by certifiedbug on October 5, 2011
in Browser
McAfee ScriptScan has been blocked for your protection.
Why was it blocked?
This add-on causes a high volume of crashes.
Who is affected?
Users of McAfee ScriptScan versions 14.4.0 and below for all versions of Firefox and SeaMonkey.
What does this mean?
Users are strongly encouraged to disable the problematic add-on or plugin, but may choose to continue using it if they accept the risks described.
https://addons.mozilla.org/en-US/firefox/blocked/i42
Surfing to the “Add-ons Blocklist” page one is greeted with,
This article is no longer maintained, so its content might be out of date.
Just saying… 
McAfee Labs
Dmitri Alperovitch
Vice President, Threat Research
Download the PDF version of Operation Shady RAT report
Having investigated intrusions such as Operation Aurora and Night Dragon (systemic long-term compromise of Western oil and gas industry), as well as numerous others that have not been disclosed publicly, I am convinced that every company in every conceivable industry with significant size and valuable intellectual property and trade secrets has been compromised (or will be shortly), with the great majority of the victims rarely discovering the intrusion or its impact. In fact, I divide the entire set of Fortune Global 2000 firms into two categories: those that know they’ve been compromised and those that don’t yet know.
Yet, the public (and often the industry) understanding of this significant national security threat is largely minimal due to the very limited number of voluntary disclosures by victims of intrusion activity compared to the actual number of compromises that take place. With the goal of raising the level of public awareness today we are publishing the most comprehensive analysis ever revealed of victim profiles from a five year targeted operation by one specific actor?—?Operation Shady RAT, as I have named it at McAfee (RAT is a common acronym in the industry which stands for Remote Access Tool).
http://blogs.mcafee.com/mcafee-labs/revealed-operation-shady-rat
http://nakedsecurity.sophos.com/2011/08/03/shady-rat-biggest-cyber-attack/?
Update
Sunbelt Blog
Alex Eckelberry
Thursday, August 04, 2011
Here’s another thing that’s scary about Shady RAT
A lot of chatter and breathless reporting about Shady RAT. All the makings of an epically awesome story — the US is being taken down by Chinese interlopers to the nastiest degree, installing keyloggers and other badness on US government computers.
Whatever. Who the heck knows how bad this thing really is (and I am not the only skeptic).
But here’s what’s of concern to a lot of security researchers I deal with: It was known by McAfee (and certainly others) but no one apparently ever did anything to take the C&C down, even after knowing about it for months.
http://sunbeltblog.blogspot.com/2011/08/here-another-thing-that-scary-about.html
Botnets Demystified and Simplified
Let’s face it: Most people–even folks in the security industry–have a hard time explaining botnets (robot networks of infected computers) in a way that your Uncle Joe or Aunt Betty can understand. Is it really a big deal? Yes, it is. With the rapid growth in malware and bot infections we’re seeing, it’s important for everyone to get up to speed on this threat vector. So we got colorful and created an “infographic” that, we hope, nails the botnet lifecycle and economics just right–not too technical, not too simple. If you like it, please feel free to repost. It’s issued under a Creative Commons License. You can download the JPG here.
http://blogs.mcafee.com/mcafee-labs/botnets-demystified-and-simplified
by certifiedbug on January 28, 2011
in Software
Press release
Brussels, 26 January 2011
Mergers: Commission clears Intel’s proposed acquisition of McAfee subject to conditions
The European Commission has approved under the EU Merger Regulation the proposed acquisition of McAfee, a vendor of information technology security, by Intel, both of the US. The approval is conditional upon a set of commitments ensuring fair competition between the parties and their competitors in the field of computer security, a growing concern due to the exponential rise in the number of malware such as viruses. The Commission was concerned that rival IT security products could be excluded from the marketplace given Intel’s strong presence in the world markets for computer chips and chipsets. In particular, the Commission worried about the high likelihood that the merged entity would embed its own security solutions into its chips and chipsets. To alleviate those concerns, Intel committed to ensuring the interoperability of the merged entity’s products with those of competitors.
The US Federal Trade Commission (FTC) approved the acquisition in December.
http://www.h-online.com/security/news/item/FTC-gives-its-blessing-to-Intel-s-acquisition-of-McAfee-1158590.html
