The news that more than 74,000 computers have just been affected by a very simple but difficult to be rid of Trojan horse going by the title of Kneber has failed to surprise anyone.  What may raise a few eyebrows is that Kneber has reportedly succeeded in extracting some fairly sensitive material from large US corporations and government agencies as well as from business and personal computers around the World.  More than two thousand organisations, institutions, companies and agencies were infiltrated by the Kneber botnet, over the last 18 months as part of a botnet first spotted by in January. So where was their anti virus protection you may well be asking?

According to industry experts, the Kneber Trojan is nothing more than a resurrection of the Zeus/Zbot toolkits whose existence has been known for some time. What has also become increasingly obvious is that in the hacker’s community, it has become increasingly common practice to create a new virus strain, such as is the case with Kneber from the Zeus botnet.

This would tell that virus protection software developers that anyone who has been protected against the more latent dangers to their online security that Zeus presented, they should also be safe-guarded from attacks by its little brother, Kneber. What is causing some concern is that Kneber was also shown to be capable of high-jacking personal security details from the major social networking websites, with Facebook at the helm.

Software security experts have been taken aback by the extent of the damage that Kneber has caused, as they do not regard the trojan horse as a new virus, but just a updated and re-packaged version of the notorious Zeus Trojan. Authorities are convinced that the word  Kneber comes from a  particular group, bots, being controlled by one  hacker, who probably can’t believe that he or she got so lucky.

What the emergence and subsequent rapid disappearance of Kneber only goes to show once again that computer owners and operators cannot afford to leave anything to chance. Hackers from all over the World are working flat out to devise new schemes to harvest information.  Information that is both private and sensitive and can cause tremendous harm if and when it falls into the wrong hands.

That’s why every individual and organisation should take their internet security very seriously.   

For more information on protecting your PC or Laptop visit http://www.mcafee-downloads.co.uk/

Tags: Anti Virus, Facebook, Kneber Trojan, Mcafee, Trojan Horses, Viruses, Zbot toolkits, Zeus botnet, Zeus Trojan

Adobe discover what it is like to be under constant attack from hackers

Under fire software giant Adobe have released yet another fix for two critical security flaws discovers in their Reader and Acrobat programs. The fixes came in the wake of a recent report that showed that 80 percent of all virus intrusions trough Adobe’s software in December of last year came through their much used Portable Document Files (PDFs).

The out of sequence patch is for Adobe Reader and Acrobat versions 9.3 to 9.3.1 for the Windows, Macintosh and UNIX versions of Reader, as well as the Windows and Macintosh version of Acrobat. Those computer users, who are still using the 8.2 version of either program, will need to update to 8.2.1 to receive a suitable patch for the inherent security flaws that were discovered. Those wishing to download Adobe’s update, need to click on Help | Check for Updates from within either the Reader of Acrobat program.

The second security flow is potentially the most dangerous is it could allow an attacker to infiltrate either versions of the program and execute commands.

In addition to the problems with its Reader and Acrobat software, Adobe Systems are reported to be preparing this time to deal with a critical issue in their Flash Player. Analysts reckon that the Flash Player flaw  might allow a  hacker  to trick a Web browser into carrying out actions that would be detrimental to the software and the computer that it is played on, although can’t be used to directly install unauthorized software onto  a victim’s computer.

Normally Adobe patches Reader and Acrobat in quarterly security updates, but Adobe is being forced to rush out next Tuesday’s fix because these products are also susceptible to the Flash Player flaw.  Adobe’s Flash is so widely used it is essential that companies and individuals update their installations of the Flash Player at the earliest possible opportunity

Adobe’s security has come under scrutiny over the past year as attackers have increasingly leveraged Reader and Acrobat flaws to hack into computers. Because Reader and Flash Player are installed on almost all desktop computers, a well-crafted attack has the potential to affect considerably more victims than one that targets Internet Explorer or Firefox.

Adobe’s next scheduled Patch update is due April 13 201

For more information on protecting your PC or Laptop visit http://www.mcafee-downloads.co.uk/

Tags: Adobe, Adobe Reader, Anti Virus, Flash Player, Mcafee, Trojan Horses, Viruses

Recent reports have it that hackers are attempting to steal the identities of Twitter users, through a fairly sophisticated phishing scheme. What appears to be making the scheme easier to spot is that the hackers are bulk e-mailing subscribers, with some attempted victims, receiving up to ten e-mails a day containing the following message.

“Due to concern that your account may have been compromised in a phishing attack that took place off-Twitter, your password was reset. Please create a new password by opening this link in your browser” Needless to say the link was false, and those who fell victim to the scam had inadvertently given away all of their account information.

