Sophos

In its "Security Threat Report 2011" security vendor Sophos said that there is a significant gap between reports of malware coming from social networking websites and the potential threat perceived by businesses.

According to the data for December 2010 malware from the social networking sites hit 40% of users, up from 21.2% in April 2009 and 36% in December of 2009. Phishing is also on the rise, reaching 43% of social networking users in December 2010, up from 21% in April 2009 and 30% in December 2009, the report says.

This week a new tool was released to address the vulnerability in Windows shortcut files. The security company Sophos announced a free application that allegedly blocks any attacks trying to exploit the critical unpatched bug in Windows machines.

According to Chet Wisniewski, a senior security advisor at Sophos, the tool called "Sophos Windows Shortcut Exploit Protection Tool," will protect users until Microsoft releases a permanent patch for the problem

Sophos, a known IT security and data protection company has revealed the results of its latest survey on spam-relaying countries. The company has covered the period from April to June of 2010 and found 12 most spam-relaying countries. According to the results the US still remains the leader in sending spam messages, almost 15.2% of all junk e-mails sent worldwide. It is necessary to note that this figure has increased by 2.1% from last quarter’s 13.1%.

The list of the main spam polluters looks as follows:  

Over the past time the number of telephone scams aimed at persuading unwitting users to install rogue anti-virus software has rapidly increased in the UK. People are receiving warnings over the phone that their PCs are riddled with malware that can be purged with just a few clicks directed by the person on the other end. At the end of last week antivirus provider Eset UK, citing an increase in the calls, warned computer users to remain vigilant.

According to the reports by Sophos 95% of web users think that Facebook fails to provide sufficient measures to protect its members against likejacking attacks. Likejacking is a kind of a clickjacking attack that exploits Facebook’s ‘like’ button.

Usually the attack automatically updates a user's profile to say they 'like' a specific page on the social network. This is then shared with other Facebook users via the news feed, and any of the friends that click on the link will fall prey to the same scam.

According to Monday reports of Sophos, British security software company, Criminal gangs are making millions of dollars out of the H1N1 flu pandemic by selling fake flu drugs via the Internet.

As this weekend reports warned a number of iPhones in Australia to be injured by an ikee worm that only replaces the device's background wallpaper with an image of 80s pop icon Rick Astley. Nevertheless, the ikee worm will not affect most users of Apple's smartphone as it only infects jailbroken iPhones, running the SSH app with the default password, making up the least share of iPhone market. As the security company Sophos announced, the worm tries to find another jailbroken iPhone on the mobile phone network and install itself.