Kaspersky Lab, a leading developer of secure content management solutions, announces the release of Kaspersky Anti-Virus 2011 for Mac, designed to offer protection against all forms of malicious software, hacker attacks and spam.

The new product offers different operating systems full protection from the constant stream of emergent malware that is appearing with alarming rapidity – about 30,000 samples per day. The antivirus solution protects the Apple Mac OS X from all types of computer threats including viruses, worms, Trojans, spyware, adware, bots and phishing sites. Kaspersky Anti-Virus 2011 for Mac uses the antivirus databases both for Mac and other platforms such as Microsoft Windows and Linux, thus securing guest virtual OS and multiplatform computer networks.

Kaspersky Anti-Virus 2011 for Mac incorporates malware signature detection methods as well as cutting-edge cloud detection technologies and heuristic file analysis to protect users’ computers from new threats that do not yet have recognized signatures.

The new version of the product leverages Kaspersky Lab cloud reputation services to improve protection still further. While scanning suspicious files, Kaspersky Anti-Virus 2011 for Mac references the Company’s online database which contains the very latest data received from the global distributed threat monitoring system. Therefore the latest threats can be detected immediately and the number of false positives can be minimized.

The online database also provides Kaspersky Anti-Virus 2011 for Mac with information about fraud and malicious sites. This information is then used by the Kaspersky URL Advisor to mark dangerous hyperlinks on web pages with a special color indicator. By placing the cursor over the indicator, a user can get more detailed information about the Internet resource and decide whether to enter it or not. The Kaspersky URL Advisor works with Safari, Mozilla Firefox and Google Chrome.

Kaspersky Anti-Virus 2011 for Mac also provides protection from user errors that may lead to the loss of data or security setting alteration. Scanning of an object is performed in real-time without affecting the speed at which files are downloaded from the Internet and other operations.

Regarding the Kaspersky Anti-Virus 2011 for Mac interface – the windows, bars and menu have all been designed in the Mac OS Х style and match the design of the operating system and standard applications.

“Mac’s popularity is growing. The number of threats targeting this operating system is also constantly increasing. According to the latest trend, malicious programs are primarily created to steal personal data. We consider it necessary to provide maximum protection to all users and that is why we continue to develop our product for Mac which additionally protects Microsoft Windows and Linux”, said Vartan Minasyan, Senior Product Manager at Kaspersky Lab. “Our users can be sure that their friends whose computers work under other platforms are safe. They can also feel free to surf the web because the new version of our product includes enhanced protection from IT threats”.

Kaspersky Anti-Virus 2011 for Mac is designed to protect Mac OS X 10.5 and higher, running in 32-bit and 64-bit modes.

Kaspersky Anti-Virus 2011 for Mac will be available on our global website and in stores in Western Europe and Russia from 30 November, 2010.

More information about the product is available from: http://www.kaspersky.com/anti-virus-for-mac.

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Kaspersky Lab, a leading developer of secure content management solutions, announces the publication of the new IT security magazine Secureview. The non-profit quarterly edition aims to raise awareness of IT security issues among the wider public by actively targeting users in all segments of the market.

Secureview presents impartial articles from Kaspersky Lab analysts, journalists and industry experts from other companies and is not intended as a marketing vehicle. The magazine covers the whole spectrum of IT security, focusing on the very latest burning issues. The News section will offer reports on the latest developments, as well as the results of groundbreaking research and expert opinions, which in many respects determine the future of IT security technologies. Analysis of the most important events in the industry will appear in the Report section. The main theme of each edition will be captured in Top Story, a section devoted to the most significant events and trends in the IT security industry. The Analytics section will offer insightful articles by renowned experts, while Forecasts looks to future developments in threats and protection measures. The Interview section will offer readers a chance to find out the views and opinions of authoritative specialists on various threat and IT security issues.

Secureview specializes in publishing articles by well-known experts who have extensive knowledge and experience of working in the IT domain. The magazine not only targets IT specialists, technical managers and security specialists but all users with an interest in computer security.

“We have always supported interesting and informative projects in the IT security sphere,” says Costin Raiu, Director of Kaspersky Lab’s Global Research and Analysis Team. “Very early in the company’s existence we realized that education is one of the most important links in the security chain, and without educating users, administrators and CTOs, this chain would be incomplete. Starting a specialized, high-quality publication that informs a diverse audience of the current threats and IT security trends is another logical step in this direction.”

SecuREview is an English-language magazine published in PDF format for convenient viewing and printing. If you are an IT expert and would like to contribute material, please contact the editorial team at editorial@secureviewmag.com.

