For those wondering if they need the best internet security software when surfing, they should read the latest study from Norton.

The Norton range of anti-virus products is developed by the Symantec company and their latest study will no doubt convince the most sceptical of computer users that they require protection by using the best internet security software out there. Cybercrime is pervasive and indiscriminate, and Norton reveals that 65% (two thirds) of internet users globally have been affected by some form of cybercrime. In the US alone, 73% of internet users have faced cybercrime in some shape or form; whether that’s viruses, identity theft, or the loss of personal information. China is the worst affected country at 83%, with Brazil and India also huge targets at 76%.

Cybercrime does not just affect your computer; it takes an undeniable toll on the people involved. Norton decided to take this angle when putting together their report. In their survey, they asked for internet users to tell them the feelings that are elicited by cybercrime. The strongest reactions were annoyance at 51%, anger (58%), and a sense of feeling cheated (24%). There is also no doubt that these victims have felt overwhelming helplessness; the report showed that 80% of internet users questioned believe that the cybercriminals will never be punished. With no belief that the criminals can be brought to justice, internet users feel unable to move on.

Joseph LaBrie, PhD, professor of psychology at Loyola Marymount University, says: “We accept cybercrime because of a ‘learned helplessness’. It’s like getting ripped off at the garage – if you don’t know enough about cars, you can’t argue with the mechanic. People just accept a situation, even if it feels bad.”

No wonder, then, that there is an apathy towards reporting a crime that has been committed. However, software security companies urge internet users to report these crimes just like they would feel compelled to any other kind of crime: there are ways of dealing with these criminals.

Adam Palmer, Norton lead cyber security advisor, explains: “We all pay for cybercrime, either directly or through pass-along costs from our financial institutions. Cybercriminals purposely steal small amounts to remain undetected, but all of these add up. If you fail to report a loss, you may actually be helping the criminal stay under the radar.”

So what can internet users do to keep themselves safe from cybercriminals in the first place? Norton’s report echoes many security companies who urge users to buy comprehensive security software for their computers; the first and best defence against these criminals. The best internet security software will keep your computer safe, not only from day-to-day annoyances, but also from making you into another cybercrime-related statistic.

Guest Article by Neil Camp

The computer security industry may continue to encourage users to buy anti virus software, but the words might take on a greater significance if Microsoft decides to bid for massive bug catcher Symantec.

Internet security is essential to the wellbeing of computer users everywhere and the corporate world appear to be getting excited about its future potential. Not only has Intel snapped up McAfee for north of seven billion dollars, but news has just come of the purchase by Hewlett Packard of another computer security company, ArcSight, although for the lesser figure of $1.5 billion.

Hence the reasons for the bid rumours re Microsoft and Symantec. City dealers work on gossip, rumours and trends (some say like sheep), so the jump from two major bids, to talk of a third, is not unsurprising.

And it’s a persuasive theory. What worries many companies in any given sector is the size of the competition and their ability to lever their cash resources. McAfee and Symantec are both giants in that sector, with Symantec – the creators and developers of the Norton range of products – recognised as being the largest player. Now suddenly their main rival has the likes of Intel looking after them. This means that McAfee will have the financial muscle to step up research and development, and, should they so choose, implement an aggressive sales strategy with wholesalers and retailers. Symantec will now wonder how Intel’s big pockets will affect their competitive and technology standing.

The theory therefore goes, that Symantec might welcome a move from a larger company to offer it the same kind of weight that Intel now offers McAfee. And shareholders of Symantec might think that payday is around the corner with such a bid from a company like Microsoft. And Symantec’s recent near 10% rise in its share price suggests that the markets are hoping for a suitor for the internet security giant in the near future.

What’s more, many wags suggest that given Microsoft’s arguably terrible reputation when it comes to being the hacker’s favourite target, the Seattle company could do with a helping hand on the inside to help repel boarders.

But investment analysts aren’t convinced that Microsoft is ready to make such a move. They point to Microsoft’s better security record and their development of their own range of antivirus products, including anti-malware programmes and effective firewall solutions. Does it need Symantec to improve this area for them – maybe not? Nor would Symantec’s reputation for its Norton products to hog processor power like a jealous lover, endear it to the geeks in Seattle.

And nor would Symantec be cheap. Microsoft certainly has the deep pockets needed to acquire such a large company, but it may not give its own investors a reasonable return. A smaller computer security company might just do the trick instead. So many investors are taking the slide rule to other credible players, which have the technology, but not the premium price tag.

So, buy anti virus might just be the corporate buzz phrase for the end of 2010, and even if Microsoft don’t want to swallow Symantec, expect some smaller players to be targeted by other general computer companies.

Guest Article by Neil Camp

Symantec has just published one of its regular major security software reviews.

Symantec, developers of the Norton antivirus product range, publishes monthly security software reviews under the title of MessageLabs Intelligence Reports. One of the highlights of the report relates to botnets; the report suggests that almost 95% of spam is sent from a botnet, compared to 84% in April this year. More specifically, the report reveals that Rustock has kept its number one spot as the most common spam-sending botnet, responsible for 41% of botnet spam (up from 32% in April this year).

One reason behind Rustock’s increase in spam presence is that it no longer uses TLS encryption to send out spam; this speeds up connections and increases the amount able to be sent by the botnet. The figures for the use of TLS have dropped considerably; in March this encrypted spam was attributed to 30% of spam sent from all different kinds of sources, and 70% of spam sent from Rustock; this has dropped to 0.5% today.

Paul Wood, the MessageLabs Intelligence Senior Analyst, Symantec Hosted Services, explains: “It is likely that because TLS slow connections due to the additional encryption processing required to send a spam email, the botnet controllers realized that this tactic impeded their spam-sending capabilities,” Wood said. “As a result, Rustock’s dominance has never looked better as its spam-per-bot-per-minute rate more than doubled from 96 spam emails to 192.”

The report also highlights global variations in spam; the UK, it claims, is responsible for 4.5% of all the world’s spam, a percentage that has more than doubled since the month of April. Four of the top 10 spam sending countries (the UK, Germany, France and Italy) can now be found in Western Europe, showing a global shift in the sources of the most troublesome and high-volume spamming.

The MessageLabs Intelligence Report was not just focused on spam; it highlighted a number of other changes and developments in internet dangers. For example, viruses. They noted that the ratio of email-borne viruses in people’s day-to-day email traffic from new dangerous sources was down from July by 0.02%, at 327.6 emails in August. Phishing was also covered in the report, which revealed that 1 in 363.1 emails, which was a 0.10 percentage increase since July.

Geographical trends were also discussed extensively in the report; rises in levels in spam in countries such as Hungary, Hong Kong, Japan and China; the percentages of spam in emails in the US, Canada and the UK; and the sudden targeting of Oman with phishing attacks in the month of August. Vertical trends, such as the automotive sector being the most the spammed sector in industry (at 94.8%), and the Education sector being at a spamming level of 92.9%, were also discussed.

With its security software reviews, Symantec hopes to keep the using public in the know as to the various changes in threats and dangers in all sorts of areas, from spam to viruses.

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