IBM unveils tool for a ‘resilient’ enterprise (Indian Express Finance via Yahoo! India News)…

http://www.securityfocus.com/news/11348
Say hello to the Skype Trojan
John Leyden, The Register 2005-10-18

Virus writers are targeting Skype users with a new Trojan that poses as the latest version of the popular VoIP software.
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Net security firm MessageLabs has detected and blocked more than 800 copies of a new variant of the MyTob (AKA Fanbot) Trojan, which is being distributed by email. References and nicknames contained in the code lead MessageLabs to conclude that the malware was probably created by a well known Chinese black hat hacker and not the original author of the malware strain.

Maksym Schipka, a senior antivirus researcher at MessageLabs, said the malware is the first he’s aware of that mentions Skype and as such represents a new theme for social engineering attacks.

The malware arrives in an attachment in messages posing as the latest (v1.4) release of Skype. Legitimate downloads of the software only came out last week, so the attack is timely. If users open the infected payload on a vulnerable Windows machine they will find their PCs transformed into zombie clients (theoretically at least) under the control of computer hackers.

Schipka said that compromised machines fail to connect to IRC servers so they are not much use to the bad guys, right now. He added that the release of a variant of MyTob by someone other than the original author showed the source code was available in at least “some circles” of the computer underground. ®

http://www.networksasia.net/ena/article/articleDetail.jsp?id=420134

New worm wriggles around on Skype
Apr 17, 2007
By: Network World Asia Staff
A worm targeting Skype’s VOIP (voice over Internet protocol) application is harvesting e-mail addresses and directing users to a range of sites hosting other malicious software, security vendors said Monday.

Once a machine is infected, the worm sends a malicious link via instant messages to other users in person’s Skype contact list, according to F-Secure’s blog.

The link leads to an executable file that downloads a Trojan horse capable of downloading other malicious software, F-Secure said. It then shows a photo of a “lightly dressed” woman.

The link also directs users to at least eight Web sites with information about Africa. It’s not clear what type of scam or harm those pages intend, but some of the sites have advertising on them, indicating that it might be a click-fraud scam, said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant for Sophos PLC. Click fraud refers to the various tricks used to get clicks on advertising banners, which generate revenue for Web page owners.

Skype has been targeted by worms in the past, none of which have inflicted great damage, and this one may be no different. “I would think this thing isn’t likely to spread terribly far and wide,” Cluley said.

That’s partly because malware spread via IM does not generally infect as many people as malware spread through more conventional routes, such as e-mail, Cluley said. Also, users can reply to a suspicious IM and ask the sender about the link, and the lack of a response can tip off the user that something is awry.

Some sophisticated IM malware can generate an automated response to trick the user into clicking on the link, but this one does not appear to have that capability, Cluley said. However, it does set Skype to “do not disturb” status, which blocks incoming calls and other notifications, and also prevents a user from responding to an IM, Cluley said.

F-Secure calls the worm “IM-Worm:W32/Pykse.A,” and Sophos named it “Mal/Pykse-A.”