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Fake security software in millions of computers: Symantec by Reuters: Yahoo! Tech

Posted on October 19, 2009 by wjimenez275

There’s a lot of money to be made in malware. That’s what keeps it going….

WASHINGTON (Reuters) –

Tens of millions of U.S. computers are loaded with scam security software that their owners may have paid for but which only makes the machines more vulnerable, according to a new Symantec report on cybercrime.

Cyberthieves are increasingly planting fake security alerts that pop up when computer users access a legitimate website. The “alert” warns them of a virus and offers security software, sometimes for free and sometimes for a fee.

“Lots of times, in fact they’re a conduit for attackers to take over your machine,” said Vincent Weafer, Symantec’s vice president for security response.

“They’ll take your credit card information, any personal information you’ve entered there and they’ve got your machine,” he said, referring to some rogue software’s ability to rope a users’ machine into a botnet, a network of machines taken over to send spam or worse.

Symantec found 250 varieties of scam security software with legitimate sounding names like Antivirus 2010 and SpywareGuard 2008, and about 43 million attempted downloads in one year but did not know how many of the attempted downloads succeeded, said Weafer.

“In terms of the number of people who potentially have this in their machines, it’s tens of millions,” Weafer said.

It was also impossible to tell how much cyberthieves made off with but “affiliates” acting as middlemen to convince people to download the software were believed to earn between 1 cent per download and 55 cents.

TrafficConverter.biz, which has been shut down, had boasted that its top affiliates earned as much as $332,000 a month for selling scam security software, according to Weafer.

“What surprised us was how much these guys had tied into the whole affiliated model,” Weafer said. “It was more refined than we anticipated.”

(Reporting by Diane Bartz; editing by Gunna Dickson)

via Fake security software in millions of computers: Symantec by Reuters: Yahoo! Tech.

Filed under: Instructional, Stay Safe | 3 Comments »

Setting a Default Program to Open a File

Posted on October 12, 2009 by wjimenez275

I received a call today from someone who was having problems opening a pdf file. Whenever she clicked on it, it would open in WordPad, even though she had Adobe Reader installed. She said she could could right-click on it and choose Adobe Reader from the list and it would open but when she double-clicked on it, it would still open in WordPad.

I knew right away what had happened, and it’s very easy to fix. What happened was that she received a pdf file but hadn’t yet downloaded and installed Reader. When she tried to open the pdf, the computer couldn’t associate it with the correct program so it prompted her to choose a program. WordPad was suggested so she took it. That automatically associated the opening of pdf files with WordPad. It didn’t matter that she later installed Reader.

This file association also occurs when installing some programs, especially media programs. If you choose the default installation, many times that program will associate all media files to open it that program, even if you don’t want it to. I always choose the Custom Installation option so I have more control over what gets installed and where.

Anyhow, back to the situation at hand…How to change the association so that her pdf’s open with Reader. There’s a long, involved, confusing way to do it, and then there’s a much quicker and easier way. I’ll cover the quicker and easier way.

I had her right-click on a pdf file she had on her computer and had her left-click on “Open With”.  This brought up a list of programs that she could choose to try to open the file with. I had her click on “Choose Program” or “Choose Default Program” depending on your Windows version. Under Recommended Programs, Adobe Reader was listed so I had her select that and then check the box at the bottom next to Always use the selected program to open this kind of file. If the Program you need isn’t listed under Recommended Programs, you may find it under Other Programs or you may have to Browse for it, but always check the box at the bottom when you find the correct program.

That tells Windows what program to associate that type of file with. Now, when she double-clicks a pdf file from her computer, or opens a pdf attachment from e-mail, it always opens in Adobe Reader.

This will work with any file type you need to associate, or re-associate with a program.

Filed under: Quick Wins | 1 Comment »

Skipping the Voicemail Greeting on Cell Phones

Posted on September 28, 2009 by wjimenez275

The other day, I was calling a friend and had to sit through a lengthy greeting. It made me think that there has to be a way to skip over the greeting and just leave a voicemail. I looked at the different carriers and lo and behold…there is.  In order for this to work though,  you will need to know their carriers. Here’s how to skip the message and get right to leaving a message.

AT&T: press #
Sprint: press 1
T-Mobile: press #
Verizon: press *

Filed under: Instructional | 4 Comments »

Sending a SMS Text Message to a Cell Phone From Your Email

Posted on September 14, 2009 by wjimenez275

Every now and then, I’ll be on my computer and I’ll want to send a text message to a friend’s phone. I’ve realized that it’s much quicker for me to type the message in my email program and send it than to pick my phone up, enter the text and send.

If you know the carrier your friend or family member uses, it’s easy to enter their information in the To field of your email, type a subject and then the message. When you click send, it’s delivered to their phone. When they reply,  the reply is returned to your email.

The following is a list of carriers and the format you would use to send the message to someone.

