The phrase download internet security takes on a new meaning every month when Patch Tuesday comes around and people can see how alert Microsoft is when it comes to combating the latest virus threats.

And the latest Patch Tuesday, which allows computer users to download internet security patches in order to correct bugs, has proved a particularly big one. In this set, 14 alerts have been issued, with eight being rated ‘critical’ and the other six as ‘important’.

The most significant of these alerts that have been announced, affect Word, .NET, SMB Server, , MPEG Codecs and XML Core Services. As usual, the latest release also includes the most recent number of fixes that have been issued for Internet Explorer. Also included in this latest bulletin was a fix to solve the vulnerability with .lnk files, that has been causing a number of problems.

Coinciding with the release of the entry, Microsoft also wrote a blog entry describing and covering each of the most important fixes that were issued.

Adobe has also released some fixes; out of the three that were released, two were rated as ‘critical’ and one as ‘important’. This release – which had been timed to arrive at the same time as Patch Tuesday – was vital for fixing risky problems with Flash Player and Flash Media Server. As well as this, they release an important HotFix for ColdFusion.

Reader, a piece of software from Adobe, will have an emergency update released for it next week. Users will have to wait until this is issued before the vulnerabilities can be dealt with. In the mean time, any user who wishes to chose the alternative for viewing PDFs – Foxit Software – will have to update for a vulnerability that has affected a number of Apple iPhone users. The vulnerability is not, however, extended to Adobe users.

Users that download internet security patches are doing so to ensure that their computers remain safe from the host of vulnerabilities and dangers that are being created and released constantly.

Guest Article by Neil Camp

Sunbelt Software’s VIPRE flagship product has achieved another accolade following an antivirus review from Virus Bulletin.

The Virus Bulletin antivirus review, which places acceptable products on its VB100 list, has included VIPRE in its August 2010 issue. Virus Bulletin subjected VIPRE to a number of stringent tests; the software was loaded onto a system that ran Windows Vista Professional Service Pack 2, upon which it bombarded VIPRE with over 100,000 threats.

The threats ranged from those found on social networking sites, to those that can be picked up by gambling or gaming online; the variety tested to make sure that users of all interests would be secured against the threats on the internet. On top of these, VIPRE was tested with three new strains of W32/Vinut. Many products in the last couple of years have struggled to deal with this pesky threat.

False positives are also tested by Virus Bulletin; this is to ensure that the products don’t flag documents or webpages as being infected when they are in fact clean. In the results of the test, it was found that VIPRE detected 97.83% of worms and bots, with all viruses known to be circulating in the wild were caught without throwing up any false positives.

The viruses categorised as being ‘in the wild’ are those that cause mayhem on a daily basis, and attack normal every day operations on user’s computers. Detecting these is therefore vital for a product that users trust to install, and therefore entrusting them with making banking details secure, keeping personal information personal and ensuring computer safety.

VIPRE was applauded for having one of the highest average proactive detections rates of the products Virus bulletin tested. It was also appreciated as being streamlined on a user’s computer, therefore not taking up too much of the computer’s resources.

John Hawes, who coordinates the testing at Virus Bulletin, says: “Sunbelt’s marketing campaigns regularly boast of VIPRE’s lightness of weight and lack of bloat, and these assertions are certainly supported by the product’s wafer-thin 16MB installer, supplemented by a mere 66MB of updates, available to download as a standalone package from the company’s websites. The set-up process is short and sweet too, taking only a few seconds to complete – with no reboot needed, the process was over in less than half a minute.”

To be able to display the prestigious VB100 logo bestowed by Virus Bulletin, antivirus products like VIPRE must pass all the extensive tests.
Alex Eckelberry, CEO of Sunbelt Software, commented: “Inclusion of the VB100 is a true testament of VIPRE’s capabilities as it is pitted against other leading antivirus products. Our focus has always been on our customer satisfaction, ease of use and high level of threat detection. The tests from Virus Bulletin show that VIPRE is a reliable antivirus solution that is easy to set up and use.”

The latest antivirus review by Virus Bulletin has assured VIPRE as one of the leading providers of antivirus products.

Guest Article by Neil Camp

Antivirus reviews operation Virus Bulletin has announced that during a recent test of 54 anti-malware products on Windows Vista Business Edition SP2, 19 of the products did not reach the required standard for VB100 certification.

Virus Bulletin publishes some of the industry’s top antivirus reviews and it has found that many products are failing in their bid to protect internet users against potential malware dangers.

These products failed in a number of areas, and in areas that anyone would consider basic if they were to buy the product for the protection of their computers. The products failed to detect a number of viruses that were well known to be circulating, meaning that viruses that are entirely preventable are slipping through the rather patchy net. Other problems included false alarms appearing on files that are in fact clean; these were not from private users but from some of the top software houses, such as Roxio and Adobe.

