Security 2009 is a rogue anti-spyware from the same family as SpyProtector. This program is advertised through the use of fake advertisements on web sites that pretend to be online anti-malware scanners that state you are infected with a variety of malware. This advertisement will then state that you should download and install Security 2009 in order to protect and clean your computer from these threats
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Internet security suites do little to protect users against exploits, according to security notification firm Secunia. The Danish security notification firm is urging a root and branch rethink on how security suites are designed, moving away from "ineffective signature-based detection" to a smarter form of defence.
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Renowned botnet researcher Jose Nazario of Arbor Networks offers up some interesting new data in a recent blog posting over at CircleID on the fast-flux networks being used to prop up botnet activity. One of the most interesting new angles is that there are actually not that many fast-flux nets in use, but they are apparently being used to generate sizable sums of money by the cyber-criminals using them.
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Don't believe everything you read on the Internet: Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama isn't a terrorist...or a porn star. A malicious spam e-mail is spreading that claims to have a link to a sex video of Obama but is instead spyware that steals sensitive data from the computer, security firm Sophos warned on Wednesday.
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Antivirus software on your PC could soon be a thing of the past: US engineers have developed a new approach to malicious software detection using ‘cloud computing’, where applications are provided through the Internet.Traditional antivirus software is becomign increasingly ineffective due to severe vulnerabilities in their engine. The boffins observed malware – malicious software – detection rates as low as 35 per cent against the most recent threats.
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Facebook Inc. has blocked links between its social networking site and malware-infested Web sites that malicious hackers have been trying to lure Facebook members to. "We've identified and blocked the ability to link to the malicious Web sites from anywhere on Facebook. Less than .002% of people on Facebook have been affected, all of whom we notified and suggested steps to remove the malware," wrote Max Kelly, Facebook's head of security, in a blog post early Friday.
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On Monday, Symantec opened two of its Norton 2009 products to public beta. Both Norton Internet Security 2009 and Norton Antivirus 2009 feature new code that not only makes the scans and services run faster, but consume fewer system resources, says Tom Powledge, vice president of consumer product management.
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Security Toolbar 7.1 is a variant of the infamous Zlob. This malicious toobar usually makes it's way to the system by disguising itself to be a video codec. The purpose of this parasite is to promote rogue anti-spyware programs, such as the recently popular VirusHeat and many others. Security Toolbar 7.1 does this by redirecting the browser to unsolicited rogue websites and displaying popups and fake system notifications to scare the user.
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AVG Technologies, a leading provider of Internet Security software, announced the release of AVG Internet Security 8.0 for the 28th Feb, the latest version of its flagship suite for consumers and SMBs. AVG 8.0 delivers a significant number of new benefits to users designed to deliver enhanced protection against the latest web-borne threats without sacrificing the product’s signature efficiency and unobtrusiveness.
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Apple computers' will increasingly be targeted in the future, but will they reach levels synonymous with Windows? The results of a Sophos web poll, reveal the answer. The survey, "Big Mac attack or super-sized hype?" revealed that 93 percent out of 355 respondents believed Apple computers will be increasingly targeted in the future, a 14 percent increase from a similar survey conducted only two years ago where 79 percent believed Apple computers would become more commonly targeted by hackers.
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as "B.D.H." pleaded guilty this week to charges that he used botnets to illegally install adware on hundreds of thousands of computers in the U.S., including some belonging to the military. A statement from the U.S. attorney's office in Los Angeles announcing the teenager's plea calls him a "well-known juvenile member" of the botnet underground.
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Name a security suite, and most of what comes to mind are big names: Symantec, PC-cillin, McAfee. Maybe Kaspersky or Grisoft AVG. But there's a whole slew of other system-protection suites out there that are either quite new or not as well known, and which deserve a closer look. We've assembled a survey of five system-protection / antivirus productions that aren't as widely known (Dr.Web, TrustPort), or that come from companies known mainly for other products.
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McAfee Avert Labs has received reports of a new phishing attack that purports to be from the U.S. Internal Revenue Service (IRS). This email attack is similar to IRS phish campaigns seen before and offers victims a $375.20 refund directly to their credit card for filling in an online form.The phish is hosted on a legitimate website based in the United States that deals with special effects for Halloween and movie props.
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Go on any security Web site and their best practices state that you should “never view, open, or execute any email attachment unless the attachment is expected and the purpose of the attachment is known.” But what if it’s your job to open attachments? In this day and age, human resources (HR) managers post job openings online to get the widest possible distribution. Gone are the days of newspaper ads and window postings; managers want to attract as many qualified applicants as possible and Web postings are inexpensive and effective.
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I am a 57-year-old retired truck driver with three stepdaughters, two of whom don't think the old man knows a thing about computers. Little do they know that I have a BA in computer science and can run circles around all of their friends. One time, the oldest girl's computer got so clogged up it would freeze, and the only way out was to hard-boot it. I cleaned it up, but there was so much damage done to the OS that I had to reformat the drive and do a fresh install of XP. I tried to save as much as I could of her pictures and music, but even that was hopeless.
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Trend Micro Ships Anti-Botnet Utility Trend Micro is testing a nifty anti-botnet utility capable of listening for botnet-related traffic on infected Windows machines. Trend Micro's new RUBotted beta, available as a free download (.exe), is a lightweight program that intelligently monitors Windows machines for remote (command and control) commands sent from a bot-herder. These can include commands to turn the zombie machine into a spam relay; launch denial-of-service attacks; or host malicious Web sites for phishing attacks.
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Taking advantage of system vulnerabilities — most often the result of missing, or uninstalled, patches — malware authors are continually taking advantage of websites that have significantly high traffic (and this everyone knows) to target unsuspecting users.
