Rogue Fake Codecs on the Rise

By Paul | Feb 27, 2009

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Panda Labs has been talking about Adware/VideoPlay and they are seeing a lot of variants on this. They even play a game, find the difference in the installation screen:

Now as you can see this look to be the same agreement in all those difference installation. Some things to consider Never install any software from a website that you don’t know Nothing about about.

Panda Labs also talks about these new variants in regards to what they do:

This file spreads by making copies of itself in the removable drives and it also creates an autorun.inf in order to be run when they are accessed. This file collects the data stored in the browsers, such as cookies, passwords, profiles, email accounts, etc, and connects to a remote address to send the information.
[Via Panda Labs Blog]

Facebook Virus strikes again

By Paul | Dec 4, 2008

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“Look you were filmed all naked!” read the subject header on one iteration of the virus-spreading message, which is being sent automatically from infected accounts to the “friend” list for that account. Clicking the link usually takes users to a page that looks like YouTube, and a pop-up message advises the user to download a Flash plug-in. The download contains the virus, which replicates by contacting everyone on the victim’s Facebook friend list and advancing the hoax.

[Via Boston Media]

This is a good social engineered attack, they seem to have you download a virus into your system. I Keep talking about how you need to be careful with emails. I also suggest that you do a complete Virus scan if you think you’ve been hit with this. There is only one way to prevent yourself from getting this little facebook virus and that is not to click it. Some other things to consider if you found out this was a virus is to contact the person who sent this to them so they to could do a virus scan on their system.

Apple’s Immunity, Botnet sanctuary.

By Paul | Dec 3, 2008

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But is Apple projecting a false sense of security just to save face? Many experts repeatedly warn that all operating systems are susceptible to viruses, and as the Mac becomes more popular OS X will inevitably become a bigger target for malicious attacks.

[via Pcworld]

Having said that I feel the notion that Apple is trying to keep there reputation as a virus free system. I can only hope that they stay that way. Which as much as I know, Apple will most like start to be the main source for botnets, because of the lack of security.

According to reports on this blog, people are worried Apple stance on it being the safest and having so much immunity to viruses. Apple in the past has stated they have mislead people with there firewall. Yet Apple takes down that suggestion of having an Anti-virus(Quietly).

Everything I’ve seen suggest that virus writers and Malware writers will MOST likely start targeting the Mac OS X, they know Apple sense of security is Vulnerable to attack and they will exploit it more and more. So what does that mean for Apple, it just means that soon every hacker who has a botnet will want a piece of the Apple Pie and is right now.

Taking back Program Controls : For the Beginners!

By Paul | Oct 1, 2008

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So, let’s face it, this is one of the most annoying problems there are with programs. Programs that you think are shut down but are actually still active in the Taskmanager. So I figured I’d talk about some of the most common fixes for these problems. Now as you know there can be any number of programs or glitches as they say, causing the problems. So let’s talk about the why, shall we.

Most of the time programs don’t quit because they are waiting for some kind of response from the system or the System is waiting for the program to close by itself. It could also be a problem with a Virus or Root kit? How do you fix it?

Fixing the problem is somewhat just trial and Error. It isn’t always the hardest thing to do but sometimes people overlook the easiest solutions. So here are some easy ones:

Check to see if one of the Microsoft updates are causing the problem – Sometimes you might not realize it, but having installed an update can cause problems like KB951748. That one caused a major Headache for Zonealarm. So it is wise to check each months updates when you start seeing problems, sometimes it could of been happening for a while but it can sometimes cause troubles.