Design and stability were also an issue. John Hawes, Virus Bulletin’s Anti-Malware Test Director, says “Most notable this month….has been the remarkable level of instability under pressure noted in many of the products – while our tests do not put unusual strain on the products, it is clearly important that security software should continue to function under pressure, and should not crumble in the face of heavy attack.”

The tests are stringent, with each of the products being tested against the WildList; this list is publicly available and shows up-to-date information on the malware that is known to be circulating at this current time, or has circulated in the past. To earn their VB100 certification, the products must detect 100% of these.

Unlike many of the products in this round of testing, a VB100 certified product would not generate false alarms when it scans a set of files the testers know to be clean. This kind of behaviour would not endear the products to the user: “Flaky behaviour will certainly not instil a sense of security in users, and developers need to ensure their quality control is thorough and comprehensive, to keep their users properly protected at all times,” continues John Hawes.

The antivirus reviews and tests give an insight in to what products are at the cutting edge of antivirus security, and take information from their tests and users’ experience to gather detailed analysis on every product. See BUYability’s antivirus reviews here.

Guest Article by Neil Camp

Antivirus security company ESET is warning bank customers to be on their guard against a new Zeus Trojan Virus which is said to have been responsible for thefts of up to one million pounds.

It’s estimated by the antivirus security team that around 3,000 customers have become victims of the Trojan Virus. Companies such as ESET encourage UK internet users to be more responsible when banking online; far too many take a lenient approach to the security of their most personal details.

Mark James, UK technical manager for ESET, says: “This high profile cyber attack needs to be a wake-up call to UK internet users who must take more responsibility for their own internet security and safe.”

Many internet users are unaware of the dangers or how they can be addressed, and are too dismissive of the patches sent out by applications such as Microsoft and Adobe. Instead of downloading these vital upgrades, users ignore them, and their computers are left vulnerable to attacks.

Many believe that these updates are simply interfering with the workings of your computer, by slowing them down or making them less efficient and harder to run. This is a stigma antivirus software companies wish to dispel.

Antivirus software companies advise that users should continually check for updates to their antivirus software and to any application patches that are offered, and not to ignore them. Even more dangerous is to not have a piece of antivirus software at all; there are a significant number of internet users who remain unprotected in such a manner. Simply downloading the first free antivirus protection software one finds is not advisable either, with companies warning they many only provide the most basic level of security, and typically have no customer support network.

The three main things that any internet or computer user must do to maintain a healthy computer and a safe time on the internet – and thereby reducing the risk of losing vast amounts of money through things such as the banking Trojan Virus – are simple and easy to do.

First, users must ensure that they allow the updates that their antivirus security software. Second, they must check to make sure all patches for applications are downloaded. Third, and probably the most important, is that antivirus software that provides comprehensive protection against internet threats is downloaded.

Guest Article by Neil Camp

Security software reviews are coming fast and furious at the moment, but McAfee has gone one step further by effectively issuing what it calls a “call to arms” for the computer security industry.

The media might focus on security software reviews, but the likes of McAfee wants to give the cybercriminals a kick where it hurts.

And this new report focuses on the need for the computer security industry to take a far more proactive approach when it comes tackling the threats posed by cybercriminals.

McAfee points to an increasingly cybercriminal dominated environment with incidents of cyber-espionage, the workings of major cybercrime syndicates, rings and gangs, and, the launch of sophisticated malware devices such as Stuxnet which targets key infrastructure systems. Given all the threats and the almost ‘professional’ approach adopted by many modern-day cybercriminals, McAfee is of the view that it’s about time the security industry stepped up to the plate.

Jeff Green, senior vice president of McAfee Labs, said:
“Cybercriminals prosper because they have very little reason to fear the consequences. As security experts, it’s time to take a hard look at what we do, how we do it, and what our ultimate goals are. The tools and techniques of cybercrime continue to grow in number and sophistication at alarming rates. Every time we release a new statistic about the rise in malware it points to our failure as an industry.”

The report is entitled “Security Takes the Offensive” and has been partly authored by international experts who have compiled strategies which are hopefully clarion calls, says McAfee, for the computer security industry. What upsets these experts is that both security companies and computer users themselves, have always played a defensive game and, figuratively speaking, is like putting armour on computers and networks. The report says that it’s about time that everyone took a more aggressive and proactive stance, bringing to bear all the forces of law and order to beat the cyber-criminals.

David Marcus, director of security research and communications for McAfee Labs, said:
“As we look at the evolution of risky domains and websites over multiple years, we can’t avoid the conclusion that the risk keeps increasing in both volume and sophistication. If we want to stop being victims, then the good guys need to advance security efforts as threats evolve.”

