Unstoppable new phishing attacks blanket Facebook, Twitter, Hotmail
October 28, 2009
How quaint seem the days when naïve hacker wannabes phished PayPal logons, then posted them on IRC chat channels, to try to make a few bucks — but mostly for bragging rights. That was circa 2002-2003.
Fast forward to the present. At this moment, Facebook is being blanketed by two high-volume email phishing campaigns.
These are serious, money-making drives that leverage PCs infected in previous attacks. While the perpetrators get …More
Windows 7’s security ‘time bomb’
October 26, 2009
Battered by braggart hackers and a budding cybercrime industry, Microsoft changed paradigms when Bill Gates issued his “Trustworthy Computing” memo on Jan. 15, 2002. No longer would the world’s richest software company make functionality king. Security would be the new guidepost.
“Great features won’t matter unless customers trust our software,” Gates pronounced at the start of 2002.
Fast forward to the fall of 2009. While Microsoft has made great strides in …More
Windows vs. Linux security strengths and weaknesses
October 23, 2009
With the launch of Windows 7 on Thursday 22Oct2009 , Linux vendors, led by IBM, are touting the intrinsic security superiority of Linux vs. Windows. Vendor hype aside, the Windows 7 launch does raise two big questions:
In what way is Windows 7 more secure than Vista or XP?
Is Linux truly more secure than Windows?
Jacob West, Director of Security Research at application security firm Fortify Software, …More
Americans open to biometric screening as trust in Web 2.0 falters
October 22, 2009
Not all Americans crave convenience over security.
A new survey by tech systems consulting firm Unisys and Leiberman Research found 93% of 583 respondents open to the notion of using fingerprinting to confirm their identities and secure their data.
Some 58% of those polled by Unisys said they would be willing to provide biometric data to merchants and financial institutions to verify their identity. This includes retinal and perhaps …More
Scareware purveyors advance to using blackmail and creating botnets
October 20, 2009
WHAT YOU CAN DO TO RECOVER: Use free VIPRE PC Rescue program
Symantec and Panda Security have separately uncovered yet more evidence underscoring the rapid advance of scareware – and the increasing guile of its purveyors.
PandaLabs virus hunter Sean-Paul Correll recently discovered an attack that not only bombards you with obnoxious sales pitches for worthless antivirus protection – it also prevents …More
Scareware recovery: How to manually restore your malware infested PC
October 20, 2009
This sound familiar? You cannot stop scans that pop up on your screen and warn you that your PC is infested with viruses. This is followed by insistent pitches to pay $30 to $100 for a cleanup service and ongoing protection.
So sorry. Your PC is infested with scareware. See this report about how scareware purveyors are resorting to blackmail to get you to pay for worthless antivirus protection — …More
Pharm spam, pitching fake drugs, accounts for 70% of all spam
October 13, 2009
Pharm spam — messages pitching fake pharmaceutical drugs — is swamping the Internet. Antivirus giant McAfee today issued this report finding that 70% of spam in September came from scammers directing recipients to websites for a bogus Canadian drug retailer.
The messages aim to take advantage of fears about swine flu and rising health care costs, and do not originate from Canada, says McAfee Labs researcher Adam Wosotowsky.
IBM X-Force on Friday also …More