Mobile Carrier – Maximum Characters – Email Address
Virgin Mobile – 125 characters – PhoneNumber@vmobl.com
Beyond GSM – 160 characters – PhoneNumber@txt.att.net
Cingular AT&T – 160 characters – PhoneNumber@txt.att.net
Verizon – 160 characters – PhoneNumber@vtext.com
Boost Mobile – 140 characters – PhoneNumber@myboostmobile.com
Nextel – 140 characters – PhoneNumber@messaging.nextel.com
Sprint – 160 characters – PhoneNumber@messaging.sprintpcs.com
T-Mobile – 140 characters – PhoneNumber@tmomail.net
Alltel – 140 characters – PhoneNumber@message.alltel.com
Qwest – 185 characters – PhoneNumber@qwestmp.com
MetroPCS – 185 characters – PhoneNumber@mymetropcs.com
Cricket – 143 characters – PhoneNumberMMS.mycricket.com

Filed under: Instructional | 6 Comments »

You don’t have what? No Antivirus?

Posted on September 8, 2009 by wjimenez275

Twice in the past couple of weeks I’ve had people come up to me with strange pop-ups on their computers. When I ask if their antivirus programs were up-to-date, their response was, “I don’t know if I have an antivirus program.” Sure enough, when looking at their computers, there was nothing installed.

The belief of some is that the computer came with an antivirus program, so it must be there. Reasonable enough. What’s not is that the program that came preinstalled on the computer is usually only valid for 60 to 90 days and then it stops updating.  At that point, you either need to pay the vendor to continue with the updates, or you need to install a different antivirus program.

There are several very good free antivirus programs, such as Avira, AVG and Avast. These continue to get very good reviews and being that they are free, there’s no excuse not to have one.

What I recommend, after a user gets these strange pop-ups, is to go to malwarebytes.org, download their anti-malware program, run it to clean your system. Then, go to an online antivirus scanner, such as Panda Software’s Free Online Scan or Trend Micro’s HouseCall. One other tool to run at the Trend Micro site is RUBotted to see if your computer has been hacked and is now a Bot. After that, install one of the free antivirus programs above and make sure it is set to automatically update.

Even with all that, there’s no guarantee you won’t be infected when a virus comes out, but it’s a whole lot better than having no protection at all.

Filed under: Quick Wins | 3 Comments »

So What Is It Good For? Flash Drives v. External HD

Posted on September 1, 2009 by wjimenez275

I had someone call me the other day saying that they had plugged their USB thumb drive into their computer and it wasn’t recognized. When they plugged it into another computer, it came back saying that it wasn’t formatted and need to be. They had been storing files on it and it had failed.

I recommended that for backing up files, the better option would be an external USB hard drive. They have much more capacity for storage, have a small footprint, easily fits into the computer bag, and hold up better than thumb drives do.

I’m not knocking flash drives. I have several that I use but for me there is a convenience in having something I can put in my pocket as I’m repairing computers. For most people, who need something to backup and store files on, I wouldn’t recommend it.

External USB drives are very inexpensive, have enough capacity to back up your entire hard disk, often times come with backup software to automate the task and most of the time will last for several years.

Flash drives have a purpose, it’s just not as a backup device. Use an external hard drive.

Filed under: Instructional, PC Maintenance, Quick Wins | 3 Comments »

Is Microsoft Finally Getting It Right with IE 8?

Posted on August 20, 2009 by wjimenez275

http://nsslabs.blogspot.com/

Two separate tests performed by NSS Labs measured protection against phishing and socially engineered malware across 5 browsers: Apple Safari 4, Google Chrome 2, Mozilla Firefox 3, Opera 10 Beta and Windows Internet Explorer 8.

One of the key things to note is that while the other browsers maintained or decreased protection between the two tests, Internet Explorer continued to improve its protection against cybercriminals.

“Socially engineered malware is the most common and impactful threat on the Internet today, with browser protection averaging between 1% and 81%. Internet Explorer 8 caught 81% of the socially engineered malware sites over time, leading other browsers by a 54% margin. Safari 4 and Firefox 3 caught 21% and 27% respectively, while Chrome 2 blocked 7% and Opera 10 Beta blocked 1%.

Phishing protection over time varied greatly between 2% and 83% among the browsers. Statistically, Internet Explorer 8 at 83% and Firefox 3 at 80% had a two-way tie for first, given the margin of error of 3.6%. Opera 10 Beta, exhibited more extreme variances during testing and averaged 54% protection. Chrome 2 consistently blocked 26% of phishing sites, and Safari 4 offered just 2% overall protection. Firefox 3.5 crashing issues prevented it from being tested reliably.”

Filed under: Internet Items, Stay Safe | Leave a comment »

Sell Your Old Electronics – Help Reduce Ewaste

Posted on August 18, 2009 by wjimenez275

http://www.nextworth.com/

Do you have any old iPods, cell phones, or game consoles lying around and taking up space in your desk drawer or closet? Have you mastered the latest video game and are now looking for the next challenge? We can help!

