Spyware News: Interview With a Virus-Hunter

We bring you an interview with a virus hunter here. Taken from pcworld.com, they recently interviewed the man behind kaspersky antivirus.

Read on....

We recently got the opportunity to interview Eugene Kaspersky, the man behind Kaspersky Anti-Virus. Here's what he had to say about the evolution of malware, the future of cybersecurity, the problems with the Internet, and more.

PCW: You've been in the anti-virus business for a long time. What are your thoughts on the evolution of malware?

Kaspersky: Malware has evolved in three stages. The first stage was more about smart young programmers writing viruses for fun, or to learn about replicating programs. These viruses were more benign, and they were not written with a motive to make money. This has now changed. Viruses and malware is currently written by professionally organized groups with the intention of making money. The current situation of the Internet helps malware creators make money with very little risk, and they aren't out to just have fun anymore. Also, malware writers are increasingly targeting newer devices like smartphones, which have a low security barrier. I feel that cyber-terrorism will increase as well, with countries infrastructure being targeted more and more in the days to come.

PCW: What do you think about the links between cyber-crime groups and organized crime? Are they joining forces?

E.K: I don't think this is true. The cyber-criminals don't have strong links with organized crime groups. They may have some links, but I don't think it's fair to say that all cyber criminals are part of the real Mafia, or other organized crime groups. The mentality of a cyber-criminal is very different from a real-world crook, and it's not true that all cyber-criminals would commit physical crimes, or think like people who are used to more violent lifestyles.

PCW: What can we do to fix some of the problems with malware on the Internet?

E.K: The Internet was never designed with security in mind. If I was God, and wanted to fix the Internet, I would start by ensuring that every user has a sort of Internet passport: basically, a means of verifying identity, just like in the real world, with driver's licenses and passports and so on. The second problem is one of jurisdiction. The Internet has no borders, and neither do the criminals who operate on the Internet. However, law enforcement agencies have jurisdictional limits, and are unable to conduct investigations across the globe. I feel we need an international agency to combat this problem, something like an Interpol for the Internet.

PCW: Won't your suggestion of Internet Passports remove the anonymity from online browsing, thus causing problems for people who may be operating in countries that are not friendly to their views, and so on?

E.K: There is no such thing as anonymity on the Internet, for the average user. It is relatively easy to identify the casual surfer from his IP address and the ISP's logs. Criminals, on the other hand, are professionals who know how to hide their tracks. A passport would be beneficial to law-abiding users, and would make it that much more difficult for cyber-criminals to hide.

PCW: Is your company moving from pure AV solutions to more comprehensive risk-management solutions?

E.K: In any case, there is no point talking about pure AV anymore, even for home users. The minimum you need is Anti-Virus, Anti-Spam, and a Firewall. We do have a few risk-management options, but we don't want to dilute our products by broadening our focus too much. We would like to stay focused on security, and make sure we have the best products in that area.

PCW: Here's a more speculative question: Looking into the middle future, say in twenty years, how do you see the internet evolving?

E.K: I would like to answer this in two parts. Firstly, I don't know about twenty years, but I feel in about fifty years, the Internet will be a much more regulated, safer place. Just as society has evolved, so too shall the Internet evolve, with identification, regulatory agencies and all the things that keep society running smoothly. There will always be criminals, but not as many as there are right now.

Secondly, in the near future, say in about ten years, I feel that we may see an increase in cyber-terrorism attacks. Governments right now don't see this as a critical problem, but I fear that there will be some sort of major attack that will change this perception. Also, I think we're going to see more devices such as smartphones, car computers, smart homes and the like come under attack from malware writers.

Spyware News: The Solution to Your Spyware and Adware Job

The Solution to Your Spyware and Adware Job

The threat of spyware and adware programme has get a widespread job amid computer users. This is one of the unwanted side personal effects of the online humanity. Just as fashioning the mankind a littler place for everyone, the Internet ha take the proliferation of malicious programme and applications that work its way into soul information processing system and do their damage in a salmagundi of way.

If you are a computer user e’er leaving away online, you are not free to the menace of spyware and adware programme. You are e’er clear to the possibility of existence contaminated with such software packet package programme that can get a trouble and a problem in more than than than ways than one. Patch surfboarding online, you may all of a sudden experience a window pop up on your desktop. This can be an instance of an adware.

Adware programme are really legitimize programs that try to encourage a certain product or service to online users care you. Some adware programs are relatively safe and may not do as much as to advertise a certain product in a couple of sec or two.

But there are other adware programs that look to be too put their advertising too far. These adware programme go as far as trying to bombardon your desktop repeatedly with ads until it go more than of a trouble alternatively of just trying to get your attention for a couple of sec. Sometimes adware programme attach themselves into your own computer so that every time you use it, you power find yourself as a constant amount measure informant to their ever frustrating and deflect work.

There are likewise other malicious programs and applications that you may unknowingly or erroneously attached or downloaded into your computer. These spyware programs can be a job in a figure of way. There are spyware programs that can monitoring device your computer use as well as your surfriding wont. They can keep an eye on what Cyberspace land site you sponsor and what you ordinarily do on your computer. This information is then beingness recorded and sent to someone else online who mightiness be interested in such information.

