Highjack Hunter takes back your PC from malware's clutches
Some malware infections are straightforward. They're known threats, cause little damage, and your regular antivirus engine can detect and remove them in seconds: easy. Other situations can be a little more complicated, though. Maybe you've run into a brand new threat that your security package doesn't recognize. Some malware will hijack Windows settings, perhaps disabling Task Manager or the Registry editor. Solving an issue like this may require some specialist help from a tool like Hijack Hunter.
Just launch this handy free portable utility, click "Scan," and it'll crawl all over your system looking for anything that might be suspicious. There are no signatures involved here, the program is purely highlighting items that seem interesting or out of the ordinary (which is why it might be able to pick up even previously undiscovered threats).
Ashampoo warns of security breach
Software company Ashampoo has been forced to issue a warning to customers after one of its servers was hacked. While no financial or credit-card information was taken, Ashampoo is keen to stress this information was not held on this server, hackers are believed to have obtained names and email addresses.
Ashampoo is warning that affected customers could be targeted by emails containing malware payloads, such as a bogus order confirmation email containing an attachment or link to a spoofed website. As the company says in its statement, "It is always important that you stay suspicious of unknown senders and that you do not respond to requests that tell you to open attachments."
Apple tracking location of iOS4 device users, researchers say
A team of researchers have discovered that iOS4 is secretly obtaining your location and recording it to a hidden file, raising obvious privacy concerns and questions as to why Apple would be storing such information. The researchers believe it is intentional, as the file is restored after backups and even when the user switches to a new device.
Alasdair Allan and Pete Warden of O'Reilly are presenting their findings at the Where 2.0 conference on Wednesday. They say the functionality appears new to iOS4, and they have attempted to contact Apple's security team on the issue but have not heard anything back.
IEZoneAnalyzer 3: Finally an easy way to manage Internet Explorer security zones
Internet Explorer's security zones provide support for more than 70 key settings, which gives you very fine control over what websites can and can't do on your system. These settings are spread around several dialogs, though, and it can be difficult to get a feel for your current configuration, or spot any problems -- unless you get a little help from IEZoneAnalyzer 3.
If you'd like an overview of your current security settings, for instance, don't waste time browsing around the Tools > Internet Options dialog. Just launch IEZoneAnalyzer, choose "Internet" in the Security Zone box, click "View Effective Settings," and the program will display your configuration in a single dialog. This includes the source of each setting, so you'll know if a particular restriction was applied by your preferences, machine preferences or Group Policy. And a couple of clicks will export this data to the clipboard, a CSV file, or even directly to Excel, if you'd like to run further analysis or just save it for posterity.
Obama presses for global, more secure authentication standard
The Obama administration on Friday asked the private sector to work on developing a standard for authentication, saying passwords are not secure enough and were not helping in preventing identity theft. The system could viably be used to not only verify identities online, but off as well it says.
Officials say the benefits of the President's so-called National Strategy for Trusted Identities in Cyberspace are two-fold: as well as offering a more secure authentication process, it would also ensure ultra-sensitive information such as financial or health records would only be accessible by that person.
Tip: Use Microsoft Safety Scanner as back line of your security offense
Microsoft has released a portable standalone security tool designed specifically to scan for and remove viruses, spyware and other threats. Microsoft Safety Scanner comes in both 32-bit and 64-bit versions for PCs running Windows XP or later.
The download package weighs in at a hefty 70MB, largely due to the fact it includes all the virus definitions it needs. Once downloaded, the tool will work for 10 days before expiring, forcing the user to download a fresh version with the latest updates included.
Norton 2012 security software may be beta, but it's polished and free (for now)
The first sighting of next year's security suites is something we still associate with the autumn, along with cooler weather, shorter daylight hours and the uncomfortable realization that Christmas isn't so very far away. Symantec seems determined to change that, though, and even though it's only a few months since Norton AntiVirus and Internet Security 2011 were released, the 2012 product range has released to public beta today.
These are clearly very early versions, then, but if wasn't for the word "BETA" on their consoles then you'd find it difficult to tell, at least initially. Installation is as quick and easy as ever: you don't even have to reboot once the process is over. The core Norton Internet Security 2012 process required only a little under 14MB of RAM (Private Working Set) on our test PC, so they're not exactly demanding. If the suite is missing any features, then it's hard to tell: you get on-demand antivirus scanning, strong real-time protection, a very configurable firewall, phishing protection, password management, accurate spam filtering and a whole lot more.
