a nasty spell of malwear

1
48 JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2008 Slack space Christ is my anti-virus To Ghana, where in his New Year’s Eve address, Reverend Patrick Kofi Ntim Manteaw, pastor of Asylum Down Presbyterian Church, Accra, urged his congregation to install a new anti-virus system in their lives: Christ. He was not suggesting a vocal response when a virulent piece of malware hits your PC, but referring in a very real sense to Christ the anti-virus, who will help people to fight against negative spiritual forces. “Like the computer, we as Christians need anti-virus to deal with all viruses that would attack our lives, be it sickness, death, troubles,” said the Reverend. He added that, with Christ the anti-virus in their lives, everything will be all right. www.myjoyonline.com/news/200801/11923. asp (Blue)toothless security Joshua Wright of Hackszine fame confirms what many cellular industry insiders already knew, that the Bluetooth PAN (personal area network) standard is wide open to hackers. In his YouTube demo, Joshua shows how, by altering the status setting of a Bluetooth ‘device’ – in this case a handheld running Linux – from a PDA to a cellular phone, you can insert random audio files into a Bluetooth transmission. For the user of the relevant Bluetooth headset and his/her cell phone, the effect is the same as a crossed phone line – confusion, fear and worry, and not necessarily in that order. Joshua’s grin on the YouTube video perhaps reveals his real intention with this minor league hack. Of course, now the technique is out in the open, you can expect more random audio insertions to take place, especially in coffee shops. It’s worth noting that this technique can also be used to eavesdrop on most Bluetooth transmissions. You have been warned... www.hackszine.com/blog/archive/2007/ 12/eavesdropping_on_bluetooth_hea.html www.youtube.com/watch?v=1c-jzYAH2gw Call free or die We used to think that PBX hacking was a phone ‘phreaking’ sport that died out in the late 1990s. But the problem is still with us, as witnessed by a $14 600 (£7300, €9900) bill received by New Hampshire-based Hexa Interactive Communications late last year. Owner Michael Bednaz was reportedly horrified to get a (very) long distance calling bill from AT&T that included a series of calls apparently rung up by a hacker dialling into his company’s phone system late at night. One of the calls, lasting over 13 hours, was to a Saudi Arabia number – costing a whopping $8700. Despite telling AT&T that the calls weren’t his, the carrier is reportedly suing Bednaz and company for the full amount. The fact that AT&T was not his normal long distance carrier had nothing to do with the prosecution, of course... www.concordmonitor.com/apps/ pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071222/ NEWS01/712220352 Ahoy there Despite the best efforts of the RIAA and other agencies to ‘educate’ consumers that file-sharing music and movie files is illegal, the Pirate Bay – one of the leading file-sharing index portals – says its membership has risen from 4.27 million in December 2006 to 8.39 million a year later. Meanwhile, the number of files its indices track has risen from 576 000 to 915 000. When you consider that the file indices on Pirate Bay tend to delete themselves after about three to six months, this suggests significant year-on-year growth in piratical activity. Incredibly, some industry sources claim that the rise in the Pirate Bay statistics are actually positive for the anti-filesharing industry, as the site’s new users are actually refugees from other sites which have been closed down or emasculated, such as Demonoid, eDonkey, ISOHunt and Oink. http://torrentfreak.com/the-pirate-bay- torrents-and-peers-double-071225/ A nasty spell of malwear Sunbelt Software has reported a new Trojan that threatens to zap your PC unless you stump up $35 via your phone bill. It asks users to dial a 1-900 number in the US or another international premium rate number in order to pay the required ransom. Quite how the malware’s authors are able to identify the hapless PC users’ computer escapes us here at Slack Space Towers, but we are told that the ransomware software is a genuine threat in the wild. It’s a shame, though, that the hackers can’t spell, as their software (we use that term loosely folks) comes up with the following message on an infected PC: “ERROR: Browser Security and Antiadware Software component license exprited!” The Trojan’s message also says that the adware installed on the users’ PC is “dangerows”. www.pcworld.com/article/id,140949-c, trojanhorses/article.html Do you think it’s clever to spell things incorrectly when hacking? Do you wear black clothing and wash rarely? Are you currently in a relationship? Didn’t think so. Clean up your act, but first slip some dirt to your old mucker Slack Alice: [email protected] Christ the healer, in a more traditional setting

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Page 1: A nasty spell of malwear

48 JANUARY/FEBRUARY 2008

Slack spac

e

Christ is my anti-virusTo Ghana, where in his New Year’s Eve address, Reverend Patrick Kofi Ntim Manteaw, pastor of Asylum Down Presbyterian Church, Accra, urged his congregation to install a new anti-virus system in their lives: Christ.

