A 2010 study by Google found 11000 domains hosting fake anti-virus software, accounting for 50% of all malware delivered via internet advertising. EXAMPLES:

 Beware AntiVirus 2010...also 2011, 2012:  We’ve had lots of client experience with this particular malware the past 2 years.  It’s very tricky, because its developers have made it so that you cannot go to any websites that would provide help in removing it.  For example, while you might be able to go to eBay or Yahoo, you cannot go to Symantec or bleepingcomputer.com.  It can sometimes be tough to remove, very tough.

And don’t fall for these other, similar Fake Anti-Virus messages, either:

BEWARE:  Fake anti-virus alerts can carry viruses, malware and spyware which can damage, even cripple, your computer.  They MUST be COMPLETELY removed as soon as they appear!

  January, 2012:  Symantec has announced that if you are using it’s PC Anywhere program for remote access, you should stop.  Apparently the source code, therefore the security, has been stolen by an Indian hacking group and it has been severely compromised.

  November, 2011:  Internet security firms have reported that the Duqu Trojan virus is a zero-day exploit of a previously unknown vulnerability embedded in Microsoft Word files.  The virus has infected a total of eight countries, including Iran, India, France and Ukraine, but not yet the U.S.  It seems to target and scan internal corporate systems to gather information, reporting back to an as yet unknown source.  It doesn’t look like a problem for most residential surfers, although Microsoft is working on a patch.

  October, 2011:  If you’ve ever wondered whether some of the spam you receive is the result of your friends on Facebook, Norton now offers a tool called Norton Safe Web, which scans your web browser to see if any infected links come from your Facebook account. If you’re an active Facebook user, this may interest you.

  Technology is always a double-edged sword.  Take cars.  With the explosion of new types of computers and chips in recent cars, including the ones which control navigation, offer emergency assistance (a/k/a “telematics”), check tire pressure, automatically park, monitor emissions, employ diagnostics to monitor anti-lock brakes and fuel injection, run radios, permit keyless entry, and allow cell phones to communicate can, conversely, allow hackers to intrude into those systems, usually through Bluetooth or other entry points, where they can take control of all of the computer related systems.  This could become a problem.  Encryption may help, but defense is always a moving target. 

  September, 2011:  According to the NY Times (9/29/11), Heidi Klum is this year’s most dangerous celebrity - to search for on the Web at least - according to McAfee Security.  Clicking on links promising sexy pictures of her comes with a nearly one-in-10 chance of contracting a bad case of malware.

  August, 2011:  The Morto worm, which targets Windows computers by exploiting poorly chosen passwords through Remote Desktop Protocol (“RDP”) has arrived and, if it gets into your network, it can clog the network.  But it’s not much of a concern if your anti-virus software is kept current.

  August, 2011:  It’s amazing how many ways spammers can find to attack your computer with malware.  Here’s the latest:  E-mails, supposedly from the NY State Dept of Motor Vehicles (it has a @nyc.gov address), posing as a “Uniform Traffic Ticket” informing you that you are charged with speeding at 7:25am on 5 July 2011.  They tell you to print out the attached ticket and send it to the court and -- oops -- here’s where you download the malicious code onto your computer and compromise your security.  Don’t do it - check out any tickets directly through NY, not by clicking on an e-mail!  Also:  There’s a similar scam claiming it’s a notification from the FDIC, to the same effect.

  July, 2011:  By now, you should realize that Firefox automatically updates itself.  So, if you receive an e-mail allegedly from Mozilla asking you to update, don’t click on it.  It does download Mozilla.  But it is also a Trojan Horse known as Troj/PWS-BSF which can steal passwords.

  July, 2011:  Recent events (the U.K. News of the World scandal) have prompted people to wonder if they’re vulnerable to “phone hacking.”  Actually, this is a misnomer, as what is actually involved is simply illicit access to voicemail messages, usually because the phone’s user has failed to change the default PIN for voicemail access.  If you haven’t changed the default issued with your voicemail account, someone could dial the carrier’s access number, enter the default PIN and listen to your messages.  The answer:  Set your personal PIN.

  July, 2011:  Those spammers sure don’t waste any time.  In the same week that Google+ was introduced, they sent out bogus Google+ invitations that were actually online pharmacy come-ons.

  Multi-Function Printers (“MFPs”) can pose network security risks.  Particularly offices.  The newer e-printers which rely on wireless technology to connect computers and iPads to the MFP can be hacked.  So be sure to protect yourself from this vulnerability by enabling WPA2 encryption on the network, combined with a secure password.  Also, turn off other Wi-Fi  and Bluetooth devices if they’re not being used, as hackers will always pick the weakest link on the network. 

