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
  1. American Registry for Internet Numbers (ARIN) Whois, which serves North and South America, as well as the Caribbean and Africa south of the equator.

  2. Réseaux Internet Protocol Européens (RIPE) WhoIs, which serves Europe, the Middle East, Eastern Asia, and Africa north of the equator.

  3. 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