Lowyat.NET: Latest topics by Muscintosh

Be A Proud Mayan Doomsday Survivor

Muscintosh — Fri, 11 Jan 2013 16:17:46 +0800

KUALA LUMPUR, January 11, 2013– After long preparation in stocking and party planning for some, the much-hyped Mayan Doomsday on December 22, 2012 did not happen after all.

It’s time to reward yourself for being an apocalypse survivor. Bid farewell to your old fashioned mobile phones and welcome the New Year in style by owning your first Android smartphone with Star S1.

Star Mobile Sdn Bhd, a developer of high performance mobile Internet devices, recently announced the arrival of Star S1, the most affordable Android smartphone in Malaysian market.

Running on Android 4.1 Jelly Bean Operating System and powered by a dual-core 1GHz Cortex™ A9 processor from ARM across 5.3 inch high definition display, Star S1 is giving you a head start of tech-savvy lifestyle to stay in touch with the most advanced communication tools and enables you to capture the defining moments in high definition.

In conjunction with Mayan Doomsday Survival promotion, the buyer of Star S1 can enjoy instant RM50 cash rebate for order placing within December 22, 2012 to January 7, 2013 with promotion price at RM689 from normal price at RM739 for a Star S1 equipped with 16GB memory.

Overview

5.3-Inch high definition display

Star S1 offers you the best viewing experience with its 5.3-inch QHD high definition display of 960X540 resolution. Entertainment comfortably starts at your hand with Star S1 as this innovative and sleek design provides a cinema-like widescreen vivid view.

Powered by dual-core processor to enhance user experience

Star S1 comes with a dual-core 1GHz Cortex™ -A9 processor from ARM, a PowerVR™ Series5 SGX GPU (graphics processing unit) from Imagination Technologies, MediaTek’s proven 3G/HSPA mode to give you a better entertainment experience with high performance processor. With Star S1’s 2800 mAh battery, it promises you all-day long connectivity and entertainment pleasure.

Dual SIM dual standby for better options

Star S1 support two SIM slots to give you a choice to opt for the best plan for 3G data plan and voice plan in safeguarding your wallet. Two SIM slots also enable you to draw the line between workplace and personal space to further define your professionalism at work.

Mobile Internet with the coolest Android 4.1 Jelly operating system

Behold to the joy of Android apps with Android 4.1 Jelly-Bean operating system in Star S1. Friendly user-interfaces and lowest latency makes your communication simple and gaming- entertainment more enjoyable with just one tap.

Specifications

· Networks: WCDMA 850/900/1900/2100 GSM/EDGE 850/900/1800/1900

· Speed: HSPA+ 14Mbps, HSUPA 5.7Mbps

· Display: 5.3” LCD QHD 960x540

· Memory: 1GB RAM, 16GB storage memory, TF Card expansion up to 64GB

· Camera: 5Mpix autofocus, LED flash

· Front Camera: 0.3Mpix VGA

· Video capture: HD 720p@30fps

· Size: 148 mm x 78 mm x 9.7 mm

· Weight: 199g (including battery)

· Connectivity: WLAN 802.11 a/b/g/n 2.4Ghz + 5Ghz, Bluetooth 2.0, GPS/A-GPS, micro-USB, 3.5mm audio connector

· Processor: MediaTek MT6577 processor with 1 Ghz dual-core CPUs

· Audio: Distortion-free high-amplitude microphones

· Talk time: (GSM/WCDMA) Up to 14.6h/ up to 9.9h

· Standby time: Up to 330h

· Music playback: Up to 61h

Star Mobile Guarantee to the Customer
Warranty
Star Mobile offers customer free repair service due to quality problem with the product within 1 year warranty period. Sometimes, Star Mobile may give its customer a solution according to the goods' value either issue them a partial refund or send a replacement.

15 Days Money-back
Star Mobile is also offer Money-Back-in-15days-Service for every buyer. Buyer can ship the gadget back to Star Mobile within 15 days from order receiving day if they don't like what they get as long as it compliance with Star Mobile's return policy.

