Spyware News

Spyware News: Fix The XP Blue Screen!

2008-12-19T09:35:00.000-08:00

The XP Blue Screen has a nickname. It’s called the “blue screen of death”. And if anyone has had the unfortunate pleasure of dealing with this harbinger of bad will then you know why. The XP blue screen can be caused from numerous errors. Faulty memory, computer overheating, and hardware running beyond it’s specification limits are all common problems associated with the Windows XP blue screen.

Fortunately most of these issues can be resolved with a simple reboot of the computer. But there is another kind of blue screen that can cause serious problems. It is called the “joke blue screen”, it’s a fake one that is planted from various spyware and virus programs.

Although they look very similar, the easy way to tell the difference between a real and fake blue screen warning is by pressing the Alt/Tab keys. If you can essentially minimize the error message then you know it’s a fake. These malware infections are very tricky, they even create a pop up that looks like your desktop is rebooting!

The first thing to do is relax and act calmly. Many people panic and start clicking links and sone enough their hard drive is destroyed. DO NOT click any pop up links to download anti spyware programs. These are fake programs used to steal your identity and infect your computer further.

What you need to do is scan your computer for spyware. But not any old spyware tool will do. These are some of the most cutting edge forms of spyware and can evade most of the anti spyware programs on the market. You need a lean mean spyware killing machine. Luckily I have found a program that can detect most of the latest infections. Follow the link below and get rid of the windows XP blue screen for good!

Has your computer been hijacked by the XP Blue Screen? Think it might be infected? Scan your computer for free with the best spyware remover on the market today!

Jim Marshall is an expert computer technician with fifteen years of experience in the industry. Since his own computer was destroyed by malicious software, he has been studying anti-spyware, adware, and malware systems for years. His website details the comprehensive results of this research, ranking the best anti spyware programs available.

How to RemSpyware News: Antispyspider From Your Computer in Just Minutes

2008-12-19T09:34:00.000-08:00

One of the latest and most vicious forms of spyware today, Antispyspider has been taking the net by storm. The malicious file is another in a long line of rogue anti spyware programs. A rogue anti spyware program is a form of spyware that posts fake warnings of spyware infections in order to frighten the user into buying their software. These warnings are called “scareware” as they are nothing more than false positive advertisements. The installation of this software will cause further infection, monetary loss, and potential identity theft. If you have seen this program on your computer then you need to remove Antispyspider immediately!

Symptoms of this spyware will include false warnings on your desktop and taskbar. They may read something along the lines of “somebody is trying to access your PC and collect private information” or “your computer is running slowly because of malware activity”.

A faux Windows Security Center message may appear reading “possible spyware infection detected”. You may also have your browser hijacked and redirected to a webpage where you can purchase the Antispyware product. The most important thing is to ignore all of these warnings. Be calm and I can show you how to conduct an Antispyspider removal right away.

To remove Antispyspider you can try doing it yourself. First you would go to Add/Remove programs and eliminate Antispyspider. Then you need to delete the associated malicious files in the C:\Windows directory (there are about twenty in all). There are also other files located in the Windows Registry under the HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE folder. But if you decide to take this action, be very careful, delete the wrong registry file and you could potentially corrupt your hard drive.

Luckily if you are not a computer expert there is a much easier way to conduct an Antispyspider removal. Simply scan your computer with the latest and most cutting edge spyware removal technology. Because Antispyspider is such a new threat most spyware removal tools cannot detect it. Fortunately I have tested a spyware remover that can and has protections to keep the Antispyspider from ever attacking your computer again.

Want to squash those annoying pop up ads and get your PC running like new? Come get your free scan at Spyware Fix today!

Spyware News: Do You Require a Trojan Virus Killer?

2008-12-19T09:30:00.000-08:00

The infamous “trojan virus” is one of the most popular and dangerous forms of malware on the internet. The virus is so prevalent that virtually anyone who uses the internet has certainly been it’s victim at some point. The trojan virus or “trojan horse” is a malicious program that sneaks onto your computer by disguising itself as a desirable function. In order to properly remove the dangerous file you need a trojan virus killer!

Trojan viruses can effect your computer in more ways than I could possibly mention here. But some of the most popular activities of trojan viruses are:

• Corruption of hard drive and registry files

• Phishing for sensitive data such as credit card, social security, and bank account numbers

• Spying on browsing habits and reporting activity to a third party

• Install unauthorized programs on your computer

• Alter computer settings and not allow you to change them back

You don’t need me to tell you that some of these acivities could have dire consequences on the computer’s owner. Learning how to remove a trojan virus can save you from having your identity stolen and potentially hundreds of dollars in computer repairs.

Before we get to the trojan virus killers, we should talk a little about prevention. The single most important piece of information in this article is this – USE A FIREWALL!

Luckily Windows Vista and the latest versions of Windows XP already come installed with a firewall. While the Windows Firewall works OK I do recommend using Mcaffee or Norton Antivirus. If you cannot afford those two then you can download Online Armor for free at Download.com.

Now I am going to assume you have a firewall installed and running. Next we get to the removal of trojan viruses. While it is possible to remove them manually I would not recommend it. Unless you are an expert CPU user this process can be very difficult to master. Why not download a trojan virus killer that can also kill spyware, adware, and other forms of malware all in one? With just a few clicks of the mouse you can be virus free!

Tired of viruses infecting your computer? Want to surf the web with the peace of mind that your computer is safe and secure? Get your free scan from the top
trojan virus killer on the market today!

Spyware News: Microsoft's eight-day Internet Explorer fix

2008-12-19T09:25:00.000-08:00

The critical vulnerability exposed in Microsoft's Internet Explorer web browser this week was a big enough story to hit the front pages of papers including The Daily Telegraph, The Guardian and even the Metro.

It was a flaw that affected two million users and 10,000 web sites. It was also so serious that it forced a patch to be released out of Microsoft's usual monthly Patch Tuesday cycle.

It all started last week when reports came out that a vulnerability in Internet Explorer 7 was being exploited by hackers.

Initially it wasn’t considered serious, and Microsoft was only aware of limited attacks that attempted to use the exploit.

But then the vulnerability spread to earlier versions of IE, including the new beta of IE 8, and fast became a more serious proposition.

Malware writers had been extremely quick to pounce on the zero-day exploit and proceeded to mount mass SQL injection attacks, creating malicious links on legitimate sites.

Anybody using these compromised sites would then proceed to download Trojans, usually via a drive-by download that happens without the knowledge of the user.

Gerhard Eschelbeck, chief technology officer of Webroot, said that malware and the way cybercriminals operate had changed significantly, and users needed to be aware of the new breed of threat.

He said: “While first generation attacks were geared towards operating system vulnerabilities, we see more than 90 per cent of modern malware targeting the browser directly.”

Admirably, bloggers at the Microsoft Malware Protection Centre were honest in their appraisal of the vulnerability.

Ziv Mador and Tareq Saade said that roughly 0.2 per cent of users worldwide would have been affected: “That percentage may seem low, however it still means a significant number of users had been affected.”

Microsoft stopped short of advising users to stop using its Internet Explorer browser, but many security experts said that the best option was to turn to Firefox or Chrome until the patch was deployed.

Sophos security expert Graham Cluley said that switching the browser which could be used for all employees in a company wasn’t an option. He also said that users also had to realise that all browsers had vulnerabilities and were at risk of exploitation.

“There’s no such thing as a 100 per cent flaw-free web browser. To reduce the risks you need to change your surfing behaviour, and ensure that your systems are properly protected with up-to-date anti-virus software, patches and firewalls."

Microsoft has taken eight days to offer a patch which it said would protect users from the malicious attacks. In a statement it said: “Like a vaccine developed to fight a virus, this security update will protect computers only if it is installed.

Christopher Budd, a security response communications lead at Microsoft, told the BBC that the company had to mobilise security engineering teams worldwide to offer the patch, which consisted of 300 distinct updates to Internet Explorer in around 50 languages.

Users also enquired with anti-virus vendors about the discovered vulnerability and their ability to detect it. However, David Harley, director of malware intelligence at ESET, said that the security problem in this case was not a specific malware program or family, but rather a vulnerability in the application.

He said: “The threat is not from the vulnerability, so much as from the malware that exploits it. There is a great deal of that, right now.

“In principle, “traditional” anti-virus/anti-malware doesn’t necessarily detect vulnerabilities – in fact, a scanner that detected vulnerabilities as it does blacklisted malware would be rather different to what we’re accustomed to.”

He said that no reputable anti-malware company was going to ignore a security problem due to it being a problem with somebody else’s application. However he warned users that it wasn’t safe to trust on anti-malware to fix an application vulnerability, especially with the patch coming out.

He said: “Good patching practice is an essential part of a defence-in-depth strategy.”

Spyware News: iPhone spyware goes on sale

2008-12-18T09:50:00.000-08:00

Its was only a mtter of time for the iPhone and here it is

read on.....

Uh-oh... Software that logs iPhone 3G SMS and voice call records to an online server has gone on sale. Is it a legitimate monitoring tool or a sneaky violation of privacy?

Although legitimate and illegitimate spyware is the bane of computer users and jealous partners on today's traditional desktop computers, smartphones have largely been free of the malware menace.

But things are rapidly changing, with the threat now apparent that some smartphones can be too smart for their users' good. After all, the combination of local processing power plus data connectivity can turn your electronic best friend into a handheld computing tattletale.

So, what is the newest spyware threat for the amazing Apple iPhone?

The Mobile Spy software and supporting service for the iPhone 3G costs $US99.97 per year.

For that, suspicious employers, parents and spouses get to see the full text of all SMS messages sent or received, plus a list of all calls including phone number, time and duration.

The spyware works by transferring the information to an Internet server as soon as it is connected, so it remains available even if the user erases the iPhone's internal log.

The records can then be viewed on the server via a web browser, or downloaded in CSV form for use in a local database or spreadsheet.

According to vendor Retina-X Studios, "Mobile Spy runs in total stealth mode and no mentions of the program are shown inside the iPhone."

This implies that the iPhone must be jailbreaked before Mobile Spy can be installed. The company skirts around this point: the web page describing its installation on an iPhone is restricted to its customers "Due to trade secrets".

Hmmm... detailed instructions are provided for the existing versions of Mobile Spy for Windows Mobile or Symbian handsets, so there's clearly some jiggery-pokey involved.

Spyware News: The Most Dangerous Malware of 2008 Came From the Internet, According to Trend Micro Threat Research Analysis

2008-12-18T09:44:00.000-08:00

It's no surprise -- surfing the
Internet without a security software installed brings dangerous consequences,
especially since the growth of Web threats have increased by nearly 2000
percent since 2005.  According to Trend Micro threat researchers, more than 50
percent of the top 100 malware of 2008 came from the Internet and were
accidentally downloaded by users surfing unknown or malicious Web sites.


The second highest source of infections (43 percent) is from malware
already present on a system.  Today's multi-component threats typically
download one or more pieces of malware whose sole purpose is to hide in a
specific file, then contact a remote location to retrieve the real payload
such as data stealing malware.


Finally, email attachments from unknown or malicious sources bring the
third highest source (12 percent) of infections.  Other common ways to become
infected include: clicking on links or accepting file transfers over instant
messaging applications; downloading files offered via peer-to-peer
connections; using removable drives such as thumb drives and portable/external
hard drives; and failing to patch applications found to have vulnerabilities.


Even though regional data reflects the same general trend, there are
slight variations.  North America still has the highest amount of adware and
is seeing significant growth in data-stealing malware that arrive via the
Internet.


Malware borne by removable drives (portable/external hard drives, thumb
drives, flash disks, memory cards, etc.) are at 29.31 percent in Asia and
Australia, the highest compared to other regions.  Most Asian countries have
auto-run malware (malware that spread through removable devices) as their top
infectors, the highest concentration compared to other regions.  China is one
exception -- the country has a high percentage of online gaming spyware, due
to its large online gaming population.


The top malware infecting PCs in Europe, Middle East and Africa are Trojan
downloaders, Trojans that install other malicious files to the computer system
either by downloading them from a remote computer or by dropping them directly
from a copy contained in its own code.  Infections through malicious IFrames
(Inline Frames, a popular Web design convention that enables one HTML document
to be embedded inside another HTML document) are also popular within this
region.


Latin America's top threats are varied in profile but the region is seeing
a growth in multi-component attacks.  Several malware found in PCs have in
fact been dropped by other malware already present in the PC.


The volume and sophistication of Web threats make it imperative that
multilayered, real-time protection is used to ensure online safety. The Trend
Micro(TM) Smart Protection Network, which powers most of Trend Micro's
products and solutions, correlates Web and email threat data by using
reputation technologies that compare threats against in-the-cloud threat
databases.  This unique type of cloud-client security infrastructure gives
Trend Micro customers real-time protection against the latest Internet threats,
while enjoying online activities to the fullest.


For consumers, Trend Micro(TM) Internet Security Pro checks the reputation
of Web pages, blocking access to malicious sites before users have a chance to
access them and innocently give away their personal information or download
potentially malicious code designed to steal their credit card or other
valuable information.



About Trend Micro:


Trend Micro Incorporated, a global leader in Internet content security,
focuses on securing the exchange of digital information for businesses and
consumers.  A pioneer and industry vanguard, Trend Micro is advancing
integrated threat management technology to protect operational continuity,
personal information, and property from malware, spam, data leaks and the
newest Web threats.  Visit TrendWatch at
http://www.trendmicro.com/go/trendwatch to learn more about the latest threats.
Trend Micro's flexible solutions, available in multiple form factors, are
supported 24/7 by threat intelligence experts around the globe.  Many of these
solutions are powered by the Trend Micro Smart Protection Network, a next
generation cloud-client content security infrastructure designed to protect
customers from Web threats.  A transnational company, with headquarters in
Tokyo, Trend Micro's trusted security solutions are sold through its business
partners worldwide.  Please visit http://www.trendmicro.com.



SOURCE  Trend Micro Incorporated

Spyware News: The Begining of a New Era for Open Source Software...OpenSUSE 11.1

2008-12-18T09:43:00.000-08:00

Ah...the x-men comes out to play. Seeker, jonath and bugmenot2.

Seeker, I seek not to "state" anything. I am just trying to get the message across to many other net users that are a lot
less savvy than you that the latest exploit in Internet Explorer have simply made using the software a game of Russian Roulette on the highways of the net. Especially if you use internet banking.

I find it diificult to understand why you are so staunchly defending the use of Internet Explorer when we both know that the latest vulnerabilities are not the usual second tuesday "patch" cycle issue. Microsoft itself has advised people NOT to use Internet Explorer for secure web surfing until this is fixed.

Let me ask you a question. Are you using Internet Explorer with the current vulnerabilities unpatched in full administrator mode surfing the net at random and then using the same machine and administrator user account to do internet banking with your whole life savings in the balance?

Don't be silly. Of course not, if you know anything about computer security, hackers and the actual prevalence of cybercrime that is not reported in the world. Unfortunately, that is what 90% of internet users are doing, including highly intelligent professionals like my friend, whom have been lulled into a false sense of security by giant commercial software companies like microsoft.

If it wasn’t important, I would not have posted at all. So please don't muddy the water with your techno speak. We both know that Internet Explorer have so many security holes because it doesn't conform to the international web standards as well as the use of Active X architecture. The irony is that this was done with the aim of forcing all internet surfers to use Internet Explorer or not be able to access websites which have been designed to accommodate microsoft as they do hold 90% of the world software market. It is just sheer hooliganism and extortion of the people of the world. Nothing more.

They are doing the same with Office 2007, where the documents that you create in Office 2007 can no longer be opened with any version of Office prior to 2007.That again is just sheer "legal" extortion, forcing millions of users to upgrade to Office 2007 when their 2003 or even 2000 version is perfectly usable. Microsoft even tried to arm-twist the International Standards Organisation to recognise it's proprietary Office 2007 standard as the next "Open" standard, instead of the truly open source OpenDocument standard by Open Office.

However, the release of Windows Vista was the last straw for me. All other critism aside, most software that I have purchased in the last 2 years or more becomes automatically obsolete once I installed Vista. This means forking out thousands of pounds again to get back to my baseline of functioning in the IT world. This to me is unfair and unjust coercion of the public whom have been trained to fork out billions of pounds in a mindless pavlovian cycle of upgrading Windows Operating Systems, which have been etched into our consciousness so deeply that we don’t even notice it happening anymore. We just pay and pay and pay again for the same functions. It is completely unacceptable.

This is where the Open Source movement comes in.

Yes, OpenOffice 3 is actually compatible with all Office documents, including Office 2007, has presentation, spreadsheet, database and drawing components, but is actually FREE and legal to share and distribute without spending a single penny.

By the way, did I mention that you can also CREATE PDF files too with OpenOffice? Now I have. Also you are not forced to pay again for the language packs. It's free, unlike for Microsoft Office 2003 and Office 2007.

Let's get a few things clear. Open Source is not about being "free". It is about "FREEDOM".

Freedom to:

1. Use the software legally.

2. Share the software with family, friends and colleagues legally if one finds it useful.

3. Contribute to the development of the software, not just by code but also through bug reporting, forum support, development of faqs and other documentation, mirror a download or a thousand other ways...

I agree with you completely that OpenSource software needs funds to organise itself. These funds comes from donations, like Ubuntu, which is going to be perpetually supported by a multi-million Ubuntu Foundation trust fund set up by a generous donor, or from the commercial support of enterprise version of these open source software such as Clam AV and Open SUSE.

However, you failed to point out that even the "commercial" version of these Open Source software is still open source and is essentially the same code wise as the non-commercial freely downloadable versions. The charges comes from the 24 hour technical support and other customisations of these software for large companies.

Yes, enterprise strength software, free, for the non-commercial user. How does it all work? Trust. The goodness of the human heart. The desire to be a part of something greater and to contribute to a good cause. Choose which you like

You are right. This is the new way forward. Infrastructures of the capitalistic system driven by socialist ideals. From each their own ability. For each their own need. Fascinatingly, this appears to be also the model for future political systems in the world. No more cowboys and monolithic companies dictating what is right and what is wrong to the rest of the "ignorant" world.

I am not sure what area of IT you are involved in, but you must know that because Windows run with Admin rights by default, it is just a hackers paradise. Also, Microsoft policy of non-disclosure when any vulnerabilities are found only makes the Windows OS sweeter for the hackers. Users carry on non-the wiser while their systems are hacked, like what happened to my friend. This again is not acceptable.

Security by obscurity.

It is like trying to hide an open door with a curtain and hope that thieves don't see the gapping hole to your home theatre set when the wind blows. Hackers are not ignorant. Millions of common users are. Why, they already knew about the latest vulnerabilities two weeks before Microsoft decided to announced it, and that's only because Richmond could see on their giant monitors how many computers were being compromised every minute due to this zero day exploit.

Just stop and think. 1 in 500 computers may be hacked with this exploit. You must be crazy not to pay some attention to this.

It's a bit like the titanic sinking and shouting on the deck that "don't panic, the titanic can't sink".

Seeker, you clearly do not use any Linux based operating software or you would not have said that it's as insecure as windows.

For one, you need to have root access before you can install anything. Second, there are security features built-in into the OS such as AppArmor. Finally, Linux OS such as OpenSUSE have the Security Enchanced architecture built-in which makes it almost impossible for accidental installation of trojans and other malware via daily web surfing or emails by the inexperienced or non-tech savvy user like most of us are. Finally, Clam AV has matured to a enterprise level and on-demand access scanning is now possible with the Dazuko interface. If you wish, you can also purchase commercial antivirus software for linux from the likes of F-Secure.

Your claims are just not substantiated at all in the real world.

When people don't want you learn about something new, they will always potray the new world as a "scary place". The truth is, there is no need to be scared of open source software.

There's three ways of doing it.

For beginners, you can have your first taste of freedom by downloading single applications and installing them on your windows desktop. It's the simplest fail-safe method. If you don't like it, just uninstall. No funny trojans or backdoors left behind like with "freeware", where the "free" is just a ploy to get you to install trojans and adware on your system.

Try:

OpenOffice (full office productivity suite by SUN Computer Systems)

http://www.openoffice.org/

Clamwin Antivirus (adaptation of the Clam AV engince for windows, does not have on demand access scanning)

http://www.clamwin.com/

Audacity (full audio editing software suite)

http://audacity.sourceforge.net/

For those of you more adventurous, try the "LiveCD" or "LiveDVD", depending on your bandwidth and connection speed. The Live CD is about 700 MB while the Live DVD, 4.3 GB. I recommend "Knoppix", as it allows you to boot into a full Linux environment based on the user friendly KDE desktop user interface. It has the following pre-installed and ready to be used straight from boot-up:

1. OpenOffice
2. Web Browsers
3. CD/DVD burning software
4. Audio players and editors
5. free games like bubble-bubble and tron
6. many many more educational and interesting software

Download the ISO images. Burn them to a CD or DVD. Change the BIOS settings of your laptops or desktops to first boot from the CD/DVD drive and put the cd/DVD into the drive. Restart and away you go. Everything is run off the CD/DVD, a swap file and the RAM.

When you are finished experimenting with the linux operating system, just shut down as you would with windows from the
taskbar on the bottom left. The CD/DVD will be automatically ejected and you can reboot into your original windows system again.

Nothing will be left on your system, so you must remember to save any work or files that you may have downloaded onto a memory stick or floppy disk!!!

Knoppix Live CD/DVD

http://www.knoppix.org/

For those of you in the multi-media industry, try this:

Musix

http://www.musix.org.ar/wiki/index.php/Musix1.0r4Stable-announce

For the ultimate freedom, you can install the full linux based operating system onto a internal or external hard disk.

Yes, you can actually install the whole operating syytem onto a external hardisk by selecting the "Boot from root partition" and making a small change in the boot-up configuration setting at the end of the installation process.

This means you can take your favourite Linux OS with you anywhere you go, on a portable external hardrive.

And by the way, it is much much easier and faster to install some Linux OS like OpenSUSE. Try it and you will be very surprised. All peripherals are automatically detected and the appropriate drivers installed without any user intervention.

By now, if you tried any of the above options, you will be "shocked" at how advanced the user interface is for Linux, and not the "command-line" nightmare scenario that is so often used to scare-off potential Linux users. In fact, OpenSUSE KDE 4 desktop is as sleek, if not sleeker than the Mac OS X desktop.

I have installed and "sampled" the following DISTROS:

1. Ubuntu
2. OpenSUSE
3. Fedora
4. Debian
5. Mandriva

I will only recommend OpenSUSE as it is the most user-friendly, polished and stable Linux OS from personal experience. The software management system takes installing, updating and uninstalling software to new heights of stability and simplicity.

Once installed, you'll have office suites, personal information managers, web browsers, messaging clients, multimedia players and editors, cd/dvd burning sofware all ready to go at no added cost.

Here's the link to the latest release of OpenSUSE with OpenOffice 3. The launch date is...today!!!

OpenSUSE 11.1

http://en.opensuse.org/OpenSUSE_11.1

The world is about to experience its second renaissance, in the cyber world. Where true freedom will be a right for all, rather than privilege for a few.

Do much much more and spend nothing. A new cyber-world is about to begin.

Open source. Do you dare to embrace it?

Hidup Malaysiaku!!!

Spyware News: Survey Highlights Time And Effort IT Must Spend On Malware

2008-12-17T14:13:00.000-08:00

GreenBorder Technologies, Inc., a developer of Desktop DMZ software for Windows, recently announced survey results that provide insights into how dealing with malware is diverting enterprises from strategic security initiatives. In the survey, IT managers from more than 70 mid-tier companies nationwide identified data protection and privacy as their top priority for Internet security.

However, the companies report having to dedicate a significant percentage of their resources to cleaning up and patching infected systems despite near-universal deployment of conventional defenses such as anti-virus (97 percent) and network firewalls (96 percent), as well as widespread restrictions on use of Internet content (75 percent). User behavior and mobile systems were identified as the culprits that most often lead to malware penetrating the enterprise.

Designed to uncover key trends and current pain associated with malware penetrating the enterprise, the GreenBorder Internet Security Trends survey addressed various issues regarding Internet-based threats and their impact. The findings include:

In ranking their biggest fears concerning malware, 56 percent of respondents rated data privacy and confidentiality number one, followed closely by cleanup efforts (54 percent) and interference with existing applications and systems (51 percent).

When asked the top three ways malware gets into the enterprise, 67 percent of respondents said user behavior, 43 percent said zero-day attacks, and 33 percent blended and morphing threats.

Eighty percent of respondents reported that it takes at least half a day to a day to clean, re-image, and restore PCs affected by malware.

