AVG Researchers Identify Massive Propagation of Rogue Applications Through Social Network Application

AMSTERDAM—AVG Technologies today revealed research into a very aggressive, expansive push by rogue applications on Facebook this past weekend. AVG researchers indicated that from midnight to 9 a.m. EST on Saturday, May 15, 2010, AVG software detected and blocked more than three hundred thousand rogue applications. That rate was more than three times the rate of the number two for the day for rogue anti-spyware.

“This latest issue really underscores how powerful, while at the same time vulnerable, social networking applications are. This attack was actually stunning in terms of scale”

“This latest issue really underscores how powerful, while at the same time vulnerable, social networking applications are. This attack was actually stunning in terms of scale,” said Roger Thompson, AVG’s Chief Research Officer. “Facebook is very responsive to threats when we identify them, and removing these applications as soon as they find them, but they’re still able to generate huge traffic, just because of the viral nature of social networks. It is staggering how many threats were propagated before they were stopped.”

Ironically, the attack, which offers a picture of a girl in a bikini to entice the victim to install an adware-supported viewer, was not viral according to AVG researchers, and was first seen in different forms last week. AVG’s malware detection servers are set to alert the research team when certain nefarious behaviors and activities are detected. By 9 a.m. EST, AVG’s servers had detected more than 200,000 of this particular threat. By comparison, the second highest detection at that same time was about twenty-four thousand of a particular rogue anti-spy, so at one point, this push was nearly ten times the number two detection.

Last week’s rogue push peaked at about 80,000 for the day, and had dwindled to just a couple of hundred per day by Friday, May 14, 2010. At that point AVG researchers were hopeful that the adware attack would cease; however, all indications point to the fact that they were just gearing up for a fresh start… and a powerful one at that.

Thompson added, “Interestingly, they launched it on a Saturday. I guess they figure we don’t watch on the weekend, but malcode researchers are all cut from the same cloth as Inspector Gadget… we’re always on duty.”

AVG recognizes the power that social networking brings to our professional and personal lives and does not advocate giving up on the technology altogether. However, AVG does have some recommendations on how to best protect yourself:

1. Make sure you practice safe surfing. AVG LinkScanner is a free web tool that can identify threats in real-time and let you know if a page or link is poisoned, before you click.

2. If you ever have to install a viewer to watch a video, something is probably not right. Go to the video player application’s official website and download the application there. Never download through a link.

3. Make sure your anti-virus and security software is up to date. If you don’t have anti-virus software, you can download AVG Free here.

About AVG Technologies

www.avg.com

AVG is a global security software maker protecting more than 110 million consumers and small businesses in 170 countries from the ever-growing incidence of web threats, viruses, spam, cyber-scams and hackers on the Internet. AVG has nearly two decades of experience in combating cyber crime and one of the most advanced laboratories for detecting, pre-empting and combating Web-borne threats from around the world. Its free, downloadable software allows novice users to have basic anti-virus protection and then easily upgrade to greater levels of safety and defense when they are ready. AVG has nearly 6,000 resellers, partners and distributors globally including Amazon.com, CNET, Cisco, Ingram Micro, Play.com, Wal-Mart, and Yahoo!

Creates industry-leading in-store and in-game commerce solution for game publishers

MINNEAPOLIS–Digital River, Inc., a leading provider of global e-commerce solutions, announced that it has acquired fatfoogoo, a Europe-based, in-game and online commerce service provider. The combined forces of Digital River’s e-commerce solutions with fatfoogoo’s technology will offer game publishers and developers an unparalleled, single e-commerce connection to manage their online product sales both in-store and in-game.

“The sale of virtual goods through micro transactions continues to grow in popularity with consumers and is establishing new revenue models for the games industry,” said Joel Ronning, CEO of Digital River. “With the addition of fatfoogoo, we’ve strengthened our commitment to the gaming marketplace. We believe the combination of our in-game and in-store commerce solution along with our subscription management capabilities will be unmatched in the industry. This partnership continues our promise to provide existing and future clients with the leading e-commerce technology and expertise they expect from Digital River.”

