AntiVirus Firewall Software

Bank of America SiteKey Scam

2010-04-19T04:15:00.000-07:00

Tuesday March 23, 2010

Scammers count on scaring you into a knee jerk reaction. And what better way to scare you than to claim your bank account has been restricted? In the latest phishing scam targeting Bank of America customers, the subject predictably reads: "Important message about your account". In the message itself, the scammers start off politely:

As part of our efforts to provide a safe and secure environment for the
online community, we regularly screen account activity.
Our review of your account has identified an issue regarding its safe use.
We have placed a restriction on your account as a precaution.

Then they begin prepping you for the kill:

To lift the restriction we will require some further information from you.

If, once we review your further information and we're confident that the
use of your account does not present a safety risk to our service and
customers, we'll be happy to reinstate your account.

And then they move in for the kill:

We have sent you an attachment which contains all the necessary steps in order to restore your account access.
Download and open it in your browser.
After we have gathered the necessary information, you will regain full access to your account.

Of course, if you open that attachment (named "Site Key Verification.html") and enter the requested information, the only one gaining full access to your account will be the attackers.

More about: ???--
This post was made using the Auto Blogging Software from WebMagnates.org This line will not appear when posts are made after activating the software to full version.

Gonzales Accomplice Gets Probation, Nets $50G

2010-04-18T04:15:00.000-07:00

Tuesday March 23, 2010

Remember the old saying, "if you do the crime, prepare to serve the time". That doesn't seem to apply too often these days, and particularly not with cybercrime. Jeremy Jethro, found guilty of selling an Internet Explorer exploit to Albert Gonzalez - the guy behind the TJ Maxx, Heartland Payment Systems, and several other data thefts impacting tens of millions of consumers - received just three years' probation and a $10,000 fine.

Jethro received $60,000 from Gonzalez for the exploit thus netting a tidy profit of $50,000. The reason for leniency? According to his attorney, "the judge took into consideration her client's life change in 2006 when he turned to Christianity and 'renounced any aspect of any wrongful behavior'." Seems to me that an awful lot of criminals coincidentally turn to Christianity sometime after getting caught for the crime and the actual trial date. At least he should be required to tithe that $50,000 profit.

More about: ???--
This post was made using the Auto Blogging Software from WebMagnates.org This line will not appear when posts are made after activating the software to full version.

Pictures Ruse Used to Spam Zeus/Zbot

2010-04-17T04:15:00.000-07:00

Wednesday March 24, 2010

Scammers are spreading the Zeus/Zbot backdoor by sending an email warning recipients that (presumably embarrassing) pictures of them were posted online. The text of the email reads:

Hey, some jerk has posted your pictures (u understand what kind of pictures are there) and sent a link of them to all ur friends. I have already replied back. Said, that he is an idiot. See the link:

Clicking the link loads a bogus 'photo archive' which is actually the Zbot trojan. According to threat researcher Ivan Macalintal of Trend Micro, the email sent is highly personalized, making it appear legitimate and potentially leading to a greater number of victims falling for the scam. Pictures of the email and the file downloads are available in this Trend Micro blog post.

One easy way to cut down on the risk of social engineering attacks is to use the free Trend Micro eMail ID which helps verify the authenticity of the received mail. Trend's eMail ID works with a range of different mail providers, including Gmail, Hotmail, AIM, and Outlook. For a complete list of supported mail programs and other system requirements, see the Trend Micro eMail ID product page. And did I mention, it's free?

More about: ???--
This post was made using the Auto Blogging Software from WebMagnates.org This line will not appear when posts are made after activating the software to full version.

TJ Maxx Attacker Gets 20 Years

2010-04-16T04:15:00.000-07:00

Friday March 26, 2010

Albert Gonzales, who used a custom data theft trojan to steal 96 million credit and debit card numbers from retailer TJ Maxx (including daughter companies HomeGoods and Marshalls), has been sentenced to 20 years in prison. Gonzales still faces sentencing for his role in the data theft leveraged at Heartland Payment Systems, 7-11 and other companies.

While carrying out his crimes, Gonzales was receiving a $75,000 annual salary as a paid informant for the U.S. Secret Service. In both the TJ Maxx and Heartland Payment Systems heists, the presence of the data theft trojans went unnoticed for considerable periods of time, prolonging the exposure and increasing the damage done.