Seventy-five percent of respondents reported having had a rolled out patch that caused more problems then it solved.

Respondents named compliance and confidentiality as their number one security business initiatives (87 percent), followed by better protections against Internet-borne threats (67 percent) and better protections for mobile users (53 percent).

Recent findings from the Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu (DTT) 2005 Global Security Survey corroborate the GreenBorder survey results, according to GreenBorder Technologies. The DTT survey found that the increasing sophistication of threats (63 percent) and the lack of employee awareness (48 percent) contribute to an environment of exploitable vulnerabilities and weak operational processes.

According to the 2005 CSI FBI Computer Crime Survey, such an environment comes at a high cost -- virus attacks continue to swamp all other categories as the source of the greatest financial losses in 2005, with an associated cost of more than $42 million. According to the CSI survey authors, "respondents are more accurate than ever in accounting for their explicit costs (such as the cost of reinstalling software and reconfiguring computer systems)." These findings underscore the significant value that can be delivered by innovative technologies that account for the changing nature of Internet-based threats and the online behavior of today's users, the CSI FBI survey found.

Spyware News: NovaShield Wraps Up 2008

2008-12-17T14:12:00.000-08:00

NovaShield, Inc., a leader in advanced anti-virus and anti-malware technology, today announced some of the key milestones from 2008 -- which was an important year as new technologies came to market to help consumers and small businesses better fight growing virus and malware problems.

As the New York Times reported, F-Secure, another Internet security provider, has research that shows malware is growing at an astounding rate. This growth in new malware is why NovaShield was created -- to find new approaches to keep consumer PCs safe in an environment where traditional signature-based solutions aren't keeping up.

In 2008, NovaShield:

Secured funding to find new anti-virus approach: In March, NovaShield received a Phase II Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) grant from the U.S. National Science Foundation (NSF) to help continue the commercialization of NovaShield's breakthrough research targeted at detecting and preventing sophisticated zero day security threats including botnets, Trojans, keyloggers and rootkits. Fortune Small Business Magazine wrote an article on the funding.

Completed comprehensive beta testing program: In April, NovaShield launched a free trial version of its product. NovaShield spent the following 8 months building almost 1,000 users who beta tested NovaShield's breakthrough product before launching the first commercial product in November. USA Today reporter Byron Acohido who also wrote the book "Zero Day Threat" talked a little about NovaShield's approach on his Zero Day Threat blog.

Launched the first commercial version of NovaShield 2.5: In November, NovaShield launched NovaShield 2.5 -- the first commercially available version of its product. The product started selling for 1 and 2 year subscriptions after a 15-day free trial period. Early feedback and increasing sales show that consumers want to augment their existing PC protection.

Achieved industry recognition: In November, NetworkWorld magazine named NovaShield a "10 IT security companies to watch." Matt Hines, a security blogger for eWeek Magazine wrote in November "(NovaShield's) unique new approach to stopping malware could prove helpful and will likely be bought or copied by its larger rivals, many of whom are struggling to find new ways to offset the issue that their traditional sig-based AV products can't prevent many of today's most aggressive attack methods."

"We are quite proud of our first year on the security market," said Praveen Sinha founder and CEO of NovaShield. "At a time when hackers are bringing new levels of threats to consumers and small businesses -- we are taking a methodical approach to bringing a new level of threat protection to the market."

Pricing and Availability

NovaShield AntiMalware 2.5 is available for a free 15-day trial and with a 1 or 2 year subscription. Introductory pricing for 1-year single-user license is $19.95. Introductory subscription price for 2-year single user license is $34.95. Family packs and 10-user small business packs are available. The NovaShield 2.5 anti-malware product is available for download from www.novashield.com.

About NovaShield

NovaShield Inc. ( www.NovaShield.com), founded by leading scientists at the University of Wisconsin, develops technology to detect and eliminate the next generation of malware threats on personal computers. Their breakthrough approach rapidly identifies previously unseen malware by using specification-based monitoring, a unique real-time approach for effectively detecting looming threats. The NovaShield team has developed the most advanced and accurate anti-malware product available to consumers and businesses with the best-in-class ability to find new threats such as drive-by-downloads, Trojans, botnets, keyloggers, and rootkits. Funded by two competitive grants from the National Science Foundation (NSF) and private investors, NovaShield is based in Madison, Wisconsin.

Spyware News: Google AdWords Isn’t Perfect! Serves Up Phishing Sites & Malware

2008-12-17T14:07:00.002-08:00

News flash folks, Google AdWords is not perfect and can be exploited. There are times when people can go into the AdWords system and trick Google into serving up ads for phishing sites and malware downloads. Yes, this happens and happens often enough.

I am not trying to depend Google but they probably automatically approve tens of thousands of ads daily. There is always a possibility of someone getting through the system. Let me share two examples.

WebSense reported Google was serving up an AdWords ad for a site that was having users download malicious software. The software was disguised as Winrar application and was showing up for a keyword search on winrar. WebSense goes through the details of how this specific application infected a computer.

The second case was sent to me by a reader this weekend. He showed me how a search for adwords, yes, Google’s own trademarked product, was returning an ad at the top promotion spot, that was disguised as the AdWords login page. Yes, this page was a phishing page, used to capture the username and password of unsuspecting AdWords advertisers. You were taken from the ad, to a site that looks exactly like the true AdWords login page, then, once you submitted your username and password, it would then redirect you to the true AdWords login page. But the redirect would only happen after this phishing site has already stolen your login credentials.

I notified Google and it was removed a few hours later. I didn’t blog about it then because, like I said above, “AdWords isn’t perfect” and they make mistakes.

Spyware News: "Huge Increase" in Internet Explorer Attacks can be Mitigated by Configuring Windows Users to Operate without Admin Rights

2008-12-17T14:07:00.001-08:00

Microsoft Corp. has warned of a "huge increase" in attacks exploiting a critical vulnerability in all versions of Internet Explorer (IE). Most troubling for enterprises is that the attacks are increasingly being launched from legitimate Web sites.

"Some legitimate Web sites were maliciously modified to include the exploits," said Microsoft's Ziv Mador and Tareq Saade in a posting on Microsoft's Malware Protection Center Blog. They went on to note that, "a significant number of users have been affected."

With exploit code now publicly available, the threat will grow in the coming days and weeks. To mitigate the attack, Microsoft recommends that users be configured without administrator rights. Users whose accounts are configured to have fewer user rights on the system will have additional protections in place to prevent the installation of rootkits and key loggers, as well as other potential malicious activities.

"There is no longer any practical reason that an organization should configure its users to run with administrative rights," said John Moyer, CEO of BeyondTrust. "We have worked with hundreds of companies who were fed up with their exposure to malware and have responded by implementing the security best practice of Least Privilege in their Windows environments. By removing admin rights, these companies have experienced a drastic reduction in malware and greater protection from zero-day threats like the latest IE attack, which impacts the vast majority of IE users."

Microsoft's recommendation comes on the heels of a growing trend among organizations to remove administrator rights from users. By configuring users as standard users, malware can no longer leverage administrative privileges through various Microsoft security vulnerabilities to compromise corporate networks and data. One example of the trend in organizations to remove admin rights is the federal government's recent mandate prohibiting federal employees from logging into XP and Vista as administrators.

For more information, or to speak to BeyondTrust about how organizations can reduce their vulnerability to zero-day threats by configuring end-user PCs to run without administrative rights, please contact Dave Bowker or April Byron at 781-684-0770 or beyondtrust@schwartz-pr.com.

About BeyondTrust

BeyondTrust Corporation, a pioneer in Least Privilege Management, enables enterprises to move beyond the need to trust users with excess privileges or administrator passwords. BeyondTrust Privilege Manager was the first product to enable the security best practice of Least Privilege in Windows environments by allowing administrators to assign end-users permissions for required or selected applications. Least Privilege strengthens security by limiting users to the permissions they need to do their jobs. Hundreds of organizations worldwide in industries such as financial, healthcare, government and military rely on BeyondTrust Privilege Manager to secure their enterprises. For more information, visit www.beyondtrust.com.

SOURCE: BeyondTrust Corporation

Spyware News: SpyZooka: Fast and Effective Removal of AntiVirus Sentry and Other Malware

2008-12-17T09:37:00.000-08:00

Blue Penguin Software recently announced that its anti-spyware program SpyZooka is effective at removing AntiVirus Sentry, among other malware. SpyZooka is in the unique position of being the only product on the market to guarantee 100% removal of all malware, Trojan horses, adware, hijackers, botnets and other spyware threatening the performance and security of computer systems.

An increasing number of computer systems are falling prey to the AntiVirus Sentry, malware disguised as anti-virus software. As a result, the recent announcement that SpyZooka is capable of removing AntiVirus Sentry from computer systems is good news for those whose systems have been infected by the rouge AntiVirus Sentry.

Like other forms of malware, AntiVirus Sentry typically attaches itself to a system without permission via Trojans and other deceptive methods. Once attached, AntiVirus Sentry will bombard the system with false security warnings aimed at convincing users to purchase the useless software. AntiVirus Sentry jeopardizes your computers security and slows its performance.

AntiVirus Sentry, like all spyware, can also be incredibly difficult to remove. The effort can be both expensive and time consuming. SpyZooka is an effective, affordable means of removing AntiVirus Sentry. SpyZooka also protects systems from being hijacked by the dangerous malware program in the first place.

Spyware News: Cybercriminals out in force

2008-12-17T09:36:00.000-08:00

Going online instead of going to the mall can be a convenient and cheaper way to get the holiday shopping done. But it can have a downside.

Cybercriminals tend to come out in force around peak shopping times. Online shoppers, unless they guard against the threat, run the risk of having their credit-card and bank-account numbers stolen without even knowing what has happened — until it’s too late.

"The peak shopping period is an ideal time for criminals to target for . . . attacks," said Symantec’s Vincent Weafer, a vice president in the security company’s research group.

With a week and a half to go before Christmas, this week is likely to see heavy online traffic.

On the Internet, shoppers can find a vast variety of items, often at discount prices. And online shopping can spare consumers from the hassle, traffic and parking problems at a physical shopping center, as well as the lines at the post office.

With that in mind, more than half of U.S. households are likely to shop online this holiday season. The market research firm Forrester Research projects that U.S. consumers will spend $44 billion online in November and December, up 12 percent from a year earlier.

The growth in online shopping hasn’t gone unnoticed by criminals. Many have turned to the Internet as a relatively easy way to steal a buck.

In the month before Thanksgiving week last year, the security company PC Tools observed a steady rise in the amount of malware intercepted by computers running its security software.

It was as if the bad guys wanted to have their software in place "before the shopping began," said Michael Green, PC Tools’ vice president of product strategy.

Traditionally, viruses and other malicious computer programs were simply nuisances. They might shut down your machine or even wipe out your hard drive, but the damage they did was limited to your computer and its data.

That has changed dramatically in recent years as criminals have started to employ malicious programs to steal consumers’ personal and financial information, such as Social Security, bank-account and credit-card numbers. Unlike a virus that shuts down a computer, spyware and malware can run quietly in the background, often without a PC user knowing that it’s there.

"The profile of malware authors has shifted from punks to professionals," said Nick Selby, a security analyst at the 451 Group, an industry research firm. "They’re doing it for money."

As the nature of malicious software has changed, so too have the means of infecting consumers’ computers, analysts say. Increasingly, PCs are infected when they visit Web sites that can exploit security holes in their Web browsers or browser plug-ins like Flash.

Sometimes these sites are legitimate shopping destinations that have been unwittingly compromised. Other times, criminals use what security experts call "social engineering." That could mean directing consumers to a particular site via an e-mail link to what promises to be a funny, controversial or topical video.

"The bad guys know . . . what people click on," said Patrick Runald, chief security adviser at F-Secure, a security software company. "These guys stay up with current events."

Security experts say it’s difficult to estimate the size of the spyware threat, especially given that many exploits may go unnoticed. But F-Secure detects about 80,000 to 100,000 new suspicious files each day, Runald said, of which 20,000 to 25,000 are new types of malware files that need to be combated.

Meanwhile, the number of identity-theft complaints collected by the Federal Trade Commission’s Consumer Sentinel program hit 258,427 last year, more than a third of which involved stolen credit-card or bank-account numbers.

Despite the dangers, no one’s telling consumers to abandon their online shopping carts. Instead, security experts advise consumers to take practical, often obvious steps to protect themselves.

The most basic steps consumers can take are to install a security program on their PCs and to make sure that it and other software on their computers — particularly their operating systems, Web browsers and browser plug-ins — are kept up to date. Software updates frequently plug known security holes and, on the security-software side, provide protection against newly discovered malware.

Beyond that, security experts recommend using common sense — and staying vigilant. Consumers should be wary of clicking on e-mailed links or visiting unfamiliar Web sites, they say.

It’s a good idea to go to security sites, such as one run by F-secure, that offer free malware scans. And they should keep a lookout for strange charges on their credit-card statements.

"I can’t say there’s a magic bullet," said Natalie Lamber, a security analyst at Forrester. "It comes down to good computer hygiene."

Protecting yourself To ward off cybercriminals, online shoppers should take the following steps, security experts say:

Run security software:You shouldn’t be online without it.

Keep your programs up to date:Make sure you’ve downloaded and installed the latest updates for your security software, operating system, Web browser and browser plug-ins.

Be wary of e-mail links: Many will take you to sites you don’t want to visit.

Scan your PC: Free online software can tell you if your computer has any known malware installed.

Stick to the well-lighted places: You’re less likely to encounter malware at known and reputable online sites than at other places.

Check your statements: Keep an eye out for questionable charges in your credit-card and bank accounts.

Spyware News: Malware and "Malicious Intent" Most Prevalent Cyber Threats; Seniors Main Targets of Fraud

2008-12-17T09:35:00.000-08:00

Nearly 60 percent of people who reported being victims of cyber crime experienced malware and "malicious intent" -- either phishing attempts, fraud, ID theft, spam or a computer intrusion -- according to an analysis of data collected from the "Take a Byte Out of Cyber Crime" campaign, which was initiated by the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Council and its public sector partners.

Disturbingly, 28 percent of people reporting cyber crimes indicated that they were victims of online fraud -- with nearly half of those complainants being aged 60 or over. As a result, the CMO Council has launched a new initiative with AVG Technologies -- called Slam the Online Holiday Scam -- to give away security software for use during the holiday season to identify fraudulent eCards and eGreetings that contain malware or send recipients to bogus or contaminated Internet sites to collect personal identity information.

According to cyber crime analytics, harassment was the second most prevalent form of online threats and digital intrusion. More than 40 percent of the complaints were from people who indicated they were victims of either cyber-bullying (defined as the repeated hurtful or damaging remarks posted on online forums or messages sent electronically) or cyber-stalking (which refers to the use of the Internet, e-mail or other electronic communications to surreptitiously follow or haunt a person).

The Take a Byte Out of Cyber Crime program ( www.bytecrime.org) is an ongoing public service campaign sponsored by the Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Council in association with leading public- and private-sector partners. The campaign website collects information on computer security breaches logged by visitors to the Bytecrime.org Cyber Crime Center and provides free, downloadable content for adults and children, entitled Mind What You Do Online.

Since the launch of Bytecrime.org in 2006, computer users have accessed its educational resources to protect themselves, their families and friends from the growing incidence of cyber crime. The Cyber Crime Center has captured reports from over 250 computer users in North America, Asia, Africa and the Middle East.

Other notable findings from the analysis included:

--  Of all cyber crimes committed, 18 percent of the people who reported
   them knew the perpetrators personally. This finding relates to the fact
   that 14 percent of all attacks involved social networking sites -- an
   increasingly prominent e-communication context for computer crimes and
   online harassment.
--  Twenty (20) percent of cyber crimes took place over instant messaging
   channels. Several reports chronicled harassment of computer users in online
   gaming chat rooms.
--  Thirteen (13) percent of the complainants cited child pornography-
   related crimes... including unsolicited or obscene materials sent to a
   child, or online enticement of children for sex acts.

"It's alarming to find that more than half of the people who reported cyber crime experienced fraud or harassment -- and that many of those victims were senior citizens," said Donovan Neale-May, executive director of the CMO Council. "What's more, it's distressing to see the growing incidence of cyber crimes taking place in social network environments and through instant messaging.

"Our analysis reinforces the fact that computer users must be even more vigilant -- especially in increasingly popular cyber contexts like social media -- if they're to protect themselves from onerous cyber attacks," Neale-May added.

Take a Byte Out of Cyber Crime is one of several programs being undertaken by the CMO Council to chronicle -- and help combat -- the increasing scope and severity of cyber crime.

Two other CMO Council-supported cyber crime prevention initiatives are currently underway. They include "Protection from Brand Infection," which examines the brand image and integrity issues of online counterfeit sales, gray market knock-offs, phishing attacks, email scams, online brand and trademark abuse, domain kiting, pay-per-click fraud, copyright and patent infringements, as well as product piracy and fakes. The new "Slam the Online Holiday Scam" initiative is being underwritten by the computer security software company, AVG Technologies, and is designed to help consumers combat fraudulent e-cards and other online scams by offering safety tips and free anti-virus software ( www.avgfree.com).

About the CMO Council

The Chief Marketing Officer (CMO) Council is dedicated to high-level knowledge exchange, thought leadership and personal relationship building among senior corporate marketing leaders and brand decision-makers across a wide-range of global industries. The CMO Council's 3,500 members control more than $100 billion in aggregated annual marketing expenditures and run complex, distributed marketing and sales operations worldwide. In total, the CMO Council and its strategic interest communities include over 6,000 global executives across 57 countries in multiple industries, segments and markets. Regional chapters and advisory boards are active in the Americas, Europe, Asia Pacific, Middle East, Latin America and Africa. The Council's strategic interest groups include the Coalition to Leverage and Optimize Sales Effectiveness (CLOSE), Brand Management Institute, and the Forum to Advance the Mobile Experience (FAME). More information on the CMO Council is available at www.cmocouncil.org.

Spyware News: Several Attacks Behind CheckFree Data Breach

2008-12-17T09:34:00.000-08:00

The cybercriminals who breached the CheckFree bill paying service last week used a combination attack that may be almost impossible to stop.

Visitors to the CheckFree site were redirected without their knowledge to a server in the Ukraine, where malware was automatically downloaded into their PCs, Amit Klein, chief technology officer at Trusteer, which protects desktops from malware and fraudulent Web sites, told InternetNews.com.

"The fact that it's so easy to get hold of critical or enterprise assets such as credentials for a corporation's DNS domain, Web servers, or firewall, is troubling," Klein said. "Each credential lets you manage critical assets and makes it possible for attackers to control enough parts of your infrastructure to cause a mass infection of your own customers."

The worst part is that so far, no one seems to know just what the malware does once it is installed on the victim's computer. Stephan Chenette, manager, security research at Web filtering solution provider Websense, thinks it might be a password stealing Trojan.

Eventually enterprises may end up becoming the means for infecting a large portion of Internet users, Klein said. A similar attack compromised two Business Week sites earlier this year.

The CheckFree breach is especially troubling because its domain name host, Network Solutions, hosts the majority of financial institutions' Web sites, Klein said.

Fiserv, the parent company of CheckFree, one of the largest online bill processors in the U.S., and Network Solutions, CheckFree's domain name registrar, had not responded to requests for comment by press time.

Trusteer's Klein said the attackers used a combination of phishing (define) to get system administrator information to hijack the CheckFree site, pharming (define) to remap the CheckFree site to the server in the Ukraine, and a drive-by malware injection into the PCs of all visitors to the site.

There's more to come

One of the most high profile victims of such password-stealing Trojans this year was NASA's International Space Station. "In 2009, attackers will use more and more password stealing Trojans and these will be looking for e-mail account and Web site credentials," said Chenette.

"We will also see an increase in SQL injection attacks and greater use of targeted phishing attacks," Chenette added. These targeted phishing attacks will provide attackers the necessary credentials to alter a Web site's content and redirect unsuspecting users of some of the largest, most reputable and most trusted Web sites to their own sites.

The problem is difficult to solve because it involves user education, Chenette said. "Our research shows users aren't patching their operating systems, browsers or applications as quickly as they should," he explained. "There are multiple exploits out there which are over two years old and that are still highly successful."

Another problem is that many desktop antivirus vendors are still focusing on viruses and malware and not on Web exploits, Chenette said. Even then, they are losing out to the bad guys. "In many cases, security companies are trying to keep pace with the virus writers," he said.

"Users can protect themselves from malicious content, whether it's a Web exploit or a virus, by updating their desktop antiviruses, browsers and browser plugins."

Spyware News: Trojan Used To Increase Traffic

2008-12-17T09:33:00.000-08:00

The latest Chinese dirty trick to lure users to a website is malware spam. To be more precise, we're talking about a Trojan, detected by Sophos as Troj/Agent-GYC.

It works as follows: first, the Trojan changes the default home page of the Internet Explorer browser and sets the site in question as the new one. Furthermore, the Trojan also downloads and installs and adware app known as Baidu Bar.

The malware has been designed to automatically open the website in question, thus boosting its traffic:

“Checking the web traffic usage for the domain in question shows an interesting trend. There is an obvious increase in traffic volume starting 2 weeks ago - hmm…could this be the result of start-page Trojans?,” reads the Sophos blog.

Some update your anti-malware software and try to restrict your web surfing to legitimate sites.

Spyware News: XSS vulnerabilities discovered in Facebook, closed quickly

2008-12-17T09:32:00.000-08:00

Facebook has closed a number of cross-site scripting (XSS) vulnerabilities that left users open to phishing attacks and identity theft.

The vulnerabilities were reported Monday by XSS archival website, xssed.com. The vulnerable Facebook areas included the developer's page, new user's registration page, iPhone login page and the applications page. The vulnerabilities could have been exploited to infect users with malware, adware and spyware, according to xssed.com.

“We take security issues very seriously and these were closed within hours of receiving the reports,” Facebook spokesman Barry Schnitt said in an email. “There haven't been any reports of exploits.”

Researchers Zeitjak, David Wharton, Daimon and p3lo discovered the flaws and posted proof-of-concept code on the xssed website on Monday. Xssed.com security researcher, Dimitris Pagkalos, noted the vulnerabilities yesterday as being “highly critical”.

“The amount of time and effort required to fix an XSS vulnerability largely depends on the organization,” Jeremiah Grossman founder and CTO of WhiteHat Security, said in an email to SCMagazineUS.com Tuesday. “The more familiar they are with the issue, typically, the faster they are able to remediate.”

To protect themselves, users might consider installing the NoScript plugin and exercising additional caution when clicking on Facebook links from non-trusted sources, Grossman added.

XSS vulnerabilities are not new to social networking sites. In October 2005, a MySpace user unleashed an XSS worm called the Samy worm that allowed him to add one million users to his "friend's" list.

Facebook has not been without its share of other security issues. In one of the largest spam-settlements of its type, Facebook last month was awarded $873 million in damages against a junk mailer.

Also, since the summer, a worm called Koobface has been circulating on Facebook, spreading itself through users' friend lists. The virus installs a component that watches infected users' HTTP traffic with the intention of hijacking a user's internet search results.

Spyware News: Online Fraud Rampant in Tennessee, Virginia

2008-12-17T09:29:00.000-08:00

A couple of months ago, a Twin City woman met a guy on an Internet dating service and a romance began.

Although there were only words between them, a certain trust developed. At least that’s what police think. What law enforcement officials know is that the woman went to her new love’s aid when he called from a foreign country in dire straits – and she lost $7,000.

“He told her he was in Africa, I think,” said the Bristol Virginia police officer. “He said he was giving a business proposal and his laptop died. He ended up
getting thousands.”

Her story is not unique. In fact, these scams are so prevalent nationwide that the FBI has labeled them romance fraud – and they are just one of a number of scams that annually rob people of millions of dollars, according to the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center.

“E-mail scams are running rampant,” said Nicole Slagle, crime prevention coordinator at the Bristol Virginia Police Department. “I get them all the time.”

Last year in Virginia, 5,270 people reported complaints, ranking the state 11th nationwide in complaints per 100,000 residents, according to the FBI. In Tennessee, 3,147 complaints were filed, placing the state 31st in the rankings.

Variety of crimes

Other cyber scams and fraud, as categorized by the FBI, include: nondelivery of goods; check fraud; credit card fraud; confidence fraud; financial institutions fraud; identity theft; the Nigerian letter fraud; and threats.

And in 2007, those Internet crimes cost Americans a whopping $239 million – up $40 million from the year before, making it the fastest-growing crime worldwide, the FBI said.