He was not suggesting a vocal response when a virulent piece of malware hits your PC, but referring in a very real sense to Christ the anti-virus, who will help people to fight against negative spiritual forces.

“Like the computer, we as Christians need anti-virus to deal with all viruses that would attack our lives, be it sickness, death, troubles,” said the Reverend. He added that, with Christ the anti-virus in their lives, everything will be all right.www.myjoyonline.com/news/200801/11923.asp

(Blue)toothless securityJoshua Wright of Hackszine fame confirms what many cellular industry insiders already knew, that the Bluetooth PAN (personal area network) standard is wide open to hackers.

In his YouTube demo, Joshua shows how, by altering the status setting of a Bluetooth ‘device’ – in this case a handheld running Linux – from a PDA to a cellular phone, you can insert random audio files into a Bluetooth transmission.

For the user of the relevant Bluetooth headset and his/her cell phone, the effect is the same as a crossed phone line – confusion, fear and worry, and not necessarily in that order.

Joshua’s grin on the YouTube video perhaps reveals his real intention with this minor league hack.

Of course, now the technique is out in the open, you can expect more random audio insertions to take place, especially in coffee shops.

It’s worth noting that this technique can also be used to eavesdrop on most Bluetooth transmissions. You have been warned...www.hackszine.com/blog/archive/2007/ 12/eavesdropping_on_bluetooth_hea.htmlwww.youtube.com/watch?v=1c-jzYAH2gw

Call free or dieWe used to think that PBX hacking was a phone ‘phreaking’ sport that died out in the late 1990s. But the problem is still with us, as witnessed by a $14 600 (£7300, €9900) bill received by New Hampshire-based Hexa Interactive Communications late last year.

Owner Michael Bednaz was reportedly horrified to get a (very) long distance calling bill from AT&T that included a series of calls apparently rung up by a hacker dialling into his company’s phone system late at night.

One of the calls, lasting over 13 hours, was to a Saudi Arabia number – costing a whopping $8700.

Despite telling AT&T that the calls weren’t his, the carrier is reportedly suing Bednaz and company for the full amount.

The fact that AT&T was not his normal long distance carrier had nothing to do with the prosecution, of course...www.concordmonitor.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20071222/NEWS01/712220352

Ahoy thereDespite the best efforts of the RIAA and other agencies to ‘educate’ consumers that file-sharing music and movie files

is illegal, the Pirate Bay – one of the leading file-sharing index portals – says its membership has risen from 4.27 million in December 2006 to 8.39 million a year later. Meanwhile, the number of files its indices track has risen from 576 000 to 915 000.

When you consider that the file indices on Pirate Bay tend to delete themselves after about three to six months, this suggests significant year-on-year growth in piratical activity.

Incredibly, some industry sources claim that the rise in the Pirate Bay statistics are actually positive for the anti-filesharing industry, as the site’s new users are actually refugees from other sites which have been closed down or emasculated, such as Demonoid, eDonkey, ISOHunt and Oink. http://torrentfreak.com/the-pirate-bay-torrents-and-peers-double-071225/

A nasty spell of malwearSunbelt Software has reported a new Trojan that threatens to zap your PC unless you stump up $35 via your phone bill. It asks users to dial a 1-900 number in the US or another international premium rate number in order to pay the required ransom.

Quite how the malware’s authors are able to identify the hapless PC users’ computer escapes us here at Slack Space Towers, but we are told that the ransomware software is a genuine threat in the wild.

It’s a shame, though, that the hackers can’t spell, as their software (we use that term loosely folks) comes up with the following message on an infected PC: “ERROR: Browser Security and Antiadware Software component license exprited!”

The Trojan’s message also says that the adware installed on the users’ PC is “dangerows”.www.pcworld.com/article/id,140949-c, trojanhorses/article.html

Do you think it’s clever to spell things

incorrectly when hacking? Do you wear

black clothing and wash rarely? Are you

currently in a relationship? Didn’t think

so. Clean up your act, but first slip some

dirt to your old mucker Slack Alice:

[email protected]

Christ the healer, in a more traditional setting