The “post-PC era” is a phrase which has been a veritable buzzword for some time. However, 2012 saw cybercrime expanding to mobile platforms, highlighting how threats have entered the post-PC era, too.

Mobile Threats: 350,000 and Growing

By the end of 2012, the number of Android malware grew to 350,000. This was a monumental growth from the 1,000 mobile malware we saw at the end of 2011. Much of this growth was driven by adware and premium service abusers, which accounted for a sizable majority of the seen growth.

The popularity of Android in the mobile space means that it is now facing threats similar to what has faced Windows in the desktop space. This threat grew and became more sophisticated throughout the entire year, and we expect that this will continue into 2013.

Data breaches and Malware: Business as Usual

The year saw a continuation and evolution of many familiar threats. Data breaches and APTs continued to hit organizations large and small. Increasingly, the question is no longer if  a system will suffer a data breach, but when. Throughout the year, we discovered and looked into various information theft campaigns, as well as the tools used.

Similarly, “conventional” threats mostly saw a gradual evolution in 2012. Phishing messages became harder to tell from real ones and were combined with the Blackhole Exploit Kit to mount highly effective attacks. Banking malware was significantly improved with the addition of automatic transfer systems which sped up the actual process of moving money to criminal bank accounts. Ransomware took the place of fake antivirus as the primary threat facing consumers. We also saw what we’ve dubbed the “children” of Stuxnet—Flame, Flamer, Gauss, and Duqu—due to similarities such as in code.

Vulnerabilities and Exploits: Exploits Kits and Java

Many of these attacks were made possible by vulnerabilities and exploits. We saw extensive usage of the aforementioned Blackhole Exploit Kit, which made it relatively easy for attackers to compromise targeted systems. The year saw the introduction of version 2.0 of the exploit kit, which was at least in part a response to successes in investigating the earlier 1.x version by security vendors (including Trend Micro).

Java proved to be a serious security problem throughout the entire year. A zero-day vulnerability in Java 7 was found and exploited in August; our own data indicates that Java was the most targeted program via browsers in 2012. These problems were severe enough that vendors have taken steps to reduce the use of Java, with Apple going so far as to remove it from browsers on OS X computers.

We have prepared two reports that outline the threats we saw in 2012. One, our Annual Security Roundup titled Evolved Threats in a “Post-PC” World, outlines the threats that we saw in the overall security landscape in the past year. The second, our Mobile Threat and Security Roundup titled Repeating History, examines the threats in greater depth the threats in the mobile landscape in the past year. You can read these reports by clicking on their titles, or their respective covers below:

In 2012 small businesses globally were making the shift towards cloud-based applications and smart mobile devices, impacting the way they do business. These trends towards greater consumerization of IT and cloud adoption look likely to continue and pick up momentum in 2013.

Our experts here at Trend Micro have looked at these changes through the lens of our SMB customers to predict the security implications these developments bring. The goal is to help smaller businesses understand what these predictions mean for them in terms of threats in the coming year and what they can do to prepare and protect against these threats.

Our new report, 5 Predictions for 2013 and Beyond: What Should SMBs Look Out For? boils our predictions down into areas that SMB customers should specifically focus on and outlines specific steps they can take today to protect themselves against threats this 2013.

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The perpetrators behind the police ransomware are no longer just using the reputation of law enforcement to build credibility for their schemes — they’re using those of security vendors as well.

We’ve spotted a police ransomware variant which tells of a supposed “treaty” between the law enforcement and antivirus vendors. It even has icons of these security vendors to appear legitimate. Trend Micro detects this new ransomware variant as TROJ_REVETON.IT.

According to our findings, the .DLL file in the malware variant contains a lock screen image which contains logos of various antivirus companies such as Trend Micro, Symantec, McAfee, Sophos, and Microsoft among others. The text goes on to say, “To make the work of the Police more effective, on December 04, 2012 the International Treaty was signed between the companies who developes anti-virus software for identification of cyber-criminals.”  Of course, this is merely a ruse to trick people into believing its legitimacy. Once the malware is executed, it locks users’ computers and displays the fake message that says “Your computer has been locked. You have broken the law, your actions are illegal and will lead to criminal liability.”

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Yes, it does. And depending on where you are located, it can even speak in your mother tongue.

As discussed in our paper Police Ransomware Update, the people behind police Trojan/Ransomware have implemented improvements to make this threat more effective. Gone are the days when ransomware simply showed a message that users’ systems are “captured” and that they have to pay for a fee to have them back.

These days, this new breed of ransomware notifies users of the fee (or ransom) under the guise of the victim’s local law enforcement agencies. Thus, a user with a ransomware-infected system from France will get a notification from the Gendarmerie Nationale, while a US-based one will likely receive a message from the FBI.

To level up the ante, we received a report that a new police Trojan variant even has a “voice”. Detected as TROJ_REVETON.HM, it locks the infected system but instead of just showing a message, it now verbally urges users to pay. The user won’t need a translator to understand what the malware is saying – it speaks the language of the country where the victim is located.

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A wave of WORM_VOBFUS variants has recently emerged with some variants even spreading through Facebook. But based on initial analysis, this crop of WORM_VOBFUS presents no new routines. For good measure, users are encouraged to observe best practices such as disabling Autorun feature and updating their antivirus program with the latest pattern, just to name a few.

What You Need to Know About WORM_VOBFUS

WORM_VOBFUS takes advantage of Windows Autorun feature to drop copies onto removable and mapped network drives. They also arrive as downloaded or dropped files of other malware family. Users may unknowingly download WORM_VOBFUS variants when visiting malicious sites.

These variants were also reported to be spreading on Facebook, usually using (but not limited to) sexually-suggestive file names to pique users’ interest.

The VOBFUS malware drops copies of itself in removable drives using the file names of the user’s folders and files with the following extensions:

• .avi
• .bmp
• .doc
• .gif
• .jpe
• .jpg
• .mp3
• .mp4
• .mpg
• .pdf
• .png
• .tif
• .txt
• .wav
• .wma
• .wmv
• .xls

This worm hides these files mentioned above as original files and folders. Thus, users may think that they are clicking normal files or folders, while in fact these are WORM_VOBFUS variants in disguise. Like your typical worm, it drops an AUTORUN.INF to automatically execute the file when the drive is accessed.

To know if system is infected, users must check for the following files:

• {drive letter}:\Passwords.exe
• {drive letter}:\Porn.exe
• {drive letter}:\Secret.exe
• {drive letter}:\Sexy.exe

This worm connects to a remote site where it downloads and executes other malware. Specifically, it connects to the following sites:

• http://{random number}.ddns1.eu/{random characters}?{random character}
• http://{random number}.ddns1.eu/{random characters}/?{random character}

Once the file is downloaded it is saved as %User Profile%\google.com (detected as TSPY_BANCOS.JFB). However, some sites where this malware connects to are already inaccessible.

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