Yet who can be truly surprised that the latest internet sensation would become a target of an online phishing campaign. After all, they are only falling in the footsteps of Facebook, Google, Hotmail, EarthLink, Yahoo, and Comcast among others.  Estimates are that more than one million accounts may have been compromised, resulting in login details falling in to the unscrupulous hands of phishers.

The earliest examples of phishing that were seen on the internet were the almost laughable “Nigerian prince” scams that were very active around five years, although quite a few people fell victim to them. Another more recent example was a bulk e-mail campaign by phishers posing as representatives of PayPal, asking for account holders for their user name and password, again bringing surprisingly good results for the hackers and bad news for those who fell victim.

Some of the profits from these phishes appear to have been invested in the next generation of phishing, known as “spear phishing,” in which the web fraudsters have used a friendly and local cover to attempt to prize sensitive information from the unsuspecting public. If scammers send an email blast to an entire local community, under the disguise of a bank or local department store, the chances are that a few people will click on the link before news spreads.

This is the reason why internet users are urged to regularly update their passwords, even though it can some inconvenience. Yet the inconvenience will certainly bear no comparison to that caused if a person’s identity is stolen, Another, and probably more efficient method of preventing cyber theft, is install the most powerful anti-virus software on the market and to take every step to make sure that it is maintained and  up to date to protect themselves from  phishing fraudsters.

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If you would like to know more about how to protect your PC and/or Laptop visit Mcafee Downloads

Tags: Comcast, EarthLink, Facebook, Google, Hotmail, phishing campaign, phishing fraudsters, Phishing Scams, Trojan Horses, Viruses, Yahoo

Internet security analysts are never the most popular people you will find online, simply because nobody likes the bearer of bad news. Especially when it is becoming an ever increasing occurrence.  And sadly as the war between computer hackers and the consumer gathers pace hackers are constantly seeking out new chinks in the security armour to implant their evil seeds in someone’s computer. The latest means by which viruses and other malicious software (malware) that looks destined to spread itself across the web will be under the disguise of an ” impossible to refuse” online money making scheme which not only will not transpire but will also  house one or more viruses in  their many forms.   

In these difficult financial times we are living through with unemployment still on the rise, these ultra-cynical hackers are playing on honest people’s honest desires to earn some money online, and preying on their vulnerability. And for people who are least well prepared to spot a scam, these on line get rich quick schemes are very well disguised.  And the hackers look for signs that a computer has already been compromised are fully exploited by infiltrating the computer owner with promises of earnings through low key envelope stiffing schemes to “double your money overnight” offers. 

Once someone bites, the next stage that the hackers will take will send an e-mail with an innocent looking e-mail containing an attachment, that the innocent opportunity seeker will be compelled to open. And why not? This is a chance to get out of the rut and clear up some financial problems. Instead opening the attachment will be the equivalent of opening a Pandora’s Box and instead of solving some problems, the victims have just fallen into a whole new set of them.

The moral of the story is, no matter how enticing an offer may appear, check it out very thoroughly before you get to even the first stages of contact, especially if the offer came through a pop-up that suddenly and mysteriously appeared.  No matter how short of money you are, if you regard the security of your personal details seriously enough, and don’t want to be constantly pestered by these get rich quick scams or, even worse, fall victim to them, block them off at source by installing a reliable and effective anti-virus software program. And never open an attachment that has an exe. Suffix, because nine times out of ten they will by carrying a virus.

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If you would like to know more about how to protect your PC and/or Laptop visit Mcafee Downloads

Tags: Anti Virus, anti-virus software, Internet Security, Malicious Software, Malware, Mcafee, Trojan Horses, Viruses

It’s a moment you wouldn’t wish on anyone. That moment is when the realization sinks home that your computer has been attacked by a virus; a virus which has succeeded in slipping through your computer’s defences which, up to that moment, you were convinced were strong enough. Your computer technician is now breaking the sad news that you were over-optimistic of your chosen software’s ability to protect your computer, and the valuable information that it contains, from the ever growing and increasingly sophisticated array of computer viruses that are appearing on a daily basis.

As he shakes his head, your computer technician explains that the only way to give your computer a clean bill of health is to re-format your hard disc, meaning that all the information contained on it will be gone forever. There are many viruses around these days that will save the technician the job of clearing out the hard disc, as the virus will clear out the hard disc during its raid on your computer.

When it comes to protecting the information on a hard disc there are two methods. Preventing virus attacks on your computer means investing in the best virus protection software that you can find and not necessarily in the cheapest. The information that you have online will, for certain, be worth a hundreds times more than it will cost you to invest in the software.

