If you were computer conscious in the 1990s, you probably remember these often laughable but inevitably highly dangerous e-mails that would come in with amazing regularity from Nigeria, which was at that time, one of Africa’s richest countries.  At that time of considerable security upheaval in the country, it became a common fact that the government had decided to freeze international bank accounts of the families and friends of former Nigerian dictator Sani Abacha.  The e-mails would come from individuals who were  claiming to be  family members  of the dictator himself or high ranking members of his government who were no longer with us, and who had left  millions of dollars  in Swiss bank accounts so that the Nigerian authorities could not get their greedy hands on it. All that was required was to pay  a few dollars for the information on how the fund and those successful in releasing it, could earn a finders of fee of 15% of the sum, which could add up to a few hundred thousand dollars, pounds or whatever. Needless to say no one ever saw the finder’s fee, as the money never existed.

Luckily all but a very stupid or very greedy few fell victim to this highly unsophisticated scam, known as an “advance fee fraud,” However the proceeds must have been well invested because over the years Nigeria has become a mini world center for phishing scams, some of them fairly sophisticated, using fake sites that steal e-mail login information and send distress calls to contacts.

Nigerian phishers are reported to have focused their attention on the social-networking sites to find potential victims for their advance fee scams evolved targeting the more naive people that might use instant messaging and online social networks and seem to be more likely to answer such a call

The Nigerian Government’s Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) are well aware of the bad reputation that they have built up over the years and in 2009 launched an awareness campaign to warn citizens of the country of the bad reputation they were earning Nigeria and the punishment that would be meted out to those caught in such nefarious activities. The EFCC also conducted raids on cybercafés in Lagos and other Nigerian cities, and made a few arrests, but the problem has not only not been solved it appears to have gotten worse.

 In one of the latest scams, e-mail accounts have been compromised and messages are sent to everyone on the contacts list, saying that e-mail account owner has been the victim of a robbery in Nigeria needs money to sort out local expense before they can fly home.  Needless to say, someone with the right anti-virus software in place need never fall victim to a Nigerian phishing scam.

This article was provide by http://www.mcafee-downloads.co.uk/ 

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

Most people are reluctant to take the news on board, but mobile phones are to all intents and purposes mini computers and as such are as vulnerable to hackers as anything else that is hooked to the internet. This fact was hammered how a few days ago with the news that a Vodafone HTC Magic mobile phone from was found to contain malware. The Trojan horse attack was discovered completely by chance by a person who works for one of the less well known anti-virus security software developers. She discovered the virus after connecting her phone to her home computer to download some photographs. The alert worker was amazed and bemused to discover that a password stealing Trojan was in residence. The hackers had programmed their Trojan so that it would only activate when transmitting to a Windows based computer, which is becoming increasingly common these days.

The virus software industry is becoming aware of an increase in this trend, with a number of the leading companies now offering a specialist program for mobile phone protection.  The mystery that remains unsolved is how the two virus files with the titles of “autorun.inf” and “autorun.exe” had found themselves on the phone, with suspicions that a botnet had succeeded in infiltrating it.  Further investigation by Vodafone found that no less than 3,000 phones, all of them sold through the company’s Spanish subsidiary had been infected. 

Vodafone were apparently taken aback by the attack, and hastily released the following statement:

“Vodafone takes the security and privacy of its customers extremely seriously and launched an immediate investigation into this incident. Following extensive Quality Assurance testing on HTC Magic handsets in several of our operating companies, early indications are that this was an isolated local incident. Vodafone keeps its security processes under constant review as new threats arise, and we will take all appropriate actions to safeguard our customers’ privacy.”

Reading between the lines, no device is safe from cyber hackers, and the fact that they were able and willing to plant some fairly powerful malware and let it lie in wait till it would find a PC to attack, shows the extent of the sophistication and guile that they are prepared to go to in search of the rich pickings of cyber crime.