What’s more, the holiday season is here and online commerce is booming. Backpacked to that boom, the FBI said, is a cyber scam surge.

“These cyber scammers will do whatever they can to steal your money and personal information this holiday season and are trying many different ways to commit these crimes,” Shawn Henry, assistant director of the FBI Cyber Crime Division, said in a written statement.

So the federal government is expanding efforts to spread the message to all citizens about their best defense: click with caution.

In 2003, the Internet Crime Complaint Center was named in a joint effort by the FBI and the National White Collar Crime Center to provide a place where people can report cyber crime and to broaden law enforcement’s ability to combat such crimes.

And since 2000, authorities on national, state and local levels have poured money into establishing task forces specifically to track and fight such crimes.
If you are hit, the FBI encourages you to file a complaint with the Internet Crime Complaint Center at http://www.ic3.gov.

Running rampant

Virginians lost $5.9 million dollars in Internet fraud last year, while Tennessee saw lower numbers, with a total 2007 loss of more than $3.4 million, the FBI’s Internet Crime Complaint Center states.

Nearly 40 percent of Virginia’s victims reported a loss between $100 and $999. Coming in at a close second were the 34 percent of victims reporting losses
somewhere between $1,000 and $9,999, according to the FBI.

And the Twin City is not immune. In recent months, Bristol Virginia Police Capt. Maynard Ratcliffe said several residents have reported being victimized by such scams. Over the past five years, he said, the number has climbed considerably.

Earlier this month, a Bristol Virginia man won an eBay auction when he bid about $2,500 on a rare baseball card, one officer recalled. But when his package arrived, the card wasn’t in it – and neither was his money.

“The guy who sold it said the card was there when he sent it. He even said he has witnesses that could back him up,” the officer said. “The guy here swears there was no card. It’s one guy’s word against another, and there’s not much you can do in that situation.”

Auction fraud, which includes the baseball card dispute, is Virginia’s – and the nation’s – most common cyber crime, constituting 37.2 percent of the online fraud statewide.

Because of the increase in cyber crime, and the difficulty law enforcement faces in prosecuting such cases, the Bristol Virginia Police Department has joined the FBI in stepping up efforts to educate folks on how to avoid them. They are offering educational forums at local senior centers and distributing informational pamphlets, among other programs.

E-mail embarrassment

On Dec. 9, Ratcliffe got yet another call from a resident complaining of e-mail fraud.

“I get a few people every month telling me this happened to them,” he said. “But a lot of people feel embarrassed when it happens… . They feel like they got had. So they don’t want to tell anyone.”

While Internet fraud hit a record high across the nation last year, perhaps the most alarming aspect is the method by which most of these cyber predators hunt: e-mail.

The FBI reports that a titanic 73.6 percent of folks who fell prey to online predation in 2007 did so by simply clicking a link sent to them in an e-mail.

“Anytime you get an e-mail from someone you don’t know, or an e-mail address you don’t recognize, be wary of opening it,” said Paul Bresson, a spokesman for the FBI. “Just the simple act of opening it can be harmful.”

Susceptible populations

Slagle said no one is impervious, but some groups are considered more vulnerable.

“Older people are particularly susceptible,” she said. “When they were growing up, there weren’t threats lurking in every corner. Computers are relatively new, and many of them want to reach out and help others. That’s why we think they’re more often targeted and victimized.”

Slagle said her department travels to area senior centers to educate residents about online safety. Recently, she said, an older man lost everything in cyber scams.

“He drained his bank account entirely,” she said. “Once someone becomes a victim, it can escalate from there. Word of mouth spreads that a particular person was scammed, and other scammers target them. It’s gotten to the point where people are getting death threats if they don’t comply.”

Bristol Virginia police Sgt. Milo Brunson said, “They might not even use the information they steal from you themselves; they get a credit card number, for example, then sell it to someone else in a chat room.”

Global marketplace

Ironically, it’s the Internet’s most appealing quality – its global reach– that makes it nearly impossible to police, Slagle said.

A Bristol, Va., resident taps his or her mouse as their cursor hovers over an infected link, and a criminal sitting thousands of miles away in a foreign country can suddenly access personal information on their computer.

“If the perpetrator is local, the department can get on it quickly,” Slagle said. “But if the scam originates overseas, it’s next to impossible to catch the guy.”

So the best offense is defense, and by following a few guidelines and with a quick trip to an area store, online shoppers can adequately protect themselves, Ratcliffe said.

Home protection

Shawn Miller owns Computer Pros, a Lee Highway store he opened in 2003.

“The most common thing we do here is remove viruses. We do it several times a day,” Miller said. “All the time, I have people come in here and say they got a free anti-virus program off the Internet, and it’s infected.”

The scam Miller encounters most often originates in free downloads offering anti-virus programs, he said. The scam works by offering the free service, and after folks download it – usually just by clicking the link – it doesn’t work. Then, after folks get increasingly frustrated with the nonworking program and they can’t get rid of it, they comply with the company’s request for a fee to initiate service.

After they pay, Miller said, it still doesn’t work.

His advice: “The biggest thing would be to have a good anti-virus program – and don’t download one off the Internet for free.”

Firewalls are another option. But Miller has reservations.

“Firewalls are highly overrated,” he said. “They are supposed to keep hackers out of your computer, but it’s not as serious a problem as people think.”
More serious are the viruses, and downloading unfamiliar software.

Miller recommends the Norton anti-virus program, which costs about $40 and can be bought at most computer retailers. New computers, he said, often come with a free 30-day trial of anti-virus software, but people often don’t realize when the month ends that they need to buy the program themselves.
Plus, he said, it’s important to keep up with Windows updates.

Bresson, with the FBI, said the best rule to follow is: “If it seems too good to be true, it probably is.”

Spyware News: Stop Using Internet Explorer Now (MSFT)

2008-12-17T09:28:00.000-08:00

A security vulnerability in Microsoft's browser Internet Explorer allows bad guys to take over user computers and direct them to unsafe Web sites, the company admitted today.

Microsoft says users can take four steps -- outlined below -to avoid falling prey to the vulnerability. But some security experts told the UK's Times that users are better off simply switching to Google Chrome of Firefox.

Microsoft’s advice for Internet Explorer users

1. Keep your anti-virus up-to-date. Microsoft has circulated the definitions of these vulnerabilities to all the major anti-virus providers.

2. Reset Internet Explorer to run in protected mode. This is the default mode in Windows Vista but not XP or the earlier versions.

3. Set zone security to high.

4. Ensure Windows is updated. You can do this manually through Windows updater or set it to automatic updates.

Spyware News: AVG 8.0 Protects Against Dangerous Internet Explorer Vulnerability

2008-12-17T09:27:00.000-08:00

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands, Dec 16, 2008 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- Security software from AVG effectively blocks attempts by cyber criminals seeking to capitalize on the recently discovered vulnerability in Microsoft's Internet Explorer web browser. The vulnerability enables unauthorized third parties to take control of users' PCs by tricking them into visiting poisoned web pages.

AVG, the global anti-virus and Internet security software provider with over 80 million users in 167 countries, today assured computer users that its commercial AVG 8.0 security software products have provided protection against this vulnerability since December 11th. AVG estimates that its software has already blocked close to 5,000 attacks against 3,000 users since Microsoft announced the flaw.

Computer users can immediately safeguard their systems by downloading a trial version of AVG software at http://www.avg.com.

"Today, the fastest growing dangers on the Internet are fast-moving, transient threats that appear on one or more web sites temporarily, from a few weeks to just a few seconds," noted J.R. Smith, CEO of AVG Technologies. "Because they're so fleeting, these threats are easily missed by typical built-in browser security measures, and require the real-time detection capabilities of technology like LinkScanner, which tracks the spread of specifically these types of threat and blocks them before they can endanger users' valuable information."

According to Roger Thompson, AVG's Chief Research Officer and original developer of the LinkScanner technology, the likely perpetrators of this particular IE vulnerability exploit are the same people who have been stealing World of Warcraft passwords from users for the past couple of years.

AVG software provides the most timely, precise and reliable safe searching and surfing protection by analyzing web pages at the only time it matters -- when the user is about to visit them. AVG offers the security software industry's only real-time web exploit detection and prevention, using proprietary behavioral analysis and other breakthrough technologies to protect personal information and defend against unwanted intrusions while users are on the web.

About AVG Technologies

AVG is a global security solutions leader protecting more than 80 million consumers and small business computer users in 167 countries from the ever- growing incidence of web threats, viruses, spam, cyber-scams and hackers on the Internet. Headquartered in Amsterdam, 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 online, downloadable software model allows entry-level users to gain basic anti-virus protection and then to easily and inexpensively upgrade to greater levels of safety and defense in both single and multi-user environments. Nearly 6,000 resellers, partners and distributors team with AVG globally including Amazon.com, CNET, Cisco, Ingram Micro, Play.com, Wal-Mart, and Yahoo!. More information is available at http://www.avg.com.

SOURCE AVG Technologies

Spyware News: Apple’s AV non-announcement

2008-12-16T14:17:00.000-08:00

I was traveling the eastern seaboard all of last week, visiting family, friends, and old work colleagues in Philadelphia, New York, and Boston, so I didn’t have much opportunity to provide feedback to what had become the most heavily discussed blog post I have yet generated.

Two weeks ago, people got all hot and bothered because Apple appeared to have posted and retracted a recommendation that people run anti-virus software on their Mac. Several bloggers felt it necessary to either bash Apple, or praise their amazing architecture, or rip into the market share argument. I felt it necessary to weigh in with my support of the market share argument, based upon my game theory work in the area. I received several comments that I wanted to directly address.

Timiteh believes that people write malware for Windows because they hate Microsoft and love other platforms. In general, modern malware writers write attacks purely to make money. They will write attacks for Windows systems before they will do so for Macs because there are far more Windows systems and therefore a greater return on investment of time. It has nothing to do with emotions.

Many people, including Akulkis, believe that the privilege separation between root and user accounts on Unix systems is a large factor in preventing malware on Macs. Privilege separation, as it is implemented today, can easily be defeated using a little social engineering. If a malware writer were to target a Mac, they could claim that a video on a website cannot be viewed unless the user applies their update to Adobe Flash that also requires the administrator password for the upgrade to occur. This is already a standard technique on the Windows side of the world.

Alaniane writes that Unix systems have had malware, like simple fork bombs, for a long time, and that the claim that Macs don’t have malware is disingenuous. He is correct in that there have been plenty of proof of concept attacks created for the Mac. It is just so unbelievably rare that from a statistical standpoint it does not exist in the wild.

Spyware News: McAfee SiteAdvisor Offers Good Advice

2008-12-16T09:55:00.000-08:00

McAfee's SiteAdvisor (available in Firefox and Internet Explorer versions) has always alerted you when Web search results list potentially risky sites. The latest version, with a new feature called Secure Search, is designed to make searching the Web even safer. But to do that, it places some restrictions on your surfing-and those restrictions may be too severe for some users.

The update SiteAdvisor plug-in acts much like the older versions did: It puts colored icons next to your search results so you know the status of the site before you click on the link. Sites that are considered safe get a small green icon, sites that may be unsafe are labeled with a yellow icon to indicate caution, and sites known to be risky are marked with a red label. McAfee tests the sites for spyware, drive-by downloads, spam, scams, phishing, and other risks to determine their security rating.

SiteAdvisor's new feature adds a Secure Search box to your browser toolbar. Its settings allow you to customize the results that you see from the searches you conduct with it. You can choose to block any red sites from your search results, and can have SiteAdvisor show alerts only for potentially harmful sites. The Secure Search box only works with Yahoo's search engine; it also can be installed as a part of a customizable McAfee/Yahoo toolbar. (SiteAdvisor's ties with Yahoo don't end there: When you install the app, it asks you if you want to change your browser's default search provider to Yahoo--and the default selection is yes.)

You can still use SiteAdvisor when you search with other search engines--like Google--but you lose the ability to customize your search results. Still, omitting some of your search results isn't for everyone, anyway. While it may be a good idea to block risky sites from your children or some novice computer users, other Web surfers will want to see all their search results, and have the option of deciding for themselves which sites they'd like to visit. (You can set a list of approved sites that will always appear in search results, even if they're labeled risky. But you may not know these sites exist unless you can find them in your search results.)

In addition to the green, yellow, and red icons that appear next to your search results, McAfee now labels some sites as "McAfee SECURE." This means they have been more thoroughly tested and are branded as safe shopping destinations. The updated version of SiteAdvisor lets you see whether the site you're visiting is "McAfee SECURE," too-not just when it appears in your search results. A small icon in your browser toolbar changes its text from "McAfee SiteAdvisor" to "McAfee SECURE" when a site meets that criteria.

If you choose to stick with Google for searching, SiteAdvisor's new Secure Search feature will have little benefit for you. But you will still have access to SiteAdvisor's excellent site ratings-and you'll have the ability to decide which sites you'd like to visit, risky or not. Whether or not you choose to use the Secure Search bar, SiteAdvisor is worth installing.

Spyware News: PC Tools secure Westpac customers

2008-12-16T09:54:00.000-08:00

Australian financial institution, Westpac, is providing its online banking customers with PC Tools’ Internet Security 2009.

The program is designed to help keep banking customers secure online and provides PC Tools’ security package with browser protection.

Rafal Potega, vice president of sales APAC of PC Tools Business Unit said it was delighted to be working with Westpac again in 2009 to ensure that online banking customers have superior protection when banking online.

“Internet security software is essential to the safety and security of your computer as well as your personal and financial information and PC Tools’ products are reputed for their powerful protection and innovative techniques,” he said.

Our partnership with Westpac is testament to that.”

Potega said under the agreement Westpac will offer its online banking customers 12 months access to Internet Security 2009, a security suite featuring award-winning anti-spyware, anti-virus, firewall and spam protection.

PC Tools Internet Security is built on Spyware Doctor, also featuring exclusive behaviour-based protection which ensures constant protection from the latest malware outbreaks.

“Westpac customers will also have access to PC Tools’ free customer support for the life of their subscription to the software,” he said.

Spyware News: Wire transfer biz dogged by malware, security threats

2008-12-16T09:53:00.001-08:00

New information suggests that a high number of wire-transfer businesses may be infected with security-compromising viruses, despite the sensitive nature of the transactions they handle. Wire transfers are a common way for immigrants working in the United States to send money home to relatives in need.

These payments are oftentimes an extremely important source of revenue for both the individuals in question and the nations in which they live and, in some nations, account for a substantial percentage of cash inflows. In 2007, Mexican immigrants sent some $24 billion in remittances back to their home country. That's just three percent of Mexico's GDP, but it represents the country's second-largest source of foreign currency behind oil revenues. It's unclear how much money flows from developed nations into the third world from these unofficial channels, but 2006 estimates put the total somewhere between $250 billion-400 billion.

According to security firm Panda Security, however, the wire shops many of these transactions flow through are handling the cash flow on systems that are infected with the nastiest kinds of spyware. Panda's results indicate that out of the 300 businesses it evaluated, 60 percent of the 1,500 computers on-site were infested with some sort of spyware. Interestingly, Panda notes that just 30 percent of these systems were running an outdated antivirus solution, which implies that a substantial (though unknown) proportion of those 1,500 systems were both infected and running an up-to-date AV product. This is either a depressing take on the efficacy of current antimalware software, or a not-so-subtle jab at Panda's various competitors—take your pick.

The potential for data theft reportedly went far beyond the theoretical; the company found that certain systems (mainly those with keyloggers installed) had illicitly recorded Social Security numbers and other financial information on certain wire transfer customers. The security problems were often exacerbated in stores where the computers were used for multiple purposes. Shops that only handled wire transfers or check cashing were less likely to have exposed customer data, since these transactions are primarily cash-based, but pawn shops or those companies handling a wire business on the side often processed all customer data in one location.

"The danger with these computers is that, unsafe as they are, they are very frequently used to conduct bank transactions. The risk is enormous as we are talking about very sensitive information being stored on infected, vulnerable computers," says Dominic Hoskins, Country Manager, Panda Security UK. "This combination of lack of maintenance, low security consciousness and inappropriate end user behaviour results in highly vulnerable systems that are very easy for cyber-criminals to infiltrate."

Hoskins is right, insofar as these systems are vulnerable, and vulnerabilities are bad, but there's a practical rebuttal to the idea that these vulnerabilities represent a major threat. The shops in question are small, local businesses, heavily concentrated in certain urban areas. The financial value of any one store's customer lists and data is quite low by black hat standards, and while infiltrating all of the stores in an area could potentially be quite profitable, it represents quite a lot of work for a very low reward. Keep in mind that Panda Security focused on small wire transfer companies here, not large organizations—Western Union and its competitors are, as far as we know, a safe bet.

Spyware News: Google sponsored links caught punting malware

2008-12-16T09:49:00.000-08:00

Researchers from Websense have caught Google carrying ads punting rogue software that secretly installs malware on the PCs of its users.

Recent Google searches for Winrar turned up sponsored links that offer a "spyware free" copy of the widely used data-compression application. Google users unfortunate enough to download and install that software are soon exposed to a program that makes changes to their PC's hosts file. From then on, every time the users try to visit Google, Yahoo, and other popular sites, they are instead sent to an impostor site under the control of the attackers.

The operation is another testament to the resourcefulness of those running rogue software scams. Rather than relying on zero-day vulnerabilities or hard-to-execute website hijackings, they often find it easier to snare their victims through legitimate ads placed on Google or elsewhere.

"This raises some questions," Websense researcher Elad Sharf writes. "Is this problem Google's fault for not checking whether advertised links actually serve malware? Is it the miseducated user's fault for getting infected?"

Probably a little of both, but are we the only ones who find it ironic that Google's own anti-malware initiative imposes draconian punishments on smaller websites when they're caught doing the same thing? Websense, which first witnessed the scam last week, said the malicious Google links were still available when it posted this report on Sunday.

A Google spokesman said the company is in the process of removing the offending sites from its ad network. "Google is committed to ensuring the safety and security of our users and our advertisers," he said.

As a recent complaint filed by Federal Trade Commission shows, purveyors of rogue anti-virus and other software spend millions of dollars per year advertising their wares on legitimate sites - and go to great lengths to conceal their behavior. No doubt, Google isn't the only advertiser to be tricked into running malevolent ads, but as the do-no-evil company that's steam-rolling its competition in the ad industry, it's hard to believe these kind of links are still being sponsored.

Spyware News: Applications We Love

2008-12-16T09:46:00.000-08:00

VirusTotal
Virus scanning service
Developer: Hispasec Sistemas
OS: Web-based
Price: Free
Site: http://www.virustotal.com

Though anti-virus vendors argue over which offers the best virus and malware protection, no anti-virus scanner is perfect—and it only takes one undetected virus to ruin your week. Less harmful but more prevalent are files your scanner flags as virus-ridden, but come from a trusted source, such as a download site you frequent or a friend. Deciding which of the two is more trustworthy can be a hard decision. If only you could get a second opinion.

Generally it's inadvisable to run more than one anti-virus program on your own system at a time, since multiple scanners may interfere with each other's real-time and scheduled scans. That's where VirusTotal comes in. The online service is an on-demand scanner that can take a file you upload and submit it to several anti-virus scanners at once. VirusTotal's arsenal of scanners includes popular packages such as Symantec's Norton Antivirus, Kapersky Labs' AVP, AVG, and a host of others.

The results are broken down by scanner, so you can find out exactly which scanners gave your file a clean bill of health and which ones found something suspicious. You can then Google the virus names VirusTotal returns to find more information on what you may be dealing with. The service isn't a substitute for a desktop virus scanner, as it can only scan individual uploaded files, but it's a great way to determine just how much of a threat a received file poses to your system.

Inquisitor (tested v1.0.2 Firefox, v3.2 v58 Safari Mac)
Search auto-complete and suggestion plugin
Developer: David Watanabe / Yahoo
OS: Windows/Mac, Firefox/Internet Explorer (IE7 and above)/Safari (Mac only)
Price: Free
Site: http://www.inquisitorx.com

Search engines have subtly grown more intelligent over the years, and though you may not notice at first glance, many of the features available from search engines like Google and Yahoo are relatively recent innovations. It wasn't so long ago that features like auto-completion of search terms, or suggested phrases that refine your search, became available to the masses.

The in-browser search bar is another such innovation. But in many ways, those search bars act very much like the search engines of old—if you're lucky, you're using a browser that offers search auto-completion, but even this basic feature may not be available. Inquisitor puts your search engine bar on steroids by adding several neat features you've come to expect from search engines.

The most obvious addition is the drop-down menu that appears in your search bar after you've installed Inquisitor. As you type in a search phrase, Inquisitor finds and displays summaries of the first few search results from either Google or Yahoo. It also shows you suggested phrases based on what you've already typed, and even offers the option to search other sites like Flickr or Amazon.com simply by pressing the displayed hotkey. Inquisitor even takes advantage of your browsing history, marking sites that you've visited in the past.

The plugin isn't a complete replacement for the full search results you get from going to Google or Yahoo normally—the find-as-you-type summaries may be a little too short for your liking. But for the vast majority of searches, Inquisitor can help you find what you're looking for faster and with less effort.

AutoLyrix (tested v0.5.1 Windows)
Lyrics auto-downloader and viewer
Developer: Alex A. dos Santos
OS: Windows/Mac/Linux
Price: Free
Site: http://autolyrix.com/

The digital realm can't recreate the ambience of a movie theatre (for better or worse), nor can it give you the physical sensation of turning the pages of a good novel. But for many people, digital music files have all but supplanted CDs and vinyl. You can download high-quality audio files that sound great to all but the most discerning listeners, and high-resolution cover art is in some ways a step up from tiny CD booklets. But though text is the easiest thing of all to distribute on the Internet, it's proper lyrics that end up being the most difficult to find.

To make finding and reading lyrics a friendlier experience, you need a program like AutoLyrix. As the name suggests, it automatically searches for lyrics, album art and karaoke-style synchronized lyrics, and displays them beside the media player of your choice. Able to automatically detect the presence of most popular music players, you don't even need to invoke AutoLyrix to find lyrics; it will automatically start searching as soon as you play a song.

As with anything that relies mostly on Google searches for data, AutoLyrix's ability to find the proper lyrics is somewhat limited, though better than many other lyrics-finding programs. Generally speaking, the more popular an artist is, the more likely you'll find lyrics. AutoLyrix does offer several options for refining your search, and you can submit lyrics to an online library for others to find. These fallback options, in addition to its already decent hit rate, makes AutoLyrix one of the most accurate lyric hunters around.

Spyware News: Symantec security update

2008-12-16T09:45:00.000-08:00

A flawed driver in Symantec's anti-virus products can be exploited to crash a PC. According to Symantec, the affected SPBBCDRV.SYS driver stumbles when flawed arguments are submitted to the NtCreateMutant and NtOpenEvent functions. While the flaw can only be exploited by users who are logged into a system, even users with restricted access rights are able to exercise the bug. In principle, the flaw could also be exploited to launch a DoS attack via injected malware.

According to Symantec, the problem mainly affects old products like Norton 360 1.x, Norton AntiSpam 2004 and 2005, Norton AntiVirus 2004 to 2008, Norton Internet Security 2004 to 2008, Norton Personal Firewall 2004, 2005, 2006, Norton System Works 2004, 2005, 2006, Symantec AntiVirus Corporate Edition 10.0.x and 10.1.x as well as Symantec Client Security 3.0.x. The vendor has released updates and is distributing them to end users through it's LiveUpdate service. Enterprise customers will need to download the updates manually, so they can distribute and install them as appropriate.

According to the advisory on SecurityFocus, the vulnerability appears to have been known since April 2007. David Matousek initially discovered the flaw and reported it in Norton Personal Firewall and Norton Internet Security. Why it took Symantec so long to fix the issue in its other products remains unclear.

Spyware News: Lavasoft releases Anti-Virus Helix

2008-12-16T09:44:00.001-08:00

Lavasoft unveiled Anti-Virus Helix, a stand-alone security tool designed to address the rapidly changing malware landscape. This new product delivers comprehensive protection and high performance with low impact on system resources.

Lavasoft Anti-Virus Helix features advanced heuristics technology to detect and guard against unknown or rapidly changing attackers. The heuristics looks at the characteristics and the code sequences of the file to determine whether or not the file is malicious, giving computer users protection against both known threats, as well as against emerging and unknown threats.

Lavasoft Anti-Virus Helix also includes comprehensive protection against e-mail borne threats – one of the most common methods of infection – with an integrated e-mail scanner supporting both POP3 and SMTP. It is available with 1, 3, or 5 user license packs, and includes free technical support and software updates throughout the license period. Prices begin at $23.95, with aggressive discounts for multi-user licenses.

