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New scareware sends you to fake Download.com reviews by Seth Rosenblatt Last week, BleepingComputer.com reported on how to remove a new variant of an old scareware. This new nasty, known most commonly as Antivirus2010 or Anti-Virus-1, points you to spoofed versions of Download.com, ZDNet, PCMag.com, and other software sites, demanding that you download their program to clean your computer. Of course, it does nothing of the sort, merely perpetuating the infection. However, the manner and methods Anti-Virus-1 uses to get you there are extremely clever. The infection part

Conficker variant dispenses with need to phone home. Stealth variant Sidesteps MS-led takedown effort By John Leyden 23rd February 2009 13:16 GMT Virus authors have released a new variant of the infamous Conficker (Downadup) worm with enhanced auto-update features. The changes in the new strain of the malware, dubbed Conficker B++, make it possible for malware authors to push out new code without publishing it on pre-programmed sites, as with earlier variants. The earlier approach has been frustrated by the recent formation of an alliance led by Microsoft geared up to block and tak

Facebook application "Error Check System" bombards users with bogus messages 23 February 2009. Sophos reported that a rogue application, called 'Error Check System' has bombarded some members of the social networking site with bogus notification messages saying that friends had experienced problems viewing their profiles. Sophos experts note that since Facebook does not approve applications before they are made available on the site, users are often putting their trust in complete strangers when they choose to install the next application. In this instance, there was nothing wron

Adobe Reader/Acrobat JBIG2 Stream Array Indexing Vulnerability Extremely critical Software:Adobe Acrobat 7 Professional Adobe Acrobat 7.x Adobe Acrobat 8 Professional Adobe Acrobat 8.x Adobe Acrobat 9.x Adobe Reader 7.x Adobe Reader 8.x Adobe Reader 9.x Secunia Advisories - http://secunia.com/advisories/33901/

Windows 7 Capable' PCs Slated For June Microsoft intends to offer free upgrades from Vista to Windows 7, documents show. By Paul McDougall February 23, 2009 10:22 AM Microsoft plans to launch an upgrade program beginning in June that will allow consumers who purchase a Vista PC to upgrade to Windows 7 for free when the new operating system becomes available, according to company documents obtained by a popular tech blog Under the program rules, consumers who purchase Vista-based computers from June 28 onward will be eligible for the upgrade, according to documents posted this wee

Mobile Phone Viruses on the Upswing Carrie-Ann Skinner, PC Advisor Sunday, February 22, 2009 7:12 AM PST "Viruses and spam attacks targeting mobile phone users are on the increase, says McAfee. According to the security firm's annual mobile phone report, over half of all handset manufacturers have reported instances of malware and spam attacks on mobile phones. In 2008, 17 percent of the world's handset manufacturers reported a total of over one million attacks. "Overall, there has been a dramatic upswing in the number of incidents across all the major threat categories -- includ

Three Ways Twitter Security Fails Joan Goodchild, CSO Sunday, February 22, 2009 8:10 AM PST "Despite the popularity, Twitter still a lot to do when it comes to securing the platform. (See "3 Ways a Twitter Hack Can Hurt You.") Two security experts weighed in about three areas where Twitter poses some significant risks. URL shortening: Twitter "Tweets" have a character limit of 141 characters. Many users enter urls that are too long and which are automatically truncated with a shortening service, such as TinyURL. Users can't tell where the link is going when they scroll over to i

Microsoft: Online Gamers Still a Top Malware Target Robert McMillan, IDG News Service What's the most common type of malware on the Internet? Viruses? Botnet code? How about password-stealing worms, designed to victimize online gamers? Microsoft said Thursday it had removed nearly 1 million samples of a particularly virulent password-stealing worm in the first half of February. The company's Malicious Software Removal Tool (MSRT) rooted out more than 981,000 copies of a family of programs called Win32/Taterf, best known for stealing usernames and passwords for games such as World of