Guest Article by Neil Camp

Panda Antivirus Software has launched the beta release of its Panda Global Protection 2011 application, which protects home computer users from both new and existing threats.

Panda Antivirus Software claim that this application will protect against all types of malware and not only that, provides some innovative features. It will be particularly helpful, they claim, for those who are very active on the internet and who are therefore more likely to encounter security threats and take more risks with their private information and link-clicking.

The Panda Global Protection 2011 application includes a number of new functions, such as the gaming/multimedia mode; this stops gamers from being interrupted in the middle of a particularly good run by a pesky security-related alert or piece of information. This new piece of protection has been built upon Panda Security’s extensive past in antivirus software.

Cloud-based protection is used to give the best security possible, and the technology uses the minimal amount of space and resources of your computer. Known and unknown malware can be rooted out and dealt with by the anti-virus engine, and a firewall can stop the threat from hackers getting to your computer through WiFi hotspot.

Your office shredder is also emulated in this piece of antivirus software, with a ‘file shredder’ available to ensure the proper and total deletion of important documents you would rather not get into others’ hands. A virtual keyboard is also provided, to keep any passwords or data entered onto your computer/into an internet page safe from keyloggers as well as the Trojans that lurk on banking websites.

Parental control options also feature, allowing parents to protect their children from the dangers of internet usage. The home network security is also easy to manage in a household, so that every computer on the home network is equally as well protected.

The Panda USB Vaccine is also included, preventing USB devices that seem harmless from spreading unknown infections into the computer. Other entries for potential dangers are halted by spam and phishing filters, and detectors to sniff out rootkits and other kinds of specialised malware.

Panda Antivirus software has released this new beta application in the hopes of keeping home user’s computers safe from internet and other related hazards they may encounter when using their computer regularly.

Guest Article by Neil Camp

The team behind Panda Antivirus Software and PandaLabs, the anti-malware laboratory of Panda Security, has drawn attention to a number of scams which effectively ‘hijack’ the Facebook “Like” button.

And the trick that the scammers use, say Panda Antivirus Software, is to use eye-catching messages which relate to popular games, or just released movies. Popular topics on Facebook, including links relating to the famous Facebook game Farmeville, are being targeted to lure people into ‘liking’ particular things. This has been given the appropriate sounding name of ‘clickjacking’.

‘Clickjacking’ uses URLs that are malformed and hide a code designed to carry out an attack on a user’s computer. Once you have ‘liked’ the page, it is recommended to all of your Facebook friends without you even realising. Luis Corrons, Technical Director of PandaLabs, warns, “This distribution technique reminds us of computer worms, although this time there doesn’t seem to be any malware behind it (at least yet).”

He continues, “Cyber-criminals can make money just by tricking you into visiting a Web page with ads. Or worse still, they can spread malware and infect you. This possibility has not yet been exploited, but it would be relatively easy and effective to do it.”

PandaLabs advise that Facebook is potentially a minefield of such malicious attacks, and to be wary when ‘liking’ everything that pops onto your Facebook screen. Tests, a popular pastime of users on Facebook, are particularly dangerous to sign up for, especially if they need to be bought. PandaLabs strongly suggests that users do not enter their bank or credit card details onto these sorts of websites.

As these sorts of dangerous links can be found when searching for popular pages – such as movies, games or the keyword ‘sex’ – users of Facebook need to be extra vigilant against this kind of attack. PandaLabs, behind pieces of technology such as the Panda Antivirus Software, urge users not to be hooked by the bait of such popular pages and to be cautious when ‘liking’ the new Sex and the City 2 movie, for example.

Guest Article by Neil Camp

The latest list of gremlins from security antivirus company Sunbelt Software has been released and shows that throughout July, it was the march of the Trojans that was causing the trouble.

Security antivirus company Sunbelt Software is now part of GFL Software and still publishes a round-up of the most prevalent forms of malware that are threatening people’s computers month to month. The material is gathered from the company’s anti-malware solution, VIPRE Antivirus, and its antispyware tool, CounterSpy.

The month of July heralded an attack by Trojans, as well as the Downad/Conficker worm. A startling 29.08% of the total Trojans detected was the Trojan.Win32.Generic!BT; this isn’t the first month this one has topped the list. It crowned the list in June and in May with similar percentage totals.

Others that have been repeatedly cropping up on this black list are Trojan.Win32.Meredrop, Trojan.Win32.Generic!SB.0 and Trojan.Win32.Malware. Trojan.Win21.Meredrop causes a whole host of problems for the victims it targets; they are a number of Trojans that can install and run different kinds of malware on a machine, often with multiple Trojans and worms. Trojan.Win32.Generic!SB.0 is known for password-stealing, installing keyloggers to that they can identify users’ most personal of passwords.

