The temptation to snoop online might be strong for some but it comes with a price. John Hillman on the latest celebrity malware vector

The internet provides opportunities to indulge our curiosity like never before; unfortunately this includes our capacity for snooping around in other people’s private lives, a less than admirable human trait.

Cyber criminals, never slow to recognise an opportunity, are more than aware of this fact and happily use our inherent nosiness to exploit gullible people into downloading malware with the simple promise of a video containing a naked celebrity.

It beggars belief that such a crude system actually works but even in 2009 it seems that there are still thousands of you out there who just can’t resist a click, no matter how unlikely the promise sounds to a rational mind.

Over in the US this has been emphasised by the recent appearance of a video reportedly showing an ESPN reporter called Erin Andrews cavorting around in her hotel room with no clothes on. Erin Andrews is apparently quite attractive – a sort of Hollywood version of Gabby Logan.

As you can imagine this caused quite a stir with US “sports” fans, so much excitement in fact that some of them actually awoke from their beef-and-cola comas long enough to start trawling the internet looking for said video.

What happened next? Malware, lots and lots of malware, downloaded via a link that promises the content once you have installed a video player. Many people (well, men probably) have been fooled by the use of a web page that looks like it belongs to CNN, lulling them into a false sense of security.

The lesson here is a very simple one: promise of naked celebrity + free video download = broken computer. You have been warned.

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Image Credit: Robert.Montalvo

With more and more hotels offering free Wi-Fi services you may be tempted to take your laptop with you on holiday, but beware when using open networks, says. John Hillman

Free Wi-Fi is great, lounging around in your hotel room or on the beach, you can upload photos onto Facebook, give all your friends a real-time commentary on how much fun you’re having while they’re stuck waiting for a bus in the rain, and keep updated with sports without having to pay 3 Euro for an abridged copy of a dodgy newspaper.

But there are dangers when you log onto an open network, especially as hacking is now such big business and large open networks such as the ones found in hotels are a fertile hunting ground for hackers looking for personal information.

For extra safety whilst on holiday McAfee’s Tracy Mooney recommends taking the following precautions:

PC users

1. Make sure you have a current subscription to an anti-virus program and that it has a Firewall which McAfee Total Protection does have.
2. Make sure banking/financial passwords are different from any other passwords. Don’t save passwords so it automatically logs in
3. Before you log on, look for/ask for the exact name of the Wi-Fi you want to connect to so you don’t connect to a hacker instead.
4. Turn off automatic connection to a network so your computer doesn’t connect without your knowledge. (It also saves battery life.)
5. Only log on to bank/financial sites when you are on a secure connection such as at home.

Mac Users

1. Make sure banking/financial passwords are different from any other passwords. Don’t save passwords so it automatically logs in!
2. Check your settings:
• Go to network Preferences > By Default > join “preferred networks”. Edit your preferred network SSID’s to include only trusted sources.
• Next click “Options,” and make sure “ask before joining an open network” is selected.
• Check the “Require Administrator Password to change networks” box, and deselect the option to automatically add new networks to the preferred list.

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Image Credit: pink fish13

Billions of people around the world use computers but still don’t really know what a virus is or how to recognise one. John Hillman tries to help with the basics.

Viruses are a pain to understand, what are they? Who makes them? How do I know if I have one?

These are the kinds of questions people ask themselves only to go online in search of answers and be bombarded with geek speak; directed to tech blogs written by people who obviously don’t do face to face communication unless summoned by a judge.

So to try and help those of you wondering how these strange ethereal bug thingies work, here’s a few tips to look out for when running your PC.

1. Is your computer running slower than normal?

2. Are you seeing unusual error messages?

3. Are you seeing distorted dialogue boxes and menus?

4. Is your computer not responding or locking up?

5. Is your computer restarting on its own?

6. Is your computer crashing and restarting on its own?

7. Are your disk drives inaccessible?

If the answer to any of the above is yes then you may very well have an infected PC, so you will have to run some malware removal software and make sure that you install some good up-to-date antivirus software too.

Most viruses are actually quite harmless; there are those that do real damage and try to steal personal information, and those that just slow you down. Ultimately it’s down to you to stop your PC catching the equivalent of a cold, think of anti-virus software as giving it a good diet, vitamin supplements and plenty of exercise.
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Image Credit: bodycoach2

Internet crooks have developed into mature business people, claims a new report. Peter Moore reports.

A report released by Cisco Systems, the giant US networking multinational, has warned of the growing sophistication of cyber criminals.

The report claims that online crooks are increasingly adopting proven business techniques that enable them to work more efficiently, make more money and fool more people.

‘Capitalism is a powerful force,’ said Patrick Peterson, a spokesman for the company in their mid-year security report. ‘These criminal types are collaborating with one another… sharing resources, renting out botnets and forming alliances.’

The report depicts a radically different criminal type. No longer do they operate from underground dens, but they work in offices and apartments, demonstrating the type of thinking that would more often be associated with MBA students, not the members of a criminal gang.

The report says that online criminal gangs are now dynamic and fast-thinking. They have the resources and experience to seize opportunities offered by breaking news stories – the most recent example of which is the story of Michael Jackson’s sudden death.

‘We use Michael Jackson as a quintessential example,’ said Mr. Peterson. ‘When the media was in the air and scrambling to cover his death, the bad guys were coming up with creative news copy that tried to persuade users to click on a photo, video or memorabilia to trick the user onto an infected site.’

And Cisco said it had detected a rise in the number of such malicious tricks over the past few months. In May 2009, 249 billion spam messages were sent across the Internet, the third highest volume in history.

Although the report depicted a gloomy picture, amid rising global threats from an increasingly organised criminal element, Mr. Peterson argued that the past year had seen many improvements antivirus, anti- spam and anti-phishing technology.