According to Terence Spies, Chief Technology Officer at Voltage Security, "The payments industry is working hard to implement new technologies that remove credit card data from networks and databases, either by encrypting it or by storing proxy tokens. These techniques give an attacker that breaks into a merchant or processor environment nothing but useless random numbers."

Spies cautions, "Rolling these technologies out will not be trivial by any means, but technology suppliers, merchants, processors, and standards groups are all working together to make these systems strong and cost efficient to implement."

Voltage participates in several of these initiatives. According to Voltage, several payment processors, including Heartland Payment Systems, have already adopted systems like this that
This post was made using the Auto Blogging Software from WebMagnates.org This line will not appear when posts are made after activating the software to full version.

Apple iPad Testers Needed - NOT!

2010-04-15T04:15:00.000-07:00

Monday March 29, 2010

A new scam is promising recipients that you can test and keep an Apple iPad. The bogus email arrives as follows:

Hello ,
Your contact "
This post was made using the Auto Blogging Software from WebMagnates.org This line will not appear when posts are made after activating the software to full version.

JC Penney Attempts to Bar Disclosure of Data Theft

2010-04-14T04:15:00.000-07:00

Monday March 29, 2010

According to court documents, JCPenney was a formerly unnamed victim in the credit card heists carried out by Albert Gonzales. It hasn't yet been revealed whether credit card or customer information from JCP was actually stolen or just accessed - and with hundreds of million credit card numbers lifted, I imagine it's difficult to tell. Regardless, given current laws that require companies to divulge when consumer data has been put at risk, it seems amiss at best that JCPenney has been able to dodge the requirement for reporting this long.

Some might even ask whether JCPenney's unwillingness to step forward is counter to the best interests of their customer. That allegation would beg the question of whether it was truly safe to shop there. Unless you plan on using cash.

The court documents naming JCPenney were procured by the Open Security Foundation and published by DataLossDB which reports such incidents on behalf of consumers. As they state, "judge for yourself". To make an informed decision on what JCP did, or did not do, see: "JCPenney has dodged a huge bullet... until now".

More about: ???--
This post was made using the Auto Blogging Software from WebMagnates.org This line will not appear when posts are made after activating the software to full version.

Beware Facebook Free MacBook Air Offer

2010-04-13T04:15:00.000-07:00

Tuesday March 30, 2010

For over a year now, Facebook users have been periodically plagued with scam offers for a free MacBook Air. The pitch starts with a Facebook message from a friend of yours (aka victim) who recommends the "FREE Mac-Book - Product Testers Wanted
This post was made using the Auto Blogging Software from WebMagnates.org This line will not appear when posts are made after activating the software to full version.

Kim Jr: Scammer at Law

2010-04-12T04:15:00.000-07:00

Tuesday March 30, 2010

This seems to be the week for scams. The following isn't new, but it just began making the rounds again:

From: "Kim Jr." This post was made using the Auto Blogging Software from WebMagnates.org This line will not appear when posts are made after activating the software to full version.

Intego Offers iPad Protection

2010-04-11T04:15:00.000-07:00

Wednesday April 7, 2010

Intego has released a new update to VirusBarrier X6. The latest version, 10.6.5, now supports scanning of Apple's new iPad. The previous version of VirusBarrier X6 already supported scanning of
This post was made using the Auto Blogging Software from WebMagnates.org This line will not appear when posts are made after activating the software to full version.

McAfee Sued Over Misleading Ads

2010-04-10T04:15:00.001-07:00

Saturday April 10, 2010

Antivirus vendor McAfee is facing a potential class action lawsuit amid claims it engaged in misleading advertising that duped customers out of money. David Kravets at Wired News has the full report and a copy of the court documents. See: Lawsuit Says McAfee Plays Loose With Customer Data.

More about: ???--
This post was made using the Auto Blogging Software from WebMagnates.org This line will not appear when posts are made after activating the software to full version.