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Kaspersky Lab, a leading developer of secure content management solutions, and Axigen, the professional messaging solution vendor, announce today they have signed a technology agreement to integrate Kaspersky Lab’s award-winning anti-malware engine into the Axigen messaging platform.

The soon to be released bundled Axigen-Kaspersky product aims to provide businesses of all sizes and Service Providers with a higher level of security over email communications. It addresses the increase in volume and sophistication of malware and spam attacks by embedding Kaspersky Lab’s advanced malware detection technologies which are constantly refined to stay ahead of the latest messaging-borne threats, to improve mail infrastructure usage and increase user and IT staff productivity.

“Today, high quality connectivity on a 24×7 basis is a must for all businesses, and especially so in hi-tech industry,” said Peter Merkulov, Kaspersky Lab Vice-President and Director of Technology Alliances Business Division. “So it’s a privilege to team up with Axigen in their task to provide the public with an ultimate communication platform. By working together we will make sure that the users get their mail reliably and in time – and also that this mail will be free from any malware threats.”

“Empowering businesses through reliable messaging with comprehensive security is a main focus for Axigen. By partnering with Kaspersky Lab, we can expand our customers’ protection with one of the world’s leading email defense features. The integrated Axigen-Kaspersky solution will bring significant benefits to all our users, through the unmatched combination of first-class technologies, expertise and shared drive for innovation,” said Gabriela Mechea, CEO at Axigen.

One of the top messaging platforms in the world, according to The Radicati Group, Axigen has a strong focus on meeting the needs of business customers, either directly or through service providers employing the Software as a Service (SaaS) model. Winner of the ServerWatch 2007 Product Excellence Award for the Communications Server category, Axigen is becoming the messaging solution of choice for a growing number of Internet service providers, hosting providers and enterprises worldwide.

About Kaspersky Lab

Kaspersky Lab is the world’s largest privately-held Internet Security company, providing comprehensive protection against all forms of IT threats such as viruses, spyware, hackers and spam. The company’s products provide in-depth defense at work, at home and on the road for home and mobile users, small and medium sized businesses and large enterprises, protecting more than 300 million systems around the globe. Kaspersky technology is also incorporated inside the products and services of approximately 100 of the industry’s leading IT, networking, communications and applications solution vendors. For further information about the company, please visit www.kaspersky.com.

About Gecad Technologies and Axigen

Established in 2001, Gecad Technologies SA, member of the GECAD Group and ISO 9001:2008 certified, is the vendor of Axigen, an integrated email, calendaring and collaboration platform, masterfully built using a unique mail server technology, for increased speed and security. Axigen ensures an efficient and secure worldwide communication environment and business growth for both service providers and companies of all sizes. It is currently distributed internationally by over 250 partners from 100 countries and manages the email traffic for more than 11,000 companies with 8 million end-users.

Axigen’s team of seasoned professionals, with 15 years of experience in messaging and IT security, delivers cutting-edge products, based on innovative and proprietary architectures such as Axigen GrowSecure™, Axigen SmartProcessing™ and Axigen UltraStorage™. For further details, please visit www.axigen.com.

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Kaspersky Lab, a leading developer of secure content management solutions, announces that Kaspersky Internet Security 2011 has received a prestigious VB100 award from the authoritative British magazine Virus Bulletin. A second Kaspersky Lab product, Kaspersky Anti-Virus for Windows Workstations, also successfully passed the test and received a VB100 certificate.

Full details of the comparative tests in which Kaspersky Internet Security 2011 achieved one of the best results for malware detection and won its first VB100 award were published in Virus Bulletin’s August 2010 edition. The tests, which saw 54 popular antivirus products put through their paces, were conducted on a Windows Vista Business Edition SP2 platform.

Kaspersky Internet Security 2011 neutralized 100% of the polymorphic malware used during testing and all the programs from the In-the-Wild collection while running in ‘on-demand scanning’ and ‘real-time protection’ modes.

Kaspersky Lab’s solution also neutralized the vast majority of the Trojans, worms and bots that it encountered. Both products demonstrated very high RAP (Reactive and Proactive) detection levels: 92-96% in the case of Kaspersky Internet Security, and 88-91% in the case of Kaspersky Anti-Virus 6.0, notably higher than the results for products of other vendors such as Symantec and McAfee. Kaspersky Internet Security 2011 did not produce a single false positive throughout the entire test. Virus Bulletin’s report also stated that “the product’s interface is well thought out and easy-to-use”.