Scam Antivirus App Spreads Malware Oliver Garnham, PC Advisor Saturday, February 21, 2009 2:15 PM PST Web users have been warned about a new scam that posts fake product reviews in a bid to encourage people to buy a rogue security application called Anti-virus-1. The app is one of a number of bogus security products which promise to provide protection against the latest online threats, but instead have been designed to spread malware or hold users' PCs to ransom. But if you use the internet to research Anti-virus-1, it's possible you'll find a number of glowing reviews, because the

Microsoft to Test Windows 7 Update Tool Gregg Keizer, Computerworld Saturday, February 21, 2009 2:16 PM PST Microsoft will test Windows 7 beta's update mechanism next week by feeding users as many as five fake updates, the company said last week. People running the public beta of Windows 7 will be offered the mock updates beginning on Tuesday, Feb. 24, said Brandon LeBlanc, a Microsoft spokesman. Microsoft wants to test the Windows Update service's ability to offer, download and install updates to the new operating system. "These updates do not deliver new features or bug fixes,

20 February 2009, 11:29 Zero day hole in Adobe Reader and Acrobat Adobe has warned of a critical hole in Adobe Reader and Acrobat for all operating systems. The hole can be exploited to infect computers with malware. Although the flaw is already actively being exploited by attackers, Adobe reportedly does not plan to release a patch, or an update, to close the hole in the series 9 versions, until the 11th of March. Updates for version 7 and version 8 are to follow shortly thereafter. For a successful attack to occur, the victim has to open a specially crafted PDF file. According to

February 20, 2009 4:19 PM PST Three data breaches hit Florida, one hits the feds by Elinor Mills Another day, another data breach. If you bought something at a Best Buy store in West Palm Beach, Fla., late last year, or stayed at a Wyndham hotel in Florida last summer, or use a U.S. government travel Web site you might want to check your credit card statements closely. Best Buy warned this week that 4,000 customers of a store in West Palm Beach may have had their credit card information stolen when they made their purchases. The chain terminated the employment of a worker a

Near-final Vista SP2 reaches testers, on track for mid-May release Microsoft confirms new Windows build to select group, more info coming 'soon' By Gregg Keizer February 20, 2009 (Computerworld) Microsoft Corp. has wrapped up work on a release candidate for Windows Vista Service Pack 2, according to reports on the Web, corroborating a schedule disclosed last month that slated final delivery of SP2 by mid-May. The company would only confirm that it recently notified some testers of a new build, but declined to say whether that was a release candidate, dubbed "RC" in software devel

The Bathtub Test During a visit to the mental asylum, a visitor asked the Director: "How do you determine whether or not a patient should be institutionalized?" "Well," said the Director, "we fill up a bathtub, then we offer a teaspoon, a teacup and a bucket to the patient and ask him or her to empty the bathtub." "Oh, I understand," said the visitor. "A normal person would use the bucket because it's bigger than the spoon or the teacup." "No." said the Director, "A normal person would pull the plug. Do you want a bed near the window?" ARE YOU GOING TO PASS THIS ON, OR DO YOU WANT THE BED NEX

Facebook Flap Last month, Facebook quietly changed its terms of service to grant itself "an irrevocable, perpetual, non-exclusive, transferable, fully paid, worldwide license" to anything you upload. When news finally hit the blogosphere this week, Facebook users were outraged--even though CEO Mark Zuckerberg insisted his company would never use its powers for evil. After much brouhaha, Facebook went back to its old TOS. Read on for a look at the privacy issues involved, Zuckerberg's initial response, and more on Facebook's about-face. "Facebook's Privacy Flap: What Really W

Lavasoft AD-AWARE Pro 8.0.2 Anniversary Edition Review timestamp(1235089800000,'longDate') by Erik Larkin, PC World Ad-Aware's new antivirus engine offers some extra protection, but you may be better off with just a solid antivirus program. The new, $40 Anniversary edition of Ad-Aware Pro, Lavasoft's antispyware application, is unfortunately nothing to celebrate. Though it brings in an antivirus engine to supplement its antispyware scans, the program missed a large percentage of malicious files--including adware and spyware--on test scans. And using it is no cakewalk, either. In sc

