This section covers security and privacy related topics, along with a comprehensive collection of articles ranging from the
latest security vulnerabilities, spyware detection, spyware removal, spyware alerts to online fraud, phishing scams, and
spyware legislation. Feel free to share your ideas and concerns with our research team and other Internet users by leaving a comment on any post. Take advantage of the tutorials, advice, and
other helpful anti-spyware information.
Don’t get bitten by IRS Phishing scams.
Hackers are using the IRS tax season to target their malicious scams on computer users. Recently it is known that hackers are sending out messages that mask as IRS emails regarding tax matters. They have even taken the liberty to create websites that look like the IRS site where they can obtain a user’s personal information.
Phishers are sending out a plethora of email messages pretending to be IRS messages. The phishing tactics of the fake IRS messages are so advanced that they may redirect you to a website that resembles the IRS site and upon entering your personal information it may direct you to the real IRS covering its tracks so you will never know your information was stolen. Currently the sources of the IRS phishing scams redirect the victims to sites hosted in Russia. The IRS is not aware of this issue but they do have a page devoted to warning users about phishing scams.
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Posted February 22nd, 2008 in the Category(ies) Phishing | No Response »
Spam email messages usually mask as something newsworthy and popular to gain the attention of computer users. Recently a malicious spam alert was sent out for email messages containing the following subject lines:
- “Current Australia’s Prime Minister survived a hear attack”
- “The life of the Prime Minister is in grave danger”
- “Prime Minister survived a heard attack”
Usually Spam emails spread Trojan infections onto user’s computers. The purpose of the emails with the above phrases in the subject line is a focused attack against the Australian computer community. This is just one example of many other spam email subject lines. Other spam messages have used similar subject lines to gain the attention of computer users throughout the world.
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Posted February 20th, 2008 in the Category(ies) Spam Alert | No Response »
25 year-old Yuki Shiina gets arrested in Tokyo for sending out over 2 billion spam messages promoting dating and gambling websites. Recently an Internet Service Provider (ISP) discovered the activities of this spammer dating back from May 2006. The large number of emails sent over a period of time sparked an interest in this person.
Recently the security vendor Sophos said that Shiina obtained a list of 600,000 email addresses for 100,000 yen ($927) turning that into earnings of 2 million yen ($18,540) in advertising from his email spamming. The law that prohibits sending spam emails with fake sender information was ultimately broke by Shiina and ended his luck behind bars.
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Posted February 19th, 2008 in the Category(ies) Internet Security | No Response »
Mac users are no longer safe from malware.
Recently a survey from Sophos, a corporate security vendor, stated in a poll of 350 Mac computer users that 93 percent of them believe malware would target the Mac computer in the future. In the midst of Mac users being scared it is a good gauge as to what is to come, more attacks on the Mac.
With the growing number of Mac users and Apple on a major up rise with new iPods, iPhones, and a fast growing number of new Mac computer users, hackers are discovering new vulnerabilities on the Mac computer. What better way for hackers to infect more computer users with malware, start threatening the Mac systems.
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Posted February 19th, 2008 in the Category(ies) Internet Security | No Response »
Recently it was discovered that a link to a Hillary Clinton video leads to the Trojan.Srizbi infection. With all of the hype and publicity of the upcoming election, hackers have joined the political world by masking Trojans and malicious files as a video link. The discovered link to download Trojan.Srizbi is usually sent as a spam message to multiple computer users. The subject of the spam message reads “Hillary Clinton Full Video !!!” The link provided in the spam message actually redirects users to download a file named “mpg.exe” which contains the Trojan.Srizbi infection.
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Posted February 15th, 2008 in the Category(ies) Internet Security | No Response »
WinReanimator is a malicious rogue anti-spyware program that comes from the Vundo Trojan infection. WinReanimator is a clone of UltimateFixer which is an older rogue anti-spyware program that caused a fair share of issues with computers on the internet. WinReanimator alerts users with fake messages stating the following:
“Windows has detected spyware infection!
It is recommended to use special antispyware tools to prevent data loss.
Windows will now download and install the most up-to-date antispyware for you
Click here to protect your computer from spyware!”
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Posted February 14th, 2008 & Last Updated Mar 28, 2008
in the Category(ies) Spyware Removal, WinReanimator | No Response »
VirusHeat is the latest rogue anti-spyware application that may be brought to your computer by a Zlob Trojan, exploiting browser security weaknesses. Zlob Trojans are notorious for masquerading as video and audio codecs, and once you install one of those on your system, it will download and install certain malware applications, in this case – VirusHeat. The next step will be the installation of another Trojan that will display fake notifications of virus threats.
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Posted February 13th, 2008 in the Category(ies) Spyware Removal | No Response »
VirusProtect is a rogue anti-spyware program that displays fake security notifications in order to trick you into purchasing their full version. VirusProtect may change your desktop settings to issue fake warning messages, hijack the web browser and redirect you to unwanted web sites. VirusProtect installs malicious files and automatically downloads itself onto your computer, which makes VirusProtect difficult to remove.
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Posted November 13th, 2007 & Last Updated Nov 21, 2007
in the Category(ies) Spyware Removal | 1 Response »
IEDefender may look like a legitimate anti-spyware, but it’s created only to scare you into purchasing IEDefender. IEDefender may scare you into buying it by overwhelming you with fake alerts or pop-ups. IEDefender can’t prevent your computer from being infected with spyware — IEDefender may actually damage your system.
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Posted October 31st, 2007 & Last Updated Nov 21, 2007
in the Category(ies) Spyware Removal | No Response »
VirusRay is a rogue anti-spyware program that displays fake security notifications in order to trick you into purchasing their full version. VirusRay may change your desktop settings to issue fake warning messages, hijack the web browser and redirect you to unwanted web sites. VirusRay installs malicious files and automatically downloads itself onto your computer, which makes VirusRay difficult to remove.
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Posted October 22nd, 2007 & Last Updated Nov 21, 2007
in the Category(ies) Spyware Removal | No Response »
