There has been much talk about the problem associated with the so-called Pandora’s box that is Microsoft’s UAC or User Account Control. This is one of the most unforgettable features of Vista where it first appeared as the ever present annoying pop-up window that asked for permission on almost each and every mouse click (exaggerated). The danger is that the said control feature seems to fail to revert to default security settings after a user has signed into the system as the systems administrator. After this event, use of all applications thereafter have been found to have default settings of the admin without reverting to previously set security settings that can be a wide open door for hackers to exploit. (Read the rest of this story.)

In the never ending battle to tame the many arising security holes that just seem to come as they are plugged, Mozilla has released several (eleven actually) patches to address security flaws, of which six are very critical ones that can open a computer to malware. Security is still the main problem with the internet and with evolving threats, developers have to keep pace with these threats as they arise. FireFox, being one of the most used web browsers has been alive and kicking in the patches arena that is necessary to keep their millions of users secure and safe from evolving threats. These security flaws are part of life on the internet as the myriad of developers who deploy software on the net are being targeted by malware. (Read the rest of this story.)

In a first, the FTC has taken a move to bolster their powers on the internet with them ordering the closure of a so-called determined malware ISP that they say has been determined and documented to host several illegal activities such as malware, viruses, pornographic sites and many others. The ISP of course denies all accusations and say they will be fighting the FTC on the matter, claiming they are innocent of all charges. The ISP, PriceWert LLC, has denied all the FTC’s accusations yet the FTC says it has a well documented and solid case. (Read the rest of this story.)

In a move that signifies that the US government may finally be taking cyber-security seriously, they have enlisted the help of the black hat/hacker aka. Dark Tangent, that has been responsible for some of the world’s most prolific viruses a few years back. Hiring a hacker to counter hackers may be the best way to go as there are not many options in the world of hackers where anybody can be anybody. These people are considered to be the scourge of the internet, responsible for some of the most damaging viruses, worms and other forms of attacks that exacts millions of dollars of economic damage each and every year. (Read the rest of this story.)

Phishing is one of the most prevalent scams nowadays, and you should take specific steps to guard yourself from this malicious practice.

Phishing, unlike malware or viruses, is something you can prevent yourself. Most phishing scams rely on the greed of the recipient by offering (when looking at it from the outside) ridiculously get rich quick promos and such.

The solution is simply to keep a check on yourself whenever you read messages like this. We understand that some unsolicited emails may be important (although mostly no), so you have to check, but if it’s too good to be true, then it probably is. Check websites to see if they are secure, as many Phishing sites pretend to be legit ones. Guard your personal information and only divulge it to trustworthy sites - it’s all for your protection.

As expected, the much awaited zero day for the Conficker worm (aka. Downadup) has sprung back to life when the date turned to April 1, the set date for the malicious activity of the said malware. Security centers have been waiting for the worm to come back to life and as expected it did, issuing re-configured processes and spreading malware to more computers worldwide. The widespread distribution of the worm has been worrying security experts who have been working hard to counter the damage the malicious worm causes, to some success for the world’s security software have been able to protect the rest of the world form the damage it would have caused.
(Read the rest of this story.)

Is it a good thing that people are clicking less and less onto potentially malicious sites? Heck it is yeah!

The investigation, conducted by McAfee(R) SiteAdvisor(TM), studied the five major U.S. search engines (Google, Yahoo!, MSN, AOL, Ask) and found that the overall chance of clicking through to a risky site declined by 12.0%. Still, McAfee estimates that consumers click through to risky sites more than 268 million times each month.

“It’s good to see that clicking on search engine results has gotten modestly safer,” said Chris Dixon, director of strategy, McAfee SiteAdvisor. “But when almost one of 12 sponsored links still clicks through to a risky site, there remains significant room for continued improvement.”

With McAfee and the other Internet security software businesses, we hope it’ll be a better year in the fight against malicious viruses and their kind.

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Image Source: techshout.com

Trojans are still the biggest threats in the internet today. Although vulnerabilities like the one recently found in Microsoft MS08-067, is fast decreasing, it is much more easy to attck or exploit. and recent studioes show that Chinese computers are the number one most infected with exploits that are browser based. In the last 12 months, vulnerabilities have decreased by 20% compared to last year. But the percentage of the known vulnerabilities that are easy to exploit has gone up 56%. Vulnerabilities in operating systems have continually declined . it is reported that Microsoft have already released many patches for the security flaws amounting to almost 77 vulnerabilities in the first half of the year. The lowest rate of infection is in Japan.

Image Source: symantec.com

Seeing ‘WARNING: YOUR COMPUTER IS VULNERABLE! CLICK HERE TO PROTECT YOURSELF!’ can just mean there’s something is not working in your system security. NOT! Theres a new spyware that displays this kind of message which brings panic to its users. And tricks them into purchasing bogus applications or products to fix the vulnerability. These are clearly scams. Malwares. It is designed primarily to scare you into purchasing or giving out your information. It pretends to help you solve the problems that it has found in your system by paying a premium and they will take care of the rest. Microsoft and the state of Washington has filed a lawsuit against a few companies, one of the companies is from Texas, a firm that sells Registry Cleaner XP for $40. The big companies like Microsoft continuously run after these copycats. With the 2005 Computer Spyware Act backing them up but the suspects are hard to find.

Image Source:noadware.repairandsecure.com

No Adware Pro. Guys, check out the latest adware remover. It is called, No Adware Pro. It is a user-friendly adware remover. You can regularly update it so as to identify the latest threats that hac come out in the internet. Its quite a simple tool. It will scan your PC from time to time, for different known spywares, adwares, dialers and web bugs. You can configure various browsers to protect your computer when surfing online. Whats more is, it’s protecting you through a shield, in real time. It means, the software will prevent malicious items we detect, from ever running on our PCs instantly! It has a scheduler, which enables you to program the adware remover, when its supposed to scan the whole system.