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McAfee issues users with warning against scareware

Jenny Sanderson — Tue, 16 Mar 2010 16:00:13 +0000

The idea of ‘scareware’ sounds a lot more intimidating than it actually is. It refers to fake programs, normally imitation anti-virus software that has been plastered all around the web in the hope of conning the less internet savvy users.

Although this may not sound particularly ‘scary’ McAfee thought that it was enough of an issue to sound the alarm about these fake programs. Possibly because they may be costing them money by taking away subscribers, or maybe they are generally concerned, I guess we will never really know.

A statistic released by Datamation, that details a McAfee labs report, which revealed that as many as 1 million people are being targeted by scareware every day, is a pertinent one, revealing exactly why McAfee are so concerned.

They were so concerned in actual fact that that they have decided this week to launch a consumer threat alert program that will provide a blog and e-mail subscription service to do the honourable job of keeping consumers clued up on all the latest online scams going around the internet, for a small fee… Surely if they are so concerned it should be a free service?

McAfee claim that internet users are scammed out of roughly $300 million a year by these programs that prey on the naiveté and lack of confidence of many internet users. They present them with what usually does look a perfectly legitimate warning that their system may be under threat and that they risk losing all data, the user will then be prompted to purchase some rogue software that will do nothing but cost them money and on occasion spread a virus through their system.

So it seems McAfee are doing a good thing by issuing a warning about these threats as many people do not realise the dangers and costliness of these scareware programs. However, it would seem fairly beneficial to McAfee at the same time, as they can now offer another paid subscription service just to inform people of dangerous content whilst re assuring them that they are the best program to use to keep your computer safe, fair enough.

Majority of Email is Spam

Jenny Sanderson — Wed, 27 May 2009 11:34:58 +0000

Okay, we all know that email spam is a big problem. We realise that a large percentage of the messages we receive these days are going to be spurious mail-shots, scams or adverts. However, you might be surprised to realise exactly how much. According to a report released earlier in the week by Symantec, the percentage of email that could be classified as spam is over 90 percent (90.4 to be precise).

The report confirms the widely held fear that the global network of spammers has almost fully recovered from the setback it encountered last year, when many less than reputable servers around the world were closed down. The study also revealed some illuminating insights into exactly how we get spammed – essentially the Americans get their spam early in the morning whilst Europeans get more of a steady stream.

The report basically underlines the need for the technology community to get to grips with the spam & malware phenomenon. Email spam is purely a numbers game – if you can send out 2 million scam emails then you are simply going to get a few takes. Right now it would seem like the numbers are very much in their favour.

Conficker.c activated

James Oliver — Wed, 01 Apr 2009 12:24:04 +0000

If you’ve been paying attention to the tech press over the last few days, you might have seen the slightly sensationalised claims about the Conficker.c Worm. For the uninitiated, the Conficker.c Worm is the computer security threat that has been built into an apocalyptic scare over the last few days. The Conficker.c Worm is a risk, in fact it’s the largest botnet ever seen though people’s fears have been overblown over the last few days.

A main feature of the coverage has been the supposed activation of the worm at midnight on April the first (Last night). This event was expected to turn the estimated ten million Conficker.c infected computers into fully infected agents for sending spam messing with the very structure of the Internet.

The good news is that the infrastructure is fine, the Internet is working as well as usual and is in no danger of failing. As expected really – even if the spammers behind Conficker.c had the power to crash the Internet, as spammers would it really be in their interests?

Basically, for all the hyperbole that’s been flying around recently Conficker.c is just a worm, a very widespread one, but a worm nonetheless. We’ll probably see an increase in spam over the coming weeks but that should be it.

Hacking on the increase amongst Teenagers

James Oliver — Sun, 01 Mar 2009 09:00:31 +0000

Computer security professionals are warning the world’s computer users that hacking and other forms of internet crime is on the rise amongst the world’s teenage population. According to these analysts, a worrying number of online forums are filling up with young people exchanging phishing kits, credit card details and hacking tips as if it was nothing unusual.

This is not only bad for us, but also for the kids themselves. The sophistication of their hacking varies, though most are inexperienced, their poor levels of skill mean that many of them they are almost guaranteed to get caught eventually, lumbering themselves with a criminal record for life.

Apparently, kids as young as 11 or 12 are online searching for techniques to commit fraud and/or break into restricted websites. I suppose we shouldn’t be too surprised, after all this is the most web savvy generation ever – it’s no real surprise that some of these kids overestimate their abilities and get themselves into trouble. According to analysts many children initially get into trouble by looking for exploits and cracks for their favourite computer games and then move onto more serious, even criminal, hacking activities.

Mac Trojan found in Pirated Programme

James Oliver — Fri, 23 Jan 2009 11:52:50 +0000

Security software provider, Intego, have this week claimed to have discovered Trojan software for Mac OS X. The Trojan was found on a pirated copy of iWork 09, it installs itself along with iWork and connects to a remote server potentially allowing the malware creator to steal information and/or control the computer remotely. According to Intego around 20,000 people have downloaded the Trojan so far.

Compared to Windows that’s really not that much – the downandup worm for instance, is estimated to have infected around 9 million PCs so far. However, any discovery like this for Macs is likely to be seen as a big deal, mainly due to the fact that for years Apple have been marketing the Mac as virus free, not safe in comparison or very secure but virus free!

They continue to use this as one of the cornerstones of their marketing, despite growing evidence to the contrary like this iWork Trojan.

Lately there has been some suggestion that even elements within Apple itself would like the comapny to be more up front about the risk to their systems. The clearest example of this was late last year when a section appeared on Apple’s own support website suggesting that Mac users purchase not one but two virus protection programmes, just to be sure. The section was quickly removed and denounced as inaccurate.

Recovering from being hacked

Matt Thomas — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 10:00:57 +0000

Occasionally unfortunate individuals come to us and say that they have either received word from Google that there may be ‘badware’ being distributed from their site, or they have actually received a badware warning when browsing their own site. This is not a nice thing to happen, not least because it immediately presents you with two equally thorny problems; firstly, getting rid of the badware and secondly convincing Google that you have gotten rid of the badware.

As far as getting rid of it goes, that’s a little too complicated to go into here, though there are numerous helpful guides out there, (there’s a particularly good one on the Google Webmaster Blog) so there’s no need to despair.

After you’ve done the necessary fumigation, convincing Google that your site is now clean requires you to request a malware review from Google. They’ll take a look at your site, if they don’t agree that it’s clean they’ll present you with a list of the remaining dangerous URLs for you to clean up. If they do, you can expect the warnings on your site to disappear within 24 hours, though it may take a little longer for some browsers, i.e., Firefox to recognise the change.

If you feel your ranking has been affected by your bout of malware, it may also be worth filing a reconsideration request.

Being hacked is no fun at all but it needn’t ruin your week. If you follow these steps, you’ll be back on your feet in no time.