The other method to protect your data also involves an investment, and again one that is very worthwhile. Anyone who wants to protect their information needs to spend some money on an external hard disc to house and back up all the information on their computer. The information can be related to your business and your personal life and many times cannot be replaced.      

So don’t make the mistake of adopting the “false economy” approach. Spend some money on protecting your information. You won’t regret it.

For more information on Protection your PC or laptop visit http://www.mcafee-downloads.co.uk

Tags: Anti Virus, anti-virus protection, Back Up, Computer Viruses, Digital Download Products, Mcafee, PC Back up, Trojan Horses, Viruses

Every day a fresh Trojan seems to hit the net and as they become more invasive their names become more bizarre. The latest comes with the distinctive name of the Vundo virus, and is indeed a pesky little invader. Early reports have it that the Vundo virus is particularly problematic because it is capable of installing deep in a computer’s registry and only a top anti-virus will have the ability to totally remove it in all of its many formats and disguises.  

The Vundo Trojan falls into the category of being a rootkit virus because it houses itself in your computer’s software registry, which is the very root of your operating system, and if left undetected takes full control of the computer. These forms of viruses are infamous because of the difficulty in removing them, as well as being dynamic in nature. This means that if less than capable software is employed in removing the virus, and succeeds in only partially removing it, Vundo will rapidly rebuild and reinstall itself and set about attacking its prey from where it left off, inside the registry file.

What is equally as worrying is that the Vundo Trojan virus will even start to create pop-ups that will attempt to sell its host computer a series of fake antivirus software. If anyone falls for the Vundo scam then the program or programs they will install are liable to infect the computer even further. Later on, when it has totally manifested itself, Vundo will slow the computer’s system down to a crawl and possibly cause it to seize up altogether. These are just a few of the ways that a Vundo-infected computer will behave. Suffice it to say that all of them are annoying and offensive.

The Vundo virus will make a very major struggle to prevent itself from being exorcised from a computer that it has taken over. Experience has shown that the only effective way to keep the Vundo Trojan at bay or totally remove it in the case of infection is setting the best tried-and-tested anti-viruses in place. 

For more information on Protection your PC or laptop visit http://www.mcafee-downloads.co.uk

Tags: Anti Virus, Digital Download Products, Mcafee, Phishing Scams, Trojan Horses, Viruses, Vundo virus

With Microsoft hot from releasing an emergency patch on Thursday 19^th January designed to repair a zero-day vulnerability that caused Google and more than 30 other companies to be hacked in the so-called Aurora attacks, an older problem has reared its ugly head which looks like it will represent further woe for Internet Explorer (IE).

Information has reached Microsoft that versions of Internet Explorer could inadvertently allow hacker entry to a computer’s hard disc and allow them to access files on the computer. Apparently Microsoft was made aware of the problem as long ago as 2008 and despite two attempts by Microsoft to fix it two years ago, the problem seems unwilling to go away.  The virus is not so sophisticated and doesn’t allow the hacker to install other codes on a person’s computer. Despite that fact, the presence of this glitch has to be regarded as a serious breach of security, affecting all of Microsoft’s operating systems, including their latest IE8.

The hacker operates by duping a victim into clicking on a heavily disguised malicious Uniform Resource Locator (URL). The URL is created by manipulating four or five features in Internet Explorer; if the hacker succeeds in drawing a computer owner or user into his web, the browser will process files that are not pure HTML on the computer.

Despite the fixes carried out in 2008, hackers continue to find ways to pull off the same attack. Hopes are that when Microsoft’s next batch of patches is released on Feb. 9 the company will have come up with a solution to the problem by then.

In the meantime, if you come across a link that looks suspicious, you should stay clear. If you click on the URL you might find yourself on a web site that is an exact replica of the one that wanted to link onto it, but is instead an attempt to access private information and introduce a series of viruses into your computer.

For more information on Protection your PC or laptop visit http://www.mcafee-downloads.co.uk

Tags: Anti Virus, Computer Viruses, Digital Download Products, IE, Internet Security, Mcafee, Phishing Scams, Trojan Horses, Viruses

These days a computer owner and/or operator have to be ever aware of the fact that their private information is under constant threat from attack. And these attacks can come from several directions and in many forms. Once something that could be taken fairly lightly, anti-virus protection is now a thing that needs to be taken very seriously. There are currently three separate issues that need to be addressed when protecting a computer against malware. The first is to have powerful firewalls installed on every computer which is a default, and after that to have powerful enough software that can handle both spyware and viruses. In case anyone tells you different, computers require both anti-spyware and anti-virus protection.