Spyware News: Zero day exploit for Internet Explorer is spreading

2008-12-16T09:42:00.000-08:00

According to observations made by the security firms, the zero day exploit for Internet Explorer is spreading rapidly across the net. It targets a particularly dangerous hole in all versions of the Microsoft browser. There is no patch: a Windows PC can become infected with malicious software through the simple act of opening a web page. Unlike most other attacks, this exploit does not require careless users to click on something.

More and more harmless servers are currently being manipulated via SQL injection to deliver the zero day exploit to requesting computers. It is, therefore, possible to get infected by visiting a trustworthy site.

Anti-virus software only offers limited protection against web pages that contain this kind of exploit for infecting computers with malicious software. For one thing, not all anti-virus solutions monitor internet traffic; many are limited to inspecting files. Once a web page has been saved in the cache, however, it is usually already too late, and the malicious code has already been injected and launched. In addition, not all anti-virus vendors have managed to create suitable signatures. A live exploit that reached heise Security on Tuesday still remained undetected by solutions like CA, Kaspersky, Trend Micro, NOD32, Panda and F-Secure on Saturday.

Microsoft has released an extensive list of workarounds that explain how to configure Internet Explorer in a way that renders the exploit ineffective. For example, they suggest disabling scripting, which is not very practical as it may cause problems on many web pages that use scripting to operate.

Until Microsoft provides a patch, users are advised to switch to an alternative browser that doesn't access the vulnerable Microsoft libraries such as Firefox, Opera and Safari.

Spyware News: Cloud-based malware looms large on the horizon

2008-12-15T11:29:00.001-08:00

The cloud will increasingly be used for malicious purposes in 2009, as malware writers look for more efficient ways to send spam and launch attacks, according to content security vendor Websense.

The firm's Security Labs argued in its predictions for 2009 that the cloud offers malware writers the same benefits as businesses in being easy-to-use, rent-as-you-go and highly scalable.

In this way, it could be used by hackers for sending spam or to launch more sophisticated attacks including hosting malicious code for downloads and testing malicious code, said Websense.

The firm also predicted a rise in the use of rich internet applications (RIAs) for malicious purposes as hackers exploit vulnerabilities in apps such as Google Docs.

"Malicious attackers are always looking for new ways to penetrate systems defences and they will inevitably see RIAs as a potential attack surface," argued Websense chief technology officer Dan Hubbard.

"For IT security personnel that means more applications and technologies to keep updated with patches and workarounds, and new policies to consider."

Hubbard also suggested 2009 will see hackers moving to a distributed model of controlling botnets and hosting malcode in an attempt to evade capture.

"Malware authors are looking for sustained uptime as much as anyone else and to avoid the reliance on a smaller number of providers who provide the hosting servers/capacity and who, if successfully shut down, could negatively impact the malware author's activities," he explained.

"By spreading their command and control servers and moving to a distributed model we could see attacks sustained for longer, with detection and shut down needing to overcome greater barriers and becoming more time consuming."

In related news, security vendor Trend Micro has released new statistics highlighting the flourishing illegal trade in compromised information and other items on the black market.

Log in details for Skype accounts sell at just €1.50 each, while stolen card details start at €28. Malware kits can be sourced for around €780, with advanced packages worth twice that, according to the vendor.

Spyware News: Malware targets immigrants

2008-12-15T11:06:00.000-08:00

More than half of the businesses offering banking services commonly used by immigrants are actively infected with malware, according to a new study.

Approximately 60 percent of computers at businesses providing money transfers, income tax payment, check cashing, bill payment and auto insurance were found to be putting their customers at risk for identity theft because of vulnerable network and internet security, InformationWeek.com reports.

The study investigated about 1,500 PCs in predominately Latino neighborhoods in the Los Angeles and Las Vegas areas, according to the website.

Employees of these businesses were found to be working for minimum wage and "spent time chatting, using peer-to-peer networks and visiting chat sites on the very same computers sending sensitive data," stated the report. The situation was described as a "disaster waiting to happen."

Though there have been no reports of any actual identity thefts, the potential is still extremely high, InformationWeek states. One key-logging Trojan was found on a PC that was used for money transfers that could have provided a cybercriminal with sensitive information.

SMBs have long been a target for cybercriminals because many of them fail to have adequate online security or a 24-hour security team watching their website.

ScanSafe 2009 Predictions: Password Stealers Maximize Efforts to Access Online Banking

2008-12-15T11:05:00.000-08:00

LONDON & SAN FRANCISCO, Dec 15, 2008 (BUSINESS WIRE) -- ScanSafe, the pioneer and leading provider of SaaS Web Security, today issued its 2009 predictions for the threat landscape. Not only does ScanSafe expect Rate of Exposure to Web-delivered malware to increase, it also predicts that publicly traded companies will be targeted and Internet advertising revenues will be adversely impacted.

"2008 has proven that we are not taking enough action against online criminal activity, hence the huge surge in online attacks," comments Mary Landesman, senior security researcher at ScanSafe. "I believe that 2009 will send a stern message to online criminals and we will see a push for tighter enforcement over domain registrations and hosting."

"Attackers often instigate these attacks for financial gain and given the current economy I suspect this motivation will only increase," adds Landesman. "In an 'always on' world and with increasingly sophisticated attacking techniques, it is only a matter of time before these criminals maximize attempts to directly access online banking accounts potentially leading to a loss in customer confidence."

ScanSafe processes more than 20 billion Web requests and 200 million blocks each month for customers in over 80 countries.

-- Internet advertising revenues will begin to be affected

As a direct result of continued website compromises and increased RoE, it is likely that more and more Web surfers will adopt technologies that block third party content. It is believed that this wider adoption will adversely impact Internet advertising in 2009, currently estimated as a 21.2 billion (USD) industry.

-- Web-enabled credit card scams may decrease, but sophistication of phishing is likely to increase

As a result of global economic financial "belt-tightening," financial institutions are likely to better enforce policies regarding online billing practices. This should translate into a reduction in (or elimination of) rogue billing agencies, thereby leading to fewer instances of credit card fraud facilitated through online transactions. As credit card billing fraud becomes a less viable revenue stream for online attackers, attempts to directly access online banking accounts may increase. In addition to the obvious loss of revenue this presents for victims of such crimes, any trending up in this area could lead to loss of consumer confidence in the safety and integrity of online banking.

-- Targeted attacks on publicly traded companies prone to rise

Global economics may lead to heightened competition, particularly among publicly traded companies. Sensitive information related to patentable R&D efforts may be particularly vulnerable. It is believed that the use of the Web to facilitate these attacks will continue to increase, as will the volume of malware (exploits, rootkits, backdoors, password stealers) used to facilitate these types of attacks.

-- Concerted efforts to regulate website registrations/hosting

Domain registrars and hosting providers have played a pivotal role in the ongoing website compromises. A lack of controls or poor implementation of existing controls provide attackers with the ability to register and host malicious domains with ease. In some cases, hosting providers re-release suspended domains back to the attackers, thus exacerbating the problem by causing previously compromised sites which have not yet been cleaned to once again become active malware distributors. 2009 should witness a push for tighter controls over domain registrations and hosting.

-- Rate of Exposure (RoE) to Web-delivered malware will continue to increase

The volume of Web-delivered malware is increasing at a rate of approximately 6% per month. The actual Rate of Exposure (RoE) is increasing at a rate of approximately 16% per month. The Rate of Exposure is how often a single user is exposed to malware. The higher RoE compared to volume growth is believed to be directly a result of the ongoing compromises of legitimate websites which have occurred en masse throughout 2008. In 2009, it is likely that the growth volume of Web-delivered malware will flatten but the RoE to Web-delivered malware will continue to increase, possibly at an even higher rate than observed in 2008.

About ScanSafe

ScanSafe is the largest global provider of SaaS Web Security, ensuring a safe and productive Internet environment for businesses. ScanSafe solutions keep viruses and spyware off corporate networks and allow businesses to control and secure the use of the Web and instant messaging. As a fully managed service, ScanSafe's solutions require no hardware, upfront capital costs or maintenance and provide unparalleled real-time threat protection. Powered by its proactive, multilayered Outbreak Intelligence(TM) threat detection technology, ScanSafe processes more than 20 billion Web requests and 200 million blocks each month for customers in over 80 countries.

With offices in London and San Francisco, California, ScanSafe is privately owned and financed by Benchmark Capital and Scale Venture Partners. The company received the CNET Networks award for Security Product of the Year 2008, a 2007 CODiE award for Best Software as a Service Solution, the 2008 and 2007 SC Magazine Europe Award for Best Content Security Solution and was named one of Red Herring's Top 100 Technology companies. For more information, visit www.scansafe.com.

SOURCE: ScanSafe

Spyware News: This malware should be monitored, despite its minimal threat

2008-12-15T11:03:00.000-08:00

Though not entirely successful, a DNS-changing malware has raised some eyebrows with its ability to install a rogue DHCP server and may have the potential to cover its digital tracks.

Various blog postings wrote on the malware last week and said while it isn't an immediate threat, its ability to potentially steal users' personal information was an innovative approach, SCMagazineus.com reports.

Infected systems are turned into DHCP servers, which reply to request packets containing malicious DNS servers, according to the website. Users who receive the "malicious packets" will be redirected to websites controlled by the cybercriminal.

Through their research, SANS Internet Storm Center told the website the malware does not have a 100 percent success rate, though it was "very interesting."

"First, it's about a race between the rogue DHCP server and the legitimate one. Second, once a machine has been poisoned it is impossible to detect how it actually got poisoned in the first place," wrote Bojan Zdrnja, SANS handler on the organization's blog. In the post, Zdrnja confirmed the malware was in the wild.

This may be a preview of the cybercrime innovation to come next year as multiple reports have stated the rise in creative cyberattacks.

Spyware News: Oz government told to block malware

2008-12-15T11:00:00.002-08:00

Security services provider Finjan has endorsed plans by the Australian government that will see blocks put on websites which contain illegal content.

The nationwide web filtration system will force Internet service providers (ISPs) to block thousands of sites on the world-wide web.

“The game plan is for Australian ISPs to be mandated to block access to websites containing illegal content such as child pornography or terrorist materials,” said Finjan CTO Yuval Ben-Itzhak.

Online advocacy groups in Australia have branded the $82 million ‘cyber-safety plan’ as a way of getting web censorship in through the backdoor.

Finjan, on the other hand, contends that the plans don’t go far enough.

“I would also recommend the Australian government includes in this plan actions against ISPs and other Web hosting companies that allow cybercriminals to host their command and control servers and distribute malware,” said Ben-Itzhak.

Ben-Itzhak’s argument is backed up by the success of a similar scheme in the US.

Global spam dropped by as much as 75% recently following the US government’s decision to shut down a web host which provided services to the majority of the world’s spammers.

Finjan wants to see a similar attack on malware distributors. Malware is a form of virus software that steals user’s data.

Finjan’s research and quarterly trends reports reveal that the volume and variety of malware on the Internet continues to climb steadily.

Trusteer Security Researcher Exposes New Three Tier DNS Attack Behind CheckFree.Com Breach

2008-12-15T11:00:00.001-08:00

Amit Klein is a noted internet security researcher and CTO of Trusteer. He is an expert on DNS, browser, and endpoint security. Mr. Klein has discovered and reported several high profile DNS vulnerabilities. Prior to Trusteer he was Chief Scientist at Cyota, Inc. (now part of RSA Security) a leading provider of layered authentication solutions.

WHAT: The recent hijacking of the nation's largest e-bill payment system, CheckFree.com, provides a window into a sophisticated new attack method that is likely to become more common in 2009. This new approach, which combines the coordinated and sequenced execution of phishing, pharming, and malware attacks, was used in the CheckFree.com breach. It can bypass sophisticated network perimeter, strong authentication, and endpoint security mechanisms. Mr. Klein can deconstruct how this attack was carried out against Checkfree.com, how it works, and what organizations, especially online financial services providers, can do to protect their customers.

WHERE: Via conference call.

WHEN: Mr. Klein is available immediately for interviews. Please contact Marc Gendron at 781-237-0341, or marc@mgpr.net.

HOW: The Trusteer Security Research Group, led by Mr. Klein, investigates malware attack techniques as well as browser, operating system, and DNS vulnerabilities. The group works closely with security vendors, researchers, and Trusteer's customers to address, remediate, and protect against new vulnerabilities and attacks. For more information visit: http://www.trusteer.com/research.

About Trusteer

Trusteer enables online businesses to establish a secure communication tunnel with their customers over the Internet that stretches from user's keyboard into the company's website. Trusteer's flagship product, Rapport, allows online banks, brokerages, healthcare organizations, and retailers to protect their customers from identity theft and financial fraud. Unlike conventional approaches to Web security, Rapport protects users' confidential information even if their computer is infected with malware including Trojans and keyloggers, or is victimized by pharming, phishing attacks. Trusteer is a privately held corporation led by former executives from Cyota/RSA Security, Imperva, and NetScreen/Juniper. For more information visit www.trusteer.com.

SOURCE: Trusteer

International Herald Tribune Selects Mazu Networks to Ensure the Performance and Availability of Applications across its Complex IT Infrastructure

2008-12-15T10:58:00.001-08:00

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Dec 15, 2008 /PRNewswire via COMTEX/ -- Mazu Networks, the leading provider of behaviour-based, enterprise-class performance and availability solutions, today announced that The International Herald Tribune (IHT), the most widely read international newspaper, selected Mazu Profiler to manage, optimise and secure its complex WAN. Through Mazu Profiler, a leading application performance management solution based on Network Behaviour Analysis (NBA), the IHT gains the visibility needed to ensure uninterrupted service between key news hubs in Paris, Hong Kong and London, in addition to the extended bureau network.

The IHT combines news generated from its headquarters in Paris with input from correspondents operating out of 37 regional bureaus including its parent company, The New York Times, in New York City. Having constant and uninterrupted network access is critical to the paper's success in delivering timely news to its international subscription base, spanning more than 180 countries and comprising 241,625 readers (Source: OJD 2007). With critical applications and communications linked through a Wide Area MPLS Network, IHT needed a solution that could give them visibility into all WAN traffic - whether it passed through headquarters or not.

"Within two weeks of deploying Mazu Profiler, we were able to get an accurate picture of network usage patterns for every location," said Christophe Duprat, IT director, The International Herald Tribune. "We were able to reduce telecom costs, develop an effective capacity plan going forward and even provide input to developers to help them optimise their applications for our WAN environment."

Through Mazu Profiler, the IHT team gains visibility into the interactions between users, applications, network elements and systems. With this comprehensive understanding of their application delivery infrastructure, they were able to show developers how their applications were behaving on the network, which allowed them to make changes that greatly improved performance.

IHT was also concerned with understanding Internet usage and defining acceptable usage policies. With Mazu Profiler's ability to go beyond port level identification of network traffic, they were able to identify undesirable applications encapsulated within their HTTP traffic (a common trait of modern day spyware). Mazu Profiler is unique in its ability to help customers like the IHT develop more effective security policies and prevent bandwidth consumption by unauthorised applications.

"In a deadline-driven industry like the newspaper business, it is critical for all the correspondents, regardless of location, to be able to deliver the time-sensitive daily news needed to fill the pages of the IHT," said Paul Brady, chief executive officer, Mazu Networks, Inc. "Mazu Profiler allows network and security to provide proactive service assurance, faster problem resolution and more effective WAN management to improve the performance and availability of business services."

Mazu Networks worked with Nomios, a leading solutions provider, to integrate Mazu Profiler into the IHT IT infrastructure. Nomios, based in France, specialises in the study, selection, installation, operation and development of optimisation solutions for telecom networks and infrastructure. This translates into expertise in management solutions and content access, continuity of service as well as filtering and application protection. Nomios was instrumental in helping Mazu Networks bring the value of NBA to the IHT. Mazu Profiler enables IT organisations to manage, secure and optimise the performance and availability of business applications. Through Mazu Profiler, IT teams can accelerate initiatives including: application performance management; security and compliance; WAN management; CMDB-discovery; and data centre consolidation and migration. For more information on the ways Mazu Profiler can resolve today's most pressing network operations and security challenges, please visit: http://www.mazunetworks.com/it-initiatives.

About The International Herald Tribune

The International Herald Tribune creates, collects and distributes world news, information, entertainment and opinion of the highest journalistic integrity. Its balanced perspective addresses all areas of human interest and is trusted and enjoyed by people in all corners of the globe. Established in Paris in 1887, today the IHT is owned by The New York Times Company and continues to expand the reach of its authoritative journalism through the newspaper which is sold in 180 countries and via computers and mobile devices at IHT.com. The New York Times Company (NYT:

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Spyware News: Virgin Media Launches the UK's Fastest Broadband

2008-12-15T10:57:00.001-08:00

UK's First Next Generation Network Brings Ultrafast 50Mb to Over 12 Million Homes and Transforms the UK's Broadband Market

 * Huge investment to triple the capacity of the original cable
  network
* Next-generation broadband nearly nine times the average UK speed
* Premium launch offering includes unlimited downloads, no traffic
  management, plus the UK's fastest wireless offer

LONDON, Dec. 15, 2008 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Virgin Media (Nasdaq:VMED), the UK's leading broadband provider, today launched its much anticipated ultrafast 50Mb broadband service. Giving customers nearly nine times(1) the average headline broadband speed in the UK, the launch of the 50Mb service is a seismic leap forward for broadband access in the UK and the coming of age of Virgin Media's unique fibre optic cable network.

Neil Berkett, Virgin Media's CEO, said, "Today marks a historic moment, for both Virgin Media and the UK. As the first ISP to roll out next-generation broadband access, our 50Mb service represents the dawning of a new era of high-speed services in the UK and is just the beginning of what we hope to offer our customers over the coming years. This service will transform the way people interact and entertain themselves online and will provide a broadband experience that is truly world class."

With the massive take-up of video-rich entertainment and social networking websites, the new 50Mb service is expected to meet the rapidly growing consumer demand for faster broadband speeds and greater bandwidth. Research conducted by YouGov(2) for Virgin Media found that in the last year more than half (53 per cent) of Brits had started watching TV programmes or clips online. The research also found internet use is at an all-time high with 88 per cent of Brits going online every day. The average amount of data consumed by Virgin Media customers has nearly doubled in the last 18 months and is predicted to quadruple by 2011(3).

The 50Mb service will allow users to download(4) an entire music album in as little as 11 seconds, a TV show in around one minute, a high quality movie in as little as 3 1/2 minutes and a high definition movie in around 15 minutes. The increased bandwidth also means that multiple users can be on the internet at the same time without it affecting the quality or speed of their service. This makes 50Mb ideal for families, people in shared households, such as students and couples, or anyone needing to share a broadband connection. YouGov's research found 71 per cent of UK homes now have two or more computers/laptops or games consoles connecting to the internet. In addition 78 per cent of homes share broadband access as there are two or more people within the home.

The launch of 50Mb is part of a massive investment in Virgin Media's network and more than doubles the capacity of the original build of the UK cable network, creating the potential for speeds of 200Mb. The upgraded network means significant improvements to the service received by all of Virgin Media's broadband customers, with current 10Mb and 20Mb users being moved onto the new "DOCSIS3" network(5), freeing up capacity for increased traffic on the existing DOCSIS 1.0 network. In time, the upgrade to DOCSIS 3.0 means Virgin Media will be able to handle more than three times the data currently handled by the cable network.

Using the latest state of the art hardware, the 50Mb package comes with a new DOCSIS3.0 modem, a wireless 'N' router offering the UK's fastest wireless connection, plus free anti-virus and anti-spyware software as well as unlimited downloads(6). A typical family will be able to get the new ultrafast service for as little as GBP35 a month(7).

By the end of 2008, Virgin Media will have completed deployment of its next generation infrastructure to 40% of the network. This will include areas in Scotland, the Midlands and South London. Roll-out to the rest of the 12.6 million homes covered by Virgin Media's fibre optic network is expected to be complete during the Summer of 2009.

To find out more about Virgin Media's 50Mb service, visit www.virginmedia.com/50

 Notes to editors
* (1) Ofcom Communications Market Report (August 2008) reports
      average UK headline broadband speeds at 5.9Mb as at Q1 2008.
* (2) YouGov surveyed 1,128 people across the UK between 13-15
      October, 2008.  Please see separate document for more research
      findings.
* (3) Virgin Media's average customer data consumption is up 81%
      from 4.7 GB to 8.6 GB per month over the last 18 months.
      Consumer IP traffic will quadruple in four years driven by
      video (Cisco; 2008)
* (4) Download times are calculated based on full-rate downloads on
      a wired connection, with 10% allowance for Internet Protocol
      transfer and connection overheads. The sizes used for
      calculation are a music album at 60Mb, a TV show at 350Mb, a
      high quality movie at 1.1 GB (e.g. from LOVEFiLM) and an HD
      movie at 5 GB (e.g. HD movies from Xbox Live marketplace).
* (5) Network: The new 50Mb service runs over a new next-generation
      core network based on the EuroDOCSIS3 standard which gives
      Virgin Media a significant increase in capacity to cope with
      higher speeds (in excess of 200Mb) as well as more data. In
      parallel with our existing core network (based on EuroDOCSIS1)
      Virgin Media's new network will have over three times the
      data-carrying capacity, and is the UK's first next generation
      network.
* (6) Package: The 50Mb service includes a new EuroDOCSIS3-
      compatible modem, an unlimited service with no traffic
      management at launch (acceptable use policy still applies),
      and a complete wireless kit to make the most of 50Mb speeds
      (including 802.11n router and 802.11n USB dongle), PCguard
      Total anti-virus and anti-spyware protection. Virgin Media
      uses traffic management on its network to ensure the vast
      majority of customers receive the high quality of service they
      expect.  Virgin Media will be trialling a variety of different
      approaches to traffic management and upstream speeds, to
      improve the unique performance of this service.
* (7) Pricing: Virgin Media's 50Mb broadband service will cost GBP51
      per month as a stand-alone service or just GBP35 when taken
      with a phone line (GBP11). Customers with additional Virgin
      Media services will benefit from bundle discounts, meaning a
      typical family can get a complete home entertainment package
      including phone, digital TV with over 165 channels including
      HD, our V+ HD Box including Virgin Media's pioneering TV on
      demand service, as well as 50Mb broadband from just GBP66 a
      month. Prices include e-billing discount. Activation and
      installation charges apply.
*     Customer take-up and consumption: More than one million Virgin
      Media customers subscribe to a 10Mb or 20Mb broadband service.
      There has been a 78% year-on-year increase in customers taking
      higher tier packages.
*     Availability: The 50Mb service is available up and down the
      country from this month.  Customers can check availability at
      www.viriginmedia.com/50
*     Broadband: Virgin Media has a complete range of broadband
      solutions for every user -- The 'Mother of all Broadband'
      using fibre optic technology for ultrafast speeds up to 50Mb,
      Virgin Media National broadband using ADSL technology up to
      16Mb, and Virgin Media Mobile Broadband using the Virgin
      Mobile 3G/HSPA network at speeds up to 3.6Mbps.
*     Marketing: The launch of the 50Mb service will be supported by
      a multi-million pound campaign comprising of TV, outdoor,
      print and online.

About Virgin Media

Virgin Media is an innovative and pioneering UK entertainment and communications business. For the first time consumers can get everything they need from one company -- the UK's only quad-play of TV, broadband, phone and mobile, plus the most advanced TV on demand service, all delivered through its unique fibre-optic cable network. Virgin Media launched the UK's first high definition TV service, is the only TV platform to carry BBC iPlayer, and offers a high-specification, HD-ready V+ personal video recorder. Virgin Media is the UK's largest residential broadband provider, the largest virtual mobile network operator and the second-largest provider of pay TV and home phone.

Virgin Media owns two content businesses -- Virgin Media Television (VMTV) and sit-up. VMTV owns eight entertainment channels -- Virgin1, Living, Living 2, Bravo, Bravo 2, Challenge, Challenge Jackpot and Trouble -- and is a 50% partner in UKTV which consists of ten channels including Dave, G.O.L.D, Watch and Alibi. sit-up runs retail TV channels bid tv, price-drop tv and speed auction tv.

Virgin Media has been voted the sixth Most Loved Brand in Britain in a Marketing magazine poll, as well as having been voted the Most Trusted ISP Brand 2008 by Reader's Digest magazine. The Sunday Times also awarded Virgin Media its 2008 Best Buy awards for broadband and movies on demand.

Virgin Media is the largest Virgin company in the world and has almost 10 million customers. To find out more visit www.virginmedia.com/presscentre.