Protecting Yourself On FaceBook

2010-02-15T03:02:00.000-08:00

It’s not all about the numbers of friends. Remember when you accept a friend request you provide your new friend with access to lots of information about you. This includes, posts, photographs, messages and all the background information that you write about yourself. You can delete friends at any time, so perhaps it’s time to refresh your list and think about who you really want accessing your information.
Recently, Facebook changed the default privacy setting to share information publicly. It’s worth spending some time to go through your settings and adjust where necessary; you may be sharing more than you intended. You even have the option to add ‘limited profiles’ for those people that you may not want accessing your personal information. It’s up to you how you want to use these settings so it’s definitely worth having a look to create a profile that’s right for you!
Ask yourself what you want to achieve with your profile. Is it just to share photos, or keep in touch with people, or even to share links and updates of your activities? Sometimes it’s better to cut down what you show on your profile; this includes signing up to applications which also take a lot of your data. You can always add or remove options as you go, so if your needs change, so should your profile.
Try not to use the same passwords on all of your accounts. It’s also important to be mindful of where you are sending your updates and the types of security questions you set.

Check that the computer that you sign in from doesn’t store your email address and password. It seems simple but often it’s easy to accidently choose it to ‘remember you’. Make sure you have the appropriate privacy settings on your browser.

Make sure that what you say in status updates and comments is something that you would be comfortable seeing on the front page of a newspaper. Once you post it, anyone that sees it can copy and post it elsewhere, or take action based on it. Do you really want everyone to know that you will be all alone at home tonight or away next week?

Over the past year, there have been many attempts to get users to give up their login and passwords by tricking them with fake emails from Facebook. Never select any email links asking you to click to reset your password. Always go directly to Facebook – if there is a problem, Facebook will notify you on site.

If friends start receiving spam from you or status updates appear that you didn’t make, your account may have been compromised. If you think this has happened, immediately change your password. If you can’t log in to your account, go to the Help link at the bottom of any Facebook page and click on Security to notify Facebook about your account.

Be mindful about who might have access to your mobile phone. Many phones today have apps that connect you into many social networking sites such as Facebook. Therefore, if you use these apps, make sure you log out of them when you are no longer using them.

Watch out for suspicious activity on your Wall, News Feed and Facebook Inbox. Never, ever click on suspicious links. They can often look enticing, e.g. “Hey come look at my charity cycling pictures on my site.” Before you click, look closely! Does the site look authentic? If in doubt, don’t click on it.
As with any online activity be smart, be aware, be careful, and you can stay as safe on Facebook as anywhere else.

Bookmark & Share

The Symptoms Of An Infected Computer

2010-02-08T12:00:00.000-08:00

It’s not always easy to tell if your computer has been compromised. More than ever before, the authors of viruses, worms, Trojans and spyware are going to great lengths to hide their code and conceal what their programs are doing on an infected computer. That’s why it’s essential to follow advice and install antivirus security software, make sure you apply security patches to your operating system and applications and backup your data regularly.
It’s very difficult to provide a list of characteristic symptoms of a compromised computer because the same symptoms can also be caused by hardware and/or software problems. Here are just a few examples:

Your computer behaves strangely, i.e. in a way that you haven’t seen before.
You see unexpected messages or images.
You hear unexpected sounds, played at random.
Programs start unexpectedly.
Your personal firewall tells you that an application has tried to connect to the Internet (and it’s not a program that you ran).
Your friends tell you that they have received e-mail messages from your address and you haven’t sent them anything.
Your computer ‘freezes’ frequently, or programs start running slowly.
You get lots of system error messages.
The operating system will not load when you start your computer.
You notice that files or folders have been deleted or changed.
You notice hard disk access (shown by one of the small flashing lights) when you’re not aware of any programs running.
Your web browser behaves erratically, e.g. you can’t close a browser window.

The best course of action to avoid these problems is to have a top anti virus software installed on your computer.
Kaspersky Anti-Virus 2010 monitors all virus entry points leaving you with a virus-free PC!

Bookmark & Share

Protectection For Your Computer

2010-02-03T11:07:00.000-08:00

It now appears that some Broadband providers are taking a very firm stance with anyone who they think has a computer which has been infected with a virus. In some instances not switching their broadband service back on until the customer has confirmed that the computer in question has been fully reformatted by a qualified computer service agent. This can cause major upheaval and expense if the computer has lots of information and programs which need to be removed and then reloaded. To make sure you are protected against this happening to you it is an intelligent precaution that you have up to date antivirus firewall software installed on your computer.
Kaspersky Anti-Virus 2010 monitors all virus entry points leaving you with a virus-free PC!