Websites warned of virus threat

Internet security company BKAV has warned several major Vietnamese websites that they might be infected with malicious software.Presenting at a recent conference in Hanoi o­n internet security, BKAV said that sites ending in gov.vn (governmental websites) have been found to be infected with malware. BKAV said it has already sent warnings to administrators of 520 Government websites ending with .gov.vn.The problem initially happened in 2008 but has returned for users of the Chrome and Firefox internet browsers, BKAV said, noting that, after removing any hidden malware, administrators can go to google.com/webmaster/tools to remove sites from the blacklist.Internet users were also urged to contact site administrators if they receive a warning from Google about a particular site.BKAV also warned that a critical flaw in the Remote Desktop Protocol (RDP) across supported versions of Windows was affecting about 32% of Vietnam's Government web servers. The vulnerability allows attackers to remotely execute a code o­n an unpatched system that is Remote Desktop enabled.Microsoft's Remote Desktop Protocol, which is disabled by default o­n newer Windows installations, allows users to remotely connect to Windows' desktops or servers and is widely used by enterprises.Microsoft in March asked system administrators to apply its latest update as a "special priority" given the nature of the flaw, but about o­ne-third of Government web servers in Vietnam were still vulnerable, BKAV said.According to the internet security firm, attackers may well develop a code similar to the Morto worm that appeared late last year. Morto-infected machines using RDP allow remote attackers to access the file systems of a Windows PC."The threat first came to Vietnam in July while the weak management of server security in governmental organisations was at an alarming level, which could even threaten national security," said the head of BKAV's internet security department, Nguyen Minh Duc.According to recent survey by the Vietnam Computer Emergency Response Team, as many as 53% of private organisations equipped with internet security systems were unable to notice the threats, while the rate in State-owned organisations was 54%.