markmonitor.com

Phish Hosted for Free

Thursday, June 24th, 2010

Since March 2010, and especially this month, the MarkMonitor Security Operations Center (SOC) has noticed a significant increase in the use of free web hosting services for phishing and malware attacks.  Cybercriminals are using free hosting services to either host the phishing and malware sites themselves or redirect to fast-flux ...

New Monthly Fraud Intelligence Report Now Available

Monday, June 21st, 2010

Beginning this month, MarkMonitor will be sharing a new, monthly Fraud Intelligence Report with customers and other interested parties in our blog. The goal of the report is to provide timely analysis of developing trends and new threats in the fraud landscape. The Fraud Intelligence Report will complement the current ...

Avalanche Fast-flux and Blended Attacks

Wednesday, December 23rd, 2009

Phishing attacks have become more sophisticated with the use of fast-flux botnets as resilient attack platforms. The fast-fluxing among hundreds of compromised computers which serve as proxies for phishing sites means that detection and shutdown become more difficult. One particular fast-flux botnet called Avalanche has received much attention in recent months ...

Open Phishing Season

Thursday, December 3rd, 2009

For retailers and consumers, Cyber Monday marked the beginning of the online holiday shopping season. For cybercriminals, however, it marked the opening of their winter phishing season. Here at MarkMonitor, we are currently seeing an uptick in cybercriminal activity targeting online retailers’ brands. Linked here is an example of a phish attack ...

SEO Poisoning: A Persistent Malware Threat Targeting High-Profile Brands

Friday, October 16th, 2009

It’s bad enough that malware is virally spread via paid search and social networking links.  But now there are more accounts of it being spread via natural search links as well.  In a practice called “SEO Poisoning,” fraudsters use Search Engine Optimization (SEO) techniques to mix malware-laden search results with ...

Malware Attacks: Are Corporate Domain Portfolios at Risk?

Tuesday, December 9th, 2008

Phishing attacks targeted at retail registrars are nothing new. But are malware attacks geared towards the managers of corporate domain portfolios the next likely target? After all, wouldn't the fastest, most effective way to redirect website traffic be to update name servers, and/or DNS settings for a popular site?              One likely ...

How your brand may be abused to install malicious software

Tuesday, July 1st, 2008

Recently, MarkMonitor has discovered several instances of company names and brands being used to steer visitors to web sites that eventually result in malicious or bogus software being installed on their system.   Upon receiving a Google Alert or searching the web, users end up on a free web hosting site like ...