'Net Features : mcafee

CJ Links Show Red on McAfee SiteAdvisor

Pete Prestipino — Tue, 02 Oct 2012 13:00:00 GMT

The discussion around whether affiliate links may be penalized by search engines and other networks is now getting the full attention it deserves. It appears that Commission Junction's "androezers.net" redirect links, used by tens of thousands of its affiliates, are encountering the dreaded red signal on McAfee Site Advisor.

The implications are quite significant; affiliates and merchants could lose sales or commissions and damage their reputation equally. According to McAfee's SiteAdvisor service, the domain, which CJ uses for redirecting users from affiliate sites to merchant sites, found potential security risks with the site and encourages visitors of the site to use "extreme caution".

CJ is apparently aware of the problem according to an ABestWeb forum thread, and has verified that McAfee blacklisted the link. There are instances when removing the "red" designation has taken months and in some cases years to have it reversed. In the meantime, perhaps its time to shift gears and change networks?

McAfee Plugin for MySQL Audits

Pete Prestipino — Mon, 26 Mar 2012 17:35:00 GMT

Security technology vendor McAfee has released a free open-source plugin for MySQL database users which shows detailed activity from database audits.

The plugin features visibility into database vulnerabilities and supports databases such as Oracle, Sybase, MS-SQL and DB2. The plugin, which is available on gitHub, requires no change to the existing database or network architecture.

“McAfee developed the free database audit plug-in to give the community of MySQL users a means of building enterprise-level database security around their databases,” said Dan Sarel, vice president of Database Security Product Management at McAfee. “When coupled with the McAfee Database Activity Monitoring sensor for MySQL, the data is subject to the same real-time analysis and policy enforcement as the data collected from other supported databases.”

Hottest of 2010 are Most Likely Targets for Crime in 2011

Administrator — Tue, 28 Dec 2010 17:54:00 GMT

A report released on Tuesday by security firm McAfee predicts that the top targets for cybercrime in 2011 will include smartphones, geolocation services, URL shorteners and devices that run Apple operating systems. Social networks and Internet TV platforms such as Google TV also made the list of potential threats from online scammers.

“We’ve seen significant advancements in device and social network adoption, placing a bullseye on the platforms and services users are embracing the most,” says Vincent Weafer, senior vice president of McAfee Labs. “These platforms and services have become very popular in a short amount of time, and we’re already seeing a significant increase in vulnerabilities, attacks and data loss.”

As the hottest new services and devices achieve widespread awareness and adoption by users, they also become more likely targets for cybercriminals, warns the report. In the case of URL shorteners, for example, Twitter users have grown so accustomed to them that most people rarely give a second thought before clicking on a link – making them a potentially dangerous vehicle for the spread of viruses and other malicious attacks.

Social networks have been ripe for attacks since their inception because of the open exchange of data between users. But now with the widespread adoption of location services such as Facebook Places and Foursquare during the past year, cybercriminals have gained an even clearer view into users’ whereabouts and interests as well as what operating systems and applications they are using.

Mobile devices, particularly those used on corporate networks and those running Apple OS, are also going to be increasingly hot targets for crime in 2011, according to McAfee.

Malware Up, Spam Down

Pete Prestipino — Wed, 17 Nov 2010 15:09:00 GMT

It seems every bit of good news received about Web security is tempered with some bad.

McAfee unveiled its McAfee Threats Report for the Third Quarter (2010) today, which revealed that while spam levels decreased in volume this quarter (hitting a two year low) malware is soaring with an average of 60,000 new pieces of malware identified each day – quadrupling since 2007.

“Our Q3 Threat report shows that cybercriminals are not only becoming more saavy, but attacks are becoming increasingly more severe,” said Mike Gallagher, senior vice president and chief technology officer of Global Threat Intelligence for McAfee.

“Cybercriminals are doing their homework, and are aware of what’s popular, and what’s insecure. They are attacking mobile devices and social networking sites, so education about user activity online, as well as incorporating the proper security technologies are of utmost importance.”

One of the most sophisticated pieces of malware in Q3 was the Zeus botnet, the malware at the root of U.S. small businesses losing $70 million at the hands of Ukrainian cybercriminals. Recently, a Zeus botnet was unleashed that is aimed at mobile devices and designed to intercept SMS messages to validate transactions, putting at risk consumers bank accounts. McAfee also saw an increase in email campaigns attempting to deliver the Zeus botnet, under the disguise of organizations like eFAX, FedEx, Internal Revenue Service, Social Security Administration, United States Postal Service and Western Union.

Botnet activity also remained strong in Q3, the most popular of which, Cutwail, accounted for more than 50 percent of traffic in every country. Cutwail bots engaged in distributed denial-of-service attacks against more than 300 websites, including United States government departments such as the Central Intelligence Agency and Federal Bureau of Investigation, and businesses websites such as Twitter and PayPal.

McAfee Reports Historic Levels of Malware

Linc Wonham — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 18:00:00 GMT

According to Web security firm McAfee’s second-quarter data, Malware reached its highest levels ever in the first half of 2010. The company found 6 million malicious files in the second quarter, making for a total of 10 million malicious files over the first six months of the year.

The most frequently used malware included threats on portable storage devices, fake anti-virus software, software specifically targeted at social media users, AutoRun malware and password-stealing Trojans. McAfee reported that approximately 55,000 new pieces of malware appear every day around the world.
Spam rates appear to have leveled off after reaching nearly 175 billion messages per day in the third quarter of 2009, but there was a spike in spamming that surrounding the FIFA World Cup held in South Africa during July. During that time, cybercriminals used a variety of methods to promote scams and search-engine poisoning globally.

The most popular forms of spam in the U.S. were delivery status notifications or non-delivery receipt spam, which was also the case in Great Britain, China, Australia, Italy, Spain, Germany and Brazil. Argentina had the world’s highest number of different spam topics with 16, according to McAfee’s report.

Yahoo Launches SearchScan

Pete Prestipino — Tue, 06 May 2008 14:42:00 GMT

Yahoo! announced the release of SearchScan late yesterday, a feature which aims to help protect users from viruses, spyware and SPAM. SearchScan uses McAfee's SiteAdvisor technology to indicate to users if risky websites appear in Yahoo! search results. Users in the U.S., Canada, UK, France, Italy, Germany, Australia, New Zealand, and Spain will potentially see three types of risks in the Yahoo! Search index:

Browser Exploits: Those which stealthily harm a computer by installing malware. Any sites included in the category (based on McAfee data) will be removed from search results automatically.

Dangerous Downloads: Yahoo! will display warning next to search results for sites that offer potentially dangerous software, such as viruses, spyware or adware.

Unsolicited Email: SearchScan will also alert users to sites which send unsolicited emails or "inappropriately" share email addresses.

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