The e-commerce solutions from Digital River and fatfoogoo are easily integrated to offer game publishers all the scalability and reliability of a proven in-store platform along with turn-key technology designed to operate a successful in-game marketplace. In addition to providing in-game store functions, such as global payments and inventory management, the solution supports the use of virtual goods and currencies, electronic wallets, peer-to-peer marketplaces and auction capabilities.

Digital River’s fatfoogoo business unit will continue to operate out of its current location in Vienna, Austria. fatfoogoo will deliver its technology as an integrated part of Digital River’s e-commerce offering for games as well as a stand-alone solution.

“We are excited to join Digital River’s family of companies. This acquisition provides fatfoogoo with the backing of a proven e-commerce leader and enhances our leadership in the European market,” said Martin Herdina, fatfoogoo’s CEO. “Together we’re positioned to lead the future of in-game commerce with a solution that will uniquely stand out in a competitive marketplace.”

Under the terms of the agreement, Digital River acquired fatfoogoo as part of a cash transaction for approximately $10 million. The agreement also provides fatfoogoo shareholders with an earn-out opportunity based on the fatfoogoo business unit achieving certain performance targets. Other terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

About fatfoogoo

fatfoogoo is the leading in-game commerce ecosystem for monetizing online games and virtual worlds. fatfoogoo’s solutions allow both publisher-to-player and player-to-player financial interaction, as well as virtual currency management and traditional user and subscription management. Publishers can choose white label turnkey solutions or individually configured modules.

Founded in 2006, fatfoogoo is headquartered in Austria and also has offices in the U.S. and U.K. For more information, please visit www.fatfoogoo.com.

About Digital River, Inc.

Digital River, Inc., a leading provider of global e-commerce solutions, builds and manages online businesses for software and game publishers, consumer electronics manufacturers, distributors, online retailers and affiliates. Its multi-channel e-commerce solution, which supports both direct and indirect sales, is designed to help companies of all sizes maximize online revenues as well as reduce the costs and risks of running an e-commerce operation. The company’s comprehensive platform offers site development and hosting, order management, fraud management, export controls, tax management, physical and digital product fulfillment, multi-lingual customer service, advanced reporting and strategic marketing services.

Founded in 1994, Digital River is headquartered in Minneapolis with offices across the U.S., Asia, Europe and South America. For more details about Digital River, visit the corporate website at www.digitalriver.com or call +1 952-253-1234.

RALEIGH, N.C.–Red Hat, Inc., the world’s leading provider of open source solutions, announced that today a jury in federal court in Marshall, Texas, returned a verdict in favor of Red Hat, Inc. and Novell, Inc. in a case alleging patent infringement brought by IP Innovation LLC, a subsidiary of Acacia Research Corporation and Technology Licensing Corporation.

The patents at issue were found to be invalid and worthless.

“This is the result we expected and we are gratified that the jury recognized the tremendous innovative value of open source software. The jury knocked out three invalid patents that were masquerading as a new and important inventions, when they were not,” said Michael Cunningham, Executive Vice President at Red Hat. “We appreciate the jury’s wisdom and remain committed to providing value to our customers, including through our Open Source Assurance program. We also remain stalwart in resisting bogus shakedown tactics.”

About Red Hat, Inc.

Red Hat, the world’s leading provider of open source solutions and a component of the S&P 500, is headquartered in Raleigh, NC with over 65 offices spanning the globe. CIOs ranked Red Hat as one of the top vendors delivering value in Enterprise Software for six consecutive years in the CIO Insight Magazine Vendor Value survey. Red Hat provides high-quality, affordable technology with its operating system platform, Red Hat Enterprise Linux, together with virtualization, applications, management and Services Oriented Architecture (SOA) solutions, including Red Hat Enterprise Virtualization and JBoss Enterprise Middleware. Red Hat also offers support, training and consulting services to its customers worldwide. Learn more: http://www.redhat.com.