Kaspersky Internet Security 2011 is one of Kaspersky Lab’s newest consumer products and takes a preventative approach to protection. It monitors and evaluates all types of potential threats and prevents any harmful activity, allowing the user to enjoy an even safer online experience. The product securely isolates any untrusted URLs and potentially hazardous areas of the World Wide Web from the user’s system, letting the user work in a secure environment, free from digital threats and unwanted information. The protection system does not restrict the user’s activity at all and is designed to ensure that the user’s flow of data and communication channels remain secure. Kaspersky Internet Security 2011 employs a whole host of new and improved technologies, many of which are unique to Kaspersky Lab.

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Kaspersky Lab, a leading developer of secure content management solutions, has released its report on information security threats in the second quarter of 2010.

During this period, the company’s products blocked more than 540 million attempts to infect computers around the world. The countries most targeted were China (17.09% of all attacks), Russia (11.36%), India (9.30%), the USA (5.96%) and Vietnam (5.44%).

Cybercriminals used all possible attack vectors and techniques, both old and new, along with scams, in order to make profits.

Targeting vulnerabilities in commonly used programs and services is one traditional method often used by cybercriminals. Vulnerabilities are targeted in order to infect machines with specially crafted code – exploits – which automates the work of the hackers. Eight and a half million exploits were detected during the reporting period, with the most common being malware which targets vulnerabilities in Adobe Reader.

Overall, more than 33 million vulnerable applications and files were identified on users’ computers during Q2 2010. More than seven unpatched vulnerabilities were found on one in four computers.

Cybercriminals track information about vulnerabilities in commonly used software and services, and often start massively exploiting vulnerabilities before a patch can be released. Because of this, researchers have to be careful about what information is given about the vulnerabilities they have identified. “On the one hand, identifying a vulnerability means that the vendors will try to release a patch as soon as possible. On the other, this puts a weapon into the hands of the cybercriminals, which they will obviously use as effectively as possibly” the report mentions.

This meant that only a few days after information appeared on how it was possible to run executable files embedded in PDF documents, hackers flooded mailboxes around the world with specially crafted PDF documents. Opening the message attachment led to vulnerable computers being infected by a bot, and consequently becoming part of a botnet.

Cybercriminals are exploiting the popularity of social networking sites with new scams. For instance, Likejacking is a new type of attack on Facebook. It appeared along with the “Like” function, which account holders could use to create lists of objects they like. Clicking on an attractive link, the user ends up on a page which includes JavaScript; a click anywhere on the page activates the “Like” function, sending a link to the page to everyone in the user’s friend list. This means that the number of visits to the site will snowball, and cybercriminals were paid for the increase in traffic by a certain advertising company.

Another innovation during Q2 was the ability to create and manage botnets via Twitter accounts. Hackers were able to publish botnet commands in the form of text on an account page. Happily, Twitter administrators discovered the problem quickly and were able to promptly block all malicious accounts.

The full version of the article is available here

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Kaspersky Lab, a leading developer of secure content management solutions, announces the detection of a new family of computer worms that are spreading via numerous instant messaging clients. What makes the worms distinct and highly unusual for this class of program is the fact that they are multilingual and capable of infecting users via several IM clients simultaneously, including Yahoo! Messenger, Skype, Paltalk Messenger, ICQ, Windows Live Messenger, Google Talk and the XFire client for gamers.

Four variants of this worm have so far been detected by experts at Kaspersky Lab, who have named the family IM-Worm.Win32.Zeroll. Once it penetrates a computer, it looks in the contact list of any IM client present and sends itself to all the addresses it finds. Infection occurs when a user follows what they think is a hyperlink to an interesting picture, that in fact leads to a malicious file. The link appears in an instant message sent by an infected machine.

The fact that it is multilingual also makes the new family of IM worms stand out. IM-Worm.Win32.Zeroll uses 13 different languages, including English, German, Spanish and Portuguese, sending users in various countries messages in a language that they will understand. At the present time, Mexico, Brazil, Peru and the USA have seen the greatest numbers of infections, but many instances have also been recorded in Africa, India and European countries, particularly Spain.

IM-Worm.Win32.Zeroll has backdoor functionality, which means it can gain control of a computer without the user’s knowledge. Once it has penetrated a system, the worm contacts a remote command and control center. After receiving its instructions from the center via IRC, IM-Worm.Win32.Zeroll starts downloading other malicious programs. Interestingly, this new breed of IM worm connects to different IRC channels depending on the country and the instant messaging clients installed on the computer. This means a hacker controlling a network of infected computers can classify them according to country and IM client and send out different commands, which is useful, for example, when distributing targeted spam.

