Robert Vamosi

Computer Security Writer

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I’m flattered, but …fake ZDNet review leads to malware

Malware writers have been using bogus antivirus products to infect computers–such rogue programs are not new. But Lawrence Abrams, owner of BleepingComputer.com notified me this morning that one new rogue is posting a fake review written by one “Robert Vamosi.”
This particular rogue is called Anti-Virus-1, and it takes over a computer’s HOSTS file so that [...]

February 19, 2009  Tags: cybercrime, Defense in Depth, Robert Vamosi, security, vulnerablity  Posted in: Bleepingcomputer.com, Defense in Depth, Lawrence Abrams, Robert Vamosi, rogue antivirus program  No Comments

Microsoft plans 4 bulletins for Patch Tuesday

Microsoft today released it’s advance notification for next week’s Patch Tuesday. There are two critical patches (one each for IE and Microsoft Exchange Server) and two important patches (one each for SQL and Viso). Complete details can be found here.

February 5, 2009  Tags: Defense in Depth, IE, microsoft, Microsoft Exchange Server., Patch Tuesday, Robert Vamosi, SQL, Viso  Posted in: Uncategorized  Comments Closed

Coordinated ATM attack nets $9 million

Up to 130 ATM machines in 49 cities worldwide were used in a coordinated attack on RBS Worldpay, a global payments services company. Within a 30 minute period on November 8th, 2008, the company lost an estimated $9 million dollars due to fraudulent ATM transactions.
While the company first disclosed the loss in November, the ambitious [...]

February 4, 2009  Tags: ATM, banking, cybercrime, data loss, Defense in Depth, RBS Worldpay, Robert Vamosi, security  Posted in: ATM machines, Defense in Depth, RBS Worldpay, Robert Vamosi, cybercrime, data loss  Comments Closed

iWork 2009 Trojan building a botnet

This week security researchers reported that pirated copies of iWork 2009 may contain a Trojan horse. Experts note that with Mac OS X threats, you have to be fooled into installing them. In this case, the chance to own iWork 2009 on the cheap is the potential draw. Most antivirus programs for the Mac are [...]

January 23, 2009  Tags: Apple, botnet, Defense in Depth, iWork, Jose Nazario, Robert Vamosi, Trajan horse  Posted in: DDoS, Defense in Depth, Jose Nazario, Mac OS X, P2P, Robert Vamosi, Trojan horse, botnets, conficker, denial of service, downadup, iWork  Comments Closed

Internet Explorer 8 RC 1

A week ago I sat down with Dean Hachamovitch, General Manger of the IE team at Microsoft and we talked about Internet Explorer 8 RC 1. In the video below, he outlines what he believes are the compelling reason to use Internet Explorer 8.

The first reason he mentioned was this is now a stable [...]

January 22, 2009  Tags: Dean Hachamovitch, Defense in Depth, Internet Explorer 8, microsoft, Robert Vamosi, security, Windows  Posted in: Uncategorized, Windows, Windows Vista, Windows XP, microsoft  Comments Closed

Apple issues 8 critical QuickTime security updates

Today Apple issued a security update for QuickTime 7.6. The update addresses flaws in both the Mac OS X and Windows XP and Vista implementations of the media viewer.
Specifically, the update fixes flaws CVE-2009-0001 through CVE-2009-0007.
The eight vulnerabilities within QuickTime can all be exploited to cause an unexpected application termination (denial of service) or [...]

January 21, 2009  Tags: Apple, arbitrary code execution, CVE, Defense in Depth, denial of service, QuickTime, Robert Vamosi, security update, vulnerablity, Windows  Posted in: Apple, CVE, Defense in Depth, Mac OS X, QuckTime, Robert Vamosi, Windows, arbitrary code execution, denial of service, security update, vulnerability  Comments Closed

Heartland data breach could be the largest in US history

Details are emerging on what could well become that largest data breach in US History.
Heartland, a company that processes payments for more than 250,000 businesses, is saying today that up to one million customers may have had their credit information stolen, a number easily eclipsing the 47 million customers potentially at risk of credit fraud [...]

January 20, 2009  Tags: bank processing, banking, carders, cybercrime, data breach, Defense in Depth, forensics, hackers, Heartland, identity fraud, identity theft, MasterCard, Robert Vamosi  Posted in: Defense in Depth, Heartland, MasterCard, Robert Baldwin, Robert Vamosi, TJX, US Secret Service, Visa, carders, cybercrmie, data breach, forensics, hackers, identity theft, indentity fraud  Comments Closed

• 

  When Gadgets Betray Us: The Dark Side of our Infatuation with New Technologies.

  Technology is evolving faster than we are. As our mobile phones, mp3 players, cars, and digital cameras become more and more complex, we understand less and less about how they actually work and what personal details these gadgets might reveal about us.

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  Apple arbitrary code execution ATM aviation banking bank processing botnet carders Carnegie Mellon computer security Cryptography Research CVE cybercrime data breach data loss Dean Hachamovitch Debix Defense in Depth denial of service failure forensics hackers Heartland identity fraud identity theft IE Inc. Internet Explorer 8 iWork Jose Nazario MasterCard microsoft Microsoft Exchange Server. Patch Tuesday Paul Kocher QuickTime RBS Worldpay Robert Vamosi security security update SQL Trajan horse Viso vulnerablity Windows