A week in security: hentai malware writers nabbed

The hentai malware culprits appear to have been caught

This week has been dominated by further evidence of the uphill battle facing many security professionals and vendors, after separate reports charted the continued growth of malware and new threats.

Sophos senior technology consultant Graham Cluley called on Facebook to set up an early warning system on its network to notify users of any threats as and when they occur, after yet another malware attack hit the site last weekend.

The attack was the second in successive Saturdays to use a 'sexy video' to lure the recipient into clicking on a fake FLV Player upgrade message which then downloads adware onto the PC.

Security vendor Trend Micro then warned of yet more internet related scams designed to capitalise on the World Cup in South Africa by parting unsuspecting users from their cash.

The two 419-style scams requested information or for the recipients to co-ordinate with a fake contact accompanied by a call to send in their contact details.

Meanwhile, data protection watchdog the Information Commissioner's Office (ICO) is warning internet users about a scam email purporting to come from the ICO which asks recipients for personal documents.

The email claims to have been sent by Information Commissioner Christopher Graham, and says that he also works for the European Law Enforcement Agency.

Authentication firm VeriSign warned that botnets could become more widespread and dangerous as the services become easier to find and cheaper to hire. The firm’s iDefence arm said that criminals are advertising botnet services on online forums for just £5.99 an hour, which could be used to launch hacking attacks.

Symantec Hosted Services (SHS) and RSA Security both released research this week highlighting the worrying growth of malware and other threats.

Spam, phishing and email-borne virus attacks all increased last month, as did the number of new sites harbouring malware, according to SHS. The firm identified 1,770 new sites with malware, adware and other potentially unwanted programs, an increase of 5.6 per cent on the previous month.

RSA reported that phishing attacks rose last month after a period of decline, logging a three per cent increase to more than 18,000, with UK users on the receiving end of almost half of the scams.

Finally, some good news for the white hats this week, as two Japanese men were arrested on suspicion of fraud after being linked to the recent outbreak of 'hentai' malware scams which posted the personal details of infected users online.

The Daily Yomiuri newspaper reported that Tokyo police made what was the first arrest in Japan on suspicion of fraud using a computer virus, and only the second time in the country that virus writers have been arrested.