Feds take down Coreflood botnet, infected two million computers
The Justice Department said Wednesday that with the help of Microsoft, it and the FBI were able to take down a botnet that had infected nearly two million computers. Controlled by a program called "Coreflood," the virus was stealing personal information including financial data from infected users, and had been operating for close to a decade.
Five control servers and 29 domain names were seized in raids, and charges have been filed against 13 "John Doe" defendants for wire fraud, bank fraud and illegal interception of electronic communications. "John Doe" suits are filed when the plaintiff has not yet identified the defendant in the case, but in this case the defendants are believed to be foreign nationals.
Kaspersky TDSSKiller roots out rootkits
Rootkits are the ultimate in stealthy malware, burying themselves so deep into your system that they're often very hard to spot. If you're unlucky enough to encounter one then your antivirus package might detect it, but there are no guarantees, and so it may be wise to equip your PC with a second line of defence in Kaspersky's TDSSKiller.
As the name suggests, TDSSKiller is designed to target a few, specific threats (TDSS, Sinowal, Whistler, Phanta, Trup, Stoned). These can be very dangerous, though, so having another way to pick them up isn't going to hurt -- and the program can also detect hidden services, forged files, MBR changes and other suspicious signs that could indicate infection by a brand new rootkit.
Former Epsilon CEO likens massive email breach to shopping mall master key
The list of victims in last week's security breach at email marketing firm Epsilon Interactive continues to grow, expanding to as many as 50 companies and exposing thousands -perhaps even millions- of customers' names and email addresses to potential spammers and phishing scammers.
Email marketing expert and CEO of Zeta Interactive, Al DiGuido served as CEO for Epsilon Interactive from 2001-2007. On Friday, he gave us his insight into what possibly went wrong at Epsilon and what could have been done to prevent the breach.
Online Armor 5: Still tough as nails but now prettier
Security specialist Emsisoft has released Online Armor 5.0, the latest version of their do-everything firewall package. If you've tried the program before then the most immediately obvious change will be its revamped interface, which makes it easier to locate the features you need and to understand the various alerts that you'll see.
Online Armor has now also extended its program trust level settings, which allow it to define exactly how much access your installed applications have to key files, folders and Registry keys.
Pandora sends personal data en masse to advertisers, researcher says
Federal prosecutors in New Jersey are looking into whether mobile application developers are illegally sharing personal data of their users with advertising firms, and now a security researcher may have just reinforced the the case against at least one of those involved.
Veracode senior researcher Tyler Shields shared details of their study on music service Pandora, and found that "personal information is being transmitted to advertising agencies in mass quantities." Shields did not explicitly say whether or not the information transmitted may be illegal.
AVG 'Summer Update' brings LiveKive and Family Safety tools
AVG has released a "Summer Update" for its security portfolio. AVG Internet Security 2011, AVG Anti-Virus 2011 and AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition 2011 all benefit from higher malware detection rates, faster scan times, a lighter user interface and user experience improvements.
At the same time, AVG has also rolled out two new standalone services, both of which will also be accessible through the main AVG interface. AVG LiveKive is an online backup service offering free (5GB) and paid (25GB and "unlimited", or 500GB in reality) subscriptions, while AVG Family Safety offers online protection for children from unsuitable social networking sites as well as the wider web.
Symantec finds targeted cyber attacks skyrocket 93% in 2010
Antivirus software maker Symantec said Tuesday that attacks increased some 93 percent from 2009 to 2010, with a staggering 286 million new threats reported last year alone. An increase in the number of attacks on enterprise systems was noted, as well as the use of social networks as an attack vector.
The firm also noted that there was an increase in attacks using vulnerabilities within the Java framework, as well as the beginning of a shift towards exploits aimed at mobile devices. While many of these attacks come in the form of malicious apps aimed at stealing personal information, Symantec said attackers were beginning to find and exploit security vulnerabilities.
Countless thousands exposed in attack on e-mail marketing company
On Friday, email marketing and solutions company Epsilon announced its system had been hacked on March 30, and the email addresses and customer names of "a subset of Epsilon clients" were exposed. The company handles the permission-based email marketing campaigns of more than 2,500 major corporations and the list of companies involved in the breach continued to grow over the weekend.
TiVo, for example, sent a message to its subscribers on Sunday warning that the first names and email addresses of customers who opted into email updates have been exposed.
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