Kaspersky Internet Security2013

Muscintosh — Thu, 03 Jan 2013 16:11:34 +0800

PETALING JAYA, 2 JANUARY 2013
News Flash

In order to find out which antivirus products provide reliable protection for financial transactions on the Internet, the experts at the independent Czech-based Matousec.com tested several popular security solutions for home users. Kaspersky Internet Security 2013 produced an excellent performance during testing and claimed a well-deserved first place, successfully preventing all attempts at data theft.

Quick Facts
· Matousec.com’s independent experts tested 10 security solutions for home users
· 15 different scenarios emulated the behavior of the most widespread malware designed to steal financial data
· The participating products were expected to repel sophisticated malware attacks and prevent data theft
· The new Safe Money technology integrated in Kaspersky Internet Security 2013 successfully negotiated all 15 tests and came out on top in the overall rating

How the tests were performed
Ten popular security solutions for home users released in 2012 were put through their paces by Matousec.com. The lab’s experts prepared 15 tests that emulated the behavior of existing malicious programs including Zeus, Sinowal, SpyEye, Carberp, Yaludle, etc.

During testing the experts imitated the use of code capable of transmitting PayPal or eBay passwords to third parties in the browser, as well as other methods of accessing this information. The experts then tried to use that information to access accounts on the sites in question. The security solution installed on each computer was responsible for preventing any theft.

Each of the 15 tests provided assessments on two scales. The “soft” scale only assessed whether the anti-malware product was able to prevent the theft. The “hard” scale also looked at how the products affected the rest of the computer’s work. For example, if the system crashed while combating the malware, the product was regarded as a failure.

Test results
The test results showed that Kaspersky Internet Security 2013 was the only solution which prevented every attempt to steal financial data. The product successfully passed all 15 tests prepared by the experts and did not cause a single system failure. That gave it first place overall in the testing. This outstanding result was made possible by the new Safe Money technology developed by Kaspersky Lab’s experts to protect users when working with electronic payment systems, online stores and online banking services.

Adobe Reader surpassed by Oracle Java

Muscintosh — Wed, 26 Dec 2012 12:24:59 +0800

News Flash-PETALING JAYA, 26 DECEMBER 2012

According to the recently published Kaspersky Security Bulletin 2012, Oracle Java was the most frequently exploited software by cybercriminals during the year, with Adobe Reader and Adobe Flash Player ranking in the second and third places, respectively.

Exploiting vulnerabilities is one of the primary methods used by cybercriminals to install malware on victims’ computers. Cybercriminals exploit applications or software that have un-patched security vulnerabilities, which exist because either the individual or business have failed to patch their vulnerable applications with the latest security updates from vendors.

Exploit packs – or malicious programs that try to infect a computer utilizing various vulnerabilities in popular software – are the main tool behind web-based attacks.

2012: The year of Java vulnerabilities

2012 introduced a number of significant changes in terms of vulnerabilities in popular software. In 2011 the most frequently exploited application was Adobe Reader, which was responsible for 35% of all exploit-related incidents. Java occupied the second place with 25%, and versions of Microsoft Windows accounted for 11% of exploit-related incidents.

In 2012 cybercriminals switched their primary focus to Java. While Adobe Reader was attacked in 28% of security incidents involving vulnerability exploits, Java security holes were responsible for 50% of attacks. Windows components and Internet Explorer were only exploited in only 3% of incidents.

Although Adobe Reader ranked second among applications containing the largest number of vulnerabilities containing web-based exploits in 2012, it should be noted that Adobe has focused more on addressing the problem of vulnerabilities in the latest versions of Adobe Reader. In particular, new measures such as Adobe Sandbox were implemented to make the application more resilient to exploits. These measures make it much harder to create effective exploits for the software.

Android Exploits: an emerging threat

Starting from 2011 Android vulnerabilities regular show up in the list of the most frequently exploited software flaws. Their share is relatively low – 2% of all exploits in 2012 – but this trend is very significant, given the explosive growth of malware for Android-based smartphones and tablets. Certain malicious programs designed for the Android platform utilized vulnerabilities in the mobile operating system which enabled attackers to gain full access and control over exploited mobile devices.

