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

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

One of the top computer security software companies has produced its list of top ten malware threats for May.

Florida based Sunbelt Software compiles a monthly top ten malware threats report and the data comes from the company’s VIPRE Antivirus, its anti-malware solution, and CounterSpy, its antispyware application.

And the top ten malware threats for May reflect a growing trend towards behaviour-based detections.

What’s more, the top ten malware threats within May were also amongst the top ten for April, with May’s leading position going to Trojan.Win32.Generic!BT with 27.8% of detections, which was top in April and with more detections, 33.7%.

Coming up on the inside of the list of top ten malware threats for May is INF.Autorun (V) whose detections grew by over half from April to May. The previous period had seen a 40% increase; so the influence of this particular piece of malware is growing considerably and is likely to stay around for some months to come.

Newcomers to the top ten malware threats list for May were FraudTool.Win32.AVSoft (v) which popped in at number eight with 1.3% of detections and Trojan.Win32.Agent at number nine with just over 1.2% of detections. The first one of these little beauties – FraudTool.Win32.AVSoft (v) – installs rogue antivirus software – and the second – Trojan.Win32.Agent – downloads a varying variety of viruses and is a particular insidious Trojan downloader.

Tom Kelchner, Sunbelt Software Research Centre Manager, said about the top ten malware threats:
“The list of ThreatNet top-10 detections in May did not change significantly from the previous month – with a continued high volume of Trojan downloaders. However, the level of generic detections has steadily increased over the past few months, highlighting the importance of behavioural testing via a "sandbox" method to stop malicious applications without individual signature updates. This is a good strategy for stopping zero-day malicious code, or previously unknown malware, which is being generated by the bad guys with more frequency.”

The complete top ten malware threats is as follows:

1. Trojan.Win32.Generic!BT 27.79%
2. INF.Autorun (v) 3.63%
3. Trojan.Win32.Generic.pak!cobra 2.14%
4. BehavesLike.Win32.Malware (v) 1.95%
5. Trojan-Spy.Win32.Zbot.gen 1.78%
6. Trojan.Win32.Generic!SB.0 1.35%
7. Exploit.PDF-JS.Gen (v) 1.34%
8. FraudTool.Win32.AVSoft (v) 1.32%
9. Trojan.Win32.Agent 1.28%
10. Trojan.Win32.Malware 1.25%

The majority of the threats contained within the top ten malware threats are delivered via social engineering, or stealth installations.

Guest Article by Neil Camp

One of the largest providers of Windows security software is warning companies to be on their guard during the 2010 football World Cup for attacks from the malware community. And to help, they have produced their top tips for world cup computer security.

The Sunbelt Software top tips for world cup computer security are aimed at UK bosses who fear that their employees will take every opportunity, whether with permission, or not, to watch matches – many of which are taking place during office hours – and follow not only England, but various other teams.

But warn Sunbelt Software, the tournament and the interest it will generate not only amongst supporters and the wider community, means that hackers are on the prowl, hence the need for the top tips for world cup computer security.

Malware writers will see employees trying to get their football fix, no matter how, as a great opportunity to launch attacks. And one of the biggest risks, say Sunbelt Software – the authors behind the top tips for world cup computer security – is fans desperately searching for footage on any site to see how their team is progressing. Many of the sites offering such footage will, say Sunbelt Software, be hotbeds of potential computer attacks, containing viruses, platforms for phishing attacks, banner advertising and fake video streaming codec downloads.

So, when it comes to safe 2010 football world cup enjoyment, what should bosses and employees be on their guard against; what are the top tips for world cup computer security.

Top of the pile of the top tips for world cup computer security are infected files, many offered as email attachments, or downloads, that promises such things as special World Cup pictures, news, results, free tickets, or match lists. It is best to avoid these.

Second up in the pile of top tips for world cup computer security is search engine optimization poisoning, which sees the hackers endeavouring to get their malicious sites to the first pages of the listings. This is why it’s essential that new urls are carefully studied before using them and that only sites that a user trusts, are used for such things as news updates and football features.

And such things as fake antispyware programmes will be out in force, tempting users to sign-up to bogus claims that a computer is infected and that a sum of around £50 will put things back to rights again.

Next up in the top tips for world cup computer security is a warning against social networking scams. Sunbelt Software say that they expect malicious links on Twitter, fake applications on Facebook and other tricks on some of the popular 2.0 websites.

Another of the top tips for world cup computer security is the area of website defacements. This concerns websites that are popular at the time of a certain event, or tournament, and are targeted by the hackers. Sometimes it might just involve the simple defacement of a website, but it could involve a totally compromised website which is turned into a delivery mechanism for illegal content.

David Parkin, Sales Director EMEA, Sunbelt Software, said:
“All it takes is one employee to disregard this advice and the entire organisation could be put at risk. It is our hope that business leaders will distribute these tips throughout their organisation and print out further copies and post them in communal areas. By following this simple four-point checklist we can all enjoy this year’s World Cup safely via the Internet.”

Guest Article by Neil Camp

Sunbelt Software, one of the leading suppliers of Windows security software, has warned that the use of network gaming consoles in employee workplaces and waiting areas actually increases the chance of distributed denial of service (DDoS) and phishing attacks.

In a recent survey, Sunbelt Software discovered nearly 40% of those questioned, and these were mostly senior IT officials in major companies, had no idea about the very real threat posed by online console gaming. They were unaware of the many documented cases of threats that relate to such activities and did not appreciate the vulnerability of companies when employees were playing, for example, Xbox Live.

Even basic steps such as keeping a record as to which employees were using consoles at any given time were not being taken. The research revealed 80% of managers said they did not keep these sorts of records, making it impossible to track down, or monitor attacks, or data leaks.

Sunbelt Security pointed out its the online element of console gaming that causes the problems. And most of the risks centred on exposing the IP address which can then be attacked, forcing a closure of the internet connection. Those behind the attacks are usually opportunist criminals, or embittered employees.

But it’s not only the company itself that is facing danger. Online gamers also can be prone to phishing attacks and social engineering scams which are designed to extract such things as passwords, usernames and other bits of valuable data. This is harvested via emails, forum threads and in-game speech.

Chris Boyd, senior threat researcher at Sunbelt Software, said:
“There are benefits to having games consoles in the workplace, as they can boost morale by providing staff with a fun diversion during lunch and other break periods, while consoles in lobby and waiting areas help convey a sense of a modern, fun and tech-savvy organisation.

“However, these benefits must be weighed against the business implications of a threat, such as a DDoS attack, which can harm productivity significantly. In most cases, the most practical option for an organisation is to disconnect consoles from the internet and use them for offline play only.”

The Sunbelt Software survey also revealed which games console was the most popular choice in the workplace. Coming out on top with a commanding 48% was the Nintendo Wii, with the Xbox 360 a close runner-up at 40% and PlayStation 3 with a mere 11%.

Any system which connects to the internet is in danger of contracting a computer virus, however there are currently few viruses which are designed to attack games consoles. If you are concerned about your games console getting a computer virus you can install antivirus software.

Guest Article by Neil Camp