Ransomware saw a more than eight-fold (752 per cent) increase as a mode of attack in 2016, according to Trend Micro. The infosec firm estimates file-scrambling malware families such as Locky and Goldeneye raked in $1 billion in 2016. 2016 was the year when ransomware ruled, and this danger has been maintained by recent …

Spoofed email and malware hidden in attachments netted crooks in West Africa more than $3bn in three years from businesses. That's according to research carried out by the International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol) and infosec biz Trend Micro. Forget claims of money stuck in bank accounts. Scammers are now raking it …

Trend Micro's antivirus software has flagged benign Sharepoint code as potentially malign and nuked the files, causing the Microsoft package to fall over. After installing a dodgy update, Trend's OfficeScan tool removes a harmless JavaScript file from Sharepoint, leaving crashing servers in its wake. Aggrieved admins have …

Security researchers have urged gaming companies to crack down on virtual currency auction and sales sites, reckoning criminals are cashing in to launder stolen money. The research team at Trend Micro says most black hats steal the currency using online game exploits or by using malware and phishing to compromise players, …

French hackers are selling concealed weapons including so-called pen guns that fire .22 Long Rifle bullets on highly secretive crime forums, threat researcher Cedric Pernet says. Videos of the home-made pen guns scattered around the internet show the weapons in working use. The guns are being sold for €150 (US$169, £127, A$ …

Security firms that use the Google-owned VirusTotal malware database but don't contribute to the silo are going to find themselves out on a limb. For the past 12 years, researchers have been feeding samples of software nasties into VirusTotal, allowing antivirus engines to check they can detect malicious code. But the site has …

Privacy guides meant for journalists are being re-purposed by terrorist groups, Trend Micro researchers say. The guides are designed to help hacks avoid surveillance by nation-states and well-resourced adversaries focusing on encryption, operational security, recommended and untrusted platforms. It is one finding of dozens …

RIP QuickTime for Windows. Apple is "deprecating support" for the application, and will no longer patch security flaws in the software. The iGiant is also quietly advising users to uninstall the media player from their Windows machines to avoid being hacked. Word of the end of support comes from infosec biz Trend Micro. It …

A bug in its software meant that Trend Micro accidentally left a remote debugging server running on customer machines. The flaw, discovered by Google’s Project Zero researcher Tavis Ormandy, opened the door to command execution of vulnerable systems (running either Trend Micro Maximum Security, Trend Micro Premium Security or …

If you've got a Qualcomm Snapdragon chip in your Android phone and tablet, make sure you grab its latest security updates – if you can. And if you can't, well, get used to it: the Internet of Things is going to bring more and more un-patchable and insecure electronics onto the market, it's feared. Researchers at Trend Micro …

Brazil's economy may be hurtling towards recession but its online criminal underground is booming with wannabe hackers and carders racing to get a cut, research finds. Trend Micro's work is the latest in a series of papers it has published in recent months that examine regional online crime economies including North America, …

Updated PCs running Trend Micro's Windows antivirus can be hijacked, infected with malware, or wiped clean by any website, thanks to a vulnerability in the security software. The design blunders in the consumer build of Trend's AV were discovered by Google Project Zero bod Tavis Ormandy. A patch is now available to address the remote- …

Updated It was inevitable. Trend Micro says it has spotted crooks abusing the free Let's Encrypt certificate system to smuggle malware onto computers. The security biz's fraud bod Joseph Chen noticed the caper on December 21. Folks in Japan visited a website that served up malware over encrypted HTTPS using a Let's Encrypt-issued cert …

North American cyber criminals are so blatantly thumbing their noses at law enforcement that their forums have been nicknamed "glass tanks". The selling of malware, stolen credentials, and other crime services are so open they can be found using Google, Trend Micro researchers Kyle Wilhoit and Stephen Hilt say. Moreover, the …

The German cyber crime market is an overlooked but unique beast that works in lockstep with Russian veterans to serve fraud-flinging newcomers and hardened carders alike, researchers say. In one of the few examinations into German crime forums a team of Trend Micro threat bods say the scene is the most developed in the …

The Independent has become the latest big-name publisher to serve malware. Trend Micro is warning that the UK news site's Wordpress-based blog section has been compromised. The company says the attack seems to have begun on November 21, with a compromised page serving the Angler exploit kit, taking advantage of visitors with …

A security hole that has been known and patched for the last three years remains vulnerable in over 6.1 million connected devices. This according to Trend Micro, who says its researchers have discovered that a collection of remote code execution vulnerabilities in a software library used by mobile devices, smart TVs, and …

Dodgy developers can have their data-stealing iOS applications boosted to the top ranks of Apple's App Store for as little as US$4000 thanks to services on offer by Chinese hackers. The price will get an application capable of evading Apple's security checks onto the top five paid application list through boosting services. A …