Skip to main content

Lizamoon: A Serious SQL Injection Attack

According to some security experts, Lizamoon is the most successful SQL injection attack ever witnessed.  During its short lifespan it has already compromised hundreds of thousands of websites.  While reports vary on the number of infected sites, some put the number over four million.  But these sites aren’t even the real victims; they’re just pawns in a larger scareware plot to steal people’s money.

It all starts when a line of java script is surreptitiously injected into a webpage’s code. The script redirects the website’s visitors to a rogue AV site that initiates what appears to be a comprehensive anti-malware scan on the victim’s computer.  The scan finishes up rather quickly (certainly faster than any legitimate computer scan would take) and alerts victims that their computers have been infected with Trojans, worms, and other malware.
The victims are then prompted with an option to “remove” the malware by downloading a “malware-removing” executable.  At this point, those who have been duped into downloading the fraudulent software program, which is called “Windows Stability Center,” receive offers to purchase additional software that will allegedly remove the malware from their computers.
Recently, it was reported that the SQL injection redirects are ineffective because the compromised websites have been shut down.  Regardless, we should all keep an eye on Lizamoon because it has already proven itself to be a formidable threat.

As one computer security blog points out, Lizamoon is easily avoidable with a little bit of common sense.  The simple solution is to not download any unknown files.  For a bit of added security, it’s wise to become familiar with your computer’s existing antivirus software.  If you know what it’s called and what it looks like, you’ll be able to recognize a fake when it rears its ugly face.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Ghosting

Ghosting is to cease communications without notification. The use of the word "ghost" as a verb originated in social media in reference to dating, but the term is now used by employers to describe employees and potential employees who suddenly disappear. Typically, ghosting is used to describe: Job candidates who suddenly stop responding to messages. New hires who fail to show up for their first day of work. Employees who do not show up for a shift. Employees who leave work in the middle of the day and never come back. Some analysts blame ghosting on millennial entitlement. The reasoning is that members of the millennial generation have been brought up to feel they are special -- so special, in fact, that they do not need to follow conventional rules of behavior. Other analysts, however, maintain that ghosting behavior stems from changes in the job market and the phenomenon is simply a reflection of the laws of supply and demand in a healthy jo...
Post a Comment
Read more

Data deduplication

Data deduplication -- often called intelligent compression or single-instance storage -- is a process that eliminates redundant copies of data and reduces storage overhead. Data deduplication techniques ensure that only one unique instance of data is retained on storage media, such as disk, flash or tape. Redundant data blocks are replaced with a pointer to the unique data copy. In that way, data deduplication closely aligns with incremental backup, which copies only the data that has changed since the previous backup. For example, a typical email system might contain 100 instances of the same 1 megabyte (MB) file attachment. If the email platform is backed up or archived, all 100 instances are saved, requiring 100 MB of storage space. With data deduplication, only one instance of the attachment is stored; each subsequent instance is referenced back to the one saved copy. In this example, a 100 MB storage demand drops to 1 MB. Target vs. source deduplication Data deduplica...
Post a Comment
Read more

A Graphics Processing Unit (GPU)

A graphics processing unit (GPU) is a computer chip that performs rapid mathematical calculations, primarily for the purpose of rendering images. A GPU may be found integrated with a central processing unit (CPU) on the same circuit, on a graphics card or in the motherboard of a personal computer or server. In the early days of computing, the CPU performed these calculations. As more graphics-intensive applications such as AutoCAD were developed; however, their demands put strain on the CPU and degraded performance. GPUs came about as a way to offload those tasks from CPUs, freeing up their processing power. NVIDIA, AMD, Intel and ARM are some of the major players in the GPU market. GPU vs. CPU A graphics processing unit is able to render images more quickly than a central processing unit because of its parallel processing architecture, which allows it to perform multiple calculations at the same time. A single CPU does not have this capability, although multi...
Post a Comment
Read more