Kaspersky Lab

Muscintosh — Fri, 14 Dec 2012 12:59:10 +0800

MOSCOW, 14 DECEMBER 2012
News Flash

Kaspersky Lab released its annual Kaspersky Security Bulletin, which provides the overall malware and cyber-threat statistics for 2012. The data analyzed in the report was obtained using the Kaspersky Security Network (KSN), the cloud-based infrastructure used by Kaspersky Lab products to report telemetry and to deliver instant protection in the forms of blacklists and heuristic rules, which are designed to catch the newest threats. The 2012 report revealed significant growth of Mac-specific malware and an explosive growth in the number of threats targeting the Android platform. Overall, Kaspersky Lab’s products detected and blocked more than 1.5 billion web-based attacks in 2012 and more than 3 billion infected files.

At the present time Kaspersky Lab detects and blocks more than 200,000 new malicious programs every day, a significant increase from the first half of 2012, when 125,000 malicious programs were detected and blocked each day on average.

Quick Facts
· In 2012 Kaspersky Lab’s products blocked more than 1.5 billion web-based attacks throughout the year, which is 1.7 times greater than the total amount of web-based attacks in 2011.

· Kaspersky Lab successfully blocked more than 3 billion local infections on users’ computers in 2012. In total, 2.7 million unique modifications of malware and potentially unwanted programs attempting to launch on users’ computers were detected during these incidents.

· In 2012, 99% of all mobile malware detected by Kaspersky Lab was designed for the Android platform. Kaspersky Lab identified more than 35,000 malicious Android programs for the year, which is about six times more than in 2011.

· Mac OS X malware continues to increase as Kaspersky Lab’s antivirus experts created 30% more signatures to detect various Mac Trojans this year compared to 2011.

· Oracle Java was the most popular vulnerable application targeted by cybercriminals in 2012. The application accounted for 50% of all detected exploit-based attacks targeting vulnerabilities. Adobe Reader ranked second and accounted for 28% of all incidents.

· Top 5 malware hosting countries: United States, Russia, The Netherlands, Germany and the United Kingdom

· Top 5 countries with the highest frequency of web attacks: Russia, Tajikistan, Azerbaijan, Armenia, Kazakhstan

· Top 5 countries where infected files are most frequently discovered: Bangladesh, Sudan, Malawi, Tanzania, Rwanda

· Top 5 countries with lowest infection rates: Denmark, Japan, Finland, Sweden, Czech Republic

2012 Threats Overview

One of the most important news in the beginning of 2012 was the discovery of Flashback, a 700,000 strong botnet comprised of infected Apple computers running Mac OS X. The significant outbreak <http://www.securelist.com/en/analysis/204792227/The_anatomy_of_Flashfake_Part_1> was caused by a new variant of the Flashfake malware and the security incident put an end to the perception of the Mac OS X platform as being invulnerable to exploitation. In addition to mass-malware, Mac OS X computers also became frequent victims of targeted attacks. The main reason for this is that Apple products are popular with many influential politicians and prominent businessmen, and the information stored in the devices owned by these people is of interest to a certain category of cybercriminals. In total, Kaspersky Lab’s antivirus experts created 30% more signatures to detect various Mac Trojans in 2012 compared to 2011.

Another key trend of 2012 is the continued rapid growth of Android malware. The Android platform has firmly established itself as the main point of interest for cybercriminals. Although malicious programs for other mobile platforms, such as Symbian, Blackberry or J2ME, are still being developed, 99% of newly discovered malicious programs targeted the Android platform. Despite attempts by Google to introduce its own anti-malware technology, malicious applications continue to appear in the official Google Play store. In 2012 the first incident with an ambiguous app collecting the address book data and sending spam was recorded <http://www.securelist.com/en/blog/208193641/Find_and_Call_Leak_and_Spam> at Apple App Store as well. Just like traditional PCs, mobile devices are now targeted with high-profile cybercriminal operations, including targeted attacks and creating “mobile” botnets.