CONTACT:  Virgin Media
         Consumer Media Contacts:
         Asam Ahmad
           0207 909 2122
           asam.ahmad@virginmedia.co.uk
         Rebecca Burke
           0115 912 2385
           rebecca.burke@virginmedia.co.uk
         Corporate Media Contacts:
         Gareth Mead
           0207 909 2123
           gareth.mead@virginmedia.co.uk
         Emma Hutchinson
           0207 909 2022
           emma.hutchinson@virginmedia.co.uk

Spyware News: AdAware Developer Launches Avira-Based Antivirus

2008-12-15T10:55:00.000-08:00

Swedish security firm Lavasoft pioneered spyware protection with their venerable Ad-Aware utility. On Monday, the company released a new standalone antivirus program, Lavasoft Anti-Virus Helix, priced at $23.95.

Based on technology from Avira, the product cleans up viruses and other malicious software and also includes real-time protection to prevent further infection.

Users can schedule standard or custom scans on a daily, weekly, or monthly basis. Helix can also schedule a scan for every login, or at any interval. The product's MailGuard feature scans incoming email and attachments and removes any viruses found. WebGuard prevents downloads of malicious files. According to Lavasoft, Helix protects against the worst threats – viruses, worms, Trojans, rootkits, bots, and more – without putting a drag on system performance.

While the product is too new to have certification from the major independent testing labs, the underlying Avira technology is well-regarded. It received the VB100% award from Virus Bulletin, and ICSA Labs certifies it for virus detection. AV-Comparatives rates it ADVANCED+ (the highest rating) for on-demand virus removal and ADVANCED for proactive non-signature-based detection. AV-Test calls it "very good" (the highest rating) for detection of malware and spyware, for fast scanning, and for fast response to new outbreaks. The product is currently under evaluation by PCMag, with a review to come.

Spyware News: Report: recession could trigger blackhat, crimeware surge

2008-12-15T10:44:00.000-08:00

With the world's financial market in turmoil its been reported it could trigger a blackhat surge.

Read on....

As if the news coming out of Wall Street these days wasn't gloomy enough, various security solution providers and analyst firms are projecting that layoffs and cutbacks in the tech industry will lead to a spike in white collar crime. In its fourth quarter 2008 trend report (PDF), the security company Finjan is predicting a "sharp rise [in cybercrime] in 2009 due to the current economic downturn, which makes financial gain from stealing data and selling it online even more attractive."

That sounds dire, especially considering the bleak forecasts we've heard from the semiconductor industry, but dire is scarcely a synonym for accurate. Finjan links to a November 19 Forbes article within its PDF, citing it as evidence of "an early trend of unemployed IT personnel finding new and easy income by purchasing and using crimeware toolkits." The article in question, however, doesn't really provide a solid foundation for Finjan's statement. While the piece does take note of various trends, occurrences, and vibrations in the malware market, the author notes that the data "remains largely anecdotal."

The senior manager of forensic services for PricewaterhouseCoopers, Nick Ysart, believes there's historical evidence to support Finjan's claim, telling ZDNet: "There are certain types of fraud where an understanding of technology would make it easier to circumvent controls, and IT staff have the knowledge to do that... There was a range of very well-documented frauds that took place during the recession in the early 1990s," Ysart continued. "It does not take a great deal of insight to realize we will see an increase at a time like this."

The recession of 1990-1991 may not be as reliable a predictor of future white-collar criminal activity as Ysart implies. In 1990, computer security was still almost entirely understood as a physical challenge. The overwhelming majority of computers in both businesses and homes were not networked, Windows 3.0 was a brand-new product, and we transferred data from system to system either via floppy disks (1.25" or 1.44" flavors) or possibly through a serial/parallel cable (if you hated yourself).

The IT job market, the fundamentals of computer security, the threats to said security, and the degree to which the actions of individual users can be tracked) have all evolved over the past 17 years to the point where the two situations bear only a cursory resemblance to each other. The nature and degree of the two recessions are quite likely to be different (2008's is looking worse at this point), and an entirely new market for malware has evolved that didn't previously exist.

At first glance, a number of those factors sound like reasons to conclude that Finjan and Ysart are right, but related research suggests that both companies have oversimplified an extremely complex and nuanced series of relationships. Economists and social scientists have been conducting studies into the relationship between poverty, unemployment, recession, and crime for decades, the results of which resist being broken into a handful of sound bytes.

While there is a general positive correlation between unemployment and crime, the correlation between the two can vary considerably depending on geographic area, the type of crime being measured, the age of the individuals in question, per-capita alcohol consumption, the perceived effectiveness of law enforcement, the nature of the jobs that are lost, and the nature of the available alternative employment opportunities. State intervention in the form of additional unemployment or social benefits, including job retraining, can also meaningfully impact the relationship between these variables.

There are a number of factors that could work against Finjan's predicted black hat wave. IT workers in high positions, particularly positions they earned through education and/or substantial time on the job risk compromising their ability to ever use those skills again at some point in the future when the economy recovers. Employees with greater access to personal or secure data that a competitor or botnet master would find valuable may be more likely to turn rogue if fired, but that same group of people risks more if they do so.

The economic value of the data itself must also be considered. A sudden glut of data on the black market should ultimately drive price downwards, particularly if the trend is sustained over a period of time. We've already seen evidence this year that the malware industry is driven by many of the same market trends that affect other, legitimate businesses; there's no reason to suspect it would react differently to a mid-term increase in the supply of available personal information.

Businesses will have no choice but to continue to invest in security products and personnel—no company can risk the loss of face or potential data that would come with a major security breach—but there's no reason, at this point, to assume 2009 will be the topic of the 2010 blockbuster Fox special: "When Good IT Goes Bad." Will it happen? Sure. Will it happen in such numbers as to qualify as an "emerging trend?" I'm dubious.

Spyware News: Today's sneaky viruses require extra precautions

2008-12-15T10:38:00.000-08:00

The malware assault on our PCs escalated in 2008, according to antivirus vendor F-Secure. The company's threat summary for the second half of 2008 reports that F-Secure added 1 million virus definitions to its database this year, a threefold increase from the number of viruses the Finnish security vendor detected in 2007.

Today's malware authors aren't just looking to cause trouble; they're after your money and personal information, which these days are synonymous. Attacks are only going to increase in number and sophistication. If you thought you could avoid an infection by staying away from questionable sites, downloads, and e-mail links, you're mistaken.

The only way to play it safe is to assume the worst. That's why I spent several hours last week disinfecting a notebook computer that probably wasn't infected in the first place.

It all started when I decided to run a free online virus scan on my notebook. I use a top-rated security suite that's set to update its virus definitions and other settings automatically, so I was confident that the scan would come up empty. (I'm not going to name either product because I don't want this post to be construed as a recommendation one way or the other.)

Unfortunately, after a complete system check, the online virus service told me it found two suspicious files on my notebook. The scanner's option to remove the files was grayed out, and the option to "skip" them was recommended.

It appears that the files were flagged as potential problems because they included the word "trojan" in their names. I acknowledge the "hide in plain sight" approach, but I doubt that many malware authors would be so kind as to identify their creation in the file name itself.

Still, the scan had introduced the possibility of an infection, so I immediately closed the notebook's Internet connection, updated the virus definition database of the antivirus software installed on the machine itself, and performed a full system scan using that program.

I wasn't surprised when the scan came up clean--several hours later--but I was relieved that I didn't have to go into full wipe-out mode, doing a complete system scrub and changing all my passwords. (Come to think of it, I should probably sanitize the system and refresh my passwords, anyway.)

Three years ago, I wrote a story called 10-Step Security that promised to lock down your PC in only an hour. The tips in that article are beginning to show their age, so this week, I'll be updating them here to reflect the new reality of computing in dangerous times.

Spyware News: Malware madness and spammers in the slammer: The year in cybercrime

2008-12-15T10:28:00.000-08:00

One of the most disturbing cybercrime trends in 2008, many security analysts say, has been the emergence of a full-blown underground economy where credit card information, identity theft information, and spam and phishing software are all available for relatively low prices.

Security software company Symantec became the latest company to raise red flags about what it called the "underground server" economy last month, when it issued a report estimating that roughly $276 million worth of goods and information is available on online black markets. Credit card data accounted for 59% of the information available for sale on underground servers, Symantec reported, with identity theft information (16%), server accounts (10%), financial accounts (8%) and spam and phishing programs (6%) trailing far behind.

What's even more unnerving than the availability of this information is its low price. According to Symantec, bank account credentials are selling for $10 to $1,000, while information about financial Web sites' vulnerabilities sell for an average $740. If all the stolen information available on the servers were exploited successfully, it would bring in about $5 billion, Symantec estimates.

One big reason this data is more widely available is that writing malicious code has grown from a hobby for many hackers into a full-time job where code writers make a living stealing information and selling it over underground server systems, says Dave Marcus, security research and communications manager at McAfee Avert Labs.

"Malware used to be written for bragging rights," Marcus says. "It was about who could write the fastest worm or the biggest virus. Now it's about making money, what kind of data or payload you can get from a machine, and what you can do with it."

As malware has become more sophisticated, it has increased its reach throughout the Internet. According to a report issued by Google earlier this year, about 1.25% of all Internet search results in February 2008 contained at least one malicious URL, a large increase from the 0.25% of Internet search results in April 2007 that contained at least one malicious URL.

This dramatic jump in malicious search results has coincided with several security firms reporting enormous jumps in malware instances in recent years. Between 2006 and 2007, for instance, Symantec reported that it detected roughly 712,000 new malicious code threats, a 468% increase from the 125,000 threats detected the previous year. Spanish security company Panda Security, meanwhile, reported that malware increased by 800% between 2006 and 2007, as the company detected an average of more than 3,000 types of malware per day in 2007.

Spyware News: Internet banking clients must be alert

2008-12-15T10:17:00.001-08:00

THE Ombudsman for Banking Services has warned bank clients using internet banking to be on the alert.

The warning stems from a recent incident in which R331000 was fraudulently transferred out of a Gauteng resident‘s current and credit card accounts.

According to former Port Elizabeth attorney Clive Pillay, who is the national Ombudsman for Banking Services, the complainant had fallen victim to a phishing scam, which sees fraudsters send large numbers of e-mails randomly that appear to have been sent legitimately from a financial institution.

Once the unsuspecting bank client enters the fraudulent site and divulges his or her personal internet banking details, the fraudsters use the information to access the bank‘s genuine internet banking website and the client‘s internet banking profile.

“It is possible then to harvest confidential client information such as cellphone numbers and e-mail addresses. Then the cellular service provider, where the client‘s SIM card is swopped for a new one, enables the scamsters to intercept passwords required for sensitive transactions,” Pillay said.

This information was used to transfer money from the client‘s bank accounts into a number of fraudulent beneficiary accounts.

Through the intervention of the ombudsman, R209000 was recovered for the complainant in this case, but only because of delays in the bank putting his account on hold, and the negligence of other banks, which opened beneficiary accounts for the fraudsters without the documentation required by legislation.

“Banks issue constant alerts about such schemes, so in assessing complaints we must assume that the client has received sufficient warning,” Pillay said.

He cautioned the public not to respond to e-mails or telephone requests for personal banking details, and not to complete transactions at internet cafes, whose computers may have spyware to capture login credentials.

“People should respond immediately to any notifications from their banks regarding activity on the internet banking profile.”

Pillay said a new scam had also emerged.

“The fraudsters no longer perform a SIM swop to log into an account. Once a password has been dispatched to the client, they will phone pretending to be a bank official and request confirmation of the password and other confidential information. At this stage, red flags should be waving furiously.”

Spyware News: Panda Security’s weekly report on viruses and intruders - Virus Alerts

2008-12-15T10:08:00.001-08:00

We recently reported about the Mcdonalds email that is really a virus. Here is what you will actually find inside.

Read on...

This week’s PandaLabs report looks at the BankerFox banker Trojan, the Azero.B virus and the P2PShared.U worm, distributed through a fake
McDonald’s email message.

Banker.LAX is designed to steal bank details. To do this, it drops a library on targeted computers passing itself off as a legitimate Firefox plug-in. Then, if the user accesses the website of their bank, the malicious code will capture all the information entered. The malware creator will then use this information to empty the users’ accounts. This malware can steal passwords from more than one hundred banking institutions.

“Oddly enough, this Trojan affects Firefox only, whereas cyber-criminals
usually exploit Internet Explorer”, says Luis Corrons, technical director of PandaLabs. “The reason for this is the increasing number of people who are using this Internet browser. As always, cyber-crooks target the most popular tools to affect as many users as possible. It is very likely that we will see more attacks like this in the future.”

Azero.B is a virus designed to infect executable files by inserting malicious code at the beginning of their code. Also, it replaces the computer wallpaper with an image with the following text: “”Hello Administrator! If you have seen me you are same as a Fool guy” .

See an image of this wallpaper here:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/panda_security/3101557477/

Also this week PandaLabs has discovered a fake email message that pretends to be a special Christmas promotion from McDonald’s but really is a bait to spread the P2PShared.U worm.

The message subject is “Mcdonalds wishes you Merry Christmas!” and the
text body reads as follows:

“McDonald’s is proud to present our latest discount menu. Simply print
the coupon from this Email and head to your local McDonald’s for FREE
giveaways and AWESOME savings.”

Spyware News: RevenueWire Announces It Will Now Be Offering PC Tools Software Products On Its Network

2008-12-15T10:02:00.001-08:00

I have always said PC Tools software is good. I personally use it and have done for a good while now. It does use a little more juice than other softwares but is well worth it.

Read on...

RevenueWire, the leaders in online digital product marketing, recently announced that software giant PC Tools and its popular downloadable products, such as Spyware Doctor and Registry Mechanic, are now available through its industry-leading affiliate network platform.

A comprehensive network for both affiliates and merchants, RevenueWire's expertise and unique features are ideally positioned for the successful marketing and sale of digital products such as those offered by PC Tools and other major software manufacturers. Boasting top-selling products from leading merchants in the online sphere, RevenueWire is delighted to include PC Tools' software as a major new offering to its affiliates. "PC Tools is an industry leader and its confidence in RevenueWire solidifies our position in the marketplace," remarked RevenueWire CEO, Havind Sehmi. "Partnering with PC Tools will allow us to showcase our capabilities and will prove advantageous and beneficial to both companies."

In addition to the award winning Registry Mechanic and Spyware Doctor software applications, other leading PC Tools software that will be available on the RevenueWire network include PC Tools' Spyware Doctor with AntiVirus, PC Tools' Internet Security, and Privacy Guardian. Troy Vertigan, Vice-President of Global Reseller Business for PC Tools, anticipates that the new partnership with RevenueWire will be a benefit to their customers, stating that "PC Tools is committed to ensuring that our customers have access to the software they need through the most reliable channels. RevenueWire fits the bill."

About RevenueWire
Founded in 2007, RevenueWire entered the growing affiliate-fuelled e-commerce arena as an exciting new platform for both digital product merchants and affiliate marketers. Through our unique and trusted environment, RevenueWire offers access to an incomparable match of affiliate-driven volume and fast-growing software and digital information products.

About PC Tools
PC Tools is a global software leader with a cache of security and utility products, including multi award-winning Software. PC Tools is an industry leader in real-time anti-spyware. The PC Tools Malware Research Centre monitors trends and emerging spyware issues and provides security solutions for the consumer and enterprise marketplace. The company is headquartered in Sydney, with offices in San Francisco, London, Shannon (Ireland), Melbourne, Kiev, and Boulder. PC Tools has a global network of distributors, resellers, and retailers.

You can see PC Tool's Spyware Doctor by clicking on the image below this article.

Spyware News: Microsoft Spyware

2008-12-15T09:51:00.000-08:00

The New Spyware Removers from Microsoft

The spyware is a type of software that changes a computer performance or normal operation. In some cases, it partially controlled by someone who is not authorized user of that system. Usually a spyware is installed in your computer without you knowing about it. Sometimes it is part of software that is being downloaded in the internet and when you install it there is a spyware included in it.

Many internet users do not have knowledge in spyware thats why when there are instances that spyware tried to invade users computer it can easily pass on. Once infected the owner or author of the spyware will be able to track your online activity and send your information to their side.

Moreover, the threat that the spyware poses can weaken your computers resources. It causes instability, slow performance, hang programs, crash the system and eventually destroy your computer. Since we are all computer dependent or uses computer spyware might be able bring to productivity killer for your business.

Another threat of spyware is that it can monitor all your action in your computer like visiting websites, typing your account and password information and then send it back to a third party. The worst case is that the owner of spyware will use your account without your permission.

With the growing threats and impact that can have your system of spyware, it is now important that you have knowledge on this and start to protect your computer with this spyware. Look for the best spyware remover programs that can be use in conjunction with other anti-virus to completely protect your computer.

Now to be able to protect your PC, Microsoft has developed a spyware remover tool that can be used to detect and remove spyware to your PC using a windows operating system.

The Microsoft beta spyware tool is free to download if you are using genuine software of Microsoft XP operating system. Microsoft had implemented a validation test to check for illegal copies of Windows XP. So to be able to get a copy of Microsoft beta spyware tool for free, get first genuine Windows XP operating system.

Once you have downloaded and installed Microsoft spyware beta version on your computer, it immediately protect your PC against spyware invaders. The software is comprised of scanner that will detect, remove and fix files infected with spyware.

Scanning your system will just take for about 15-20 minutes depending on the size of your hard drive. After completing the scan it will show you the list of detected spyware.

Microsoft had also released the Beta 2 version of windows defender a Microsoft spyware remover tool. It easily and quickly finds spyware and other unwanted programs and eventually removes it. And if you accidentally uninstalled important program, you can easily restore it using this version. Beta 2 version runs in background so it would not distract you while youre working. And it has an automatic updates you can download to prevent your computer from new threats.

Microsoft spyware remover tool also restores the default settings of your Internet Explorer that may have been altered by spyware infections. If you do not have this spyware remover, it would be a problem to you to return the normal features of your Internet Explorer after spyware has infected it.

Spyware News: Online frauds: DANGEROUS CONVENIENCES

2008-12-15T09:39:00.000-08:00

If doing anything online you need to watch out for the fraudsters. Always do your research before doing any kind of purchase. It could be the best research you ever did.

Booking tickets, trading in shares or even paying bills online? Watch out for fraudsters lurking on the World Wide Web

What is it?

A common form of phishing (pronounced “fishing”) is the email you would have received from a website that mimics, as precisely as possible, a genuine one belonging to a reputed establishment such as a bank. The difference could be very subtle—www.icic.com (the missing letter ‘i’ at the end) or www.paypa1.com (the numeral ‘1’ instead of the letter ‘l’).

What you need to be extremely careful about is that the sender will invariably ask you to verify your online password, credit card number, personal identification number, date of birth or other personal information to dupe you.

The danger

If you comply with the request, the information that you pass on could be used in some other part of the world to transact in your name.

Phishing attacks could also infect your system with malicious software such as a remote-access Trojan (RAT), spyware that records and transmits every transaction you execute on your computer to the cybercriminal.

There are other variants of phishing that essentially play on a range of emotion such as generosity, greed, fear and even lust to trap an unsuspecting user

Protection

As a thumb rule, never provide financial or personal information in response to unsolicited messages, says Bala Girisaballa, vice-president and head of marketing and product management at iViZ Techno Solutions, an information security company with its headquarters in Kolkata.

Keep in mind, he says, that your bank will never ask you for any such details. Girisaballa also offers the following tips:

1. Do not open attachments received from an unverified source.

2. Report suspicious emails as spam. Service providers such as Hotmail and Gmail offer a facility to report spam and phishing attacks.

3. If it has come to your company email id, inform your IT department.

4. Protect your computer with open-source anti-virus software such as Clam or free anti-virus software such as AVG or anti-spam software from organizations such as McAfee and Symantec.

Captain Raghu Raman, CEO, Mahindra Special Services Group, a firm that specializes in corporate security management, also advises net users to type in the desired URLs instead of clicking links, and cautions against transacting online at cybercafés.

But what about those who’ve been hit? Says Girisaballa: “You don’t have many redress options. However, if a bank’s credit card is involved, inform them of the transaction immediately. Often, credit card transactions can be waived and the card can also be blocked. Having said that, the best option is to ensure you are transacting only on legitimate websites.”

Spyware News: Interview With a Virus-Hunter

2008-12-14T14:33:00.000-08:00

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

2008-12-14T06:49:00.000-08:00

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

2008-12-14T06:45:00.000-08:00

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

2008-12-14T06:36:00.000-08:00

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

2008-12-14T06:25:00.000-08:00

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

2008-12-14T06:17:00.000-08:00

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

2008-12-14T06:10:00.000-08:00

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.

Koobface Virus Spreads to Bebo

2008-12-13T14:58:00.000-08:00

As we have just reported about malware corrupting the world of social netoworks a virus has been discovered on Bebo.

Read on....

A virus that's attacking Facebook users is also infecting other social networking sites, says ScanSafe.

Koobface tricks social networkers into downloading malicious malware onto their PC. Users receive messages that look as if they're videos. Often they say something like "you look funny." When the user clicks to see the video, he is taken to a new website and asked to download special software in order to see the video.

That software is malicious and once installed on a PC, the Trojan will direct users to hoax search engines and other websites, putting them at risk of ID theft.

According to ScanSafe, Koobface has been identified on Bebo and could even spread to other social networking sites including - MySpace and Friendster. ScanSafe also claims that the virus accounts for one percent of all its blocked malware.

"Those who avoid promiscuous 'friending' on social networking sites will be least likely to encounter a Koobface type threat," said Mary Landesman, senior security researcher, at ScanSafe.

Cyberscams Slide onto Social Networks

2008-12-13T14:54:00.000-08:00

With the popularity of social networks it was only a metter of time before we saw this. Malware has started to infultrate social networks like facebook and bebo.

read on....

A warning to those who love such social media sites as Facebook: The bad guys are coming for you.

A slew of security vendor reports on risks to expect in 2009 point to Facebook, Myspace and other such sites as increasingly tempting targets among hackers looking to dupe people out of their sensitive information. PDF and Flash files, once considered safe, are now a threat as well.

The findings on Flash and PDF is seen in a report released Tuesday from security-products firm Finjan Inc. The research finds cybercriminals are increasingly using PDF and Flash files as a vehicle for distributing their malicious code and for infecting end-user PCs. The Web Security Trends Report Q4 2008, released by Finjan's Malicious Code Research Center (MCRC) found criminals take advantage of the specific functionality available in Flash Action Script that enables the Flash file to interact with its hosted web page (DOM). They embed their malicious code in Flash files and dynamically inject it into the hosting DOM to exploit a browser-vulnerability and to install a Trojan, said Finjan officials. Although Flash supports the functionality to prevent such interactions, many sites owners are not using it, according to Yuval Ben-Itzhak, chief technology officer of Finjan.

The report states that large ad networks serving Flash-based banner ads did not prevent their ads from interacting with the hosting web page. The lack of configuration by ad networks to prevent this interaction, between the served Flash-based ad's Action Script and the DOM, has become a new vector for cybercriminals to serve their malicious code undetected.

"Using rich content applications such as Flash files to distribute malicious code has become the latest trend in cybercrime," said Ben-Itzhak "Having the widespread distribution and the popularity of Flash-based ads on the Web, their binary file format enables cybercriminals to hide their malicious code and later exploit end-user browsers to install malware."

Finjan's report also predicts cybercrime will continue to rise as an increasing number of unemployed IT professionals join in and criminals will continue to use Web 2.0 as a portal for scams.

U.K. and Boston-based firm Sophos also published its Security Threat Report 2009 on Tuesday. The research reveals that more malware is hosted on U.S. websites and more spam is relayed from American computers, than any other country. In fact, the November shutdown of McColo Corp., an American web hosting firm which was accused of collaborating with spammers and hackers, caused a 75 percent drop in spam, noted Cluley.

"Not only is the United States relaying the most spam because too many of its computers have been compromised and are under the control of hackers, but it's also carrying the most malicious webpages," said Graham Cluley, senior technology consultant for Sophos, in a statement. "We would like to see the States making less of an impact on the charts in the coming year. American computers, whether knowingly or not, are making a disturbingly large contribution to the problems of viruses and spam affecting all of us today."

Sophos's officials also said that in 2008, organized criminal gangs tripled their attacks against websites, injecting malicious code to infect visiting home users and businesses. 2008 also saw an increase in efforts by hackers to pose as legitimate anti-virus vendors, creating new professional-looking websites and applications every day with the intention of scaring users into believing that their computers have been compromised. On average, Sophos identified five new scareware websites every day, with the figure peaking at over 20 per day on occasion.

