Five years of FakePlayer - this also means five years of Android malware
In October 2010 the discovery of Android.Trojan.FakePlayer.A, the first known malware for the Android operating system, struck us at G DATA SecurityLabs like a bombshell. Once the initial commotion had died down, a number of questions arose
Two major IT-Security Myths debunked
There are two statements G DATA’s security experts hear and read time and again: “I do not surf on porn websites, my computer can’t get infected” as well as “my computer does not hold anything valuable and I have nothing to hide – why should I be a target?” It would be a pleasure to confirm this,…
New Dridex infection vector identified
Malware authors can sometimes be creative in order to manipulate their human targets on the one hand and to circumvent security products, too. The experts of G DATA’s SecurityLabs analyzed a specially crafted Microsoft Word document the attackers used to install a rather famous banking Trojan called…
Dissecting the “Kraken”
In January 2015, unidentified attackers attempted to infiltrate a multi-national enterprise based in the United Arab Emirates, using a spear phishing attack with a crafted MS Word document attached to the message. Once it has reached its target, the payload used was designed to work as an…
The Andromeda/Gamarue botnet is on the rise again
Attacks carried out with documents pepped up with macros seem to become in vogue again. G DATA’s security experts have analyzed several cases within the last weeks, in which active content in documents triggers an infection. The experts want to explain two different approaches for the same current…
BKA strikes a blow against botnet operators
The Federal Criminal Police Office (Bundeskriminalamt; BKA) has made a successful strike against cyber criminals by halting the distribution of Dropperbot. The main task of the malware, which, according to initial reports, has infected 11,000 computers across the world, was to steal data from…
Money is what matters, and visitors are money
Gambling has always been a somewhat shady area – online and offline. In the digital world, the proportion of legal gambling sites is vanishingly small, in Germany at least, compared to the almost countless number of providers. Every provider is on the lookout for customers and so has to have a…
IT Security, Foosball and Charity: VB 2014 had it all
The VB International conference is a worldwide institution when it comes to IT-Security and its 24th edition held some remarkable highlights. Technical and corporate audiences were able to follow high-class talks and presentations about threats and dangers the industry faces, possible solutions and…
Operation "TooHash": how targeted attacks work
The experts of G DATA’s SecurityLabs discovered a cyber-espionage campaign that perfectly exemplifies the way how targeted attacks work. The purpose of this campaign was to steal valuable documents from the targeted entity. We entitle this operation “TooHash”.
Poweliks: the persistent malware without a file
When security researchers talk about malware, they usually refer to files stored on a computer system, which intends to damage a device or steal sensitive data from it. Those files can be scanned by AV engines and can be handled in a classic way. The following analysis is an example of malware which…
Karsten Hahn
Principal Malware Researcher
Tim Berghoff
Security Evangelist
