More IT Information

Sophos has just posted a warning about an electronic postcard that is being sent out containing the Trojan Mal/Zapchas-A.
The email's appearance makes one think that it came from a friend and is very similar to any other postcard one might receive asking the users to go the some site to download the postcard. The file is named postcard.exe which should serve as a warning immediately - most e-postcards and e-cards run as a flash animation embedded in the website itself.
Full information and a copy of the actual text of the message can be found here.

Labels: email, microsoft, spam, spyware, trojan, virus, windows

Spammers have developed a new way of avoiding email filters.
It seems spammers are taking standard newsletters that may be sent by legitimate well-known sources and adding either malware or adware in the message or adding links to malicious websites.
Similarly there are also spam emails emerging with the appearance of breaking news stories to try to get users to open them.
All of these types of spam can carry a Trojan and according to Sophos' monitoring there was a point where up to one in 200 emails contained a Trojan. The spam usually contain files such as Full Clip.exe, Full Story.exe, Full Video.exe, Read More.exe, and Video.exe.

Labels: adware, email, phishing, scam, spam, spyware, trojan

Most people on the Internet have heard of spyware, but there still are many who consider it as something that only happens to others. Of course, this is where they are wrong and the effects of this are great. Spyware is known for causing many problems and doing many things including stealing people's identity, causing a computer to function as a spam relay, displaying pop-up ads, and slowing the system so much that it's difficult to use.
There are two types of spyware, one is very harmful and includes Trojans and keyloggers designed to steal information while the other is happy to just redirect users to other content and monitor their Internet activity. While this second type is not stealing personal information, it is still harmful for your computer as it will slow it down. This may not be much for one piece of "adware", but usually it is never just one piece and you will notice a difference.
Surfing habits of users have been seen as a cause of more or less spyware with children's sites giving the most adware and gaming sites containing spyware and adware. Online shopping is the safest and usually doesn't add any malicious software to a system.
More information including how to protect and prevent spyware from stay on your system can be found here.

Labels: adware, internet, safety, spyware, trojan

Microsoft has released Windows Defender which was formerly known as Microsoft AntiSpyware beta.
Windows Defender has improved its ability to detect and remove spyware including the real time monitor. The definition files have also been changed so that they are smaller to allow for faster download times.
Microsoft will offer free support for installation and configuration, definition updates and errors with detection and removal, but only for a limited time after installing the software.
There is one possible disadvantage. While users should not be using pirated copies of Windows or any product, the inclusion of testing for that may not be the best option as we have already seen that it may not be accurate always. Windows Genuine Advantage (WGA) is a part of Windows Defender and while it will not lock your system if it detects a non-genuine version of Windows, it will run at a lower functionality level. It will show all spyware, but only remove the severe ones from the list on a non-genuine Windows.
Because of WGA having a tendency to sometimes wrongly accuse a system of being non-genuine, I would not recommend getting this software for fear that one day it will stop functioning correctly. I still recommend Ad-Aware for its ease and performance.

Labels: defender, microsoft, spyware, wga, windows

Microsoft's researched how often their Windows Malicious Software Removal Tool has scanned and found malicious software. Their findings suggest that about one in every 311 scans finds something and that 5.7 million machines out of 270 million have been cleaned by this program, which translates to about 1 in 47 computers. This is all during a time when there has been no widespread attacks and most attacks are more targeted.
On a brighter note there has been a drop in the number of viruses and worms over the last 15 months. Hopefully this translates to people getting less viruses and not to rootkits becoming better at hiding.
Also worthy of noting, hacker produced code has only been removed 10000 times while most of it was from other sources. For example the famous Sony BMG rootkit was removed 420000 times on 250000 computers.  

Labels: adware, microsoft, spyware, windows

For those who want a little more security at their home or small office, D-Link has a product that includes network protection, a firewall, an anti-virus solution, protection from spyware, identity protection, a pop-up blocker, a SPAM blocker, and parental controls in one device that is smaller than most DSL or cable modems. There are different profiles for different users and each profile can have limits set on the times when it can connect to the internet. Certain websites can be blocked as well to prevent people from viewing unwanted sites.
The Securespot Internet Security Adapter from D-Link connects between your modem and router and works with computers running Windows XP or 2000 or Mac OS X with Internet Explorer or Firefox.
All administration is done through web-based forms and the device is updated automatically as soon as new definition files are available to provide the most protection.
You will need to enter some billing information into the system as some of the features do have a cost. The device itself costs about $100 and includes a one-year license for up to 4 computers. The following years the users must pay $79.99/yr. for the license for the first 4 computers and $19.99 for each additional license. Not so expensive when you consider the cost of Norton or other security systems which are about the same or even a little more for each year's use. Also this device does more than just general security which would involve paying even more for similar features.  

Labels: adware, antivirus, firewall, internet, safety, security, spam, spyware

There is a new technique to get you to download an applicaton that will steal the passwords from your computer. An email is sent that claims to be from Skype. It then takes you to a fake Skype page and encourages you to download Skype. The problem is this is not Skype but malware called skypekur.exe. This file installs password recovery tools that then steal the passwords from your computer and send them back to the person who originally sent the email.
Currently there is one advantage that will prevent many people from falling victim, the email and page is in Turkish. That being said it would take no effort to change it into any other language. Most importantly is to be careful where you download Skype or any application from and to never trust emails asking you to download something.  

Labels: adware, email, skype, spam, spyware

 StopBadware.org and Google have recently joined forces to provide protection against sites which contain malicious software. When you click on a link from the Google search engine, a warning will come up instead of loading the page which gives a report on the types of danger on the page. An example of the report can be found here.
This should help many people avoid downloading malicious software. Although it may be useful to browse through stopbadware.org's reports to see if any information is located for sites that you regularly visit if there is a possiblity that they could contain such applications.

Labels: adware, Google, internet, spyware

Of course we all know about the dangers of viruses and worms that are so commonly talked about. We probably have all heard of spam by now too. Spyware is a popular word among the Internet as well. But the fastest growing problem on the Internet is not something that you can protect yourself from as easily as by running software to block or detect it. The fastest growing problem requires people to be wise and careful about what they do and what information they give.
Phishing which involves making a website or email that looks legitimate asking for personal information such as passwords and bank account numbers is becoming the number one problem on the Internet.
For more information and ways to prevent such things happening to you read this article.

Labels: internet, phishing, safety, spyware

A new firm out of San Mateo, CA is beginning to sell a USB based on the smart card chip to enable users to access their favorite secure sites without having to type an user name or password, making it more secure for people to do their online banking, etc. InformationWeek has the complete article.
While this does solve part of the problem, there still is the issue that the users should be responsible in their use of their computers by refraining from actions that will allow malicious code from entering their computers and updating their virus scaners and adware scanners. Most importantly if the users actually do regular scans of their computers for such programs as trojans and key loggers the majority of the problem will go away saving the user from having to spend the $50 for the USB key that would be my first target when burgling homes. Why steal anything else when you now have the person's entire bank account. To finish off with one last point, how long should we assume it will take for someone to crack this device and create some malicious software to read the information from it.
Yes we can create more and more elaborate devices for Internet security, but the one best way to keep your data secure is to use common sense and good practices when using the Internet.

Labels: adware, antivirus, internet, safety, security, spyware