Second International Conference of the South Asian Society of Criminology and Victimology

The South Asian Society of Criminology and Victimology (SASCV) and Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice at Manonmaniam Sundaranar University are organizing their Second International Conference from 11 to 13 January, 2013 at Kanyakumari, Chennai under the theme of  "REVISITING INTERPERSONAL CRIMES AND VICTIMIZATION"

Shamoon attack

A new malware surfaced during August 2012 as reported by the various security agencies.  The malware has been  dubbed by the code name  "Shamoon". The attack is called "Shamoon", due to a filename i.e. string of a folder name within the malware executable called as Shamoon. ("C:\Shamoon\ArabianGulf\wiper\release\wiper.pdb").The spyware infects all the computers in an internal network.

The main executable contains 3 resources, each maintains a ciphered program. PKCS12:112, PKCS7:113 and X509:116,  according to Dmitry. Symantec said that the malware, which it calls "W32:Disttrack," had infected fewer than 50 machines worldwide. The main Shamoon module has a resource PKCS7:113 that maintains an executable which is saved to disk as %WINDIR%\System32\NETINIT.EXE says Dmitry Tarakanov. He adds that the malware waits for CNC communication as evident from its communication module. He also talks about PKCS12:112 another module playing an important role. The details of shamoon's operation is explained  by Dmitry here.  Shamoon, is being used in targeted attacks against at least one organization in the energy sector, according to Symantec.

Mariposa Botnet

Understanding Bots as a technology has emerged as a critical skill in the information era. This article is focused in understanding Mariposa. Botnet Mariposa was reported by defense intelligence some time during May of 2009. Trend micro says that the worm has been in existence as early as December 2008. It is learnt that the reported botnet was named after the Spanish word for "butterfly" as documented across the Internet. It had silently enrolled almost 13 million computers in more than 190 countries. 

Flame

The Flame worm that has targeted computers in the Middle East is being called "the most sophisticated cyberweapon yet unleashed" by Kaspersky Lab researchers who discovered it The virus reportedly captures sensitive information through a variety of means — “sniffing” data sent across the Internet and internal networks, recording keystrokes, capturing screenshots while applications like messaging programs are running, even turning on a computer’s built-in microphone and recording audio of conversations, according to three cyber labs that detected it.

Computer Security Day - 2012

 Computer Security Day is an annual event that is observed worldwide. This event is observed to increase the security awareness and the need for best practices to be adopted with computer operations.  It is evident that the exponential increase in computing gadgets miss out on the aspects of the need for security. Security is an important consideration when working with computers, the Internet or indeed any electronic devices. The focus of security day is to create awareness on the aspects of security and information management.