IT Security Blog

Beware of E-mail Attachments in your E-Mail

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Malware and Spyware

Electronic mail has become the buzz of the town in recent years and while some use e-mail as a means of cheaper and faster ways of sending messages and files over the Internet, it cannot be discounted that some use e-mail as a form of exploit as well, by send unrecognized files to various recipients who in the same way may not know the harmful effects that such files would bring to their personal workstations.

While there are various means of supplying computer protection such as firewalls and anti-virus protection for single and networked computers, some harmful file just tends to get past them. That is why there are specific softwares used for specific infections, particularly the Trojan developed files that do their work unnoticed.

So the next time you get mail from someone who has an attachment with questionable file name extensions, better think twice before clicking or opening it. It may cause more pain than enjoyment in most cases.

[tags]spyware,malware,trojans,security[/tags]

Do You Use an Anti-Virus for PC Protection?

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Computer Viruses

With the vast number of viruses and spyware that most people contract in their everyday exposure to the web, the need for consistent and reliable anti-virus protection software is the foremost concern of most people. To date, the awareness for such deceiving acts done over the Internet without the user even noticing it is rampant. Such viruses have caused discomfort and havoc in more cases than one and it has been the battle cry of most security software developers to adhere and answer such miscues that usually occur everyday.

[tags]malware, spyware, virus, security, anti-virus[/tags]
Network and workstation security has always been the subject of most people, especially the vulnerability that most computer stations are prone to. Updates and patches are usually the way to update reliable anti-virus software partners, but in most cases, there will always be a loophole to which hackers and advanced technology harassers would be able to come up with. Hence the needs to find a reliable software partner that can truly protect a workstation from such harmful intrusions evolve and change in time. It is just a matter of being up to date with regards to their reliability and efficiency in providing a safe surfing and exposure level once they are logged on to the World Wide Web.

Search Engines And Risky Sites

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I use search engines to look up everything. Recipes, news, info on whatever interest me at the moment, everything can be found at after typing a few words in the search bar. Since it’s become commonplace to use search engines, hackers look for ways to exploit this habit. Typing popular keywords can return even risky sites in the first pages results, since search engines have little to no filtering security measures being implemented. Sites with sponsored ads are even more likely to contain embedded adware and trojans. Though search engines may have advertising policies and listing and ranking rules about which sites show up in their search results, it’s up to the user’s good judgment to select what sites they will visit.

Search engines can also be a doorway to malware because of caching. Caches are used to store a backup copy of data temporarily. Search engines like Google and MSN save a virtual copy of a site in their servers, so even if a site goes down or is inaccessible due to slow connection speeds, the information and data can still be retrieved. Companies and service providers often use caching servers to speed up performance and lessen traffic in the network. But what if the site has a piece of malicious code embedded into its pages? Caches don’t save everything on a page, but a malicious piece of javascript will be part of the copy. The cached copy is identical to the original in that aspect, so accessing a cached page will have the same effect as accessing the original. So keep that in mind while browsing through your search results.

[tags]search engines, caching[/tags]

Avoiding those Fake Codec Sites

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The list of sites you should avoid because of the threat of viruses and unwanted malware is almost ingrained in the mind of every person browsing the internet. Not to mention that ultimate rule of don’t click a link on the instant messenger window or e-mail even if it’s from a close friend. Banner ads might be a gateway to a site that installs keyloggers and malware. But there are a number of sites that disguise themselves as good sites to get you downloading their files on your own.

One such example is the fake codec sites. Codecs are most often associated with video and movies. These programs helps your media player translate the stream of data for viewing and editing. It may so happen that you have an old media player and the videos you want to view was encoded using a different program. It may also be that the file format is incompatible with your player, so you need that codec to make it viewable. Your first instinct would be to search for codec sites and download from the first in the list that turns up. They look legitimate, but then they work because of that. The “codec” you download will turn out to be the very files you want to avoid. And this isn’t even limited to codecs. Hackers, knowing how much anti-virus programs are popular, make fake anti-virus pages with the same purpose. So how can we avoid them? We can always check sites like Sunbelt blog that lists down fake codec and security sites on a weekly basis. Or simply download codecs and upgrades from the legitimate sources. it’s much better to be safe than sorry.

[tags]fake codec, spyware, trojans, malware
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Anti-Virus Software Analysis

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Top anti-virus software should be easy enough for a computer novice to both use and install. The software should effectively seek out and identify virus threats, as well as clean or isolate infected files. There should be understandable reporting available for each scan and plenty of help support available, so you can be well informed of the software’s activities and capabilities. Below are the criteria TopTenREVIEWS used to evaluate anti-virus software.

Ease of Use. Exceptional anti-virus software is simple to use, regardless of a person’s computer experience or knowledge of viruses.

Effective at Identifying Viruses and Worms. The best anti-virus products identify infected files quickly through real-time scanning, searching for viruses in a multitude of sources, including email, instant message applications, web browsing and so on.

Effective at Cleaning or Isolating Infected Files. Truly capable anti-virus software thoroughly cleans, deletes or quarantines infected files—keeping them from spreading throughout the hard drive or network.

Activity Reporting. Anti-virus programs should give immediate notification of viruses found by real-time scanners and should provide an easy-to-read report of scan results, including what it found and what it did with infected files.

Feature Set. A well-rounded feature set allows anti-virus software to provide absolute protection. The best programs are those that offer a wide variety of tools, from basic real-time scanning to more advanced, heuristic scanning and script blocking—when it comes to virus protection, the more options the better.

Ease of Installation and Setup. Anti-virus programs should be a breeze to install, making it easy to go from installation to initial scan in just a couple clicks of the mouse.

Help Documentation. High-end anti-virus software come with plenty of help, including support via email, online chat or over the telephone. There should also be online resources, such as knowledge bases and FAQs available for quick and conhelp.

So, no matter how serious a computer virus is or how quickly it is passed around, with today’s anti-virus software, you’ll always have a cure.

Legal Software Updates

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windows

Anecdotes from people are interesting all the time. There is this one person who was using a pirated copy of Microsoft Windows XP. One time, this person tried getting the security updates. Then something happened: this person had a message on the computer that the copy of Microsoft Windows XP is pirated and if the person wanted to keep on using it with security updates and stuff like that, a legal copy must be purchased. Now the thing is that everytime the computer is booted up, it shows that message. The person told me this: the moral lesson for those using pirated software is to not update!

Then again, how could one keep on using software that hasn’t been updated? There are security updates and sometimes they are critical ones. If you can’t get them for your system, you never know what you are exposing your computer to. Think of the MySpace news some time ago. Internet Explorer had a vulnerability. If you are a user who did not update, you would have probably been a victim.

Now we see from this anecdote that it is important to have legal software. We do not just have something we could use without guilt but we also get whatever updates the developers have in store. It would be bad for productivity to keep on dealing with malware and viruses because of the lack of updates.

If you are someone who can not afford legal copies of software because they are expensive, you could always download free and open source software. That way you have legal software and you could secure your system because you would have legal access to the security updates and all that.