The report also documents a rise in hackers spamming out malicious attachments, designed to compromise PCs in order to steal identities, money and resources. By the end of 2008, Sophos was tracking five times more malicious attacks arriving through files attached to emails than at the start of the year.

Like Finjan, Sophos said Web 2.0 applications, such as Facebook, continue to be of interest to spammers and malware who break into users' accounts to take advantage of trusted social networks, and send spam and malware.

"The last year proved beyond doubt that Internet hacking gangs are organized like never before, often working across borders to steal money and data from unsuspecting users. The volume of attacks has increased, with hackers using automated systems to break into vulnerable websites or generate new variants of their malware," said Cluley. "People need to wake up to the reality that the completely legitimate website they are visiting could be harboring a dangerous malware infection planted by hackers. As we enter 2009 we are not expecting to see these assaults diminish. As economies begin to enter recession it will be more important than ever for individuals and businesses to ensure that they are on guard against Internet attack."

IE Zero-Day Follow-Up: Now Featuring Mass SQL Injections

2008-12-13T03:51:00.001-08:00

We recently reported about a flaw in IE that could be exploited by hackers and now we have discovered an even further flaw. This needs to be stopped asap.

Read on.....

Malware criminals were quick to pounce on the recently discovered — and still unpatched — zero-day exploit for Internet Explorer and to mount mass SQL injection attacks, Trend Micro researchers have found. Researchers industry-wide have correctly warned that it was only a matter of time before this exploit, which is publicly available, was used for a wider scope of attack. The folks at the SANS Internet Storm Center (ISC) are also reporting this.

Advanced Threats Researcher Ivan Macalintal puts the number of infected sites so far at 6,000 and (quickly) increasing in number. He cites at least two Web sites infected with code that exploits the zero-day vulnerability, one in the .tw domain, and the other under .cn. The first is a Taiwanese search engine [Update: Now clean. -Ed.] which was found injected with the malicious JavaScript code through SQL injection.

The second is a Chinese sporting goods site with a traffic rank of close to 7 million, which was found containing HTML code directing users to a remote site which contains the same malicious script.

Fig. 1. A webpage of the compromised popular Chinese skating/sporting goods site

Fig. 2. An image of an injected redirection to a third-party site hosting the exploit

The final payload is a worm detected by Trend Micro as WORM_AUTORUN.BSE. Other exploits that also lead to the worm are as follows:

HTML_IFRAME.ZM
JS_DLOADER.QGV
HTML_AGENT.CPZZ

Obfuscated JavaScript in the HTML webpages are also detected as JS_DLOAD.MD, the same malicious script found to exploit the zero-day vulnerability in IE7.

Microsoft posted revisions to its Security Advisory with the latest analysis about the underlying flaw in this attack, which the advisory also states, renders Microsoft Internet Explorer 5.01 Service Pack 4, Microsoft Internet Explorer 6 Service Pack 1, Microsoft Internet Explorer 6, and Windows Internet Explorer 8 Beta 2 on all supported versions of Microsoft Windows as potentially vulnerable.

The Trend Micro Smart Protection Network already detects the malicious scripts as well as WORM_AUTORUN.BSE at the desktop level, and provides solutions for the removal of the worm.

Cops reel in greedy hackers

2008-12-13T03:43:00.000-08:00

The authorities are now catching these guys and its about time. If they put their talents to good use they would not need to keep looking over their shoulders and they would make decent money doing it. Stupid hackers :)

Read on....

A syndicate of Internet thieves has stolen more than R400-million from government departments, including the Presidency.

Two computer identity-theft hackers, believed to be the masterminds of the cyber gang, were nabbed by the police this week.

These follow the earlier arrests of 13 people involved in stealing millions of rands from government departments and employees across the country.

The syndicate allegedly hacked into computer systems linked to the Presidency using specialised spy software (spyware) programs.

The Internet-based syndicate, which had operatives in banks and government departments, is alleged to be behind the theft of R400-million from bank accounts of the departments of Home Affairs and Public Works, the licensing department, several parastatals and financial institutions, as well as from staff working in the various organisations over the past two years.

The syndicate, the members of which have been arrested over the past month, was bust during an operation conducted by the South African Police Service's Covert Intelligence Collective Directorate and the Commercial Crime Unit.

The operation, dubbed Operation Swift, had detectives and undercover agents raiding houses in Tshwane and North West. The latest arrests were made in Centurion and Ramokokastad, North West.

The arrests bring an end to what has been described as the country's biggest cyber attack on government organisations.

The theft, say police, allegedly took place through fraudulent electronic funds transfers (EFTs) from the various institutes and its staff members' accounts since 2006, and saw the syndicate, which comprises small business owners and IT specialists employed in both the government and the private sector, siphoning off money to fictitious bank accounts.

Police spokesperson Senior Superintendent Tummi Golding said the latest arrests followed information received from undercover operatives.

She said the information showed that since 2006 the suspects had allegedly stolen more than R5-million from the Office of the Presidency's budget.

"One of the suspects was arrested in Centurion in a townhouse he rents and the second was arrested at his home in the North West town of Ramokokastad," she said.

Golding said the men, aged 40 and 36, would appear in the Pretoria Magistrate's Court soon on charges of fraud.

Golding said that during the arrests, police seized a Mercedes-Benz SLK and a Harley-Davidson motorbike, which had allegedly been bought with fraudulent documents.

She said that in other raids conducted as part of the operation, police raided several houses in Soshanguve, where they arrested five people and seized two laptop computers, two printing machines, a laminating machine and documents used to commit the alleged fraud.

Explaining how the syndicate operated, Golding said the group operated by infiltrating targeted departments and institutions and installing spyware on their IT systems.

"The spyware was used to collect the user names and passwords of users of the government salary systems.

"Once this information is compromised, it is used to effect fraudulent EFTs into bank accounts opened by runners using fraudulent documents.

"In some cases, government officials within IT departments used remote access software available on the commercial market to gain unauthorised access and modify the banking details of registered suppliers," she explained.

Golding said the syndicate also targeted bank officials for recruitment and facilitation of fraudulent transactions.

"These bank officials load stop orders from bank accounts of government departments using compromised user names and passwords of other bank employees.

"The funds are transferred into fraudulently opened bank accounts using the details of registered business entities.

"As well as this, the syndicate, in collaboration with government officials, used compromised log-on details of other users to create ghost workers on the Persal system and pay the salaries of these nonexistent employees into fraudulent bank accounts," she said.

ALL About Spyware

2008-12-13T03:39:00.001-08:00

So what exactly is spyware then. Well lets learn today shall we. SHHHH class in session.

read on....

There are a lot of PC users that know little about “Spyware”, “Mal-ware”, “hijackers”, “Dialers” & many more. This will help you avoid pop-ups, spammers and all those baddies.

What is spy-ware?
Spy-ware is Internet jargon for Advertising Supported software (Ad-ware). It is a way for shareware authors to make money from a product, other than by selling it to the users. There are several large media companies that offer them to place banner ads in their products in exchange for a portion of the revenue from banner sales. This way, you don’t have to pay for the software and the developers are still getting paid. If you find the banners annoying, there is usually an option to remove them, by paying the regular licensing fee.

Known spywares
There are thousands out there, new ones are added to the list everyday. But here are a few:
Alexa, Aureate/Radiate, BargainBuddy, ClickTillUWin, Conducent Timesink, Cydoor, Comet Cursor, eZula/KaZaa Toptext, Flashpoint/Flashtrack, Flyswat, Gator, GoHip, Hotbar, ISTbar, Lions Pride Enterprises/Blazing Logic/Trek Blue, Lop (C2Media), Mattel Brodcast, Morpheus, NewDotNet, Realplayer, Songspy, Xupiter, Web3000, WebHancer, Windows Messenger Service.

How to check if a program has spyware?
The is this Little site that keeps a database of programs that are known to install spyware.

Check Here: http://www.spywareguide.com/product_search.php

If you would like to block pop-ups (IE Pop-ups).
There tons of different types out there, but these are the 2 best, i think.

Try: Google Toolbar (http://toolbar.google.com/) This program is Free
Try: AdMuncher (http://www.admuncher.com) This program is Shareware

If you want to remove the “spyware” try these.
Try: Lavasoft Ad-Aware (http://www.lavasoftusa.com/) This program is Free
Info: Ad-aware is a multi spyware removal utility, that scans your memory, registry and hard drives for known spyware components and lets you remove them. The included backup-manager lets you reinstall a backup, offers and multi language support.

Try: Spybot-S&D (http://www.safer-networking.org/) This program is Free
Info: Detects and removes spyware of different kinds (dialers, loggers, trojans, user tracks) from your computer. Blocks ActiveX downloads, tracking cookies and other threats. Over 10,000 detection files and entries. Provides detailed information about found problems.

Try: BPS Spyware and Adware Remover (http://www.bulletproofsoft.com/spyware-remover.html) This program is Shareware
Info: Adware, spyware, trackware and big brotherware removal utility with multi-language support. It scans your memory, registry and drives for known spyware and lets you remove them. Displays a list and lets you select the items you’d like to remove.

Try: Spy Sweeper v2.2 (http://www.webroot.com/wb/products/spysweeper/index.php) This program is Shareware
Info: Detects and removes spyware of different kinds (dialers, loggers, trojans, user tracks) from your computer.
The best scanner out there, and updated all the time.

Try: HijackThis 1.97.7 (http://www.spywareinfo.com/~merijn/downloads.html) This program is Freeware
Info: HijackThis is a tool, that lists all installed browser add-on, buttons, startup items and allows you to inspect them, and optionally remove selected items.

If you would like to prevent “spyware” being install.
Try: SpywareBlaster 2.6.1 (http://www.wilderssecurity.net/spywareblaster.html) This program is Free
Info: SpywareBlaster doesn`t scan and clean for so-called spyware, but prevents it from being installed in the first place. It achieves this by disabling the CLSIDs of popular spyware ActiveX controls, and also prevents the installation of any of them via a webpage.

Try: SpywareGuard 2.2 (http://www.wilderssecurity.net/spywareguard.html) This program is Free
Info: SpywareGuard provides a real-time protection solution against so-called spyware. It works similar to an anti-virus program, by scanning EXE and CAB files on access and alerting you if known spyware is detected.

Try: XP-AntiSpy (http://www.xp-antispy.org/) This program is Free
Info: XP-AntiSpy is a small utility to quickly disable some built-in update and authentication features in WindowsXP that may rise security or privacy concerns in some people.

Try: SpySites (http://camtech2000.net/Pages/SpySites_Prog…ml#SpySitesFree) This program is Free
Info: SpySites allows you to manage the Internet Explorer Restricted Zone settings and easily add entries from a database of 1500+ sites that are known to use advertising tracking methods or attempt to install third party software.

If you would like more Information about “spyware”.
Check these sites.
http://www.spychecker.com/
http://www.spywareguide.com/
http://www.cexx.org/adware.htm
http://www.theinfomaniac.net/infomaniac/co…rsSpyware.shtml
http://www.thiefware.com/links/
http://simplythebest.net/info/spyware.html

Usefull tools…
Try: Stop Windows Messenger Spam 1.10 (http://www.jester2k.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk/j…r2ksoftware.htm) This program is Free
Info: “Stop Windows Messenger Spam” stops this Service from running and halts the spammers ability to send you these messages.

—————————————————————————-
All these softwares will help remove and prevent evil spammers and spywares attacking your PC. I myself recommend getting “spyblaster” “s&d spybot” “spy sweeper” & “admuncher” to protect your PC. A weekly scan is also recommended

Free Virus Scan
Scan for spyware, malware and keyloggers in addition to viruses, worms and trojans. New threats and annoyances are created faster than any individual can keep up with.
http://defender.veloz.com// - 15k

Finding . is a Click Away at 2020Search.com
Having trouble finding what you re looking for on: .? 2020Search will instantly provide you with the result you re looking for by drawing on some of the best search engines the Internet has to offer. Your result is a click away!
http://www.2020search.com// - 43k

Download the BrowserVillage Toolbar.
Customize your Browser! Eliminate Pop-up ads before they start, Quick and easy access to the Web, and much more. Click Here to Install Now!
http://www.browservillage.com/ - 36k

An Anti-virus can Also be Vulnerable to Hackers

2008-12-13T03:36:00.000-08:00

iViZ, an information security company that offers "Green Cloud Security", has discovered new classes of vulnerabilities in many popular commercial and open source anti-virus software. The company states that these vulnerabilities can potentially allow attackers to gain access to systems using such antivirus software.

According to iViZ, an attacker can craft an e-mail with malicious code that can crash the vulnerable anti-virus and bypass the computer's local security solution.

The iViZ "Green Cloud Security" Vulnerability Research team , using a variety of "file fuzzing" techniques discovered abnormal behavior in several security tools -- especially when handling complex or unusual executable header data. Multiple bugs were found in antivirus software while processing malformed packed executables as well.
Some of these bugs proved to be security vulnerabilities, which could make the antivirus itself a back door for hackers.

The affected software included popular commercial and open source anti-virus software such as AVG, F-Secure (F-Prot), Sophos, ClamAV, BitDefender and Avast. It stated that the list could include other security-based software as well.

iViZ experts advised businesses to perform regular and periodic penetration testing as it can help them combat constantly evolving vulnerabilities and threats.

New virus stalks socialising websites

2008-12-13T03:35:00.000-08:00

Back in the days when modems were the only way to get online - this is back in the cyberworld equivalent of the stone age - things were a lot simpler.

Hackers only went after businesses and governments, and viruses were just an annoyance.

Because there were so few threats 20 years ago, few people bought anti-virus programs either. In hindsight, it was kind of silly. If you did buy an A/V program back then, it only worked against the viruses everybody already knew about. If a new virus came out, you had to go buy the update at a store.

Unfortunately, today what most people think they need to be safe online hasn't kept pace with the reality. Neither has most people's understanding of what the dangers are online. Twenty years ago, no one ever had to worry about things like spamming, phishing, malware and botnets.

A friend the other day asked me about a new virus on Facebook. A new virus? That's odd. New viruses - a replicating programme that usually damages a system - are a rarity these days. I asked if instead it was a new trojan, keylogger or some other type of malware. I think I could have been speaking swahili for the look I got.

The "virus" my friend was asking about was Koobface, which is currently hitting social networking sites such as Facebook, MySpace and many other. Any confusion over what Koobface "is" has to be excused, since I've several news stories about it that didn't know either. It's been reported as virus, a worm and a trojan. To keep it simple, Koobface is malware (a term used to describe any software that is harmful to your computer). How it works is that you receive an email, which contains a link to what is supposed to be a video, through your social networking account. If you click on the link, you'll soon be prompted to download software that says it will allow you to watch a video. It's bogus. The downloaded software is really a trojan horse, an application that will attempt to steal personal information. The trojan will use your account to send the original email to your friends, who can then get infected themselves.

So what can you do? You can - and probably should - go out and buy anti-virus and internet security software. Today's A/V programs cover bots, keyloggers and most other type of malware you can encounter these days. Most importantly, you should also use your brain. While security problems will stop almost everything from getting through, using a little common sence will stop you from having to put your software to the test. For years secucity companies have been saying "don't open email from people you don't know". That rule still applies and it applies to social networking e-mails just as much as it does to the ones you receive in your Outlook inbox.

The same goes for downloading files. If your computer tells you it needs the latest version of Flash, OK. You will need to update your software occasionally, but pay attention to where you're downloading the file from. If you have to update your Flash player, go to Abode.com and get it from the guys who make it. Don't trust generic websites. The cyberworld is getting worse, and it's getting worse on a daily basis. That doesn't mean you need to avoid going online or know the difference between a worm and a virus. It does mean you need to think before you click that link. This isn't the '80s. It's time start thinking about security.

The "virus" my friend was asking about was Koobface, which is currently hitting social networking sites such as Facebook, MySpace and many other ... It's been reported as virus, a worm and a trojan.

Survey: Web-based malware puts corporations at risk

2008-12-13T03:33:00.000-08:00

A new study found that 85 percent of malware is being distributed through Web applications, which is creating a growing threat for corporations as employees increasingly do online social networking, video watching, and personal e-mail at work.

Other findings of the survey, conducted by security firm Webroot, are:

Web-borne malware increased more than 500 percent in 2007.
One-quarter of companies report that data has been compromised by a Web-based threat.
Nearly one-third say their Web security was compromised as a result of employees using computers at work to access social networks, Web-based e-mail, and video sites.
15 percent enforce Internet usage policies.

About 650 information technology administrators in English-speaking countries were surveyed this summer for the study.

12 Types Of Anti-Spyware Programs

2008-12-13T03:31:00.000-08:00

You can try out each program and get the best choice to protect your computer from the possible threats.

In the market there are many anti spyware and ad ware programs like Ad-Aware SE Pro, Counterspy, Trend Micro, Spy Sweeper, AntiSpy, Spy ware Doctor, PestPatrol, etc. available in the market. Each program has its own identity and method to access the internet. The anti-spyware company’s offers free download or it offers for free trial for certain period of time. There are many free antispyware are also available online for free trial with self-update.

You can try out each program and get the best choice to protect your computer from the possible threats. There are many anti-spy ware programs available for free. There are many free games and video or peer to peer sites also contents various spy wares. It is not advisable not to access the system. Many freeware have give virus or malicious things as gift with the installation.

1. Lavasoft’s Ad-aware SE pro 6. It can give you many good features where we can’t find it in other products.

2. Spy Sweeper launched upgraded version 5.2 with many updates for the customers. The Spy Sweeper 5.2 runs quickly, custom or full sweeps in record time.

3. Spyware Doctor promise real-time blocking and protection features.

4. The Norton Internet Security 2007 offers triple security against antivirus, firewall, and antispyware and. It also gives anti Spam, privacy, and parental control.

5. AVG Anti-Spyware offers the free services as well as the paid one. It gives 30 day trial version.

6. CounterSpy runs in the background and protect from spyware and ad ware.

7. McAfee is an effective anti-virus product. It is user-friendly and provides many different forms of support.

8. Trend Micro Anti-Spyware has unique features. Trend Micro Anti-Spyware covers all types of spyware or ad ware components.

9. The Anti-spy provides customize solution. It can automatically start scanning as defined time.

10. CA Anti-Spyware 2007's active shields recognized and blocked spyware.

11. CyberDefender AntiSpywareis identify and defense invasive spyware on your computer.

12. The Spy Sweeper is user-friendly. Spy Sweeper one of the favorite amongst the anti-spyware tools.

Apart from this there are many anti-spyware available in the market. All have different features and compatibilities.

Sony needs a common-sense czar

2008-12-13T03:30:00.000-08:00

With so many czars running around trying to solve the nation's problems in tech, auto and drugs, perhaps Sony should consider hiring a common-sense czar.

Is there any major consumer company around that seems to understand basic customer relations less than Sony? Isn't rule No.1 in the CR manual, "Don't spy on customers?" If so, then rule 1-A must be: "Take extra care to avoid spying on customers' children."

The latest example of Sony's disconnect with the masses came this week when the company's music division was fined for surreptitiously collecting information on children under 13-years old.

On Thursday, Sony agreed to pay $1 million to the Federal Trade Commission for collecting information on 30,000 children without obtaining parental consent. According to the Associated Press, Sony violated the Children's Online Privacy Protection Act when it collected the data from hundreds of fan sites, including those of such musical acts as Kelly Clarkson, Britney Spears and Christina Aguilera.

Sony representatives declined to comment.

Sony's growing list of scandals raises the question of whether anyone at the conglomerate has an ounce of public relations savvy. If they don't, the company should find someone fast and that person's mission should be to smack down overly zealous marketing types who come up with lamebrain ideas like this one.

Or how about the one for last year's promotional party for the PlayStation 2 game God of War II that turned into an international embarrassment for Sony. In keeping with the video game's Greek mythology theme, comely women were hired to prance around topless and feed grapes to partygoers as part of the "theatrical dramatization." If that wasn't over the top enough, the centerpiece of the festivities was a butchered goat that was dressed up to look like the animal's entrails were falling out.

Across the world, animal activists howled and critics blasted the company's "bad taste." Sony apologized and yes, returned the goat carcass to the butcher. (I'm not kidding, that was their response).

Then there was the company's supreme blunder, which also came from the music division.

Before Sony, even some hardcore techies were unfamiliar with rootkits. Now, the two are synonymous. In 2005, Sony loaded MediaMax CD 3 and Extended Copy Protection (XCP) software on music CDs to help boost copy prevention. The software loaded a rootkit malware onto the PC of anyone who loaded the discs. Rootkits are programs designed to hijack control of a computer.

Texas' attorney general filed suit against the company and accused it of loading spyware onto computers. Class action suits were also filed in New York and California. The fallout lasted years.

The rootkit debacle makes this latest child-spying case all the more mind-boggling. Even if you give Sony the benefit of doubt and discount the possibility the company is evil, then what are you left with? Yes, that's right: incompetence.

I have met a lot of smart people from Sony and I have to believe that some of them realize the company is developing a nasty reputation as an enemy of consumer privacy.

Firefox: Most Risky App to Businesses in New Study

2008-12-13T03:28:00.000-08:00

The good old FF browser gets little love when it comes to security

Firefox has its plate full when it comes to security. It has grown a substantial enough market share to place it in a strong second after Microsoft. This gives it a high profile and leaves it a desirable target to be exploited by hackers and malware writers. Worse yet, it has less money to fund security efforts that Microsoft, and according to some experts, less focus as well.

While small market share browsers like Opera and Chrome have built a reputation on their security (with Safari, being a noticeable exception, have a reputation for insecurity), Firefox continues to plod along in a day to day fight, trying to remain a secure platform while dealing with the challenges of browser celebrity.

Perhaps for this reason, Bit9, an application whitelisting firm that helps employers block employee access to certain apps, placed Firefox on the top its list of most vulnerable apps. The remaining spots on the list were filled out with more familiar names, with two through twelve respectively being: Adobe Flash & Acrobat; EMC VMware Player, Workstation, and other products; Sun Java Runtime Environment; Apple QuickTime, Safari, and iTunes; Symantec Norton products; Trend Micro OfficeScan; Citrix products; Aurigma and Lycos image uploaders; Skype; Yahoo Assistant; and Microsoft Windows Live Messenger.

The Bit9 study looked at several factors in ranking vulnerability. One factor was how popular the applications were. Another factor was how many known vulnerabilities existed, and how severe they were. Lastly, it looked at how hard patching was for the particular application.

In order to make the list, programs hand to run in Windows and not be centrally updatable via services such as Microsoft SMS and WSUS. Many say that the survey was unfair to Apple products because it kept easier patched Microsoft applications off the list.

In some ways, though Bit9's list is a useful benchmark. It aptly points out that many networks have Firefox installations running on machines, without the system administrator being fully aware of the instance of these installs. Thus, despite the fact that most of the vulnerabilities looked at have been patched, the installs may not receive these patches immediately, until the employee upgrades to the next edition of the browser.

The study's conclusions only marginally apply to the consumer market. However, when it comes to the business market, the study argues that picking or allowing employees to run Firefox, even with its security plug-ins, is a ticket to the IT danger zone as malware increasingly targets application layer targets such as Firefox.

Security in Recession

2008-12-13T03:25:00.000-08:00

With the National Bureau of Economic Research in the United States announcing last week that the U.S. has officially been in recession since Dec. 2007, IT budgets are highly likely to be strictly controlled both in the U.S. and in other parts of the world. I had a conversation with a friend over the weekend, and he asked me if I expect redundancies in the IT Security industry, as companies could no longer afford to have dedicated security personnel on their books.

To be honest, yes I think there will be. However, I also think that the overall IT security industry will continue to grow in 2009 - bad guys are not going away anytime soon, and a lot of their existing scams work really well in this economic climate. Companies who choose to think otherwise may well end up regretting it in the long term, and here are my thoughts on why:

At the end of the day, security boils down to risk management. The three core values every organization needs to protect are often shown in the acronym CIA (Confidentiality, Integrity, Availability). Different organizations prioritize on different areas, but I think when it comes to economic downturn, confidentiality, and availability are obviously the most affected.

In terms of confidentiality, we are talking about an organization’s private data being protected. I’m based in Ireland, where 17,000 people had their jobs slashed in November. This is a drop in the ocean compared to other countries, particularly the half a million employees who lost jobs in the U.S. Insider threats have long been one of the largest risks facing organizations, especially in the case of the so-called “disgruntled employee.” With large number of employees made redundant, having their salaries cut, etc., there are a lot of incentives for these same employees to engage in data theft.