  It’s not even safe to play on your Xbox any more without fear of being hacked.  Ask Hunter Gelinas of Florida, who found the SWAT team at his house in June, 2011 after a Canadian hacker sent out a hoax call to police that hostages were being held at his home.  Any time you get on the Internet, even for gaming, you run the risk of being hacked.

  More than 4 million Windows PCs have been infected since March, 2011 by a botnet known as “TDL.”  The boot sector virus, now in its fourth version, is close to indestructible, according to Kaspersky Labs, and spreads via web sites, particularly those that let people store video and image files.  

  June, 2011:  Link to the Mac page to read about the Mac Defender virus and other security updates for Macs. Also, the possible malware infections you can subject yourself to if you use the jailbreakme website information.

 Guardian Analytics reports that about 75% of SMBs in the U.S. experienced online fraud and/or bank account takeover in the 12 months preceeding April, 2011.  Banks didn’t detect the fraud in 78% of the cases.  Businesses suffered monetary losses 60% percent of the time, the bank 37% of the time.

 Microsoft IE9s “Do Not Track” feature doesn’t have any teeth.  When you enable this feature in your browser (same for Firefox 4; not available in Chrome and Safari), it’s only a request, indicated by an electronic flag that is visible to web operators.  But they aren’t obligated by law or otherwise to honor such requests.  In fact, there may be as yet no technological way to do so.  For now, just stick with deleting cookies and search histories or using anonymous browsers.

 March, 2011:  Good news!  Led by Microsoft, Pfizer and FireEye, the Rustock botnet, which pumped out 44 billion pieces of spam (mostly masquerading as Canadian pharmacies, actually located in India and elsewhere) is no more, at least for now.  The amount of spam worldwide actually dropped by 47.5!

 May, 2011:  hacker groups LulzSec and Anonomyous invaded police departments, the CIA, PBS, the U.S. Senate, Fox and other sites.  After 50 days, they retired.

 March  2011:  Recently, a malware known as LizaMoon has hijacked links on literally millions of websites, including some of the normally safe ones such as iTunes and Google.  Like Anti-Virus 2011, LizaMoon uses rogue-AV scare tactics to trick you into running bogus cleanup tools on your PC, usually to no avail.  You can avoid this by simply not clicking on the come-on.

 ZeuS (a/k/a Trojan.Zbot) just won’t go away.  One of the most damaging and persistent malicious code, ZeuS runs below the radar as a rootkit, where it gathers account numbers and passwords then sends them off to data dump dropzones over the Web.  What makes ZeuS more damaging is its ability to evolve, infecting machines through a variety of sources, focusing on differing attack vectors, modifying web pages, even attacking smart phones.  It’s difficult to protect against and remove.  And it’s not going away any time soon; in fact it’s for sale on the Internet.

 Cloud computing can be a double-edged sword:  While it makes it easier to archive and retrieve data from anywhere at a very reasonable cost, it also makes it easier for hackers to propagate viruses and malware inexpensively and anonomyously.  Because of the nature of the cloud, they can’t be found like they could if they were using their home computer, and powerful cloud computers make their job faster and easier.  Click HERE for more information on cloud computing.

 It’s a new year and the security summaries for 2010 have been published, along with the vulnerability predictions for 2011.  No great surprises here. Cisco reports that, while mass attacks are reduced, targeted attacks like phishing, identity theft and malware, are on the rise, as the payoff is greater.  Summarized:  As more people use mobile devices and bring them into the workplace, they will come to the forefront of security.  Social media attacks will become more common and more complex, as e-mail and ordinary virus attacks decline.  Rootkits and MBR viruses will increase, however.  McAfee and Trend Micro say their data shows that Google’s Android platform as well as Apple’s iPhone and Mac OS, and geolocation service FourSquare and URL-shortening services used by Twitter and FaceBook are all in cybercriminals crosshairs. Net-Witness and Websense also predict that botnets are now roaring back in the new year after a downturn in the final quarter of 2010, and that there will be a botnet “cyberware” which will most likely be won by the Zeus botnet (over competitors Kneber, Rustock and Waladac) which will be incrementally upgraded with opt-in and JavaScript cross-site.  Finally, as the result of the Wikileaks controversy, there may also be an increase in politically motivated attacks.

