Fake AV - Stubborn to Rid from Your PC

I've worked on a few of these fake AV's on friend's PC's. These run bogus scans and tells you that you have bunches of malware that is infecting your machine. It prevents you from going to websites to get cleaning software. Prevents your legitimate AV from updating. Turns your Automatic Updates off. Gives you the fake Microsoft Windows Security Shield and tells you that you need to activate whatever the current name of AV that is installed on your PC. Some give you fake BSOD (Blue Screen of Death). Popups take over your PC. Your browser is hijacked.

It goes by many different names. Total Protect 2009, eXPress Antivirus 2009, iSafe 2009 (Sounds like an Apple application), Antivirus 360, Perfect Defender 2009, and on and on and on. This is just some of the more recent fake AV's that have been plaguing PC's lately.

It's tough to remove this type of malware because it defends itself very well. The best thing is to not get the nasty stuff. The most common delivery method is social engineering. Tricking you into installing the malware yourself. Be wary of messages sent to you from friends on social networking sites like MySpace, FaceBook, etc. A very effective way of propagating itself is once it is installed on a PC, any user of these social networking sites sends messages to all the friends on you list trying to trick your friends into installing this malware.

Stay safe. My Kansas University Jayhawks rocked the Insight Bowl earlier tonight 42 to 21 against Minnesota. Hope you had a safe and happy New Year!

More and More Fake AV!

Just recently, Microsoft built in to its malware removal tool a lot of the fake AV's that have been infecting so many PC's. And now of course we find even more fake AV's seemingly going strong. Click here to read a posting from the Internet Storm Center. Seems that the way they are infecting PC's is through a very effective way of social engineering.

Play it smart, don't just randomly click on things, and patch your software applications like, Adobe, all your Microsoft applications, etc. I've written previous posts that talks about the Secunia Tool that helps you keep up to date.

Stay safe, and have a Happy New Year! Rock Chalk Jayhawk. Insight Bowl on December 31.

Same Old Story - Malicous eCards

Well, just a warning to all this holiday season that the bad guys are still using the malicious eCards sent via e-mail. Be warned, don't open them!! You can click here to read the story from the Internet Storm Center.

Hopefully all of you have been good boys and girls and Santa has rewarded you well this Christmas. Take care and have a safe holiday season.

Antivirus 2009 Really Sucks

I have commented a few times about all the fake AV going around the Internet. It appears that it morphs and adds "enhancements" that defends itself well. Turning off Microsoft Automatic Updates, not allowing you to browse to sites that will help you clean your PC, etc.

Well I ran across another blog today written by Gary Warner. He has a nice detailed post going into the details of how the bad guys are taking advantage of Google searches to raise their ratings that when people click on these links, it infects your PC with fake AV.

Click here to learn more on how the bad guys take advantage of things we use everyday, Google, and use it to propagate their nasty malware. Hey Nancy, this may be how it got installed on your PC!

Stay safe, have a Merry Christmas and a happy and safe New Year!

Computer Security: Who is Responsible?

Hey everyone. Hope all is well with you this weekend before Christmas. Thinking of topics to write on, I decided to give my opinion on responsibility when someone does not secure their PC and are hacked. Let's say that you are on your home PC and someone in your house either clicks on some link or attachment that causes the PC to be hacked (compromised), and now you have your banking credentials stolen by some individual. This individual now is allowed to make transfers from your account. Who's fault is it?

My opinion is that individual responsibility includes securing your PC at home. So when I hear a story about someone having this happen, I believe the individual really should have taken steps to secure their PC. Hey, everyone knows there are risks but who takes more responsibility? You or your bank? Well I say it is you. Owning a PC and connecting to the Internet you should know how to secure your PC for your own safety.

Computer security is so much more than just installing anti-virus and firewall. You need to know there are not so nice websites that can lead to your PC being hacked. You also need to be aware that random clicking on unsolicited links or attachments in e-mails will also get you in trouble.

Then you have organizations like the Geek Squad who really do no teaching but they are VERY willing to take your money when you mess your machine up with a bunch of crapware. You know, all that malicious software that causes your PC to run slowly and possibly be used in a botnet which really spells bad news.

So what do you do? You learn of sites that will teach you. There are a plethora of blogs and websites that talk about securing your PC. Mine and tons of others that are written by some of the brightest security people around (and I'm not including myself in that group). Take some steps to start to learn of all the threats. When I help people with their PC problems, I take that opportunity to teach them of things they should be doing to be more protected.

That is enough ranting for now. Get all that shopping done and actual save yourself some stress this Holiday season.

Examing A Spam E-mail

Some days you get e-mails that are obviously spam e-mails. Just the little things you look at and can tell right away that it is not real. Above you can see a copy of the e-mail. Right away you know that the fake UPS e-mails are still going around. Now someone in SPAMMERVILLE should tell them UPS stands for United Parcel Service. Not United Postal Service. LOL

Have a great Thursday tomorrow!

Microsoft Has Early Gift for Christmas to All MS Users

Microsoft has announced that they will be issuing an out of band patch December 17, 2008 that will patch the security vulnerability in all versions of Internet Explorer. So be watching for that patch to come down and get Internet Explorer patched. If you want to read additional details, click here for Microsoft's announcement.

Have a great Out of Band Patch Wednesday!