The debate is whether any virus protection software is capable of offering sufficient protection against both. While there is no specific answer, depending on exactly what you’re doing, most computers should need only one of each, and dependent on the strength and versatility of the software, one should be more than sufficient. The mistake that many computer owners make is failing to believe that there is no single programme that will catch all viruses or spyware. Instead they install two programmes which, in certain cases, do provide the solution. However downloading and installing two programs that are incompatible to each other can be at best counter- productive and at worst catastrophic both in terms of virus and spyware protection and the computer’s general operation.

First of all, most anti-virus programs, when you install them, operate and enable real-time monitors. Sometimes running two or more real-time anti-virus monitors simultaneously will more than likely cause them to conflict. Conflicts in a computer are not something that you want to happen and will create crashes of the anti-virus programs, among a wide list of other types of failure.

Summing up: the simplest path to take when contemplating how best to protect your computer and the valuable information it contains is to place your faith in MacAfee, the industry leaders in virus protection.

Tags: Anti Virus, anti-spyware, anti-virus protection, firewall, Mcafee, Trojan Horses, Virus, Viruses

Owning a computer and especially one that is used as a work or study tool is not without its pressures. All of a sudden, in the middle of the day or night, something can happen to your computer that is difficult to explain: Strange occurrences that seem to happen only once in a while, and certainly not often enough to become a major irritant. You mention it to your friends, family and colleagues and it becomes a bit of a talking point, and you almost wish it would happen again. Till it does! And then, instead of it becoming an irregular occurrence, it becomes a regular one, and a nuisance to boot. What has happened is that your computer has become invaded by a virus and your failure to react properly the first time has meant that the virus has spread and you will have some work, some inconvenience and some expense, to cope with until your computer will once again be virus free.

One of the most likely and early signs of a virus attack is when the browser page of your computer changes itself, usually to something a lot less than savoury. While it takes next to no time to change your home page back to its usual format, many people will regard this as a bit a fluke and a talking point, little realising that there is something much more sinister afoot.

Known as “high-jacking”, it is almost always caused by some spyware that has succeeded in infiltrating your computer. You will find that even if you have some forms of anti-virus software installed in your computer, the people who are smart enough to program such sophisticated forms of spyware will make short work of slipping past your virtual sentry. And once these spywares are in place they are difficult in the extreme to remove, even by the most powerful and sophisticated anti-virus programs.

The secret of keeping your computer clean and clear of viruses is to not cut corners with your computer maintenance and the type of computer software that you use to protect your privacy and safety. Many spywares are introduced to a computer by the owner downloading other freeware programs and innocently allowing these invasive programs to be downloaded at the same time. Not every anti-virus software will pick up on these spywares sneaking in and the damage and inconvenience they can cause is considerable.

There are many people that neglect the first signs of computer problems. You shouldn’t neglect those simple maintenance tasks that can enhance or prolong the life of your computer.

Tags: Anti Virus, Digital Download Products, Mcafee, Trojan Horses, Viruses

Towards the end of last week a major virus attack was reported to have focused itself on Internet Explorer 6 running on Windows XP, although industry sources later reported that it appeared that the virus looked like it was also being modified and could possibly attack more recent versions of Microsoft’s highly popular browser.

Fears are that any hacker could pick up the code originally used to attack IE6 and adapt it accordingly.  Also believed to being targeted by the attack are industry leaders Adobe Systems, as well as Yahoo, Northrop Grumman and Dow Chemicals.

Microsoft t has rushed out security advisory on the IE security flaw and the possibility is yet to be ruled out that an emergency “out-of-cycle” patch to seal up the security gap will be issued, despite Microsoft’s next set of security patches not being due till the 9^th of February. This is more than three weeks away and will give hackers too much time to take full advantage of the flaw. On the upside, security experts have projected that exploiting the flaw would be very difficult on Windows Vista or Windows 7 systems, due to their advanced memory protection technology.

According to a spokesman from McAfee, Microsoft will have little option but to release a repair patch, since the IE6 is currently too vulnerable and will provide rich pickings for computer hackers. On Friday 15th, Germany’s Federal Office for Information Security, advised users to work through an alternative browser until Microsoft fixes the issue.

Industry experts predict that repairing the flaw might not prove to be too easy, because Microsoft’s team not only has to repair the chink in their armour but must also ensure that the hackers are not capable of creating another one that can also infiltrate the other three versions of its browser.  Information online is that the hackers behind this latest virus are from China, making it difficult, if not impossible, to trace them.  

A spokesman for Microsoft hastened to point out that while their Internet Explorer and especially version 6 was currently vulnerable, every other browser also has its security issue and while switching, even temporarily, to another may be tempting, it could expose computer users to another series of risks.

For the best PC protection visit http://www.mcafee-downloads.co.uk

Tags: Anti Virus, Mcafee, Trojan Horses, Viruses