Warning: Teamviewer is being used as a Virus infection vector!

[Mumps]

Just because I recall many of you saying you're using TeamViewer for remote control on some of your hosts...

http://www.informationsecuritybuzz.com/hacker-news/surprised-new-ransomware-spread-via-teamviewer/


Propagation of the virus exploits multiple infection vectors. The Surprise crypto-trojan is the first ransomware to be dropped via TeamViewer. Judging by the complaints submitted, the TeamViwer based infiltration dominates the malware distribution.

[Al]

http://www.tripwire.com/state-of-security/latest-security-news/ransomware-propagation-tied-to-teamviewer-account/

...and a bit more on the subject

[nanoprobe]

OK! I'm confused. How exactly does TV get infected with this trojan?

[Al]

It's not TV, it's someone running TV. My understanding is that they brute force the password, then log in and install the files, which is less problematic than downloading an update with the Trojan attached.

[Fire$torm]

Thx for the heads up Mumps.

[nanoprobe]

It's not TV, it's someone running TV. My understanding is that they brute force the password, then log in and install the files, which is less problematic than downloading an update with the Trojan attached.
Can they bypass a 25 character password?

[Cruncher Pete]

Can they bypass a 25 character password?

I believe they can. At one stage or another your would have had to type those characters or even if you choose a random one, you would have used your keyboard. If at that time somebody was already watching you and had access without you being aware of it, would have had a keylogger. If they can break into the pentagon or into major corporations they can break into anywhere they wish. Just think of an IT who has an access to all machines and decides to join the dark side.

Anything that is made by humans can be broken by humans. Security in my mind is no different. After we got married, we lived in an Army Married Quarter village. During the day, you could shoot a cannon down the street and nobody would question it as even wife's had to work to live. One day I had a day Off and we went shopping. It was a scorching hot summer day, so we had all the doors and windows open. I got the car out of the garage and I assumed that my wife would lock up. She did not, thinking that I already done that. Coming home, there were cops cars everywhere. It turned out that four houses, two either side of us and two across the road were burgled. I presume since we had all the windows and doors open they thought that we were home.

The moral of the story is that it is possible that the safest way to secure your system is not to use any security measures or passwords. It is possible that viruses are created by these companies themselves and you have to pay them to get rid of them. Having said that, I do have some security systems in place...

[nanoprobe]

Thanks CP. Makes sense although I never type in passwords on any site I consider critical. I always use copy and paste from a USB drive. I do weekly backups so this ransomware crap is nothing I'm concerned about. I have a nice response for them should it ever happen and they try to blackmail me. :D

[Bryan]

Well I use TV on all of my machines. If they got in and locked my files I would be highly pissed. Do you realize how long it would take me to do 9 Win 7 installs with all the upgrades! I could almost make a career out of it =)) The only thing on my crunchers is BOINC so I don't really care.

Actually I'd only have to do 2 installs and then clone those drives for the other machines.