MontNews.com

US-CERT is aware of public reports regarding a search engine result poisoning campaign affecting search results for the Montgomery County Animal Shelter. Users seeking details on rumors about the closure of a “Montgomery County Animal Shelter” may be led to click on illegitimate search results which attempt to download malicious code. The rumors are being spread via e-mail, forums, and social networking sites, usually taking the form of a plea for readers to contact the shelter and adopt animals prior to the shelter’s closing.

US-CERT is monitoring the situation and will provide updates as they become available.

For quite some time, the Internet security community has been aware of computers being compromised and taken over as part of a “Zombie Army” or “Botnet”. (See the FTC’s article)

Now, a far reaching cyber espionage networks using Ghost RAT has been uncovered. A RAT is a Remote Access Trojan that takes over the host computer.

The GhostNet RAT uncovered by a team from the University Of Toronto found 1,295 infected computers in 103 countries. What makes these RATS all the more alarming is that it appears to be a well organized network attacking high level computers in government agencies, financial institutions and defense departments.

GhostNet was originally investigated because the Dalai Lama thought his computer might be infected.

The GhostNet RAT spreads itself through Microsoft Word documents or Adobe PDF files sent in email as attachments.

Tracking GhostNet: Investigating a Cyber Espionage Network

by The Membrane Domain
Full Article

Headline: The President gets to keep his Blackberry, but the White House can’t keep their Microsoft server running for email.

Get the latest security updates.

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