Tip for the day: Always password protect your Wi-Fi network.
Unsecured Wi-Fi networks puts you at risk for dangers like identity and data theft.
You would think that its common sense, but only yesterday I did at job at a customer’s home and they had an unsecured wireless network.
It’s not uncommon.
If you don’t know how to do it, it is in your best interest to learn or get someone in to do it for you.
Melbourne, 28 May 2010 – AVG (AU/NZ) Pty Ltd warns that Apple Macs running the OS X operating system, or some flavour of Linux distribution, are not immune to viruses, malware and other forms of Internet-carried spambots, Trojans, hacking and phishing.
That’s right, Apple Macs running the OS X operating system, or some flavour of Linux distribution, are open to attack from cyber criminals.
Now of course hackers and spammers are not stupid and they know that Windows users represent the ‘low hanging fruit’ in terms of potential targets. The sheer weight of numbers that the Windows’ user base carries with it makes it the primary target for malware attacks – and it’s going to stay that way for the foreseeable future.
“But,” Lloyd Borrett, Marketing Manager, AVG (AU/NZ), says: “The web changes everything. More specifically, web services, social media and online applications change everything.
“Suddenly you are operating one step further away from your Mac’s desktop and you are at the mercy of live real-time contact from third parties and the World Wide Web in general. This levels the playing field in some senses, so that suddenly your Mac is not a Mac for a moment – instead it’s just a computer.”
With the growing popularity of web services from Twitter and Facebook and so on, the opportunity to spread malware hidden in a simple link has, arguably, never been greater.
So Mac’s do have vulnerabilities and people should be increasingly aware of browser security concerns. Without identifying specific security holes in Safari or Opera (or Firefox for that matter), the operating system is no longer the primary target for Internet-driven user attacks by cyber criminals. The target is the application itself and the user’s behaviour within it.
Apple’s popularity is growing all the time even if its market share is still somewhere around less than 10 percent globally. Just this year security researchers found eight fresh zero-day vulnerabilities in Apple’s Safari browser.
“What matters most is that viral attacks are constantly evolving and looking for fresh blood,” Borrett continued. “So, everyone needs to think about Internet security protection. It’s as simple as that.”
Looking objectively at the Mac operating system and tools, there is arguably a larger total surface area of code open to potential attack.
Combining rich use of Flash and Java with support for multiple file formats does not exactly put up extra barriers. Digging deeper, Address Space Layout Randomisation (ASLR) has been around since Windows Vista as an anti-exploitation technology, yet it is only present in Mac OS X 10.5 in some library offsets and therefore does not offer complete protection in the way that the technology was designed.
Conclusion: Apple Mac, Windows or Linux, the fact is that regardless of the operating system each of us is using, we’re all in this together. Everyone needs to be aware of what they are clicking on and use their commonsense – if something doesn’t look quite right, it probably isn’t!
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Malware/Scareware Threatens to Sue BitTorrent Downloaders.
A new malware scam is trying to trick BitTorrent users into paying for illegally downloading copyrighted material.
The malware displays a box with the message “Warning! Piracy detected!” and opens up a web page supposedly run by a Swiss company which states thet are “committed to promoting the cultural and economic benefits of copyright.”
The fake company, the ICCP Foundation, claims to be sponsored by the Recording Industry Association of America, the Motion Picture Association of America and others. TorrentFreak, which was the first to discover the malware, wrote that, “It appears to scan the user’s hard drive for .torrent files and displays these as ’evidence’ of an earlier infringement”.
Victims are warned of possible imprisonment and fines, and given the option of “settling” the “case” for a one-time payment of $400, by credit card.
Obviously you would be crazy to hand over your Credit Card details, but it only takes a small percentage of victims to fall for the scam to make some serious cash, which is why the scammers go to the trouble.
So here’s a new term, “Scareware”.
By slightly mis-spelling the name of popular security products, they trick you into visiting their malicious site, and bombard you with messages and pop-ups about how badly you are infected and how many viruses you have and “scaring” you into buying their product. This is fooling tens of thousands of people into purchasing this fake software, which in fact infects them further. I have seen figures that show these cyber-criminals may be making upwards of $10,000 per day.
Popular mis-spellings are Ad-Ware instead of Ad-Aware, Spywarebot instead of Spybot, and Spyware Blaster instead of SpywareBlaster.
There are a multitude of fake products out there. A couple that spring to mind, in addition to those above, are WinXP Antivirus, Antivirus 2009, but there are 1000’s more.
The golden rule is DO NOT just search the internet for a security product. Contact a reputable company for advice, or better yet, just read this Blog!!!!!
This is why you should look at making sure you have Service Pack 3 (SP3) installed, or think about migrating to Windows 7 in the near future.