 2011 Virus Stats:  PandaLabs reports that Malware increased 26% during the beginning of 2011, and 16% over the end of 2010.  70% were Trojans. Similarly IBM’s 2010 Trend & Risk Report found that almost half of vulnerabilities were web application issues, caused by cross-site scripting and SQL injection malware (see SPYWARE page).

 2010 Virus Stats:  4 Qtr. 2010 1.2 million web sites were affected by malware according to Dasient Internet Security, double that of Q4 2009.    Most were drive-by downloads (see Spyware), surpassing older forms of incursion such as spam and e-mail attachments.  Maybe the arrest of Russian Oleg Nikolaenko (a/k/a The King of Spam), author of the Mega-D botnet which sent 10 million spam e-mail messages a day, has had some (temporary) effect.

 The Microsoft security scammers are back again.  If you receive an e-mail allegedly from the “Microsoft Security Team” urging you to update your Windows, don’t fall for it.  The subject line may say “Update Your Windows” and it may be from Steve Lipner (who really is with Microsoft’s security team), and it may attach a file (KB453396-ENU.zip).  Trash this mail, as it will infect your computer.  And remember - Microsoft NEVER sends e-mails with security updates.

 It’s an excellent prediction that the next big area for viruses and malware will not be over computers but smartphones.  Companies such as McAfee (which just purchased ten-Cube, before itself being purchased by Intel) and Symantec (which just updated its antivirus software for iPhone, Android and SMobile Systems) are all developing protection for smartphones. Lookout, a San Francisco startup, has compiled a database of more than 1 million smartphone apps which it uses to detect new threats and block potentially malicious applications, as well as to provide data backup and the ability to remotely wipe data in the event the phone is stolen.  Apple vets applications before allowing its users to download them to their iPhones, making them somewhat safer than the Android applications, which aren’t checked by Google before posting to the Internet for download.  So you can end up with such things as the (Droid) tip calculator which, when downloaded, also forwarded the phone user’s text messages to hackers, giving them the potential to learn potentially sensitive information, such as on-line banking information.  Or other apps that automatically call expensive, premium-rate phone numbers without the user’s knowledge, racking up potentially huge bills. And don’t forget that tablets aren’t laptops, so they don’t get as many security updates and can’t be “locked down” as easily.

 Talking about cell phones, many of their browsers make use of shortened URLs (addresses).  From a security point of view, using these shortened URLs (such as TinyURL, bit.ly & is.gd) present security risks, since the full URL is hidden.  It’s a good idea to go to the full URL website if at all possible.  Unfortunately, it’s different for almost every shortened URL and every browser.  For example, to view the full address for bit.ly, add a “+” sign and past it into your browser.  For tiny.url, prepend the word “preview.” before the address, then copy into your browser.  Several sites such as Longurl, Expandmyurl.com and longurlplease.com also offer these services.  Moreover, both Firefox and Chrome have add-ons that can be installed to preview the full URL.  Joshua Long, a/k/a “The Joshmeister,” has compiled an excellent article about how to preview all types of shortened URLs.  You can reach it by clicking HERE.

 Some viruses have actually been unleashed by hackers dropping a USB drive in a parking lot which became plugged in by a (naturally) curious person.  The infamous Stuxnet worm in mid-2010 was also most likely propagated through USB flash drives.  It is likely that in the future this vector for malware delivery may increase.  One way to make it less likely to do its damage is to disable the “autorun.inf” file in Windows.  That’s the file that automatically loads programs or searches for drivers once a disk or device is inserted into the computer.  If it runs automatically, this means that if the media contains the virus, it may automatically load; Also, if Windows automatically must search on the web for a driver for the device, it may go to a site which will download a purposely infected driver.  To disable the driver search feature in Windows (which would still allow you to search for a missing driver, although manually), here’s how: In Windows XP, Start>Control Panel>System>Hardware Tab>Drivers>Windows Update, then uncheck “Never Search Windows Update for Drivers”.  In XP and Win7, Start>type “change device installation settings” in the search box>in the pop-up window, under “Do you want Windows to download driver software...” select “No, let me choose what to do,”  then choose the option “Never install driver software from Windows Update”.  Disabling the autorun feature is more complex, involving editing of a registry key (see HERE).

 Cloud computing is great, but there is a still a general security issue:  If you store everything in the cloud and your computer is hacked or your laptop stolen, it’s a simple matter for someone to get all of your data, something that might not happen if you store your data on external devices such as tapes, disks or flash drives.

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