Computer Tips -Tech Info

Tag: antivirus

  • Most home pc users lacking on PC security…

    Surprise!!… ummm wait, no… This article has come out while I’ve been in the midst of cleaning up a Windows ME pc that has been “0\/\/ned” (owned/controlled…) by someone other than the owner for a bit over 15 months. The system had NO antivirus, no firewall (no antispyware) and used dialup for internet. (That much said, this is probably the most infected dialup system I’ve seen… 30-100 virii, 230+spyware remnants/etc.) Anyway…. the article from cnet news claims that a recent survey found 81% of home pc users lacked either

    at least one of three types of critical security–a firewall, updated antivirus software or anti-spyware protection

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  • 16,000 new viruses this year

    This is for all those people that say to me. “There haven’t been any new viruses lately have there?” It’s really amazing to me that people think if it’s not on the national news it doesn’t happen…. According to Pc Pro, Sophos has reported that 16000 new viruses have been added to their database this year. Along with that comes a flood of 1940 new viruses last month added to Sophos’ virus signatures. (That mark is a record for one month.)

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  • MS IE Javascript exploit for zero-day (0-day) vulnerability

    An exploit for last weeks zero-day (0-day) javascript vulnerability in Microsoft’s Internet Explorer is in the wild. I saw this post from Sunbelt a couple nights ago go up and disappear, at the time I didn’t have long enough to read it… It’s back today and there are instructions for mitigating the risk. However, there is still no patch from Microsoft and no word on when to expect one. According to the Sunbelt post the exploit in the wild is being used for browser hijacking/spyware install stuff.

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  • Microsoft Outlook – duplicate email messages Part I

    This will likely be a multi-part story because it turns out the solution was one of the more obscure things I think I’ve run into AND I thought it was worth “dumping” everything I found out in the process here for my own reference and anyone else wandering through. I have a customer that uses Microsoft Outlook 2003 and has selected to “leave messages on server”, then delete them when they’re deleted from the recycle bin. This normally works well, although I do recall one (or two) instances in the past when he got duplicates.

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  • Viruses and worms can come in from many directions

    For a long time, email was the primary vector for viruses, before that floppy discs carried bugs from pc to pc. Then came network worms exploiting windows security vulnerabilities which led to the rise of firewalls and the increase in viruses piggy-backing into the system through browser bugs. But, any program that listens for data coming from the network could be an entry way for good traffic, or bad. The Securityfix is talking today about November being a record month for Instant Messenger worms.

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  • The virus arms race? is locking down systems the key?

    The securityfix has a post on the “dirty little secret” about antivirus. Eugene Kaspersky of Kaspersky antivirus has posted an introspective article on the antivirus industry and it’s current problems. The biggest problem with antivirus is that it’s always one step behind the virus writers. Antivirus software only can prevent you being infected by those viruses that the antivirus software knows about. In other words a quick, fast spreading infection can hit you anywhere between hours-days before your AV vendor has an update.

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  • Ooops… hard drive maker ships trojan on storage media

    Oooops… According to the Sunbelt blog a Japanese storage maker (I-O Data Device) has offered to exchange drives that were discovered to have been shipped out with the Tompai-A, a worm which would give a cracker backdoor access to a machine. It affects portable hard drive’s in the companies HDP-U series.

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  • Keyloggers a growing problem

    It’s interesting some years ago when viruses on Windows machines were SOOOO plentiful it seemed like that’s all I spent my time cleaning up, I thought… “you know, most viruses are prankster-ish programs. They rearrange icons, maybe cause Windows to crash, or send random files out to others, but they could be MUCH worse.” Since then, we’ve seen viruses used as delivery tools for mail relays (so that spammers can have more “safe havens”, we’ve seen viruses bring in spyware, both of the last two for “fun and profit”. I don’t know that we’ve really seen the WORST that a virus could be designed to do. However, I’m afraid we’re getting there.

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  • The wolf in sheeps clothing, software that claims to be anti-spyware, but installs more spyware on your pc

    The bad news is that the spyware situation for home pc users can be murkier every day. I remember a particular user who once installed an antivirus program because a popup appeared claiming to have found viruses on his drive, next thing he knew he was having all sorts of spyware problems, viruses found all the time (to “prove” the antivirus component was running.), etc. etc.

    Spyware Confidential has the story on the latest wolf in sheeps clothing, something called spyaxe. This link shows a screenshot of one fake warning. One problem is how to describe to people how to identify legitimate versus illegit popups and warnings.

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  • Illegal to disable some spyware?

    OK – for starters, the keylogger that sunbelt talks about here is a legitimate piece of software for sale. Like anything though it could have illegit uses. Apparently retrocoder is upset that Sunbelt’s software detects spymon and gives the option of disabling it. Spymon is a commercial keylogger. They’ve claimed that it’s against their EULA and copyright law to “reverse engineer” their product. More specifically they’ve complained as such….

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