There are besides other spyware programme that can record your keystrokes and direct the information to the spyware writer. These recorded keystrokes volition be able to furnish computer hackers with a wealthiness of valuable information such as as as as as secret countersign, recognition card numbers as well as e-mail computer computer address.

This type of spyware programme can brand it easy for hackers to retrieve such sensitive personal information that can be used at your own disbursal. Other spyware programme can scan information information file on your hard drive military group on the qt, attach other spyware programme into your computer, install and lock its own brand of web browser and many other malicious things.

In order for you to prevent these malicious programme from acquiring into your difficult drive, you may demand to rich soul an anti spyware and adware programme install. An anti spyware and adware programme work by trying to block unwanted programme trying to get access into your computer.

Whenever a certain malicious programme endeavor to get its way into your computer, the anti spyware programme get your primary election arm scheme scheme against such as as unwanted applications. Anti adware and spyware programme normally have a database of known malicious programme that enable them to place spyware or adware and block them out from your computer. These useful programs may likewise have remotion tools available that may assistance you get rid of malicious spyware or adware that may have gotten through your computer in some way.

Spyware News: Extended warranty may be a good idea for laptops

Q: Are extended warranties for computers really worth the money? - Janice

A: This question is one of the most common that I have fielded over the years, and has two potential answers: yes and no!

Much like any "insurance" policy, you get value from it only if you have to use it. So it's helpful to understand what the exposure risks are for what you are buying before you make your decision.

For instance, most desktop computers (with the exception of the nonstandard all-in-one units or those built by Apple) use common parts that are readily available and very competitively priced from hundreds of sources.

Many of the individual parts in a standard desktop computer can be replaced for less than most desktop computer extended warranties (especially if you are comfortable swapping parts yourself). In most cases, unless you have multiple failures during the warranty period, you may not recoup the cost of the extended warranty.

When it comes to laptop computers, the scenario is quite different. Virtually every laptop made is a proprietary design, so you have only one source for most replacement parts; the original manufacturer.

The laws of supply and demand are in full effect with laptops, which causes most replacement parts for a laptop to be higher than most extended warranties - especially when it comes to the screen or motherboard.

There are several types of warranties that you can buy for a laptop, including some that are called "no fault." That means that even if you drop it (which is very common), you are covered. Once again, you must weigh the cost of the coverage with the potential odds that you will need the coverage.

Road warriors and college students who are constantly lugging their portable computers around have a much higher likelihood of experiencing a "kinetic" event that could render the laptop useless. So coverage may make sense for them.

For those who mainly use their laptop around the house and on the occasional family vacation, your exposure to the additional risks are lessened. Therefore it may be a closer call.

The bottom line is to make sure you understand what is covered and what is not. The exclamation of "but I thought my extended warranty covered that" is all too common because the purchaser did not look at the exclusions before making the decision.

In computers especially, the vast majority of service issues have nothing to do with the hardware, which is generally the only thing that is covered by many extended warranties. Common problems like virus and spyware infections, operating system corruption, miscommunication of devices or inability to get something to function the way you expected it to are expressly not covered by the extended warranty.

Understanding that all "insurance" products must make the supplier a profit or they wouldn't do it, you can bet that the "house" has the advantage when it comes to extended warranties.

If you ever get the chance to chat with an individual whose responsibility is to process extended warranty claims in the computer world, you will likely hear that more claims are denied than approved, mainly because the purchaser of the warranty didn't really understand what they bought.

A final piece of advice: don't take any salesman's word on what is covered and excluded by an extended warranty. Get it in writing, and review it in detail before making a decision. Rarely is the person who is selling you the warranty the same person who is responsible for processing it.

The person selling the extended warranty generally gets a commission or has a quota they must meet and knows that by the time you figure out it wasn't quite what they represented, it's too late for you. So buyer beware!

Beware McDonalds Christmas Offer Email is Spyware

I have just recieved this email and had a good delve through it and it is actually malware. If you have not recieved it yet DO NOT open it. If you have opened it then run your checker through it. If you have not got a checker then have a look to the right and check out one of the products there that will find it.

Read on....


Who’s going to turn down an email savings coupon from that great American institution - McDonalds? The cyber-criminals behind this spam/scam email are counting on the fact that not many of us will turn it down.

Let’s face it - we’re all pretty used to McDonalds wishing us a “Merry Christmas” so getting an email with that heading is likely to entice many of us to “Simply print the coupon from this Email and head to your local McDonald’s for FREE giveaways and AWESOME savings” as the email instructs.

According to PandaLabs, Panda Security’s laboratory for detecting and analyzing malware however, you won’t get a coupon, you won’t get “FREE giveaways and AWESOME savings”, but you will get infected by the P2PShared.U worm.

“Once on the computer”, according to Panda, “the worm sends out emails with the same subject and appearance to other users. Finally, it copies itself to folders of various P2P file-sharing programs (eMule, LimeWire, Morpheus, etc.) with names relating to security software, image editing programs, program cracks, etc. This way, any user that tries to download any of these applications will be actually letting a copy of the worm into their computer”.