When people feel hard done by their employers, they are more likely to relax their morals. In these cases they may no longer consider taking confidential company information outside of the company as stealing. They feel an entitlement to this information, after all, they’ve put years of work into helping the company grow. The very fact that there are so many Data Leak/Loss Prevention (DLP) solutions on the market should give you an idea of just how big this problem is - and I think the risk of Data Theft/Loss is going to increase in the current climate

Which brings us to the other big factor - Availability. Almost every company is currently engaged in examining their costs, and reducing them wherever possible. Whether it is in terms of head count or even simply lowering all of the thermostats in their buildings by five degrees (my hands are going blue typing this), a lot of companies are walking a very fine line trying to keep afloat for the next two to three years - even the smallest misfortune could tip the ship.

This is where malware comes in. The recent WORM_DOWNAD.A attack was quite successful in infecting unpatched Windows machines, with a quite a few companies having thousands of machines infected by the threat. Cleaning a threat like this costs a lot of money - a company may need to pay their IT staff overtime to fix the problem, or they may have to bring in external contractors. That’s not where the real loss is, however. Picture a company of 4000 employees. Now picture all of those employees being unable to use their machines for three hours while the systems are being cleaned, patched and tested. That is 12000 man-hours of work which that company is paying for, and getting nothing in return. To put it another way, that’s about 6.5 employees’ salaries for the year which sums up to around 200-250K. There are very few companies that have that kind of money to burn at the moment.

So, to any organization thinking of cutting their security budgets, think long and hard about weighing the short term savings with the potential losses. I wish I could say that there won’t be companies that would go under because of a malware attack in the next couple of months - but optimism is not exactly in large supply at the moment.

Microsoft: Hole exploit endangers all IE versions

2008-12-13T03:24:00.001-08:00

An unpatched security hole in Internet Explorer that is being exploited affects all versions of the browser, making it more serious than originally believed when it was first publicized two days ago, Microsoft says.

Microsoft is investigating reports of attacks against a new vulnerability in IE but said in an update to a security advisory issued late on Thursday that all versions of IE are potentially vulnerable.

The company recommends setting the Internet zone security setting to "high" and using access control lists to disable Ole32db.dll to provide the most effective protection against an attack.

"Our latest information is that there are still limited attacks seeking to load malicious software on vulnerable systems," Christopher Budd writes in the Microsoft Security Response Center blog.

Microsoft has seen several hundred detections of exploits from around the globe, though the sites taking advantage of the vulnerability appear to be hosted on Chinese domains, Microsoft said in a Microsoft Malware Protection Center blog.

"The exploit sites we've seen so far drop a wide variety of malware--most commonly password stealers like new variants of game password stealers like Win32/OnLineGames, and Win32/Lolyda; keyloggers like Win32/Lmir; trojan horse applications like Win32/Helpud along with some previously unseen malware which we generically detect as Win32/SystemHijack," the Malware Protection Center blog says. "We fully expect the variety of malware being dropped by this exploit to broaden as the exploit code starts to circulate around the Internet underground."

People visiting trusted sites could be affected as well from sites targeted by SQL injection attacks through which malicious code is injected into sites, Microsoft says.

A Microsoft spokesman said he could not say when a fix would come. The next Patch Tuesday is scheduled for January 13.

Microsoft's updated advisory lists a number of mitigating factors: Protected Mode in IE 7 and IE 8 in Windows Vista limits the impact of the vulnerability; IE on Windows Server 2003 and 2008 runs in a restricted mode known as Enhanced Security Configuration that sets the security level for the Internet to high; the attacker could only gain the same user rights as the local user; known attacks can not exploit the issue automatically through e-mail.

Poor Computer Security Putting Immigrant Data At Risk

2008-12-13T03:20:00.002-08:00

About 60% of the computers at multiservice businesses that serve the immigrant community are actively infected with malware, according to a study released on Thursday by Panda Security.

This puts customers at considerable risk of identity theft and money transfer interception.

About 30% of the computers at these businesses had outdated antivirus software.

Panda's findings come following two years of research into the cybersecurity practices at 300 independently owned and operated multiservice businesses in the Los Angeles and Las Vegas metropolitan areas.

The study focused on businesses in predominately Latino neighborhoods. Eighty-five percent were single locations, with the remainder operating from two to eight branches. About 1,500 PCs total were covered by the study.

Multiservice businesses typically offer money transfers, income tax payment, check cashing, bill payment, travel services, auto insurance, notary services, and/or telephone calling card sales. They're commonly used by immigrants to remit funds to Mexico and other countries.

There are some 66,000 comparable businesses in the United States, Panda claims.

"The employees [at these businesses] are frequently minimum wage young adults who spend time chatting, using peer to peer networks and visiting chat sites on the very same computers sending sensitive data," Panda's report explains. "Periodic spyware infections which stop the ability to perform transactions are often viewed as a business expense. Panda Security views this combination of poor maintenance, low security consciousness and end user behavior as a disaster waiting to happen."

A spokesperson for the company said that the study focused on infection rates rather than actual cases of fraud and thus had no examples of actual accounts being compromised. Even so, the gap between risk and compromise isn't large enough that this issue can be ignored. There's no shortage of examples of data and monetary loss arising from credential theft.

The Panda study points out that the presence of a key-logging Trojan on a PC used to initiate a money transfer through an online site could provide an attacker with all the necessary information to intercept and collect the transferred funds.

While one might prefer to believe that banks would prevent anyone but the designated recipient from collecting transferred funds, reality in countries like Mexico is not constrained by such a rosy view of the world.

"The going rate for a false government identification was USD$100, and false birth certificates cost USD$50," the Panda report states. "Due to advanced dye sublimation card printing technologies and corrupt government employees, high quality false documents made with real substrate can be available in mere minutes. In one popular wire transfer service that makes wire pickup available in a large Mexican national bank the beneficiary does not need to pick up the remittance at the designated branch."

In short, money transfers to such countries can be stolen without substantial difficulty if they begin on a compromised computer.

Panda recommends that multiservice businesses beef up their cybersecurity and advises those interested in transferring money to use FDIC-accredited banks or Western Union, which should have higher security standards. Its report can be obtained by sending an e-mail to: CriticalAlert@us.pandasecurity.com.

Court Enjoins Spyware Producer Under FTC Act

2008-12-13T03:20:00.001-08:00

The U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida has issued a preliminary injunction against a producer of spyware under the Federal Trade Commission Act. Federal Trade Commission v. Cyberspy Software, LLC, et al., No. 6:08-cv-1872 (Preliminary Injunctive Order, Nov. 25, 2008).

The FTC sued the defendant company and its principal for unfair and/or deceptive trade practices under the FTC Act. According to the court's order, the defendants’ spyware is designed to be installed on a computer without the knowledge or consent of a computer’s user. The defendants provide instructions to customers which demonstrate how to disguise the spyware as an innocuous file. Once a user installs the spyware, the spyware tracks the user's keystrokes, passwords entered, and websites visited.

The court found the FTC was likely to succeed on the merits of the case, and that continued sale of the spyware was likely to cause substantial harm to consumers. Although the defendants argued that the spyware has some redeeming value, such as allowing a parent to track a child's Internet usage, the court noted that the defendants' marketing materials suggested that the spyware should be used for more harmful purposes.

Merry Malware - Tis the season for postcards

2008-12-13T03:17:00.000-08:00

I know I have reported about this before but we the holidays fast approaching I again wanted to highlight this topic. You need to be on you guard against this.

Read on.....

Well it’s that time of year again when your thoughts turn to family and friends and you want to ‘reach out’ to them with a nice greeting card - either Xmas or New Years. If you get or give an electronic version all the better as you save on postage and don’t have to wait for snail mail.

We aren’t the only ones thinking of others at this time of year and by that I mean the malware writers. Every year at the holidays we see an upsurge of ‘postcard ware’ based malware. They look like a e-card from a loved one so you are enticed to open them up and while some do display a pretty picture or a play a nice tune in the background they are infecting your pc.

Some recent sample are posted on the Microsoft Malware blog so you can see the pictures without having to get infected.

http://blogs.technet.com/mmpc/archive/2008/12/02/merry-malware.aspx

http://blogs.technet.com/mmpc/archive/2008/12/04/o-come-all-ye-malware.aspx

While many of the e-cards sent at this time of the year are legitimate and sent with the best of intentions it is up to you to double check with the supposed sender if they really did send you one and if you don’t recognize the from e-mail address then don’t open it no matter how tempting it looks.

IE zero day bites broader group of users

2008-12-13T03:13:00.000-08:00

Researchers are warning that the unpatched security vulnerability in Microsoft's Internet Explorer affects more versions of the browser than previously thought, and that steps users must take to prevent exploitation are harder than first published.

According to an updated advisory from Redmond, the bug that's been actively exploited since Tuesday bites versions 5.01, 6, and 8 of the browser, which is by far the most widely used on the web. A previous warning from Microsoft only said that IE 7 was susceptible to the attacks. IE is susceptible when running on all supported versions of the Windows operating systems, Microsoft also says.

What's more, while there is some protection from Vista's User Account Control, the measure doesn't altogether prevent the attack, according to this post on the Spyware Sucks blog. Microsoft and others have suggested that those who must use IE in the next few weeks set the security level to high for the internet security zone or disable active scripting. These are sensible measures, but they don't guarantee you won't be pwned, according to this post from the Secunia blog.

Secunia goes on to revise what it says is the cause of the vulnerability. Contrary to earlier reports that pinned the blame on the way IE handles certain types of data that use the extensible markup language, or XML, format, the true cause is faulty data binding, meaning exploit code need not use XML.

Microsoft has yet to say whether it plans to issue a fix ahead of next month's scheduled release. For the moment, the volume of in-the-wild attacks remains relatively modest and limited mostly to sites based in China. But because attackers are injecting exploits into legitimate sites that have been compromised, we continue to recommend that users steer clear of IE until the hole has been closed.

Plenty of other researchers have weighed in with additional details about the flaw. Links from SANS, Sophos, and Hackademix here, here and here.®

Remove SpyRemover Pro. Description and removal instructions

2008-12-13T03:11:00.000-08:00

SpyRemover Pro is rogue anti-spyware application that uses shareware/crack websites as a way to get into the user’s computer. Parasite claims to be respectable software but in reality is scamming program which shows falsified virus infection reports. And all this is doing only to mislead user into purchasing of a license. Spy RemoverPro strongly refuses to be uninstalled, so manual removal could be very difficult. There is no actual information for users about spywares that SpyRemover Pro can detect or remove. Download of this application is absolutely free, but there is paid one license. What about problems that parasite will bring to you? The answer is that your computer will become slower and internet connection limited. How ever if you want to avoid your money loses try to avoid of SpyRemover Pro download and install. Stay away from the websites that promotes this parasite and scan your system with real spyware remover.

SpyRemover Pro properties:
• Changes browser settings
• Shows commercial adverts
• Connects itself to the internet
• Hides from the user
• Stays resident in background

10 Questions To Ask Yourself And Determine If You Are Spyware Savvy

2008-12-13T03:06:00.000-08:00

Most of us who use computers

are afraid of spyware and the problems it causes. So, you learn all about spyware and the ways to protect yourself from it. How will you know whether you have complete knowledge? Well what you can do is to surf the World Wide Web for the latest on spyware and computer security.

Most of us who use computers are afraid of spyware and the problems it causes. So, you learn all about spyware and the ways to protect yourself from it. How will you know whether you have complete knowledge? Well what you can do is to surf the World Wide Web for the latest on spyware and computer security.

You can test your knowledge by taking self-tests and quizzes. Companies like Microsoft are very consumer friendly and make an effort to upload tons of information on computers and software for users in search of knowledge.

According to Microsoft you can test your knowledge by answering the following questions:

1. How will you prevent children from accidentally downloading spyware?

The answer must be: You can prevent children from downloading spyware by giving them a limited user account.

2. What are browser cookies?

Ans: These are created by unethical persons to track your browsing preferences for their own use, to spam your pc with advertisements and marketing ploys, to steal personal information like bank account details, credit card numbers and so on, and to cause harm to your computer and business by stealing data/files.

3. How can you use technology to protect your computer?

Ans: Many giants in computer technology are offering software and hardware to prevent spyware attacks. For example Windows Defender Beta 2 is one option.

4. What is Windows Defender?

Ans: It is an anti-spyware software that can detect spyware and warn you immediately, inform you of possible dangers and new spywares, remove spyware. It protects your PC against pop ups, slow functioning, security threats, and infections.

5. What are common signs that show your computer is infected?

Ans: Signs are unwarranted pop ups, strange PC behavior, change in homepage settings, appearance of new tool bars not installed by you, slowing down of computer, loss of files, crashing of computer, and so on.

6. What are the precautions to be taken?
Ans: Precautions are: install a fire wall, update all software, pay attention to security settings, use anti-spyware programs, use the internet safely.

7. Is a firewall useful?

Ans: Yes, it examines all information and acts as a filter anything even faintly suspicious will not be permitted, it will create a protective cloak and prevent undesirable sources from detecting your computer on the net.

8. How does spyware work and what protects your computer?

Ans: A spyware is a thief it can use information on you, steal files, and place undesirable material on your computer. The pc must be protected by use of firewall, anti-spyware hardware as well as software, and careful browsing as well as downloads.

9. Where can you get protection against spyware?

Ans: There are many choices a few are: Platinum Internet security 2005, Microsoft Beta 2, Webroot Spy Sweeper, Sunbelt Counter Spy, and Spybot.

10. Name three security measures?

Ans: One must not open e-mails with attachments from unknown sources; use a spam guard for all e-mail accounts, and avoid using messengers.

These days knowledge is available at the click of a mouse button so update your knowledge base and keep abreast of new developments.

How Do I Remove Viruses, Adware, Malware, etc.?

2008-12-13T03:04:00.000-08:00

Background.
How Do I Remove Viruses, Adware, Malware, etc.? The short and snippy answer (for the moment) is 'get a Mac.' ;-)

But assuming you use Windows in one flavor or another as most of us do, read on. All of the software I recommend below is free for home and non-commercial use.

Symptoms? If your PC has recently become much slower than usual, displays unrelated pop-ups, or takes the browser to sites you didn't choose, you may very well be infected.

Avoid Malware
It's of course best to avoid malware (I'll use this term to refer to malware, viruses, adware, etc.) to begin with. To that end I recommend six things.
1. A hardware NAT router, even if you only use 1 computer w/ your broadband connection.
2. Enable the built-in Windows firewall.
3. Run some anti-virus software.
4. Stay up to date with the OS security updates.
5. Be smart.
6. Use a safe browser.

For a router, pretty much any name brand router will do. I've had very good luck with Linksys but other prefer various brands. The Linksys WRT54G is a very common, reliable, and affordable model. [often under $70]

There are several free and payware software firewalls available for Windows. I used to use the free ZoneAlarm for 3+ years but stopped about 2 years ago. It was slowing down my machine and between the built-in Windows firewall and the hardware router I wasn't convinced it was really necessary. It is true that the 3rd-party software firewall will tell you if you have malware 'phoning home,' but if you follow these other instructions that shouldn't really be an issue. Also, when most people are asked by the software whether or not to allow some outbound connection they usually have no idea what they are being asked and just click 'Okay' anyway, defeating the purpose.

I think all versions of Windows since and including XP SP2 have the firewall enabled by default.

There are many choices for anti-virus software. I recommend staying away from the large suites like Norton & McAfee. They are often bloatware and will slow your machine down quite a bit. I use and recommend the free AVG and Avast AV tools. They both update regularly and work well. I've been using them for several years and never had a problem. Note: Only use one or the other on a given PC, not both. [I've heard good things about Clam A/V but never used it myself.]

Make sure you have the automatic updates enabled for Windows.

By 'be smart' I mean be careful what apps you run and what things you click on. Be VERY hesitant to open attachment that come in your email, even from supposedly trusted sources. They could be infected and not realize that they are sending malware. If you go to a web page and a pop-up tells you to click and download something because you're infected, don't. If something tells you it needs to download a new codec for Windows Media Player, don't. There are some exceptions to these rules, but you're better off erring on the side of caution.

Use a safe browser. IE 7 & 8 are much better than previous versions w/ respect to security, but still prefer Firefox and more recently Google's Chrome. If you run Firefox you may also want to run the NoScript extension. It by default disables JavaScript on all web pages/sites, allowing you to selectively enable them for sites you trust. This can be a headache if you're not comfortable with the process.

Assuming all of the above you should be very unlikely to end up w/ malware on your Windows machine. But what if in spite of that you get some anyway, or already have some? ...

Removing Malware
If you think you may be infected there are several free tools you can and should run. I've yet to see one tool that will remove them all, but a combo of 2 or 3 will usually do the trick.

I prefer to run both Spybot and AdAware, one after the other. You may want to run them once a month even if you don't suspect a problem anyway. I've also heard many good things about a new tool called Malwarebytes; I haven't tried it yet but intend to.

So there you have it. Be smart, use a hardware router, and take advantage of the free software. ;-)

Thi is certainly not the absolute final word on the subject, but if you do these things I think you'll avoid the vast majority of malware problems on Windows. And if your machine seem infected with numerous things that the tools simply can not remove properly, the best thing to do is format the drive and reinstall Windows from scratch. Sometimes that's the only sure way to know the system is clean.

Oh, one more thing, if you download stuff from questionable torrent sites and tools like Limewire, you're almost begging to get malware on your machine. Stay away from both.

US shuts down 'scareware' sellers

2008-12-13T02:54:00.001-08:00

The US government has moved to shut down sellers of fake security software.

The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has won a restraining order that stops several sellers of "scareware" from continuing to trade.

Millions of people are thought to have been caught out by the software which, once installed, issues false alerts about viruses and illegal porn.

The FTC is pursuing further legal action to win a permanent ban on those peddling the scareware.

Frozen funds

Court papers submitted by the FTC show that the peddlers of the fake security software tricked websites into advertising their products.

The companies behind the fake security software won customers via adverts on many popular websites.

Anyone clicking on an advert was taken to the webpages run by the fake security firms which then ran a "scan" looking for security problems.

Every scan found a host of security problems and urged visitors to buy software to fix them. Typically the scans found evidence of viruses, spyware and, in some cases, illegal pornography.

"However," said the FTC, "the scans were entirely false."

In its legal action the FTC targeted two firms: Innovative Marketing, Inc. and ByteHosting Internet Services, LLC.

The fake security products the firms were peddling were: WinFixer, WinAntivirus, DriveCleaner, ErrorSafe, and XP Antivirus.

A US District court granted an injunction which stops Innovative Marketing and ByteHosting Internet Services from continuing to advertise their products, and from making false claims about their efficacy.

It has also asked firms hosting the websites owned by these firms to block customers from accessing them. And it has also frozen the assets of the two companies so it can reclaim cash and refund those caught out.

More than one million US citizens and many more around the world are thought to have been caught out by the "scareware" scam.

"The popularity of the rogue anti-virus and spyware products has rocketed," said Yuval Ben-Itzhak, chief technology officer at security firm Finjan.

"People are paying 40-60 dollars for bogus software which does nothing," he said, adding that Finjan research suggests up to five million people around the world have fallen victim to the huge number of firms selling "scareware".

Dan Hubbard, chief technology officer at Websense, said many "scareware" firms ran very sophisticated operations. Many use search engines to ensure web users see their adverts and tune their products to each territory.

"They seem to know the law in different regions," he said. "They monetise it very well."

Malware and Spyware - Are They the Same Thing?

2008-12-13T02:52:00.000-08:00

Everyone has heard of Spyware, it is that nasty program that gets into your machine and causes havoc. It redirects you when you are not expecting it, it messes with your browser settings, and most of the time, it comes by way of the unsuspecting users allowing it in. There is another face to this coin however, in the name of Malware. This program runs off similar parameters, and has a chameleon like effect. Considering they are of the same bloodline, is it easy to ascertain that they are the same problematic bug?

Here is a look at the roots of the Malware and then you can judge for yourself. It was back in the year 1949 that the notion of a computer program that could self-reproduce was recognized. This is what is known as the theory of complicated automata. Malware uses encryption that is rudimentary, as it is self-obfuscating. This is the case where detecting a computer virus would become more difficult, as algorithmically challenging the main systems programming. The Malware is indeed quite resistant to reverse engineering. Once it is in, the notion is that it will be a definite chore to remove it. This seemingly passive, yet vary evasive program uses a public key and is known to the computer savvy as a crypto virus. When this virus attacks, it drops plain text data on the machine of the user. This by all means is a hybrid of the regular run of the mill Spyware, by all accounts. Finding the maker of the said Malware is pretty much the only way to get rid of the encryption of the plain text issue that has been installed.

This being said, Malware is indeed a form of virus and would be placed on a person’ computer without their consent. Its sole purpose is to infiltrate and destroy. There is another name for this virus; lawmakers call it as scum-ware. There are no absolute features of this virus, more the intent of the creator of the said pest to harm someone else’s machine. Many times people confuse Malware with a program that may have a bug on it, or the program is defective. Generally malicious software is created to infiltrate and cause harm on the intended machine. Sometimes the intent is not to harm at all, rather just to annoy, yet considering no one really knows what is going on in someone else’s computer leads to the destruction of their files. It was more of a prank than the MS-DOS viruses, and Internet worms where developed, not as was first believed that they were harmful. It is often thought that the young programmers of these bugs are merely playing around, just curious as to what the bug can really do, or how far it will spread throughout the Internet.

This is not to say, that there is not a bug without hostile intent involved. Many times the bug is set in motion to corrupt data, or loose file systems all together. This is where data junk is placed on the hard drive itself. The idea that someone could come into your system and corrupt it or vandalize it for sheer pleasure just goes to show you the lack of maturity, and respect some people have for the rest of the population. Worms are often noting more than a nuisance that leaves graffiti tag, so to speak where ever it goes. Revenge is also a great motivator for these absolutely ridiculous programs, a form of get back for this gone bad between friends or peers. This unfortunately is not uncommon, as people leave forms of backdoors or time bombs, meant to completely mess up a system by reason of resentment. Now the basis of malicious software is primarily profit motivated. It is now the case and point that no, Malware is not like Spyware. The latter of the two, being a pest and follows your movements. Malware is a malicious program, and attacks the file system, and logs on your machine. Pretty much it is only Malware that is a virus, Spyware is more of a tactic to monitor your movements and behaviors. This is for the purpose of marketing and sales pitches.

Warning Spyware Detected on Your Computer - The Fix

2008-12-13T02:51:00.000-08:00

If you have started to receive messages stating ” Warning spyware detected on your computer ” then it should be quite obvious that your operating system has become infected with spyware. Spyware infections pose great threats to your computer system in that they can harvest personal data and manipulate system settings with the aim of causing instability and stealing information. So the question at this point is what to do when you get a message saying ” Warning spyware detected on your computer “.

When it comes to spyware removal you will find that the only safe and reliable way of removing these infections is to make use of spyware removal applications. If you attempt to uninstall or delete a particular piece of software which has an infection manually you could end up saving money but you will NEVER get rid of the infection completely. This is because infections like spyware and viruses are designed to spread, duplicate and infect other targeted files and configurations within the windows registry which can only be correctly removed with a spyware removal application. So this is why you should never ignore messages that say ” Warning spyware detected on your computer ” which is a common mistake that most people make thinking that it will go away.

Furthermore, pc security tools like these are capable of detecting infection signatures within the contents on your hard drive and will be able to show you what type of risk levels the infections possess as well as their names. So basically any website that offers information or cures on how to get rid of messages like ” Warning spyware detected on your computer ” will direct you towards some form of infection removal application. It is best to avoid free spyware removal tools as many of them are notorious for containing malicious infections themselves and could end up corrupting your system if you use them.

When it comes to using infection removal applications I can highly recommend Xoftspyse which continues to gain huge popularity and respect as the most effective spyware and virus remover on the web today. If you would like to scan your computer with the latest version you can download it directly at the link below.

Spyware - Eradicate It Now

2008-12-13T02:48:00.000-08:00

Spyware removal has become a tedious work. As the spyware threat has worsened, a number of techniques have emerged to counteract it. Among these are

• programs designed to remove or to block spyware
• educating the users in such a way that spyware removal no longer is needed
• user practices which reduce the chance of getting spyware on a system.

Spyware remains a costly problem even with all new technology used to combat them. If a large number of spyware programs have infected a Windows computer, the only way to save the computer may be to back up user data, and fully reinstalling the operating system.

Anti-spyware programs

One of the markets most popular anti-spyware programs, Adwarealert will help you find and ultimately rid your computer of unwanted spyware software.

