Category:

Malware

Wed 16 Aug 2006

Malware Targets Your Online Gold

Wednesday, Aug 16th, 2006 at 10:39 am
Categories: Games; Malware; Crime
Posted by Administrator
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“A Microsoft security person reports that a new breed of malware seeks to take over your characters in online worlds and steal their virtual gold and other loot” —

Using malware or software designed to infiltrate a computer system, hackers steal account information for users of MMO games and then sell off virtual gold, weapons and other items for real money.

“Those of you who are working on massively multiplayer online games, organized crime is already looking at you,” said Dave Weinstein, a Microsoft security development engineer at the company’s Gamefest video game development conference…

“The police are really good at understanding someone stole my credit card and ran up a lot of money. It’s a lot harder to get them to buy into ’someone stole my magic sword.”‘

[Link]

Via Boing Boing.



Tue 4 Apr 2006

Microsoft Says Recovery from Malware Becoming Impossible

Tuesday, Apr 4th, 2006 at 9:38 am
Categories: Malware; Microsoft
Posted by Administrator
1 Comment 

How bad is the malware situation? Bad, and getting worse.
EWeek reports:

… a Microsoft security official said businesses should consider investing in an automated process to wipe hard drives and reinstall operating systems as a practical way to recover from malware infestation.

“When you are dealing with rootkits and some advanced spyware programs, the only solution is to rebuild from scratch. In some cases, there really is no way to recover without nuking the systems from orbit,” Mike Danseglio, program manager in the Security Solutions group at Microsoft, said in a presentation at the InfoSec World conference here.

Via Slashdot

I agree about wiping the hard drives, reinstalling from scratch; advocated for it years ago, when I made my living as a PC tech. It’s the only way to be sure … and even then I’m not sure we can be sure … I think.