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In today's Internet world, protecting end-user PCs from the unknown is one of the most important things you can do. No matter how a system is compromised -- be it a virus or a "drive-by" install of malicious code via a Web site -- there is no end to the amount of irritation and potential financial damage that the user or company might suffer. With most attacks zeroing in on identity theft, can you really take a chance?
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Peed bot – aka "Storm Worm" aka "Nuwar" – was number one on the BitDefender® Top 10 malware list for 2007. According to BitDefender Labs, the spread of the Peed bot has placed it higher that the prolific category of trojan downloaders by almost 10 percent overall, at 33.94 percent of total detections in the past twelve months.
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When I go on the Internet to do my work, check my email or do some personal banking, I have to admit I rarely worry about how secure my connection is. This is not very smart on my part, I know. But I didn't fully realize how potentially hazardous cyberspace could be until I came across a study by AOL and the National Cyber Security Alliance. After examining computers from more than 350 households, they found that 80 percent lacked core protections...
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As reported Wednesday, there's a new piece of OS X malware in the wild—a Trojan Horse that changes your Mac's Domain Name Server address. We’re already covered how to detect and remove that particular piece of malware. Now let's turn our attention to what you can generally do to prevent such things from getting installed in the first place.
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The time we spend using the web in a work situation has increased hugely and is now part of the daily routine of most companies. Yet, many people are still unaware that simply browsing the web can result in picking up malware, a term which covers a multitude of security threats such as Trojans, spyware, key loggers, worms, viruses, phishing, hacking and other forms of malicious activity. Simply clicking on a web site page, can result in acquiring these undesirable additions to your network.
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While you may be in the privacy of your home reading this blog, by connecting to the internet you might as well be in Times Square. People may not be able to see that you’re reading this in your rattiest sweats (although maybe some of them can), but you're interacting with people either directly or indirectly each time you get your email or surf the web. While most of us have a fair idea of how to deal with strangers while we're out and about in real life, it doesn’t seem that most people understand the rules of dealing with strangers on the internet.
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Would you give a complete stranger access to your personal letters, tax returns and bank account password? No, probably not. But that is exactly the kind of information criminals are stealing from people who connect to the Internet without safeguarding their computers.
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Think of software vulnerabilities as a doughnut. The delicious sugary goodness of software (operating system, Internet browser, media player, what have you) is compromised by a hole. Things can go through that hole, but the shape of the hole doesn’t really say anything about what will happen once something is on the other side of that hole.
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Microsoft Corp. released four security fixes it deems critical as part of its regularly scheduled software update Tuesday, while it corrected a handful of problems caused by last week's emergency patch.
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One of my favorite anti adware programs Lavasoft's Ad Aware SE Personal is getting a long deserved makeover. I downloaded the most recent beta 5 version (released Thursday) of Ad Aware 2007 Beta and like what I'm seeing. Ad Aware 2007 Beta features improved detection of adware and hidden malware, a scanning engine that goes easy on your PC's system resources, and a snazzy new interface.
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The virus world remains in a state of flux. In the first three months of 2007, we've seen three different malicious programs topping the ratings. Each month there are more and more new malicious programs, wave following on wave, and taking up their places in our Top Twenties. What's more, it's clear that many of these programs are competing with each other for supremacy.
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A vulnerability in the way Windows handles animated cursors puts users at risk of being pwnd, and several nefarious websites are already trying to exploit the flaw, according to the SANS Internet Storm Center.
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Firefox users will be receiving automatic updates to their Firefox 1.5 and 2.0 browsers after the Mozilla Foundation released updated versions of the code. A variety of features have been fixed mostly concerned with usability. Only one part of the update is security related, pertaining to the FTP protocol found in both versions of the browser.
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While you may be in the privacy of your home reading this blog, by connecting to the internet you might as well be in Times Square. People may not be able to see that you’re reading this in your rattiest sweats (although maybe some of them can), but you're interacting with people either directly or indirectly each time you get your email or surf the web. While most of us have a fair idea of how to deal with strangers while we're out and about in real life, it doesn’t seem that most people understand the rules of dealing with strangers on the internet.
Would you give a complete stranger access to your personal letters, tax returns and bank account password? No, probably not. But that is exactly the kind of information criminals are stealing from people who connect to the Internet without safeguarding their computers.
Think of software vulnerabilities as a doughnut. The delicious sugary goodness of software (operating system, Internet browser, media player, what have you) is compromised by a hole. Things can go through that hole, but the shape of the hole doesn’t really say anything about what will happen once something is on the other side of that hole.
Microsoft Corp. released four security fixes it deems critical as part of its regularly scheduled software update Tuesday, while it corrected a handful of problems caused by last week's emergency patch.
One of my favorite anti adware programs Lavasoft's Ad Aware SE Personal is getting a long deserved makeover. I downloaded the most recent beta 5 version (released Thursday) of Ad Aware 2007 Beta and like what I'm seeing. Ad Aware 2007 Beta features improved detection of adware and hidden malware, a scanning engine that goes easy on your PC's system resources, and a snazzy new interface.
The virus world remains in a state of flux. In the first three months of 2007, we've seen three different malicious programs topping the ratings. Each month there are more and more new malicious programs, wave following on wave, and taking up their places in our Top Twenties. What's more, it's clear that many of these programs are competing with each other for supremacy.
A vulnerability in the way Windows handles animated cursors puts users at risk of being pwnd, and several nefarious websites are already trying to exploit the flaw, according to the SANS Internet Storm Center.
Firefox users will be receiving automatic updates to their Firefox 1.5 and 2.0 browsers after the Mozilla Foundation released updated versions of the code. A variety of features have been fixed mostly concerned with usability. Only one part of the update is security related, pertaining to the FTP protocol found in both versions of the browser.