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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

Beware McDonalds Christmas Offer Email is Spyware

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

Read on....


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

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

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

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

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

Don’t open unknown email attachments

Don’t run programs of unknown origin

Disable scripting features in email programs

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

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

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

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.

Security in Recession

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

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

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.

Merry Malware - Tis the season for postcards

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

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.®

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

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.?

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.

Spyware - Eradicate It Now

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 …

Reading spyware reviews will be helpful when you are looking for anti-spyware

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.

We need to monitor information security grifters, too

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.

This is a real WARNING! I am not joking around

I recently came accross this article that I had to share. I to have been caught not once but twice by the so called anti virus virus that claimed to be a Windows XP product title "anti virus 2008". Now it seems the same thing is in the circles only now a 2009 version.

Read on.....

If any of you have problems with your computer shutting down, or seeming to crash , then it reboots itself back up with a big WARNING saying you need Antivirus 2009 don't believe it. It is very official looking, but if you look you will notice it has no name except Anitvirus 2009. Apparently this is happening to a lot of people. My computer has been messed up all day. I googled the apparent company Meyrocorp or Cure-soft and there are a ton of complaints about the company being non existent. Here's the thing you do not get those names unless you buy this so called Antivirus 2009. Yes I bought it.

I could not download the program, so I called there help line which has a lame recorded message. This is what made me start to worry. The message said give us up to 48 hrs. to respond back. I tried to e mail for help got the same message. "Leave your problem and give us 48 hrs. to respond. As I said it all looks very official like a Norton Security message. Before my computer would crash. I would get a message saying Windows was shutting down contact w/ the web because I needed to download this program.

I have called the bank and put a stop on my payment which oddly enough went through Hrpay.com a so called consulting firm that helps w/ payroll. This site looks very proffesional also.
But neither my husband or I ordered anything through this company.

I am getting a new card from the bank, they are stopping payment and hopefully I have caught this in time, before any real damage is done.
You know I always think people caught in scams are so stupid. Well I guess I am one of them.