Tag: Malware
Facebook "sexy video" scam lures users into installing malware
It's been a rough week for Facebook. First their privacy policies were run through the wringer, and now there's another ad scam doing the rounds, looking to poach user's sensitive information. According to Sophos, thousands have been hit by a…
SmartSwipe credit card reader makes online shopping safer
SmartSwipe, the USB credit card reader that makes shopping online quicker and safer, is now available from Firebox.com. Great for online shopaholics and those wary of inputting their credit card details online, this USB gadget lets you swipe the card…
"iTunes" PC virus targets iPad owners
CORRECTED – 9.30, 27/04/10 PC-usingiPad owners have been targeted with a new virus. Disguised as an iTunes update that offers better "performance, newer features and security, the download is infact a malicious piece of malware designed to scoop up…
UK businesses at threat from "evolved" cyber criminal attacks
The CA Internet Security Business Unit have released their latest State of Internet security report, revealing that rogue or fake security software, major search engines, social networks and Web 2.0 threats were the most notable online security issues in 2009….
Windows Black Screen of Death is due to a malware attack, claim Microsoft
Been hit by the annoying Black Screen of Death since the last Windows update? Malware and not Windows itself is to blame, claim Microsoft.
Microsoft to release beta of the free anti-virus of to-Morro
Microsoft is prepping a beta release of their free anti-virus software, Morro. There’s no fixed date as yet but with the full version set for launch by the end of the year The Soft has hinted that we’re looking at a matter of weeks/days.
The move comes as one hell of a pain for the likes of McAfee, Symatnec et al who’ve responded with the usual scaremongery about their experience in the field and superior levels protection and blah, blah, blah but their share prices have dropped by a per cent or nonetheless.
Morro appears to be a stripped down version of Microsoft’s failed $40-a-year Live OneCare suite, which was a commercial disaster, and is set to be pulled in November. Doubtless, it’ll have a significantly better uptake now that you don’t have to pay for it and I’ll be interested to see whether the likes of Dell still offer trials for subscription anti-virus. Looking forward to the waves.
Panda launching free cloud-based antivirus product
If you want an antivirus product, but you’re not keen on having a weighty product bogging down your system, you might be interested in taking a peek at a new beta release from Panda Antivirus.
It uses proprietary technology that’s been developed over three years to identify new malware applications in as little as six minutes from their release into the wild. It also handles nearly 50,000 new samples a day. To improve performance, it scans executable files immediately, but the rest of your PC when it’s idle.
It’s free because Panda wants to use data from your computer to identify new threats. What Panda hopes will be ‘millions of users’ will send heuristics info to a central server that can crunch all the data nearly in real-time.
The program takes up 50MB on your hard disk, and just 17MB of RAM when in use. Panda hopes to get this down to 12MB by the time it’s officially released. Of course, if you’re not connected to the internet, you lose a certain amount of protection, but given that the internet is the source of most virus activity, that’s not such a big issue, really.
Panda Cloud Antivirus (via Cnet)
Conficker Watch: The worm awakens
The worm has turned. Conficker has awoken. It’s updating peer-to-peer and dropping in a mysterious load thought to be a keystroke logger. For the 3 to 12 million users thought to be infected, it would seem like a good time to stop using your bank accounts and start re-installing Windows.
The worm will contact sites like MySpace.com, MSN.com, eBay.com, CNN.com and AOL.com in order to check internet connectivity, drop the key logger.sys file behind a rootkit such that your anti-virus won’t be able to pick it up and then disappear with no further replication by 3rd May.
The .sys file will, of course, still be there and will still report back from the host computer to the rest of the botnet. All very pleasant stuff.
You can visit one of these two sites to see if your machine is infected.
(via CNET)
Sexy View – mobile malware not a pr0n site
It may sound like the kind of thing Borat would say but Sexy View is a piece of malware aimed at mobile phones and designed to send back data on your handset and your number.
It targets S60 3rd Edition…
AVG 8.5 anti-virus software out now
For me anti-virus is all about AVG and Avast because I hate paying for things. In fact, paying for things is one of my greatest enemies in life.
If we fight the same foe, then you’ll be pleased to hear that AVG has released the 8.5 version of its security software today as of 1pm. This latest incarnation comes in a three tiered paid version and, of course, a basic one for free.
The free version now comes with…
