 billion in marketing last year, and launching innovative products such as the Galaxy S4 and Galaxy Note II, according to the Interbrand report.

The challenge for Apple is to slow "Samsung's momentum and capture the booming Chinese mobile market." As significantly, the world is awaiting another innovative product from Apple, which could be perhaps the iWatch wearable computer or something completely unexpected, Interbrand said. The company's reputation has, meanwhile, taken some hits after it was found guilty of conspiring with five large book publishers to fix e-book prices, and faced allegations about worker conditions in China at its supplier Foxconn, and ongoing patent disputes with Samsung.

The going is getting tougher for Apple, which reported that revenue was flat at about $35.3 billion in its fiscal third quarter ended June 29, while net profit dipped to $6.9 billion from $8.8 billion in the same quarter last year. Its smartphone market share dropped in the second quarter to its lowest level in three years of 13.6 percent compared to Samsung's over 33 percent, according to research firm Strategy Analytics. Apple was, however, ahead of Samsung in tablets in the second quarter of 2013, with a 32 percent share of the market to Samsung's 18 percent, according to IDC.

Interbrand's rankings, first introduced in 2000, covers global brands that have at least 30 percent of their revenues from outside the brand's home region. The brands must also have a presence in at least three major continents, and broad geographic coverage in emerging markets. Brands are rated on the financial performance of the branded products or services, the role they play in influencing customer choice, and ability of the brand to command a premium price or secure earnings for the company, Interbrand said in a statement.

John Ribeiro covers outsourcing and general technology breaking news from India for The IDG News Service. Follow John on Twitter at @Johnribeiro. John's e-mail address is john_ribeiro@idg.com

John Ribeiro covers outsourcing and general technology breaking news from India for The IDG News Service.
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Microsoft sweetens iPhone trade-in deal to push Windows

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China may ease up on Internet censorship in limited regions

The Chinese government may be about to ease up on its policy of censoring its citizens.

The South China Morning Post reported last week that websites considered "politically sensitive," such as Facebook, Twitter and The New York Times, will be unblocked in one area of Shanghai.

The government, according to the report, is lifting the Internet access ban in Shanghai's free-trade zone and is set to accept bids from foreign telecommunications companies for licenses that would allow them to provide Internet services within the special economic zone.

"In order to welcome foreign companies to invest and to let foreigners live and work happily in the free-trade zone, we must think about how we can make them feel like at home," said an unnamed source in the Post report. "If they can't get onto Facebook or read The New York Times, they may naturally wonder how special the free-trade zone is compared with the rest of China."

The report points out that the easing of the ban only pertains to Shanghai's free-trade zone and will not apply to any other part of China.

What's been known as the Great Firewall of China could be crumbling a bit under economic and worldwide pressure.

"It's certainly a start," said Zeus Kerravala, an analyst with ZK Research. "I think this move is initially for foreigners to have access to sites they might want when traveling to China. It is the free-trade zone, so it looks like China is applying that to Internet services as well."

He added that he expects to see China lift its Internet access ban in parts of other cities but that it's likely to be a long, slow process.

Google has had a long and well-publicized battle with the Chinese government for several years.

Early in 2010, Google announced that a major attack launched against its network from China had forced the company to pull its business out of the country. After the attack, which was aimed at exposing the Gmail accounts of Chinese human rights activists, Google reconsidered its willingness to agree to censor search results of users in China.

Sharon Gaudin covers the Internet and Web 2.0, emerging technologies, and desktop and laptop chips for Computerworld.
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Ad injectors replace website ads on major sites, study says

Rogue web plug-ins that inject their own content over the top of legitimate ads are still in widespread use by unscrupulous advertisers—and Google, Yahoo, and other major networks are keeping them in business, according to a recent study.

An ad injector is usually installed on an end-user's computer as part of a bundle in a free software download, according to Harvard Business School associate professor Ben Edelman and the founder of fraud detection service iPensatori, Wesley Brandi. Once active, the injector can modify the way the user's browser displays web pages, allowing advertisers to slap their own content onto any website they want—even if it blocks out existing ads or violates a site's ad policies.

The companies behind the injectors have substantial advantages over legitimate advertisers—the authors noted injected ads tend to rate well on click-through and conversion analytics, and the fact that the injectors don't have to spend any money creating content of their own makes them even more profitable.

Moreover, the complexity, automation and large number of intermediaries present in the online ad market mean that it can be difficult to detect injector traffic, which means that both those intermediaries and the advertisers themselves may inadvertently contribute to the problem.

"For example, if traffic flows from an injector to intermediary A to B to C to D to an advertiser, the advertiser may never be told that it is actually buying injector traffic rather than (or in addition to) placements in genuine web sites," the study said.

Mainstream exchanges, advertisers, and networks generally claim that they do not do business with injectors but Edelman and Brandi found that this claim is frequently untrue. The authors' observations of Google, Yahoo, AppNexus, and Advertising.com, among many others, demonstrated that they do indeed handle injector traffic.

"Our data reveals a stark disconnect between advertising industry claims and actual practices," they wrote.

Speaking to Network World, Edelman urged ad exchanges to take a firmer stand against injectors, characterizing the practice as "stealing from publishers."

"There are more things they could be doing," he says. "One, having an official policy. Two, bringing that policy to everyone's attention—any ad network selling any inventory through a Google ad exchange or an AppNexus ad exchange, they're privy to all kinds of terms and conditions."

While the sums of money involved in ad injection likely don't mean much to Google—court filings show that one major ad injector called Sambreel was taking in about $8 million a month as of November 2011—they're hardly small potatoes to most other companies.

"This is still just an annoying flea to Google, it's not an important part of their business. But to an advertiser, it can be very important," Edelman says.

Google did not immediately respond to requests for comment. It was recently reported that Google is shifting from the use of cookies to another technique, called anonymous identifier for advertising.

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Nokia enslaves God of Thunder, charges phone with lightning

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