Latest news
If you are an Opera user who hasn't changed the browser homepage or has visited Opera's Portal homepage (portal.opera.com) on Wednesday, you might want to check you computer for malware.According to Bitdefender, the website in question has been redirecting visitors to a page hosting the infamous Blackhole exploit kit for at least a few hours.
But how did that happen?
The portal would load a malicious obfuscated script - most likely via a third-party ad - and it would insert into the page an iframe that loaded malicious content from an external source, and visitors were automatically redirected to another page.
"This malicious page harbors the BlackHole exploit kit (we got served with the sample via a PDF file rigged with the CVE-2010-0188 exploit) that will infect the unlucky user with a freshly-compiled variant of ZBot, detected by Bitdefender as Trojan.Zbot.HXT," shared the researchers.
"The ZBot malware is on a server in Russia which, most probably, has also fallen victim to a hacking attack, allowing unauthorized access via FTP."
The company has luckily offered a simple way of checking whether you have been saddled with this specific malware - just visit its Quickscan website and speedily test your computer.


Spotlight

The security of WordPress plugins
Posted on 18 June 2013. | Checkmarx’s research lab identified that more than 20% of the 50 most popular WordPress plugins are vulnerable to common Web attacks, such as SQL Injection.

Information security executives need to be strategic thinkers
Posted on 17 June 2013. | George Baker, the Director of Information Security at Exostar, talks about the challenges in working in a dynamic threat landscape, offers tips for aspiring infosec leaders, and more.

Large orgs in denial about own security breaches?
Posted on 14 June 2013. | Over two thirds (66%) of large organizations said they either had not experienced a security incident in the last 12-18 months or were unsure if they had.

Vulnerability scanning with PureCloud
Posted on 12 June 2013. | nCircle PureCloud is a cloud-based network security scanning product built upon the companies' vulnerability and risk management system IP360.

Reactions from the security community to the NSA spying scandal
Posted on 11 June 2013. | Read on for comments on this scandal that Help Net Security received from a variety of security professionals and analysts.
By subscribing to our early morning news update, you will receive a daily digest of the latest security news published on Help Net Security.
With over 500 issues so far, reading our newsletter every Monday morning will keep you up-to-date with security risks out there.