At NextWorth we’ll help you sell, upgrade and/or recycle your used gadget or video game the easiest, safest and fastest way possible. We have been helping consumers trade-in and upgrade their iPods, iPhones and other electronic gadgets both online and in-store at Target and a few other retail stores nationwide.

Not only can we help you get more value out of your old devices more easily and conveniently, we can also promote reuse and recycling by keeping these tiring products out of the landfills. Now you can get money while doing your part to keep the world green!

Find out your product’s NextWorth and turn your unused into opportunity!

via NextWorth: Reselling Gadgets.

Filed under: Instructional | 1 Comment »

Printing Long Documents so they come out in the right order

Posted on August 10, 2009 by wjimenez275

I just installed a new printer and printed a multi-page document. Most inkjet printers will stack the printed pages face up. Laserjets usually come out face down so they stack properly. Well, my printer, being an inkjet,  printed from the first page to the last, which was nice, but what wasn’t so nice is that I then had to go through and reverse the order of the pages since the first page was at the bottom of the stack with the last page on top.

In order to not have that happen every time I print, I went into my printer settings and was able to change a setting so that printing will occur in reverse order, meaning that the last page prints first on up to the first page printing last but at the top of the stack.

In Windows, you can do this by clicking on the Start button, double clicking on Control Panel, and double clicking on Printers and Faxes.  Right click on the the printer you want to modify and left click on Properties. Under the General tab, click on Printing Preferences. Every printer will it’s own unique settings, but try to find an option for Page Layout, Page Order,  or something similar. If you can’t find that, look through the different tabs until you find an option for copies or document options. Usually, you’ll find a check box there for Reverse Order. Check it and save your settings. From then on, everything you print will come out stacked correctly.

Filed under: Instructional, Quick Wins | Leave a comment »

How Strong are the Passwords You Use Online?

Posted on August 6, 2009 by wjimenez275

When it comes to online passwords, most people have no idea how to create strong ones. Many people use easy-to-crack passwords: pet names, birthdays, and common dictionary words. Additionally, they rarely ever change their passwords.

Along with that, a lot of people use the same password for every site they’ve signed up for. You may not think the password to your webmail account is valuable but anyone that might steal your information can use it to send spam and ruin your online reputation. More seriously, you may have entered the same password at an online banking site, or a site where your credit-card number is stored for easy ordering, such as Amazon.

You can see whether your current passwords are rated “strong” by using Microsoft’s online Password Checker.

According to Microsoft – Strong Passwords: How to Create and Use Them

What makes a strong password
To an attacker, a strong password should appear to be a random string of characters. The following criteria can help your passwords do so:

Make it lengthy. Each character that you add to your password increases the protection that it provides many times over. Your passwords should be 8 or more characters in length; 14 characters or longer is ideal.

Many systems also support use of the space bar in passwords, so you can create a phrase made of many words (a “pass phrase”). A pass phrase is often easier to remember than a simple password, as well as longer and harder to guess.

Combine letters, numbers, and symbols. The greater variety of characters that you have in your password, the harder it is to guess. Other important specifics include:

• The fewer types of characters in your password, the longer it must be. A 15-character password composed only of random letters and numbers is about 33,000 times stronger than an 8-character password composed of characters from the entire keyboard. If you cannot create a password that contains symbols, you need to make it considerably longer to get the same degree of protection. An ideal password combines both length and different types of symbols.

• Use the entire keyboard, not just the most common characters. Symbols typed by holding down the “Shift” key and typing a number are very common in passwords. Your password will be much stronger if you choose from all the symbols on the keyboard, including punctuation marks not on the upper row of the keyboard, and any symbols unique to your language.

Use words and phrases that are easy for you to remember, but difficult for others to guess. The easiest way to remember your passwords and pass phrases is to write them down. Contrary to popular belief, there is nothing wrong with writing passwords down, but they need to be adequately protected in order to remain secure and effective.

Dos and don’ts to keep your passwords safe

Do use a password manager such as Roboform, which I told you about here – What was that password again?

Do change passwords frequently. Don’t reuse old passwords. Password managers can assign expiration dates to your passwords and remind you when the passwords are about to expire and generate new passwords for you for a site.

Don’t use passwords made up of dictionary words, birthdays, family and pet names, addresses, or any other personal information. Don’t use repeat characters such as 111 or sequences like abc, qwerty, or 123 in any part of your password.

Don’t use the same password for different sites.

Don’t use the “remember me” or automatic signin option available on many Web sites. Have your password manager fill in the information for you.

Don’t enter passwords on a computer that’s not yours — such as a friend’s computer — because you don’t know what spyware or keyloggers might be on it.

Don’t enter a password or even your account name in any Web page you access via an e-mail link. These are most likely phishing scams. Instead, enter the normal website address  for that site directly into your browser, and proceed to the page in question from there.

Filed under: Instructional, Quick Wins, Stay Safe | Leave a comment »

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