In 2012 Kaspersky Lab’s products blocked an average of more than 4 million browser-based attacks every day, with the total number web-based attacks surpassing 1.5 billion for the year. The most frequently used technique for attacking users online is exploiting vulnerabilities in programs or applications. Throughout the year Kaspersky Lab’s experts registered both large-scale and targeted attacks utilizing vulnerable software, with Oracle Java being the most frequently targeted (50% of attacks). Adobe Reader ranked second (28%) and Adobe Flash player occupies the fourth place with only 2% share, thanks to efficient automatic updating system that promptly closes security holes. In addition, some of the exploits actively used targeted older vulnerabilities that still existed in various Windows operating systems. One of the explanations for this is that older versions of Windows are still actively used. For example, share of computers with Windows XP in 2012 was 44%, compared to 63% in 2011 – not a significant drop given Windows 7 has been available for three years and Windows 8 was recently released this year.

More than 3 billion malware incidents were detected and blocked by Kaspersky Lab’s software on users’ local hard drives and external storage. In total, 2.7 million unique modifications of malware and potentially unwanted programs attempting to launch on users’ computers were detected during these incidents. The majority of local infections were blocked by Kaspersky Lab’s behavior-based heuristic technology. It is notable that different versions of years-old Kido (Conficker) and Sality are still present in the list of the most frequently blocked malware. Overall, the number of new malicious applications has increased rapidly: in the first half of 2012 Kaspersky Lab recorded an average number of 125,000 new malware every day. Toward the end of the year this figure has grown to 200,000.

Servers located in the United States were the most frequently used to host and deliver malicious objects (25.5% of all incidents). Russia occupies the second place with 19.6% followed by the Netherlands, Germany and the United Kingdom. This is a significant change compared to years past: in 2010 the majority of malware was hosted in China. Changes in domain registration policies and other regulations taken by Chinese authorities resulted in the rapid decline of malicious hosts originating from the country. On the contrary, the United States, Russia and other European countries have seen a major increase in the number of malicious hosting sites as cybercriminals compromise legitimate online resources in large quantities in addition to registering purely malicious websites.

Based on the number of blocked web attacks and local malicious files, Kaspersky Lab’s experts calculated the “risk level” for different countries, defined as the share of attacked users. Russia and former USSR republics occupy the top places in the web attacks chart, but 31 countries (including UK, Australia and Canada) in total have also joined them in the “high risk” group. In these countries at least 41% of users were attacked online in 2012. Bangladesh, Sudan, Malavi, Tanzania and Rwanda form the top five countries where users are most frequently attacked with local malware infections. 7 countries in total were categorized as “maximum risk”, where 75% or more users were at least once attacked with a malicious file. Another 41% countries joined the “high risk” group (56-75% of attacked users), including Indonesia, Ethiopia and Kenya. In contrast, Denmark was deemed as the safest country, as the country had the lowest rate of infected computers (15%). Japan, Finland, Sweden and Czech Republic were the other countries listed with the lowest infection rates.

Quote

Costin Raiu, Director of Global Research & Analysis Team Kaspersky Lab

“What 2012 has shown is the strong inclination of cybercriminals to steal data from all devices used by consumers and businesses, be it a PC, Mac, smartphone or tablet. This is one of the most important trends of 2012. We are also observing a strong increase in the overall number of threats, affecting all popular software environments.”

Watsons Music Festival Ticktes Giveaway!

Muscintosh — Thu, 06 Dec 2012 11:54:44 +0800

Spam in Q3 2012

Muscintosh — Fri, 23 Nov 2012 13:02:14 +0800

News Flash

Kaspersky Lab analysts continue to observe a downward trend in the share of spam in total mail traffic. Compared to the previous quarter, the volume of spam traffic in Q3 2012 decreased by 2.8 percentage points and averaged 71.5%. At the same time, the experts recorded a significant increase in the share of malicious mailings – from 3% to 3.9% - continuing yet another trend for the year.

Spam Landscape in Q3 2012

To some extent, the decline in the share of spam in the third quarter can be accounted for by the traditional business slowdown in summer. However, the downward trend in the amount of spam mailings is also due to the gradual shift of advertising messages from email to other venues such as banner ads, social media, coupon services, and contextual advertising. Therefore, despite a slight burst of post-vacation activity in September, the overall trend of falling spam levels remained.