“It appears that the worm’s creators are currently in the early stages of their criminal activities,” said Dmitry Bestuzhev, Kaspersky Lab’s Regional Expert for Latin America. “They are infecting as many machines as they can in order to get good offers from other crooks for such things as pay per install, spam and so on.”

All Kaspersky Lab products successfully detect and neutralize the new family of IM worms.

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Kaspersky Lab, a leading developer of secure content management solutions, announces that Kaspersky Mobile Security 9 has been awarded Approved status by the respected research laboratory AV-Comparatives following comprehensive comparative testing of four popular mobile security suites.

AV-Comparatives, an Austrian research laboratory, has published a review of four popular security solutions for smartphones based on comparative testing conducted in August 2010. The performance of the following product features were analyzed: “Virus protection”, “Firewall”, “Theft Protection” including “SMS Lock” and “GPS Find”, “Parental Controls” and “Encryption”. The Kaspersky Lab product was successful in each area of the comparison, demonstrating stable and reliable performance across its entire operational range, earning it the coveted title Approved.

The AV-Comparatives review emphasizes that Kaspersky Mobile Security 9 has a well thought-out and user-friendly interface. According to AV-Comparatives, “The user interface is clearly laid out and easy to understand.” “A big plus point is the information management. The interface for the configuration has been well designed, and tool tips provide assistance. These are easy to understand and do not require any specialist knowledge. Kaspersky Mobile Security 9 is the ideal solution for responsible end users, and includes a variety of well-thought-out services at a very reasonable price.”

Kaspersky Mobile Security 9 protects the smartphone and the data stored on it in the event that the device is lost or stolen. The product supports the remote blocking of a lost smartphone, the wiping of its memory and the capability to locate it using the GPS module built into the phone. In addition, Kaspersky Mobile Security 9 protects the confidentiality of contacts, call and message logs and safeguards the user from unwanted calls, SMS messages and mobile malware. It also provides data encryption and supports the restriction of unwanted calls and messages on a child’s smartphone.

More detailed information on the AV-Comparatives review can be found on the laboratory’s website: www.av-comparatives.org.

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Kaspersky Lab, a leading developer of secure content management solutions, announces that it has cooperated with Microsoft in successfully closing a serious vulnerability in Microsoft Windows.

The vulnerability was classified as being of the ‘zero-day’ type when it was detected, and has been used by the notorious Stuxnet worm. Worm.Win32.Stuxnet is remarkable in that it is basically an industrial espionage tool: it is designed to gain access to the Siemens WinCC operating system which is responsible for data collection and monitoring production.

Ever since it first emerged in July 2010, IT security specialists have watched Worm.Win32.Stuxnet closely. Kaspersky Lab’s experts have gone to great lengths to research Stuxnet’s capabilities and have discovered that, in addition to the vulnerability when processing LNK and PIF files that was detected originally, it also uses four other vulnerabilities in Windows.

One such example is MS08-067, which was also used by the infamous Kido (Conficker) worm in early 2009. The other three vulnerabilities were previously unknown and exist in the current versions of Windows.

Along with MS08-067, Stuxnet also uses another vulnerability to propagate. This exists in the Windows Print Spooler service and can be used to send malicious code to a remote computer where it is then executed. By virtue of the features of this vulnerability, the infection can spread to computers using a printer or through shared access to one. Having infected a computer connected to a network, Stuxnet then attempts to spread to other computers.

As soon as Kaspersky Lab’s experts detected this vulnerability, they reported it to Microsoft. Microsoft then analyzed it themselves and agreed with Kaspersky Lab’s findings. The vulnerability was classified as a Print Spooler Service Impersonation Vulnerability and was rated as ‘critical’. Microsoft immediately started working to close the loophole and subsequently released the MS10-061 patch on 14 September, 2010.

Kaspersky Lab’s experts detected yet another zero-day vulnerability in the Stuxnet code. It was classified as an ‘Elevation of Privilege’ (EoP) vulnerability which could be exploited by the worm to gain full control over the infected computer. A similar EoP-class vulnerability was detected by Microsoft’s experts. Both will be corrected in future security updates for Windows operating systems.

Alexander Gostev, Chief Security Expert at Kaspersky Lab, played an active role in identifying the new threat and cooperated closely with Microsoft to resolve the issue. Alexander later published an informative blogpost on the topic. The data collected while analyzing Stuxnet, including the details of how the vulnerabilities can be exploited, will be presented at the Virus Bulletin conference in Canada in September 2010.