This article has been provided by Mcafee Downloads For More Information on protecting ypur data visit Mcafee Downloads

Tags: Digital Download Products, Malware, Mcafee, Trojan Horses, Viruses, Vodafone

Computer hackers have once again launched an attack on social networking giant Facebook, sending a massive deluge of spam e-mails to the four hundred million Facebook account holders. The purpose of this latest cyber attack is the fool the more gullible of Facebook’s account holder into revealing their current passwords and from there on in, the gateway is open to gathering more juicy information on the computer owner or owner’s account details.  

According to industry security leaders, McAfee anyone opening the emails will find a simple message stating that their Facebook passwords have been reset. (Sample below)

If anyone foolish or not sufficiently  alert  that opens the attachment , all hell will break loose, and not one but several types of malware will open up, including one capable of drilling through a computer’s Firewall and  stealing any  passwords.

This “old fashioned” method of attack on Facebook users is a new attempt by hackers to breach their defences, with most attacks coming directly through the company’s own internal email system. The way the e-mail was worded might indicate a certain lack of sophistication from the hackers, something that could not be said about the large artillery of malware enclosed in the attachment.

Facebook’s security and public relations departments seemed reluctant to comment on the specific case, pointing only to a status update that they had posted on their web site in Wednesday of last week, that warned their users about the spoofed email as well as advising users to delete the email as welling as warning their network friends.

McAfee’s director of malware research and communications, Dave Marcus, pointed out that that the hackers may well have sent out tens of millions of spam across Europe, the United States and Asia since the campaign began less than a week ago, and their estimates are that millions of computers not carrying sufficiently powerful and sophisticate anti-virus software will more than likely been affected. He went on to explain that they reason why hackers seem to have a soft spot for Facebook is because of their massive client base. “With Facebook as your target you potentially have 400 million people that can click on the attachment. If you get 10 percent success, that’s 40 million” Marcus explained.

For More information on protecting your PC visit http://www.mcafee-downloads.co.uk/privacy-security-virus-information.htm

Tags: Anti Virus, Facebook, Mcafee, Trojan Horses, Viruses

Someone who spends a long time as one with a piece of machinery or equipment knows pretty soon if something is not working as it should or did not so long ago, It could be a car, bus or truck driver that feels that their vehicle’s engine is not firing on all of its cylinders, or a housewife who know without being told that her spin drier is not rotating fast enough.  With a computer it sometimes takes a little longer to discern that there is a problem. However in time, the owner or operator will begin to reach a situation where it will no longer be possible to ignore that all is not well.

First of all the computer will begin to operate at a much slower pace and the owner will automatically suspect that a mechanical malfunction has occurred.  They may even get as far as taking their computer to a technician for it to be checked over. Unless the technician is really on the ball, and not all of them are, they will not pick up on the fact that the computer has been compromised. What is important to remember is that a computer virus rarely causes a computer to stop operating. That would defeat the purpose. Inevitably the visit to the computer technician winds up with the customer being charged a chunk of money, and leaving the premises, scratching their heads, none the wiser. 

The next stage in the mystery, is that the computer is taken home, sat up and continues to work at minimum capacity. Suddenly out of the blue, strange, uninvited and decidedly unwelcome pop up messages will bring to show up, offering all kind of products that you neither want to buy nor even want to know that they exist. 

What you, and the computer technician, may have suspected has actually occurred. Your computer has been attacked by spyware, and these messages will continue to pop up at an increased frequency.  And there is only one thing that can be done about. You guessed it.  To take the computer back to the “repair shop” and pay out what it takes to have these viruses driven from it, and hopefully forever.

As we all know, prevention is an awful lot better than cure, and if your computer technician is worth the diploma printed on their wall, will not allow you to leave their premises until they have convinced you to install a professional anti-virus program on your computer.

http://www.mcafee-downloads.co.uk/

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

UK Cabinet Minister Ed Miliband as well as several other members of the British upper class are among those who have fallen victim to a

phishing attack through Twitter. The virus attack came to light when UK Secretary for Energy and Climate Change Miliband began to notice that his Twitter account was transmitting spam tweets, sending messages of a highly explicit nature. The message included a link that invited visitors to enter their personal information, which then fell into the hands of the hackers behind the phishing scheme.  

