Current Computer Attacks
Copyright 1999-2016 Ronald B. Standler
Table of Contents
links that I frequently use
information from anti-virus vendors
other sources
WhoIs
Reporting Computer Crime in the USA
test security on a computer
sources that I use most frequently
F-Secure current weblog anti-virus vendor in Finland
SANS Internet Storm Center
Internet Traffic Report
Internet Health Report latency time,
% packet loss, and availability between backbones in USA
information from anti-virus vendors
Listed in alphabetical order.
Inclusion of a company here is not an endorsement by Standler.
search F-Secure library, also list of recent malware
McAfee Threat Center top ten lists, search McAfee library
McAfee Virus Information map, calendar, list of recent threats
Sophos search for information on specific malware
Sophos Naked Security News homepage
Symantec Latest Threats homepage with list of latest threats, search Symantec library
Trend Micro search Trend Micro library
Trend Micro current threat activity
other sources
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security
Computer Emergency Response Team
(US-CERT) advises operators of webservers and
Internet architecture about security issues, such as release of new worms or viruses,
ways that hackers can obtain unauthorized access to webservers,
denial of service attacks on Internet sites, etc.
US-CERT is only incidentally concerned with security of user's computers.
US-CERT publishes
current activity,
technical alerts, and
security bulletins.
There is an earlier CERT,
operated by Carnegie-Mellon University, which had
advisories and
incident reports between 1988 and Feb 2004.
After Feb 2004, see US-CERT "technical alerts", linked above.
The Center for Education and Research in Information Assurance and Security
(CERIAS),
directed by Prof. Spafford at Purdue University.
Washington Post Security Fix blog
European Expert Group for IT Security (eicar)
Prof. Dorothy Denning, an expert on computer security, has a
website.
WhoIs
The headers of e-mail and reports of firewall software both show numeric IP addresses.
Information from WhoIs is useful to convert a numeric IP address to a
name, street address, city, and country.
Official Registries
- American Registry for Internet Numbers
(ARIN) Whois,
which serves North and South America, as well as the
Caribbean and Africa south of the equator.
- Réseaux Internet Protocol Européens
(RIPE) WhoIs,
which serves Europe, the Middle East, Eastern Asia,
and Africa north of the equator.
- The Asia Pacific Network Information Centre
(APNIC) WhoIs,
which serves Australia, China, Japan, Taiwan, Hong Kong,
Korea, India, Indonesia, and many other countries in that region of
the world.
Other resources
Network Solutions WhoIs, first Internet domain registry in the USA
Geek Tools WhoIs proxy automatically queries
ARIN, RIPE, APNIC, and many national databases, in addition to Network Solutions.
The GeekTools WhoIs is a good place to start if you don't know
the location of the Internet Service Provider.
This service is provided by software engineers in Tempe, Arizona, USA.
InterNIC WhoIs from the Internet Corporation for Assigned Names and Numbers
IANA country codes
Reporting Computer Crime in the USA
software engineering
New computer viruses, worms, Trojans, and other malware can be reported to vendors
of anti-virus software, so that the software can be upgraded. See the instructions at each
anti-virus vendor's website for uploading a sample virus.
The U.S. Department of Homeland Security
Computer Emergency Response Team
accepts reports of violation of security policies ("incidents"),
phishing e-mails, or software vulnerabilities.
This is not a law-enforcement website, the emphasis here is on issuing alerts and
developing engineering solutions to threats.
law enforcement
Computer crimes can be reported to the local police, state police, or federal agents —
like any other crime. The reporting and initial investigation of a computer crime
is at the location of the victim , not the location of the perpetrator.
Victims of computer crime should not contact the perpetrator or suspect(s), because such
contact could warn the perpetrator and encourage him/her to destroy evidence and/or flee,
making the case more difficult to prosecute.
List of FBI field offices.
The FBI operates the Internet Crime Complaint Center
(ICCC).
Send a tip to the FBI.
The U.S. Department of Justice operates a
cybercrime website,
which is concerned with computer crime and intellectual property violations.
DOJ links
for reporting cybercrimes.
U.S. Government Federal Trade
Commission accepts reports of phishing e-mails and identity theft.
In a so-called "Nigerian scam", a victim receives an e-mail from a person pretending to be
a lawyer, banker, or government official who alleges he has control of a large amount of money
(typically millions of dollars). The scammer asks the victim's help in getting the money out of
some bank account, and promises to reward the victim with a significant fraction of the money.
The scam works by asking victims to send money to the scammer as some kind of advance fee.
(More information on the scam from
anonymous,
U.S. State Dept.)
test security on a computer
Free online diagnostics to probe ports on your computer and report on firewall security.
The following links offer an online scan for computer viruses:
Explanation
To avoid repetitiously updating bookmark files in several different webbrowsers
on each of several different computers that I routinely use
— plus my webpage at www.rbs2.com/cvict.htm —
I have collected all of my links to information about computer viruses, worms, Trojans, and other
malware, and put these links in this HTML document at my professional website.
The above links are provided only as a convenience to readers
of this page. I receive neither income nor
other consideration as a result of referrals or providing links to any entity.
I make no warranties about the contents of the websites
to which links are provided here.
See my disclaimer.
There are many hundreds of websites about computer crime
or computer security, so I have been very selective in choosing the
above websites.
In March 2016, I checked all of the links in this webpage for the first time
since July 2013. I found 7 dead URLs and 12 obsolete URLs that
redirected to the current webpage. I responded by deleting these URLs,
except for essential resources. In my view, webmasters who change URLs
are sociopaths who frustrate Internet users. Instead of spending my time
searching for new resources, I need to laboriously update dead or obsolete URLs.
http://www.rbs2.com/cattacks.html
webpage created 21 Nov 2007, revised 17 March 2016
go to:
my professional homepage
my essay on computer crime
my Tips for Avoiding Computer Crime
my first essay on computer viruses and worms