The migration of advertisers offering perfectly legitimate products and services away from spam has inevitably led to an increase in the share of criminal spam containing malicious attachments, adverts for prohibited goods or fraudulent techniques. Q3 2012 once again saw cybercriminals demonstrate their ingenuity, disguising their spam messages as official notifications. Among the fake emails which Kaspersky Lab experts came across were messages allegedly sent from hosting providers, banking systems, social networks, online stores and various other services.

Particular attention was paid to coupon services in Q3, with spammers taking advantage of their popularity to distribute malicious links and attachments. The prominent coupon service Groupon appeared to bear the brunt: emails designed to look like official notifications and new offers redirected unwitting recipients to a malicious online resource with exploits.

Geographical Distribution of Spam Flows

There were a number of changes in the regional breakdown of spam sources in the third quarter of 2012. Among those countries with the dubious distinction of sending out most spam, the US showed unenviable growth, pushing the North American region’s share up to just over 27%. This was sufficient to claim second place behind traditional leader Asia, with the latter responsible for almost half of all spam mailings throughout the world (49.50%). Western Europe (6.86%) pushed past Eastern Europe (3.64%) and took fourth place, catching up with Latin America (7.34%) in third.

Quote

Darya Gudkova, Head of Content Analysis & Research
Kaspersky Lab

“The migration of advertisers from spam to other venues is due in part to the increasing criminalization of spam, with a large number of advertisements for prohibited goods, as well as fraudulent and malicious emails. Over the past year, Kaspersky Lab experts have observed two trends in parallel: a decrease in the percentage of spam and a slight rise in the percentage of malicious mailings. More likely than not, both trends will continue, as the percentage of spam is on the decline due to the migration of advertisers of legitimate goods and services to other venues.”

Malware targeting Androids

Muscintosh — Thu, 08 Nov 2012 18:05:15 +0800

Analysis of mobile malware for Android OS by Kaspersky Lab experts in Q3 2012 revealed that the most popular targets among cybercriminals were Android versions 2.3.6, or ‘Gingerbread’, and 4.0.4, also known as ‘Ice Cream Sandwich’.

The rapid growth in the number of new mobile malicious programs for Android continued in the third quarter, prompting the specialists at Kaspersky Lab to identify the platform versions most frequently targeted by cybercriminals. Android 2.3.6 Gingerbread accounted for 28% of all blocked attempts to install malware, while the second most commonly attacked version was the new 4.0.4 Ice Cream Sandwich, which accounted for 22% of attempts.

“Although Gingerbread was released back in September 2011, due to the segmentation of the Android device market it still remains one of the most popular versions, which, in turn, attracts increased interest from cybercriminals,” commented Yuri Namestnikov, Senior Malware Analyst at Kaspersky Lab. “The popularity of the most recent version of the Android OS – Ice Cream Sandwich – among virus writers can be explained by the fact that the devices running the latest versions of the OS are more suitable for online activities. Unfortunately, users actively surfing the web often end up on malicious sites.”

More than one half of all malware detected on user smartphones turned out to be SMS Trojans, i.e. malicious programs that steal money from victims’ mobile accounts by sending SMS messages to premium rate numbers.

The OpFake family has become the most widespread (38.3% of all the malicious programs detected for Android) among all the mobile malware families. All the programs in this family disguise themselves as OperaMini. A fifth of the malicious programs detected on user devices are versatile Trojans, most of which belong to the Plangton family. After being installed on a device, these Trojans collect service data on the telephone, send it to the command server and wait for the cybercriminals’ commands. Specifically, malicious programs in this family can stealthily change bookmarks and the home page. Third place in the ranking was taken by the FakeInst family, whose members pretend to be installers for popular programs (17%). These two types of malware are mostly distributed via so-called alternative app stores created by cybercriminals.

Mobile threats of this kind can be neutralized with the help of dedicated mobile applications. For example, in addition to reliable protection against information theft via malware, Kaspersky Mobile Security <http://www.kaspersky.com/kaspersky_mobile_security> and Kaspersky Tablet Security <http://www.kaspersky.com/tablet-security> also ensure data stays safe even if a device is lost or stolen.

The full version of the report “IT Threat Evolution: Q3 2012” is available at securelist.com <http://www.securelist.com/en/analysis/204792250/IT_Threat_Evolution_Q3_2012> .