Francis Montesino, manager of Sunbelt’s malware processing team, said: “Trojan.Win32.Generic!BT is a generic risk that covers a lot of malicious applications. About 120,000 traces are identified under that detected by VIPRE’s signature-based, heuristic or behavioral mechanisms.

“Very often is identifies the downloaders that are used with rogue security programs. These are also called ‘scareware’. Once they get downloaded, the rogues pretend to scan your computer for malware then display false warnings that the machine is infected. They try to convince victims to purchase useless security software.”

The top 10 results are calculated by detecting the number of times a piece of malware infection has been found during scans by VIPRE and CounterSpy technology; these report back to ThreatNet, security antivirus company Sunbelt Software’s community of users. Here, they are given a classification, which can range from moderate all the way up to the very severe. A good look at the list helps internet users to understand the risks they run when surfing the web.

Guest Article by Neil Camp

Internet security antivirus company Norton has just issued a study which discovered that one in every three top-trending search results delivered about 10% of malicious results, with the term ‘Red Hot Laugh Riot’ being one of the worse culprits.

The internet security antivirus company Norton’s study appears to have uncovered just how wide, extensive, and often bizarre this problem really is. ‘tropical dreams sweepstakes’, for example, produced what Norton reckons was a “staggering” 99 malicious links out of the first 100 indexed results.

This week the three top targets for malicious links were celebrity news gossip, gaming online, and the names of particular diseases: “constance francesa hilton” and “melorheostosis” topped the deadly list of search terms, managing to return malicious links in 45 per cent of the first 100 results. Hackers use rises in popular interest on particular subjects – whether they be international crises, song lyrics, celebrity gossip – to install malicious links into the search results.

So what has Norton done with the information garnered from this study? Norton has released the Norton Safe Web Lite, which can identify dangerous sites before you even click on them. This is a free downloadable tool that can be used with either Internet Explorer or Mozilla Firefox. This technology can be found in the Norton Internet Security and Norton 360 products, and provides a crucial barrier of defence from clicking unknowingly on risky sites.

Nearly 60 per cent of these ‘risky’ sites were discovered to contain drive-by downloads, which can infect people’s computers with ease and speed, often without them knowing.

This safety technology has been targeting one of the most popular websites of the day: Facebook. The Norton Safe Web scanner is also free, and by choosing the ‘Enable Auto-scan’ option, it can identify any dangerous links that may be posted on customer’s news feeds of Facebook ‘wall’.

Jens Meggers, vice president of engineering at Norton, says, “Cybercriminals are always looking for the next opportunity to find victims, as evidenced by the high volume of SEO poisoning. Unfortunately for consumers, simply searching for a popular topic and clicking on a poisoned link can have serious consequences. Consumers need to arm themselves with tools like Norton Safe Web Lite that are specifically designed to defend against these types of threats.”

The internet security antivirus company has been leading a number of studies to try to design and develop technology that helps users deal with this far-reaching problem.

Guest Article by Neil Camp

The latest anti virus review from the Symantec MessageLabs Intelligence unit, produced by the company which develops the Norton Antivirus software, warns that spammers are making greater use of shortened hyperlinks.

The anti virus review shows that over the last 12 months, the percentage of spam which contains shortened hyperlinks has dramatically increased from a one-day peak of 18% on 30 April, 2010, compared to just short of 10% in 2009.

And 18% equates to just over 23 billion emails. Another way to see it is that for some days in 2010, around 5% of all spam messages contained shortened hyperlinks.

Paul Wood, MessageLabs Intelligence Senior Analyst, at Symantec Hosted Services, the team behind Norton Antivirus, said:
“As far as spammers are concerned, any tactics that make it harder to block their spam emails are going to be exploited. When spammers include a shortened URL in spam messages, these shortened hyperlinks contain reputable and legitimate domains, making it harder for traditional anti-spam filters to identify the messages as spam based on the reputation of the domains found in the spam emails.
“While botnets are often the source of short URL spam, 28% of this type of spam originated from sources not linked to a known botnet such as unidentified spam-sending botnets or non-botnet sources such as webmail accounts created using CAPTCHA-breaking tools.”

The anti virus review also stated that spammers shortened hyperlink strategy is working. For every 74,000 spam emails which contained a shortened url link, one website visit was generated. Furthermore, the most often used shortened hyperlink contained within spam got more than 63,000 website visits.

The various Norton Antivirus Software packages are continually updated from information supplied by the Symantec MessageLabs Intelligence unit.

Guest Article by Neil Camp