BRATISLAVA –  ESET, a global leader in cybersecurity, has again been recognized with Top Product awards in the latest AV-TEST Product Review and Certification reports for both its business and home consumer products. ESET’s business offering for Windows, ESET Endpoint Security 7.3, and its Windows consumer product, ESET Internet Security 14.0, achieved perfect scores in the Protection, Usability and Performance categories, leading both to be commended with Top Product awards in the November and December 2020 tests. This follows ESET’s success in AV-TEST’s August and October reports, in which ESET Endpoint Security 7.3 and ESET Internet Security 13.2 also received Top Product awards.

 
AV-TEST, a leading independent testing organization, uses one of the largest collections of malware samples in the world to create a real-world environment for highly accurate in-house testing and realistic test scenarios.  
 
The tests evaluated the best Windows antivirus software for home and business users, with all vendors being assessed across three main categories: Protection, Performance and Usability. Across consumer and business evaluations, ESET’s solutions scored a perfect 6 in the Protection category, which measures the protection against and detection of malware, including web and email threats. The solutions also achieved a perfect score in the Usability category, which measures the impact on usability with indicators such as false alarms, false detections and unnecessary blocking of websites. Finally, in the Performance category – determining the average influence on computer speed – both consumer and business products once again scored 6 out of 6, an improvement from the 5.5 that ESET solutions scored in the August/October tests.  
 
Roman Kováč, Chief Research Officer at ESET, commented, “We are thrilled to continue to receive commendations for our home and business security solutions, and our additional success in achieving perfect scores in all three categories makes me extremely proud. At ESET, we are dedicated to our work in making technology safer for consumers and businesses, and the recognition of our solutions as Top Products is evidence of such efforts. Commendations from AV-TEST reaffirm that our solutions are proven to work in real-world scenarios. With the events of the past year moving more of the world online than ever before, and cyber-threats constantly evolving, this affirmation has never been more important. Home users and businesses alike can be confident that they are in safe hands with ESET.”
 
Learn more about ESET’s home and business solutions for Windows here.

To say that the events of 2020 shifted business priorities would be a huge understatement. Organizations across the world had to entirely change their way of working, some adapting to an unprecedented situation at a moment’s notice. Digitalization has been accelerated, commerce has moved online, and millions of employees have had to leave the office and work from home. But what does all this mean for 2021 and, beyond that, the post-Covid world?

Technology has clearly played a significant role in allowing organizations to adapt to Covid-19 regulations. Many businesses have been more reliant on technology than ever before; processing transactions exclusively online, engaging with employees remotely, and communicating with clients virtually. Unsurprisingly, this has cast a spotlight on financial technology – or FinTech – as organizations manage their finances from home. Unfortunately, all of these changes bring greater cybersecurity risks than ever before – with 81% of business leaders agreeing that Covid-19 has increased the need for improved security of finances.

This need – although intensified by lockdowns across the globe – will continue even as the world aims to recover from the economic impacts of Covid-19 measures. For many businesses, FinTech can help to bolster profitability as they navigate the undoubtedly perilous journey to a post-Covid world. While it is difficult to predict what the world will look like in the future, there are some signs of what may be to come.

Working from home, for hundreds of organizations, is here to stay – either as the sole mode of work or as part of a hybrid model – so we will continue to see increased use of technology. Digitalization is unlikely to backslide in any major way, with business leaders continuing to drive progress through new innovations.

In this emerging situation, organizations are looking more to FinTech solutions to manage, streamline, and consolidate their finances. ESET’s global FinTech survey found that 68% of business leaders expect their company’s investment to increase by some extent – and over a quarter (27%) expect this investment to increase greatly. This will likely increase use of FinTech solutions that are already popular, such as online payment processors and online accounting, alongside an uptake in solutions that are less widely adopted. With Covid-19 potentially leaving a legacy of ongoing restrictions, online cross-border payments may become far more popular, as well as branchless banks and online cashflow management. Adopting some of these solutions will allow organizations to manage their finances remotely, rather than being tethered to a set location.

Unfortunately, as businesses’ priorities shift, so too will the threats they face. CISOs have also chimed in; following the first Covid-19 lockdowns more business processes moved online, especially financial processes, and with them came a wider range of ways for threat actors to attack an organization. It may be easier to adopt FinTech applications rather than managing finances in person, but keeping these systems secure brings new challenges.

One of these challenges is data security, as 10% of managers surveyed think that FinTech solutions such as branchless banks and online lending make company data less secure. This may be a particular risk moving forward, as business leaders adapt quickly and implement new financial processes that they may not fully understand. FinTech applications should be designed with security in mind, but if decision makers do not appreciate the value of security, they may be putting their organizations at risk.

Whether or not they increase the use of FinTech, businesses will need to prioritize cybersecurity in order to safeguard post-Covid recovery. Many look set to embrace innovation with a range of FinTech solutions, from branchless banks to online cashflow management, as part of their roadmap for the future. With the right FinTech tools, properly secured against hacks, organizations will be better positioned to adapt and transform for an uncertain future.

We’ll reveal additional findings from ESET’s FinTech study throughout early 2021. For more information on ESET, and how security software can help to protect you and your business, visit www.eset.com.