At this time of the year, we can expect to be bombarded by socially engineered email spam/scam with a Christmas or Holiday Season theme, so be more vigilant than you normally would be.

Don’t open unknown email attachments

Don’t run programs of unknown origin

Disable scripting features in email programs

Ensure your anti-virus software scans all e-mail attachments

If you are interested in staying on top of the latest in Internet security news, consider adding Panda Security news to your feed reader by adding the following URL - http://feeds.feedburner.com/PandaSecurity.

“Fake Out Products” are going to be banned

Those programs that pop up in your system tray getting you paniced because you have spyware or a virus on your pc. Dont worry they are "helpful" (joke) as they then tell you to purchase the software to get rid of them. They are all fake and now there all to be banned. Not sure if this will stop the people that make them but we will soon see.

Read on..


US (ChattahBox) – The FTC (Federal Trade Commission) has taken out a restraining order against Innovative Marketing, Inc. and ByteHosting Internet Services, LLC., two companies involved in the creation and distrubution of “scareware”, programs designed to create false alerts of viruses, illegal pornography, and spyware.

Court documents state that the two companies tricked websites into hosting their advertisements, and then took advantage of the site’s viewers to tell them they had harmful things on their computer, advising them to click a link to install a software that would get rid of it.

“The popularity of the rogue anti-virus and spyware products has rocketed,” Yuval Ben-Itzhak, chief technology officer of Finjan, told reporters. “People are paying 40-60 dollars for bogus software which does nothing.”

The FTC hopes to achieve further action by banning the distribution of this software all together.

Study Confirms A Quarter of ALL Antivirus Apps Do Not Work

A study has recently discovered that one quarter of anit virus applications do not do what they are supposed to do. Promisec study says many AV packages are disabled or weren't installed properly in the first place

Read on....

More than one-quarter of business PCs are running antivirus software that has been disabled or was never properly installed, according to a study that will be published on Monday.

Promisec, a company that makes endpoint management tools, conducted the study on 100,000 PCs to prove a point: that antivirus management consoles from leading vendors are not accurately reporting when their software isn't working. The endpoint security tool vendor hopes the report will help drive users to try out its "clientless" management tools, which it says can take a more accurate reading of the status of AV software on remote endpoints.

The study, which was conducted from June to November of this year, tested the status of AV software on 100,000 endpoints in businesses operating in a variety of industries. According to the researchers, more than one-fourth of all computers were found to have missing or disabled antivirus software. But network administrators weren't being alerted to the problem by the vendors' management consoles, Promisec says.

"It's a serious issue, and really a scary situation," says Gary Morse, president of Razorpoint Security Technologies, a penetration testing firm. "Companies rely on antivirus software and assume they're covered. You've got a CIO sleeping well at night, thinking everything is secure when nothing could be further from the truth."

In many cases, users had turned off the antivirus software, thinking that would make their computers run faster, the researchers say. In other instances, the antivirus software was never deployed to certain computers. But the AV management tools didn't pick up the problems, Promisec says.

"What we're seeing are companies paying Symantec, McAfee, and others for protection that is only working about 75 percent of the time," adds Alan Komet, vice president of marketing for Promisec. "The vendors' management console is simply not a good monitoring source."

Top Tips To Keep You Safe With Online Shopping Through The Holidays

With the holiday season finally here many of you will be doing their shopping online to avoid the hustle and bustle of the shops. We have brought together some safety tips we think you should read to help you out.

Read on....

The allure of Internet deals and the pure convenience of "click and ship" continue to drive shoppers online this holiday season. An estimated $44 billion will be spent online purchasing holiday gifts in 2008, up more than 12 percent over 2007.

Although more money will be spent online this holiday season, consumers are concerned about security risks when making purchases over the Internet. According to a CA-sponsored survey, 72 percent of consumers in North America think retailers do not spend enough on online security and privacy.

To help ease consumer worry, security experts at CA, Inc. offer the following tips to help consumers protect themselves online this holiday season.

- Secure, then shop. Before connecting to the Internet, be sure to install anti-virus, a firewall and anti-spyware programs.

- Update, Update, Update. The bad guys constantly update their techniques, so consumers need to update their protection. Make sure your firewall, anti-virus, anti-spyware and operating software are up-to-date.

- Never shop on an open wireless network. Open networks are easy targets for hackers to break into your computer and capture financial information.

- Know who you're dealing with. Get the name and physical address of any online-retailer before submitting personal or financial information. When shopping online auctions, check the track record of the seller before bidding.

- Never e-mail your personal or financial information. E-mail is not a secure method of sending information like your credit card, bank account or Social Security number.

- Look for secure payment processing. When a Web site processes your payment information, be sure the URL address changes from HTTP to SHTTP or HTTPS. This indicates that the purchase is encrypted or secured.

- Be alert and be suspicious. Identity thieves count on the holiday rush to catch consumers off guard with bogus e-mails that seem to be coming from a legitimate organization such as the bank, the IRS or UPS. These "phishing" scams can lure shoppers into divulging personal information. Be suspicious of anyone asking for additional personal information or asking you to click on links in an e-mail.