More than a million Web site pages have been hit by a sophisticated hacking attack that injects code into sites that redirect users to a fraudulent software sales operation.
The so-called “mass-injection” attack, which experts say is the largest of its kind ever seen, has managed to insert malicious code into Web sites by gaining access to the servers running the databases behind the Internet, according to the technology security company that discovered it.
Websense, which first found evidence of the attack earlier this week, has called it “LizaMoon,” after the site to which the malicious code first directed its researchers.
Users can see that they are being redirected when they attempt to visit an infected address and can close the window with no ill effects, said Patrik Runald, a senior manager of security research at Websense.
The attack has largely affected small Web sites so far, he said, with no evidence that popular corporate or government Web sites have been compromised.
If users do not close the window after typing an infected address or clicking an infected link they are redirected to a page showing a warning from “Windows Stability Center” — posing as a Microsoft Corp security product — that there are problems with their computer and they are urged to pay for software to fix it.
Websense said the site appeared to be set up by sophisticated fraudsters out to make money, but it was not clear whether the site also planted malicious software on users’ computers if they made a purchase on the site or if the operation was linked to an identity theft scam.
The presentation of the bogus Web site, as shown by Websense, is high quality, but clearly fraudulent. Microsoft has no product called Windows Stability Center. The company did not immediately have a comment on the attack.
Websense said some third-party Web addresses containing information about podcasts available on Apple Inc’s iTunes service had been compromised, but said Apple appeared to have prevented the malicious links from working. Apple did not respond to a request for comment.
The attack may take some time to be tamed, Runald said, as researchers first have to identify the software being compromised and then Web site operators have to install updated software.
“Attacks like this tend to stay for a very long time,” he said. “Once they are onto something, it tends to stay with us. This LizaMoon event won’t disappear over a day.”
Cairo’s new monorail slices across the city skyline, running above the familiar chaos of blaring horns and aging buses’ exhaust fumes that mark rush hour below. The US$4.5 billion monorail, opened this month, is among Egypt’s most prominent new transport projects, part of a debt-funded infrastructure drive criticized for sapping state finances while bringing limited benefits to most of the country’s 109 million people. “It feels like you’re in a different country,” said Ramy Sayed, a restaurant manager, aboard a driverless Innovia 300 train. “No noise, no traffic, we’re not used to this.” The eastern line runs 56km from the bustling middle-class
Taiwanese firms have increased investment in the Philippines in recent years as Manila’s ties with Washington deepen and global supply chains continue to shift away from China, an expert at the Chung-Hua Institution for Economic Research (CIER, 中華經濟研究院) said yesterday. The Philippines had not been among Taiwanese investors’ top choices in Southeast Asia, CIER Taiwan ASEAN Studies Center director Kristy Hsu (徐遵慈) said at a seminar in Taipei. However, Taiwan’s investment in the country has grown significantly since the COVID-19 pandemic, reaching US $257 million last year, a high in recent years, she said. Although Taiwan’s total investment in the Philippines still lags
Intel Corp regards Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) as a longstanding partner, as the US chipmaker would continue outsourcing production of advanced chips to TSMC, Intel chief executive officer Lip-Bu Tan (陳立武) said yesterday. “I don’t look at people as competitors. I look at the collaboration... Nvidia is also, you know, a good friend,” Tan told a news conference following his keynote speech at the Computex trade show in Taipei. “It’s a very trusted partnership for us... We are a big, top customer for them, and we’re going to continue doing that,” he said, referring to TSMC, the world’s largest foundry
Artificial intelligence (AI) agents would supplant smartphones as the center of people’s digital lives, fundamentally reshaping personal devices and driving a major computing upgrade cycle, Qualcomm Inc CEO Cristiano Amon said yesterday. In his keynote speech for this year’s Computex trade show in Taipei, Amon said that the rise of "agentic AI" — AI systems capable of reasoning, planning and carrying out tasks autonomously — would transform how people interact with technology across phones, PCs, vehicles and wearable devices. Describing the technology as the next major evolution in computing, Amon said that "2026 is the year of agents.” For decades, smartphones have sat
RSS