“Stuxnet was the first malware program to simultaneously exploit as many as four vulnerabilities,” said Alexander Gostev. “This makes Stuxnet truly unique: it is the first threat we have encountered that contains this many surprises in a single package. Before we detected this new vulnerability, it would have been worth a fortune to hackers. Given Stuxnet also uses Realtek and Jmicron digital certificates – and remember too that it was ultimately designed to steal the data stored in Simatic WinCC SCADA – all of this makes this threat truly unprecedented. It has to be said, the malware writers have demonstrated quite remarkable programming skills.”

All Kaspersky Lab’s products are capable of successfully detecting and neutralizing Worm.Win32.Stuxnet.

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Kaspersky Lab, a leading developer of secure content management solutions, will be participating in the 20th Virus Bulletin International Conference on IT Security that will take place between 29 September and 01 October, 2010, in Vancouver, Canada. This year the Company’s experts will give between six and eight presentations, a record number for Kaspersky Lab at this event.

One of the key presentations at the VB Conference will be ‘Unraveling Stuxnet’ by Alexander Gostev, Chief Security Expert at Kaspersky Lab. Along with representatives from the Microsoft Corporation, Alexander will be presenting the latest information about Stuxnet infection scenarios and will provide a narrative of the two companies’ successful joint effort to combat it. Stuxnet is a notorious worm which was designed as an industrial espionage tool and is famous for its technical complexity and heavily usage of critical Windows vulnerabilities.

Other presentations by Kaspersky Lab at the VB 2010 Conference will include ‘How much do you cost? The black market price of your digital data’ by Dmitry Bestuzhev, Senior Regional Researcher, Latin America, Global Research & Analysis Team. Dmitry will show how the cybercriminals get their hands on such confidential data, how they make and launder money, how this can be prevented and what steps antivirus vendors are taking to combat this threat. The presentation ‘Automated Targeted Attacks: The New Age of Cybercrime’ by Stefan Tanase, Senior Security Researcher, EEMEA, Global Research & Analysis Team, will look at what new and effective security strategies can be implemented in the industry to fight such attacks.

‘Russian cybercriminals on the move: Profiting from mobile malware’ will examine the mobile malware most commonly used by Russian cybercriminals. Its author, Denis Maslennikov, Senior Malware Analyst and Mobile Research Group Manager, will explain how those people profit from such illegal activities. ‘The Age of Russian Trojan-Ransoms’ by Timur Biyachuev, Project Manager for Anti-Malware Research and Alexey Malyshev, Senior Virus Analyst, will look at all aspects of this ‘Russian phenomenon’, including: the capabilities of the cybercriminals’ organizations, shutting the cybercriminals’ schemes down and prosecuting the offenders and the level of available antimalware protection.

To learn more about the 20th Virus Bulletin International Conference program please visit:
http://www.virusbtn.com/conference/vb2010/index.

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Kaspersky Lab, a leading developer of secure content management solutions, announces that Kaspersky Internet Security 2011 has received a Platinum Self-Protection Award from the respected IT security research and information web portal Anti-Malware Test Lab.

In September, the well-known Russian IT security portal held an integrated test of 20 of the most popular antivirus products’ self-protection systems. Kaspersky Lab’s home-user solution Kaspersky Internet Security 2011 successfully passed all of the tests, scoring 100 out of 100, making it eligible for Anti-Malware Test Lab’s highest accolade, a Platinum Self-Protection Award.

The test was conducted on machines running Windows XP SP3 and Windows 7 operating systems. The antimalware programs were tested for self-protection using utilities specially designed to imitate a variety of attacks, including modification of file and registry key access permissions, modification/removal of modules, processes and code, deletion of antivirus databases and important registry keys, process termination, as well as driver modification and unloading. Each operating system was subjected to 38 different test cases.

“Attacks that target the operating system running on a computer is a common technique cybercriminals use to access the victim’s valuable information and resources”, said Dmitry Ustyuzhanin, Head of Marketing for Kaspersky Lab’s Consumer Business Division. – “In view of this, in the early stages of development we paid a great deal of attention to the product’s ability to protect itself against malicious code. We appreciate that our efforts and expertise have been held in such high regard by Anti-Malware Test Lab. The Platinum Self-Protection Award received by Kaspersky Internet Security 2011 provides recognition of the high level of our solutions’ self-protection capabilities, and consequently, the reliability of the protection we provide to our users”.

For more information about the antivirus solutions’ self-protection tests, please visit the Anti-Malware Test Lab website at: http://www.anti-malware-test.com.

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