國際資安大廠ESET於2月初揭露一支名為Kobalos的木馬程式，並指出這雖然只是一個小程式，卻專門鎖定著名的攻擊目標，包括高效能運算叢集、亞洲的大型ISP、北美的資安業者，以及某些個人伺服器都是受害者，且它可移植到不同的作業系統，如Linux、BSD Solaris，也可能適用於AIX Windows。

研究人員在分析了Kobalos之後，發現也許可藉由特定的TCP來源埠連結SSH伺服器，來判斷系統是否感染了Kobalos，因而開始掃描全球網路以尋找可能的受害者，顯示Kobalos感染了北美地區的端點安全軟體業者、政府機構，以及多個個人伺服器，在歐洲地的受害者則包括大學網路的高效能運算叢集、市場行銷業者與代管業者，亞洲則有大型的ISP業者被植入Kobalos。

由於Kobalos屬於通用木馬，含有廣泛的命令，可遠端存取檔案系統，具備產生終端對話的能力，亦允許代理連結到其它感染Kobalos的伺服器，其目前唯一明顯的惡意行為是竊取憑證，研究人員尚不清楚駭客的意圖。

駭客透過許多方式來接觸遭到Kobalos感染的系統，最常見的是把Kobalos嵌入OpenSSH伺服器的可執行文件，並利用特定的TCP來源埠連結時即會觸發木馬程式。此外，Kobalos有個獨特的功能，它本身即具備執行C&C伺服器的程式碼，因此，任何遭到Kobalos危害的伺服器，只要收到駭客所傳送的單一命令，即可搖身一變成為C&C伺服器。

在多數遭Kobalos感染的系統中，其SSH客戶端會被用來竊取憑證，之後這些憑證就會被用來於其它伺服器上植入Kobalos。

Kobalos的另一個特性是所有的程式碼都被存放在一個函數中，於是它能不斷地呼叫自己來執行子任務，且所有的字串都是加密的，因而難以察覺與分析。

研究人員指出，從網路的角色來看，業者可能可藉由於SSH伺服器連結埠上尋找非SSH的流量來偵測Kobalos的存在，因為當駭客與Kobalos交流時，不管是在從客戶端或伺服器端，都沒有進行SSH Banner交換。

有鑑於Kobalos只存在於單一的函數中，且駭客可利用既有的開放傳輸埠來存取，使得受害者更難以察覺它的存在，ESET則在GitHub上公布了Kobalos樣本與入侵指標（Indicators of Compromise，IoCs），以協助各組織辨識。

原文出處：https://www.welivesecurity.com/2021/02/02/kobalos-complex-linux-threat-high-performance-computing-infrastructure/

Whether we like it or not, it is now an established fact that mobile phones play a major role in our day-to-day life, and never has this been truer than in 2020. With opportunities for socializing and travel reduced, it has been a year of scrolling, messaging and video calling. While there is a general perception that mobile phones are a safe haven from malware and cyberthreats, ESET’s research this year has shown that to be far from the truth.

Android threats surged in March, as the COVID-19 crisis created an opportunity for threat actors to exploit Android users’ hunger for information about the virus and related topics. ESET researchers witnessed malicious apps distributed in campaigns under coronavirus-themed disguises, such as infection maps, tracking applications and information about financial compensation.

For example, in Q2 2020, ESET researchers identified a new Android crypto-ransomware posing as a Canadian COVID-19 tracing app, just days after the Canadian government announced its intention to back the development of a nationwide tracing app. ESET researchers also analyzed an extremely dangerous Android app in May called DEFENSOR ID, which was capable of wiping out a victim’s bank account or cryptocurrency wallet and taking over their email or social media accounts.

In July, a long-running cyberespionage campaign was discovered that targeted Android users in the Middle East via the malicious Welcome Chat app. The app’s operators spied on their victims and then made the data harvested from them freely available on the internet. Similarly, victims in the Middle East were also targeted with a new version of Android spyware used by the APT-C-23 group, which allowed threat actors to read notifications from messaging apps and record calls and screen activity.

These discoveries demonstrate that threats must be taken seriously, but they do not need to ruin our experience with mobile phones – it is vital that we are just as committed to protecting our phones with cybersecurity software as we are our laptops and desktops. ESET Mobile Security (EMS) is a solution for Android that protects against a multitude of mobile threats, securing users’ data through strong malware protection and providing a safe browsing environment with its anti-phishing feature. EMS also protects users from physical loss and theft, supplying real-time information about the status and whereabouts of the device in question.

In September of this year, version 6.0 of ESET Mobile Security was launched, adding a host of new features including Payment Protection, which safeguards users while they are using applications in which they access sensitive financial information for banking transactions or online shopping. The feature prevents other apps replacing or reading the screen of any applications installed from the Google Play store that fall into the finance category, also allowing users to use the same protection for other installed apps that fall outside of the finance category.

Version 6.0 also brought design changes, improving its intuitiveness and ease of use with features such as the Call Filter feature that allows users to protect against unwanted incoming calls and a redesign of the Anti-Theft feature to allow for simpler onboarding and resetting of passwords.

The year 2020 also saw ESET awarded certificates by MRG Effitas, a world leader in independent IT security efficacy testing, in their Android 360° Assessment Programmes in Q1, Q2 and Q3, receiving a 99%+ score for detection. As both the report and ESET’s research highlight, Android-based threats are constantly on the rise, and it is therefore vital to have software installed that protects against malware, as well as other threats such as phishing.

To find out more about ESET Mobile Security and how it can keep you and your phone safe from mobile threats, head over to ESET’s website.