Twitter were not slow to issue a warning, asking subscribers to keep their eyes open for direct messages (DMs)  containing phrases like  ” is this you??’ or ‘LOL is this you’ as well as  a link. If they receive such a message, they should discard it immediately.  Anyone who does fall victim to the scam will not only be likely to pass on their sensitive personal information as well as sending out some fairly lurid messages to friends and foes alike.

Also known to be a definite victim of the phishing scam is a key executive of the online branch of a major UK bank, who has seemingly spent the better part of last week on the phone apologising and explaining that the messages (as well as the offers they contained) did not come from him.  Others who refuse to either confirm or deny that they may have fallen victim include another very highly placed Labour official to a number of print and radio journalists.

Software security analysts have reported an increased interest in compromising Twitter accounts, supposedly as a reaction to Google, Microsoft, and Yahoo’s recent steps that will increasingly integrate nearly real-time data such as Twitter posts into their search engine results. This has apparently left a number of openings for hackers to use Twitter as well as the other social networking tools to target keywords. These keywords particularly include news events, which they use to secure prominent positions. When a surfer clicks on the link, malware, .such as that used to affect Ed Miliband among others is then introduced onto the computer or mobile phone.

Such a short term yet potentially damaging attack goes to show that once again people who like instant access to information cannot afford to leave anything to chance. Phishers are working flat out to devise new schemes to harvest sensitive and often classified information, that .can cause tremendous harm if it falls into the wrong hands as well as severe  embarrassment in many cases.

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

http://www.mcafee-downloads.co.uk/

Tags: Anti Virus, Anti-Phishing software, Digital Download Products, Ed Miliband, Mcafee, phished, Phishing, phishing fraudsters, Phishing Scams, Trojan Horses, Twitter, Viruses

Anyone who ever saw the film “Gremlins” will remember that he film had a very important message part form being kind of cute? It was about a little boy who wanted to claim as a pet a very unusual but potentially very dangerous gremlin. Although before agreeing, its former owner made the boy and his family promises that they would never beak any one of three simple rules. If not the consequences could be catastrophic.  Of course the boy broke the rules and that cute little gremlin in the corner became a monster. The same thing can happen to your shiny new computer if you don’t observe an even simpler rule.  And that is, to make sure your computer is protected from viruses at all time.

Owning a computer and having it in your home, believe it or not, is a responsibility and one that should be taken very seriously.  If you don’t you will soon discover a load of hackers, spammers, and viruses have invaded your computer and with it your life. That means that a computer owner can ill afford not to follow some basic steps in protecting their home computer and the information that it contains.  

The most important step is to make sure that a proper anti-virus program has been installed. A sure sign of a worthwhile anti-virus computer software is that that it is on sale at reputable stores, and not just online. You really have to take a second look at software that is only available for download and does not come in a boxed, CDrom version.

It has to be said that here are no shortage of virus protection programs available both on the internet of in office apply centres and computer stores.  Never install an anti-virus program that suddenly appears as pop up on your computer. There is no surer sign that at best the program is a fake and at worse it contains even more viruses!

Many people like to have the security of having a boxed version of the programs they buy as a backup, although these days it really isn’t necessary.  When you bring your new computer home, you will most always find that a trial version of one of the top antivirus programs will have been bundled with it, and you have nothing to lose by giving it a try. If you are happy with it, then there is no reason not to update to a licensed version when the trail period runs out. The other option is try a few other virus protection programs for a trial, and then once you have decided which one suit you best, either download it from the internet whilst ordering a back up boxed version which will be delivered to your home in a few days.

Whatever to do keep your computer protected and don’t let the gremlins in.

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

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.

Authour Box

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.

Authour Box

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