Cisco’s position was backed by Kenneth Silva, the Chief Security Officer of Verisign Inc. In response to the Cisco report he said:

‘I don’t know how much money has to be stolen or how many people have to be hurt emotionally and physically before someone figures out there is a real problem here.’

image credit: mkosut

A new report my McAfee’s research team in Bangalore provides some interesting information on the re-birth of removable storage malware. John Hillman has a look at the details.

This month’s report from our friends in Bangalore, on the latest surge in removable storage malware, made for some pretty interesting reading.

The team explain how, long before we all came to associate viruses exclusively with the internet, floppy disks were the vectors of choice for attackers - under 25s should try to imagine a floppy disk as a square retro-ish looking piece of plastic about the size of a Sunday newspaper and capable of storing about one tenth of the information found therein.

It was no surprise then that once the internet revolutionised the way we sent and received information hackers gave up trying to build Rome with matchsticks and began spreading malicious code via e-mail instead.

Today, however, our removable storage devices, from digital picture frames to MP3s, are capable of storing more than 10,000 times more data than your old floppy ever dreamed of. So, it’s not really surprising that virus authors are once again beginning to recognize the potential of our plug-ins as an excellent means of randomly ruining everybody’s day.

This vector is being aided and abetted by our old friend AutoRun, because it automatically launches the content on a plug-in device without any prompting from the unsuspecting victim. Furthermore, many of today’s devices also happen to be what’s known as “smart”, meaning that they can run portable software programmes and boot operating systems.

The last few years have apparently been good for malware authors who use AutoRun to deliver their malicious payloads, with some truly worrying successes. A lot of this has been thanks to slack quality-control practices by hardware manufacturers, which caused many devices such as USB sticks, Picture Frames and MP3s to be sold to consumers with AutoRun malware preinstalled.

Such has been their success that the U.S. military was forced to try and ban removable storage devices, a task made virtually impossible by the necessities of troops in the field. But the most shocking aspect of the report has to be news that an astronaut on the International Space Station allowed a worm to boldly go where no worm has been before by taking a laptop with an infected USB drive with him on a space mission. Apparently he didn’t have any malware protection on his laptop, which could have prevented the infection; I mean, come on, it’s hardly rocket science is it?

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Image Credit: Calil Souza

John Hillman reads through McAfee’s spam report and discovers that watches are the new viagra

McAfee Spam report for July 2009 shows a marked difference between spam subjects delivered to .com and .uk addresses.

The UK domain addresses continue to deliver pharmaceutical spam subjects almost exclusively, with all of the top 15 subjects relating to this subject, whereas the .com traffic showed a curious tendency towards replica Rolexes.

.org showed a large amount of spam that had been “bounced back” to a forged “From” address, with one subject “you have received an Greeting eCard” (note the usual poor spelling) pointing to a URL that downloads an executable file and infects the computer.

Based on business and country domains and taken over one complete day in June the lists are as follows:

.com

1. Hello
2. Hi
3. RE: DISCOUNT 80% OFF on Pfizer
4. Replica Watches
5. Undelivered Mail Returned to Sender
6. Delivery Status Notification (Failure)
7. Returned mail: see transcript for details
8. Exquisite Replica
9. Aloha
10. Failure notice
11. Hey
12. Cheers
13. Watches
14. Complete registration here
15. Subscribe on daily news?

.co.uk

1. RE: DISCOUNT 80% OFF on Pfizer
2. Salute, man!
3. All songs zipped
4. Photo gallery
5. Court decision
6. Photos of the place
7. Group these photos together
8. New .pdf variant
9. I’m locked in room
10. Can’t call you
11. Corporate meeting
12. Your house switched off
13. What’s with bar?
14. Add this to work
15. Wondering about slow speed?

.org

1. Delivery Status Notification (Delay)
2. Delivery Status Notification (Failure)
3. failure notice
4. Undelivered Mail Returned to Sender
5. Hello
6. Hi
7. Returned mail: see transcript for details
8. RE: DISCOUNT 80% OFF on Pfizer
9. Replica Watches
10. Exquisite Replica
11. Mail delivery failed; returning message to sender
12. Hey
13. Watches
14. Cheers
15. You have received a Greeting eCard

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image credit: jurvetson

John Hillman looks at the effect that the digital revolution has had on our shopping habits

A study released by McAfee has found that online shopping habits are being influenced more by digital security fears than the economic downturn.

The study, conducted on behalf of McAfee by Harris Interactive®, found that 72% of people in the US have not changed their online shopping behaviour since the economic downturn.

But in news that’s bound to interest online retailers, the study also found that concern over online security is the biggest single factor preventing people from completing online transactions. More than half of all respondents said that they had abandoned online shopping carts because they became concerned about security levels whilst on a site.

“Online retailers need to understand that consumers with intent to purchase are terminating their orders because they don’t feel safe online,” said Tim Dowling, vice president of McAfee’s Web Security Group.

“Our research suggests that economic concerns and price have not affected the way people shop online, but instead security concerns are the driving force behind whether a transaction is completed or terminated.”

“All sites regardless of size need to take measures to prove to customers that their personal information will be safe and secure when doing business online.”

Dowling also went on to say that people are much more likely to buy when they see a trustmark, such as McAfee SECURE™, displayed on the webpage, with one in five people refusing to purchase when the site fails to show one.

Displaying a trustmark is shown therefore to be an excellent opportunity for small businesses to build trust levels and set them apart from competitors.

47% of consumers look for a trustmark when shopping online and a third said that they would rather buy from a smaller retailer that displayed the trustmark than a larger one who did not.

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image credit: d’n'c