Microsoft has announced that support for Windows XP with Service Pack 2 (SP2) 32-bit operating system will end on 13th July 2010, and support for Windows Vista Release to Manufacturing (RTM) will end 13th April 2010.
If you are running the 64-bit edition of Windows XP with SP2, you will continue to be eligible to receive Microsoft support and updates until 8th April 2014. There is no SP3 for the 64-bit version of Windows XP. To find out if you are running the 64-bit version of Windows XP, go to the Start menu, right-click My Computer, and then click Properties. If you don’t see “64-bit” listed, then you’re running the 32-bit version and need to install the Windows XP SP3.
![AVG[1]](https://spottydog.com.au/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/AVG-Checked-Virus-Free1.png)
In the past week I have seen three Acer computers with the same, or at least very similar, fault symptoms. That fault symptom being that as the system starts up and enters Windows, it will either reboot itself or not completely load up the desktop icons, however they would all start up fine in “Safe Mode“.
The first one had me stumped for a while because I was thinking it was a driver or a recent windows update that was causing the problem. So to get it going again, I got the customer to boot up in Safe Mode and use the windows “System Restore” feature to return the Registry to an earlier time when all was good. This did the trick, but within a couple of weeks, the same thing happened again. This time I got the customer to bring the computer into the office for me to take a closer look.
I began by disabling things that were starting at boot up, and it just so happened that the first thing I chose was AVG antivirus. Low and behold, once it was disabled the system booted up without any trouble. Now I was confused. Why had it taken a couple of weeks for the problem to return? AVG regularly updates itself so the problem should have returned within a day or two. The reason was that the customer rarely used the PC and AVG hadn’t had time to update itself again.
On the very same day I had a call from another customer with an Acer computer with exactly the same problem. So I got them to boot up in Safe Mode and uninstall AVG and download and install PC Tools Antivirus.
Then just this morning I had a third Acer PC land in the office, but this time the symptom was that it would boot to the desktop, but no icons would appear. Once again AVG was the culprit.
I have since contacted AVG, and it turns out the problem is a piece of Acer software called eLock. Apparently an updated version is available from Acer. Wouldn’t it be nice if they shipped their computers with the updated software? Nahhhhhhhhh that would be too easy.
Now I ask you, who would want to work fixing computers? !!!!!!!!!!!
I am often asked, “what is the best antivirus product to use”. I usually reply with a smart arse response like, “how long is a piece of string?”, quickly followed by, “It matters not what protection you have on your computer. If you do the wrong thing on the internet, you are stuffed”. Or words to that effect.
It amazes me how many people think that just because they have antivirus and/or antispyware software, they are somehow invincibly protected and can do what they like on the internet with impunity.
The fact is that literally thousands of new viruses/spyware/malware are being released every week, and whilst antivirus and antispyware software can detect virus like activity, they cannot possibly know about all the different infections and variants. They are really only as good as the database of known bugs.
So, if you like going to porn sites, crack/cheat/pirated software sites, installing free screensavers willy nilly, surfing for gimmicky add-ons and smiley faces for email and MSN, using peer-2-peer programs like Limewire, then I can almost guarantee it will end in tears.
Having said all that, you MUST have antivirus and antispyware software installed on your computer. I am no fan of Internet Security Suites because invariably they use a lot of system resources and can cause more problems than they prevent. Particularly their firewalls. Usually you will get asked, “do you want to block this thing or allow it?” And you would know the answer to that question how?
I recommend you use AVG Free. It is as good as any other antivirus program and now incorporates a little bit of antispyware as well. You can download it from http://free.avg.com/
****EDIT****
We no longer recommend AVG.
Our recommendation is now Norton Internet Security.
For a more detailed look at what Viruses and Spyware are and the do’s and don’ts, download my virus and spyware notes. Remember Prevention is better than cure. Once you are infected the bugs can be very difficult to remove.
I took the plunge and upgraded from Windows 10 to Windows 11. Ok. It looks slicker, a bit of window dressing as far as aesthetics are concerned, and I won’t go into Window’s 11’s features and functions. But the thing that immediately strikes you is …
I took the plunge and upgraded from Windows 10 to Windows 11. Ok. It looks slicker, a bit of window dressing as far as aesthetics are concerned, and I won’t go into Window’s 11’s features and functions. But the thing that immediately strikes you is …
With ever increasing actions by “Big Tech” in general to collect more and more data about us, and the rise in Governments monitoring what we are doing as well as our ISP’s, I’ve been meaning to write something like this for some time now.
But it was the recent actions by FaceBook to take down News Pages and Links…
Well it’s not long now before Windows 7 reaches End Of Life (EOL). So what does this mean for you, and what do you need to do?
I recently had dealings with Microsoft on behalf of a customer that I can only describe as disgraceful and disappointing. The customer in question was an elderly lady with Parkinson’s disease. She had been the victim of a crypto-virus attack, and I had no alternative other than ….