Many programmers and some commercial firms have released products designed to remove or block spyware. Steve Gibson's OptOut, , practially invented a growing category. Programs such as,

• Adwarealert
• Lavasoft's Ad-Aware SE
• Patrick Kolla's Spybot - Search & Destroy

rapidly gained popularity as effective tools to remove, and in some cases intercept, spyware programs.

Recently Microsoft bought the GIANT Anti-Spyware software, renaming it as Windows AntiSpyware beta and releasing it as a free download for Windows XP, Windows 2000, and Windows 2003 users. The renamed software for now exists as a time-limited beta test product that will expire at the end of July 2006. Microsoft is continuously developing and updating this product.

Antispyware protection, removal and antivirus

Major anti-virus firms such as Symantec, McAfee and Sophos have come later to the table, adding anti-spyware features to their existing anti-virus products.

In the beginning, anti-virus firms did not want to add anti-spyware functions, citing lawsuits brought by spyware authors against the authors of web sites and programs which described their products as "spyware".

However, recent versions of these major firm’s home and business anti-virus products do include anti-spyware functions. The spyware is treated differently from viruses though.

Symantec Anti-Virus, for instance, categorizes spyware programs as "extended threats" and now offers real-time protection from them (as it does for viruses). The drawback with these programs is that they are very complex and in many cases produce more hurdles to jump over then you as a user really need.

Like most anti-virus software, anti-spyware software requires a frequently-updated database of threats. As new spyware programs are released, anti-spyware developers discover and evaluate them, making "signatures" or "definitions" which allow the software to detect and remove the spyware.

If a spyware program is not blocked and manages to get itself installed, it may resist attempts to terminate or uninstall it. Some programs work together: when an anti-spyware scanner (or the user) terminates one running process, the other one starts up the killed program again, making it virtually impossible to clean the computer.

Some spyware will detect attempts to remove registry keys during the spyware removal and immediately add them again. Usually, booting the infected computer in safe mode allows an anti-spyware program a better chance of removing persistent spyware.

The most extreme way of cleaning is to move the hard drive to another computer, boot on the normal boot disk that computer has, and then clean the infected disk. You can also mount the infected disk over the local network and scan & clean it to remove as much spyware as possible.

It doesn’t matter what way you choose to clean your computer, but using a good spyware removal program will make your life much easier …

Browser Highjackers: Whats This Mean in Terms of Spyware?

2008-12-13T02:44:00.000-08:00

There is usually alot of confusion within the term "spyware" but we clear one thing up today with this post. Hopefully we can clear one thing up with you.

Read on....

When you think of a hijacker, what comes to mind? Generally, people think of someone who takes over a situation and runs it the way they want to get what they want. This is the hard cold fact about hijacking, and while it is definitely less violent than a physical hijacking, the results can be all the same. Someone comes in, takes over, and in the end the innocent party minding their business is the one who loses. Welcome to the not-so -pleasant work of browser hijacking. When someone gains entry to your machine, you can almost be sure that they are going to tamper with all that you have available. First and foremost it is the Internet browser, this seemingly is the easiest target to get too, and they do utilize it to the fullest. When it is taken over, you can be sure you will have virtually no control over what they are doing. You will not be able to stop it, short of turning your machine completely off or disconnecting from the Internet. By this time, it will clearly be too late.

This, again, is a form of Spyware, and it generally hits home computers or small business machines that they can weasel themselves through. It is the easiest for their entry, if they are clustered in a group of programs, and they lay in wait for you to accept a harmless java download or active x offer. This is very common when someone is sharing music via a music share program such as Lime Wire or Kazzaa. Once the program recognizes that there is an opportunity for entry, it is designed to open a field of banners and graphics that look relatively safe and professional for a website or distributor. Once they have this download sequence in process, it is easy for them to unload multiple packets of tainted information. This is sent in prior to the infiltration itself. The reason this information is sent in first is to allow for the lowering of all guards and firewall properties. This is where the program spreads out within the new host system, it goes to the e-mail directory for future propagation, it attacks and seizes the Internet browser, and makes changes to settings to interrupt the flow of the computers workings.

Once the browser hijacking has taken place, it is easy for someone to remotely direct you to sites that are not on your agenda. Many times it will take you to porn sites, in the attempt to gain valuable information on you to use at a later date. This is pretty much done to establish a card password or number of the IP address in order to use the information from offshore accounts. This will then be set up to use your home number as a base so to speak, for a porn site, where thousands of dollars can amass quite quickly in your name. This Internet browser hijacking will redirect you to undesirable sites, and frequently tamper with your browser settings. This will make for very frustrating and aggravating surf on the web. If this program is strong enough, it will easily place time coded stamps on the entire e-mail list in your computer. What this will do is then send a segment of information to all your contacts, under your name of course. When the person views the name, it will be recognized as safe, and open the file that was sent. This is how the propagation is initiated. In turn infecting all contacts on the list that open the said mail packet. Not only will it attack your e-mail contact list and hijack your Internet browser, but also it will move files around in a shuffling fashion. This will then make difficulties for many of your programs to operate properly. Sometimes they will not start or operate at all. It is important to ensure that this menace is stopped, by keeping a close eye out on what you click on and download. Just because it looks fairly safe does not mean it is. It is up to you to ensure that you are not the next target, alert your friends on suspicious programs that you have seen, if you frequent the same sites as them.

Reading spyware reviews will be helpful when you are looking for anti-spyware

2008-12-13T02:41:00.000-08:00

This title will explain already what this post is all about today so it typical style please

read on....

Using some type of anti-spyware program is very important for your computer. While surfing the net, you can pick up a lot of nasty infections. Spyware can function on your computer. For example, many people have had their systems crash from spyware. Or even worse some people have had their personal information stolen. Such a case is not rare. So you must equip your computer with anti-spyware. You can read anti spyware review to help make your decision if you are in the market for a spyware remover. Now there’s a lot of options out there. It’s worth taking some time to read up on which programs have a good reputation. Reading spyware reviews must be helpful when you are looking for anti-spyware programe.

U.S. federal court allowed CyberSpy Software to sell its spyware legally

2008-12-13T02:33:00.000-08:00

This is bound to cause out rage. It has here, how can this be allowed to happen. Its like allowing spam to be acceptable. Spyware is wrong simple as that plus its highly annoying.

Read on....

According to the recent report of the PC World the U.S. federal court has allowed a Florida company that sells a spyware program to continue its business on condition it changes advertising pitches that emphasize the product's clandestine nature. Since November 6, 2008 CyberSpy Software has been unable to sell its RemoteSpy application on the score of the injection granted by the court after a complaint by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC).

CyberSpy marketed RemoteSpy by giving detailed instructions on how to install the program on computers and surreptitiously collect data, alleged by the FTC. In accordance with the court determination CyberSpy cannot formulate its offering to the customers as ‘the program can be secretly installed or that keyloggers can be passed on as innocuous programs.’ As for CyberSpy, in an earlier court filing the company claimed that it warned users against monitoring computers without a person's consent as long as it is illegal with the terms stipulated in the software's license agreement. The company alleges that RemoteSpy is intended for legal uses such as monitoring children's Internet browsing.

While under the court’s permission CyberSpy Software run by one person, Tracer R. Spence, goes on its activity the company’s heavy emphasis on spying and how to hide the program raised concerns from the Electronic Privacy Information Center, a Washington, D.C. based civil liberties advocacy group, which filed a complaint with the FTC in March. U.S. District Judge Gregory A. Presnell underlined the danger of CyberSpy‘s promotional and instructional material focused on the ability of RemoteSpy to invade the privacy of an unsuspecting victim.

We need to monitor information security grifters, too

2008-12-12T10:18:00.000-08:00

A new report from the Anti-Phishing Working Group is yet another reminder of the information security threats we all face. This latest publication states that the number of compromised URLs used to distribute malicious code nearly tripled in the 12-month period from July 2007 through July 2008.

This data, along with similar research from McAfee, RSA Security, Symantec, and Trend Micro, demonstrate that the bad guys are taking advantage of the global recession with an increase in attack volume and sophistication. Certainly, security professionals recognize this unsettling trend, and according to ESG Research data, security remains a top IT priority for 2009. Based upon recent activities, it appears the federal government also sees the need for countermeasures.

While insiders seem to see the storm approaching, however, I'm worried about the Internet everyman--"Joe the Online User," if you will. Information security tends to be an esoteric topic sure to bore the pants off friends and neighbors at upcoming holiday parties, but there's more in play than ignorance alone.

I am starting to see a whole bunch of no-name security grifters pitching second-tier products and services with Chicken Little, "the sky is falling" scare tactics. You tend to find these guys are on drive-time radio and entertainment Web sites. I'm not alone in this observation. This week the U.S. District Court in Maryland ordered two fly-by-night companies to stop promoting "scareware" through online advertisements. These pop-up ads would warn Web surfers that their systems had been compromised by viruses, spyware, and even "illegal pornographic content." They were even so brazen as to suggest that users could be investigated or outed as some type of degenerate porn addict. Of course, they were happy to sell you software and services to alleviate the problem.

Unfortunately, there will always be a population of low-down dirtbags willing to take advantage of people's fears and hardships. After September 11 they pitched gas masks; they sold bottled water for $10 a piece following Hurricane Katrina. Given the cybersecurity activity out there, we are bound to see more and more of these security scams. The difference here is that security con artists are preying on fears that users really don't understand. Consumers may get scammed or become cynical--neither of which is good.

We need a focused effort to pull together as a security community, educate consumers, and push for strict punishment of these flimflammers. If not, things can only get worse.

12 Consumer Tips for the Holiday Season

2008-12-12T10:15:00.000-08:00

This is an important post as during these times where you may let your guard down those hackers wont.

Read on....

Holiday Tip #1: Gift Cards

Gift cards are available for purchase from nearly every retailer, restaurant or financial institution. While convenient, these cards may come with strings attached.

Some gift cards have expiration dates and fees that can lessen the card’s value. According to state law, a gift card or certificate cannot expire for at least five years, and no fees may be deducted from the face value of the card for the first 12 months after it is issued. However some other types of debit cards may charge fees. These fees may include activation fees, transaction fees, monthly maintenance fees, balance inquiry fees, replacement fees for lost or stolen cards, and inactivity or non-use fees.

Use the tips below to protect your investment this holiday season:

· Only buy cards from sources you know and trust. If the business closes or becomes insolvent, your gift and money are lost.

· Read the fine print on the card before you buy.

· Ask about expiration dates, purchase exemptions and fees.

· Give the recipient the original receipt to verify the card’s purchase in case it is lost or stolen.

· Treat gift cards like cash. If your card is lost or stolen, report it to the issuer immediately.

Holiday Tip #2: Return Policies

This holiday season, consumers should be certain they know a store’s policy on returns, exchanges and layaways before making a purchase. Many policies have added fees, require returns within a certain number of days, or only allow store credit rather than refunds.

Kansas’ three-day-right-to-cancel law only applies to door-to-door sales. There are no Kansas laws that require a store to follow a particular policy for refunds, store credits or exchanges.

Use the tips below to protect your investment this holiday season:

· Most layaway, refund and exchange policies are up to individual retailers.

· Make sure you read and understand a store’s policy before you make a purchase.

· Always keep your receipts and invoices. Most stores will not make refunds without them.

· When shopping online, find out whether you will be responsible for shipping costs on returns.

Holiday Tip # 3: Internet Auctions

Internet auction sites provide consumers with a global marketplace to buy and sell everything from houses to baseball cards. Unfortunately, hundreds of Kansans reported losing money last year in an online auction.

Online auction complaints often involve missing or late shipments, items advertised different from the items delivered, bogus online payments and fraudulent dealers who lure consumers from a legitimate auction site with a seemingly better deal.

Use the tips below to protect your investment this holiday season:

· Items purchased from online auctions may not arrive as quickly as items ordered from a store. Be certain you know when the auction ends and when the item will ship before you order.

· Read the Terms of Use for any auction site before using it.

· Never send cash or wire money. Try to use a credit card so you have a better chance of a refund if something goes wrong.

· Look at the item description closely, including the fine print.

· Save copies of all the emails you send and receive from the auction site or seller.

· Remember, if a deal sounds too good to be true, it probably is.

Holiday Tip #4: Fly by Night Web Merchants

Every year, consumers crowd stores searching for the most popular gifts of the season. These items are in such demand that stores run out of stock, leading desperate shoppers to look anywhere to purchase the item.

Scam artists exploit this situation by setting up fake Web sites or online auctions that offer these products. After collecting the money, scammers shut down their “stores” and disappear. The consumers are left with no gift item, and may even fall victim to further fraud through the use of personal financial information obtained through the fake website.

Use the tips below to protect your investment this holiday season:

· Only purchase from reputable online sellers who have a physical store that you can contact to verify your order.

· Only enter your personal financial information on secure Web sites, never provide this over the phone or email.

· Never reply to an unsolicited email offer advertising a popular gift item for purchase.

· Never wire money to any online retailer.

· If a deal seems too good to be true, it probably is.

Holiday Tip #5: Using Credit Cards

Many consumers rely on credit cards to charge their holiday purchases and pay for them later. While convenient, consumers should never let the busy holiday season make them forget a few basic rules of credit card safety.

To protect good credit, follow the tips below in mind while purchasing gifts this year:

· Before shopping, photocopy or write down your credit card information and store it in a safe place at home in case your card is lost or stolen.

· Watch your personal items while shopping and don’t leave credit cards or receipts lying around.

· Check your statements monthly and contact your credit card company within 60 days to dispute any unauthorized charges.

· Sign cards as soon as they arrive and don’t carry cards you do not need in your wallet.

· Know your spending limits, payment due date and interest rates.

Holiday Tips #6: Identity Theft

Identity theft occurs when someone steals personal information and uses it to commit fraud. This crime is common during the holidays because people are busier, they are shopping more online and they receive numerous email and phone offers.

By following these tips, you can help stop identity theft. If you have become a victim of identity theft, please contact my Consumer Protection Division at (785) 296-3751 or 1-800-432-2310. We may be able to offer information to help recover from ID theft.

· Protect your Social Security Number, driver’s license number, mother’s maiden name and bank account information. Never provide this information to unsolicited emails or phone calls.

· Minimize the personal information you carry with you.

· When shopping online, verify you are on a secure server (https://) before entering your credit card or financial information online.

· Never click on a link provided in an email that requests your personal information. It may be fraudulent. If in doubt, contact the company by phone.

· Check your bank and credit card statements every month for unauthorized charges and report them to your financial institution or bank card.

· Review the Attorney General’s Identity Theft Repair Kit for more information about protecting yourself from identity theft.

Holiday Tip #7: Merchandise Warranties

Consumers spend billions of dollars each year on service contracts and warranties. These agreements offer peace of mind from repair hassles, but can end up costing more than the value of the coverage.

When contemplating whether or not to purchase an extended warranty, take time to read the small print and review the terms and conditions the manufacturer’s warranty already covers.

Use the tips below to protect your investment this holiday season:

· Most electronics and appliances include a manufacturer’s warranty that covers the parts and service for a year.

· Compare the manufacturer’s coverage to the store service agreement to determine if it is worth the extra expense.

· Find out what repairs are covered and whether this includes “abuse, misuse or wear and tear”; all terms that may be subject to the interpretation of the merchant issuing the service plan.

· Determine standard repair costs. Sometimes, repairs cost the same amount as the service contract.

· Find out where you can receive service and if there are contract charges associated with repairs.

Holiday Tip #8: Interest Free Purchases

Consumers are inundated with “No Interest, No Payment,” or “Six Months, Same as Cash” deals during the holidays. If consumers qualify, these offers are often great ways to save on interest charges. If you are not careful, these offers can trap the consumers in debt. These offers can also carry high fees or interest rates if the requirements of the offer are not met.

To protect good credit, follow the tips below in mind while purchasing gifts this year:

· Read the fine print of any agreement before buying anything. Some "no interest" offers require minimum payments during the interest-free period.

· Be aware that if you do not pay off the full amount before the interest-free period expires, you can be charged interest on the entire purchase amount, dating back to the purchase date.

· Don’t wait until the end of the interest-free period to pay off the balance. It may be difficult to come up with the full payment at once.

· Keep your receipts and copies of your purchase agreement.

· Call the company to find out when your interest-free period ends and plan out your payments before you get your first statement in the mail.

Holiday Tip #9: The Truth about Rebates

Many retailers advertise big rebates on items to encourage you to buy. While these advertised prices are attractive, they are only a good deal if you actually fill out and mail the rebate in on time.

Most rebates are completed through the mail, and may be confusing or require significant time or documentation to complete. Consider the following information before purchasing products based upon the promise of a rebate.

Use the tips below to protect your investment this holiday season:

· Read the fine print. Find out exactly what documents are required, when materials must be mailed and when you will get your rebate.

· Mail your rebate information as soon as possible.

· Only trust rebates from reputable companies.

· Most rebates take several weeks to process. If you charge items to your credit card and don’t pay off the balance, you could pay interest on the full amount.

· Carefully consider the worth of a rebate if it requires you to enter into a long term commitment.

Holiday Tip #10: E-card Scams

During the holiday season, many consumers will receive an email claiming an unidentified “relative,” “neighbor,” or “friend” sent you an e-card. The email will include a link to view the card, but clicking the link can unleash anything from spyware and pop-up ads to viruses and Trojans.

Use the tips below to protect your computer this holiday season:

· When you open an e-card, you may unknowingly install software that harms your computer. Be careful clicking any link to an unfamiliar website.

· Delete e-cards from people you don’t know without opening or reading them.

· Never click on any link in a suspicious email.

· Never click to accept terms from any company without actually reading the fine print.

· Install antivirus and anti-spyware software and keep it up to date.

Holiday Tip #11: Credit Repair Schemes

Loan offers and credit repair schemes are particularly frequent after the holidays, when consumers may be left with more debt than they intended. These unsolicited offers may come by email, phone or through the mail, and most of them contain an upfront fee.

Follow the tips below to avoid becoming victim to these scams.

· Don’t believe lenders who claim they can create a new credit identity; remove bankruptcies, judgments or bad loans from your credit file forever.

· Everything a credit repair clinic can do for you legally, you can do for yourself at little or no cost.

· It is a federal crime to lie on a loan or credit application.

· Only time, effort, and a personal debt repayment plan will allow you to improve your credit report and pay off debt.

· If you have become the victim of a credit repair scheme, contact the Attorney General’s Office at 1(800) 432-2310 to file a complaint.

Holiday Tip #12: Resources for Help

This holiday season has been a particularly busy one for Kansas consumers. The sheer number of purchases made in the past few weeks result in higher instances of consumer fraud and may result excessive debt.

For help with consumer issues, use the resources below:

· Attorney General’s Consumer Protection Division 1-800-432-2310 or www.ksag.org

File a consumer complaint for any business transaction you believe is fraudulent, or to obtain information on a variety of consumer issues.

· Credit Card Companies

See credit card statement for contact information. Call your company to dispute unauthorized charges or to work out a modified payment plan if you cannot make your payment.

· Credit Reporting Bureaus www.annualcreditreport.com

Report fraud or request a free copy of your credit report.

· Kansas Bank Commissioner 785- 296-2266 or www.osbckansas.org

Obtain a list of approved credit counseling agencies and informational materials.

Infonetics Research: Content security market faring well despite, and because of, economic turmoil

2008-12-12T10:14:00.000-08:00

Another press release here and this time its good news. Despite this current financial climate it seems like security companies are still going well.

Read on....

CAMPBELL, CA, Dec 11, 2008 (MARKET WIRE via COMTEX) -- Two new reports from market research firm Infonetics Research provide strong evidence the content security market will fare well during the recession, as the drivers for buying content security products remain strong, if not increase, during economic downturns.

Infonetics' Content Security Appliances and Software report tracks and forecasts content security vendor revenue and product shipments quarterly, while User Plans for Content Security is a survey that uncovers the content security buying plans of 240 small, medium, and large organizations from various vertical markets. Together, the reports indicate the content security market is healthy from both the end-users' and the vendors' point-of-view, due to strong drivers including:

--  Regulation and compliance (a driver rising in importance in
   Infonetics' user survey)
--  Explosive growth in the number, variety, and volume of threats
--  Security investment as a cost-saving measure
--  Service provider spending on security
--  Reactive product buying to solve immediate security issues

"The global economy is hurting right now, but we expect content security overall to be a bright spot, not just despite the turmoil, but in part because of it. History shows that a negative economy stimulates security threats, resulting in an increased need to protect against them. As a result, we've actually upped our 2008-2011 content security forecast total by 2% in our quarterly forecast report," said Jeff Wilson, principal analyst for network security at Infonetics Research.

Highlights from Infonetics' Content Security Appliances and Software report:

--  The worldwide content software and appliances market increased 6.6%
   from 2Q08 to 3Q08, to $516 million, led by strong sales in all world
   regions, especially North America
--  Websense leads the overall content security market (appliances and
   software) in 3Q08, and Blue Coat leads the content security appliance
   segment
--  Cisco's posted the strongest gain in 3Q08, increasing its content
   security appliance revenue 21%

Highlights from Infonetics' User Plans for Content Security, North America 2008:

--  Symantec, Cisco, and McAfee were named by study respondents as the top
   three content security manufacturers in an open-ended question
--  Cisco scored higher than other content security vendors in 5 of 7
   criteria, including security, technology, service and support, management,
   and financial stability, although they score lowest in pricing, which could
   be an Achilles heal in this market
--  Cost is the number-one barrier affecting customer deployment of new
   content security solutions
--  Preventing data leakage is high on the list of drivers for buying
   content security products, and is a particularly interesting segment to
   watch
--  Performance requirements for content security gateways are on the rise
   in general, due in large part to increased threat volume

Infonetics' Content Security Appliances and Software report provides market size, market share, forecasts, and analysis for content security gateways, broken out by software and appliances, including messaging, Web/malware, and integrated appliances. The service tracks BlueCoat, Cisco, Citrix, McAfee, SonicWALL, Symantec, Trend Micro, Websense, and others.

Infonetics' User Plans for Content Security study provides in-depth analysis on organizations deploying content security over the next 2 years, and their plans for protecting against Web, IM, and e-mail threats, and from viruses, spyware, malware, data leakage, and other content-related attacks. The data is based on interviews with purchase decision makers at 240 organizations from a wide variety of vertical markets. The study covers trends, drivers, barriers, product and service preferences, expenditures, a manufacturer scorecard, and more.

For report highlights, log in to Infonetics' online portal from www.infonetics.com (see Network Security). For sales, contact Larry Howard, vice president, at larry@infonetics.com or +1 (408) 583-3335.

Infonetics Research ( www.infonetics.com) is an international market research and consulting firm serving the communications industry since 1990. A leader in defining and tracking emerging and established technologies in all world regions, Infonetics helps clients plan, strategize, and compete more effectively.

Spy Emergency 2008 v5.0.605 - SoftWare - Anti-Spyware

2008-12-12T10:12:00.000-08:00

We report on another spyware software package now. Could this be the next big thing.

Read on......

Spy Emergency 2008 v5.0.605 → SoftWare - Anti-Spyware

Spy Emergency 2008 v5.0.605 - 34 MB

Spy Emergency is the anti spyware, anti malware, anti spam solution that fast and secure removes spyware, malware, spam and other internet threats from your computer. Spy Emergency protects you against thousands of various infections and potencially unwanted software, including spyware, adware, spam, virus, trojans, worms, homepage hijackers, remote administration tools, activex components, dialers, scumware, keyloggers, data mining software, toolbars, tracking cookies, browser, hijackers/BHO's.

Spy Emergency do not slow down your computer and still protects you while your are working not like others spyware removal software. Spy Emergency has more than 985,000 threat definitions in its signature database! Small and regular definition updates greatly reduce update downloading time. Spy Emergency is ready to fight malware on Windows Vista operating systems.

You might be running free Anti-Spyware to save money but these products may not catch really bad stuff and in the wild malware and spyware including worms and trojan horses. So you need something more powerful antispyware weapon like Spy Emergency really is. With built in malware detection heuristics Spy Emergency detects new and unknown in the wild malware threats even before they are detected by other vendors virus scan and signatures update.

Spy Emergency supports not only detection for adware malware and spyware but even detection for malware threats like trojans, worms and backdoors. It checks your e-mails not only for malware but for spam messages too with built-in spam filter. When trojan worm or computer virus is detected it is automatically blocked.

Just simply three clicks to wash your problems away with Spy Emergency spyware adware removal software. By simply clicking the Start button your system scan starts immediately. Click on the Next button to review detected items, click on the Remove button to remove it..