New in-the-wild attack targets fully-patched Adobe Reader Locked and loaded By Dan Goodin in San Francisco Posted in Security, 20th February 2009 01:59 GMT Security watchers are warning of a serious unpatched vulnerability in Adobe's Reader program that's actively being exploited to install malware on the PCs of unsuspecting users. The vulnerability has been confirmed in versions 8.1.3 and 9.0.0 of Adobe Reader running on Windows XP Service Pack 3 and is presumed to work on other versions of Windows as well, according to this advisory from Shadowserver. Adobe for machines running

Five Reasons Why the Nintendo DSi Rocks Nintendo has given its hot handheld a massive upgrade. Here's why we love the new DSi. Dave Rudden, GamePro The Nintendo DSi is on the horizon, but the millions and millions of original DS and DS Lite owners may be asking themselves whether picking up a new version of their favorite portable is necessary. The DSi is not just an excuse for Nintendo to make a quick buck; it's loaded with new features. If these five new fun additions don't have you trading in your old portable at GameStop, nothing will. Details & screenshots at PC world - http:/

Bot busts newest Hotmail CAPTCHA Spammers' tool takes longer but gets around Microsoft defenses 20% of the time by Gregg Keizer February 18, 2009 (Computerworld) Spammers have cracked latest defense against abuse of its Live e-mail service using a sophisticated network of hacked computers that receive encrypted instructions from a central server, a security company has reported. The botnet, or collection of compromised PCs, can decipher Live Hotmail's CAPTCHA (Completely Automated Public Turing Test to Tell Computers and Humans Apart) registration safeguard in about 20 seconds, sai

Microsoft expected to wrap up IE8 within weeks Will declare new browser's RTM next month, says TechARP.com by Gregg Keizer February 17, 2009 (Computerworld) Microsoft Corp. will finish Internet Explorer 8 (IE8) next month, according to a Web site that has accurately predicted other moves by the company. TechARP.com, a Malaysian Web site that has reported on Microsoft's plans to offer free upgrades from Windows Vista to the newer Windows 7, said today that Microsoft will reach IE8's "release to manufacturing" milestone, also known as "RTM," in March. "Microsoft will RTM Internet Exp

Hackers steal thousands of Wyndham credit card numbers By Robert McMillan February 18, 2009 (IDG News Service) Hackers broke into a computer at Wyndham Hotels and Resorts last July and stole tens of thousands of customer credit card numbers, the hotel chain warns. The break-in occurred at a property belonging to a Wyndham franchisee, but that computer was linked to other company systems. "That intrusion enabled a hacker to use the company server to search for customer information located at other franchised and managed property sites," the company said in a statement disclosin

February 17, 2009 4:10 PM PST Symantec debuts Norton Online Family by Seth Rosenblatt Known for its security software, Symantec on Tuesday launched a new program aimed at educating parents about their children's online usage. Norton Online Family, now available in beta, is a parental control suite with multiple levels of restriction and an emphasis on usage reporting. Citing a Rochester Institute of Technology study that found a huge gap between the percentage of parents versus children who report no online supervision, Symantec says that Online Family is intended to bridge that gap by "fos

Top 9 Dirty Tricks Scammers Use Beware the outlandish come-ons and pick-up lines you'll encounter when criminals are on the prowl. Joan Goodchild, CSO What the average guy might call a con is known in the security world as social engineering. Social engineering is the criminal art of scamming a person into doing something or divulging sensitive information. These days, there are thousands of ways for con artists to pull off their tricks (See: Social Engineering: Eight Common Tactics). Here we look at some of the most common lines these people are using to fool their victims. Social Networking

Smartphone Threats Intensify Enterprise data at risk, according to new McAfee report, which shows mobile device manufacturers seeing more malware attacks than ever before Feb 17, 2009 | 02:26 PM By Kelly Jackson Higgins DarkReading Security threats were bound to catch up with the proliferation of smartphones across the enterprise. More than half of mobile device-makers said their products experienced malware, voice-, or text spam attacks last year, according to a newly published report from McAfee. Experts have long warned that smartphones, such as Windows Mobile and iPhone handsets, coul