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

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

Via their latest Symantec MessageLabs Intelligence antivirus review, Norton is warning that the risk from web threats has rocketed about 20% over the same time last year. And that analysis revealed the worrying statistic that of the domains which were blocked in 2010 as malicious, nearly 90% of them were legitimate, but had been compromised with malware that had been embedded without the owners being aware there was a problem.

The antivirus review also highlighted a new phishing threat which attacks under the guise of a PDF Reader Update. More than 26,000 attacks using this technique had been stopped and the scam was built around trying to collect victims’ bank and credit card details.

In general, phishing emails accounted for one in every 558 emails, or roughly 0.18%.

In July, the number of email-borne viruses which originated from new and what the industry call previously unknown sources, totaled one in just over 300 emails, or 0.3%, which was down a touch on June.

Endpoint threats – those that attack endpoint devices which include servers, PCs and laptops – continue to be a major hazard; one made worse by the increasing use of removable drives and memory sticks. And one of the most dangerous pieces of malware is reported to be the Sality.AE virus, which spreads as a download from the internet and via removable drives.

The Norton antivirus review also detailed the various vertical trends when it comes to spam and viruses. Amongst other findings, it concluded that the most spammed industry sector in June was engineering. This had the dubious distinction of achieving a spam rate of 92.6%.

Next came the retail sector with 89.9 and ironically, the IT sector scored an unimpressive 89.6% and education on 89.1%. The chemical and pharmaceutical sector weighed in with 89%, followed by 87.4% for finance and 87.3% for the public sector.

The engineering sector continued to cover itself in glory; in July it became the most malware targeted industry with roughly one in 112 emails being blocked as having malicious intent, or containing malicious content. As for the other sectors, the number of malicious emails was one in 227 for education; for finance (1-246); IT (1-377); chemical and pharmaceutical (1-449); and, retail (1-706).

Guest Article by Neil Camp

Norton has notched up another award; this time its OnlineFamily.Norton, a free online safety service, which has walked off with the iParenting Media Award in the Best Software category.

Norton is the brand name of Symantec, the US NASDAQ quoted group, and is one of the main players in the computer security industry.

OnlineFamily.Norton is all about creating a service, based on the internet, that hands parents the power to connect with their children’s online experiences. The idea is to understand what the kids are seeing, learning and actually doing whilst online. And this process is known as ‘The Talk’ – the communication between parent and child to help keep the latter safe on the internet.

Created in 1996, iParenting.com is a parents and parents-to-be online community website. It is part of the Disney empire and sits alongside such other sites as FamilyFun.com, Kaboose and DisneyFamily.com. Indeed, it is part of a 40 website network which grew from one single website, www.PregancyToday.com.

And iParenting Media is the team behind the iParenting Media Awards Programme which is certified as a product review system.

Marian Merritt, Norton Internet Safety Advocate, said:
“We are extremely pleased that iParenting Media has recognized OnlineFamily.Norton as the best solution to protect kids online. Unlike existing parental controls software, which focus primarily on blocking objectionable sites and applications, OnlineFamily.Norton helps protect kids online by fostering a dialogue between parents and kids about their online lives.”

An iParenting spokesperson said:
“Unlike many parental control products, OnlineFamily.Norton aims to create dialog between parents and kids, not assert draconian control.”

Symantec is behind the Norton Antivirus series of products which protect computer users from cybercrime in all its manifestations, including viruses, spyware and phishing. It develops software programmes to combat such nasties, whilst trying not to absorb too much computer power to run them in the background.

Guest Article by Neil Camp

Norton has compiled a list of the top US kids online searches last year and near the top of the pile was the somewhat predictable searches for “sex” and “porn” which were number four and five respectively with those aged 18 and under.

Norton, which is the anti-virus software made by Symantec, make the point that whilst parents may live in hope their teenage offspring are searching for things like the blockbuster movie hit New Moon, or in the case of the seven and unders Sesame Street, their kids will also be finding out a few other things as well.

However, the good news is that the top three kids’ searches in 2009 were YouTube, Google and Facebook.

But Norton advises parents to be aware of what their children are searching for, as each of the first three choices above can of course lead to highly inappropriate content. They are also recommend using a software package to help parents keep an eye on their kids online searches. The Norton OnlineFamily is one such choice for those parents keen to get help.

And when the stats are shown for those searches including the words Sex and Porn, there seems little differences between the boys and the girls. For example, although for boys the search term sex came in at number four, for girls it was only one less at number five. In case you were wondering, girls put the search words Taylor Swift in at number four.

As for the boy’s top 25 searches, they were mostly concerned, apart from the adult related words, with social networking and shopping sites, and games. The girls also had a panache for social networking sites, but were more interested in music, TV, film and celebrity sites.

Not surprisingly perhaps, recently deceased pop mega star Michael Jackson was the most popular celebrity search last year with kids, coming in at number 12, with Taylor Swift at number 13. Other top celebrity searches included Miley Cyrus, Lady Gaga, Justin Bieber, Selena Gomez, Lil Wayne, Megan Fox, Eminem, Beyonce, Britney Spears, Demi Lovato, the Black Eyed Peas, the Jonas Brothers, Rihanna, and Chris Brown.

Marian Merritt, Norton Internet Safety Advocate, said:
“When it comes to online threats, parents need to be concerned about more than just their child running into inappropriate content. What makes OnlineFamily.Norton unique is that it gives parents insight into kids’ online activities and what interests them most so that parents can ensure they have a discussion with them about topics they’re curious about, as well as protect them from cyber threats.”

Guest Article by Neil Camp

Learn how to control your kids surfing here

Symantec has just announced the worldwide release of Norton Ghost 15.

Symantec, which develop and produce the renowned Norton security suite, claim that the Norton Ghost 15 is one of the industry’s most advanced PC backup and recovery solutions. It is also compatible with Windows 7 and offers 25G and 50G Blu-ray Disc support. What’s more, this latest version introduces a new cold imaging feature that images computers without installing the product. Furthermore, Norton Ghost uses Symantec’s ThreatCon indicator to automatically back up PCs in the event of a severe security threat.

Norton Ghost 15 is pitched as a professional-grade backup solution for both home users and small businesses. Amongst it’s many attributes, lost, or damaged files can be recovered and restored in the event of a system failure, even if the computer’s operating system does not start. Additionally, it provides a backup of an entire system, or specific files, and folders, whilst saving recovery points to offsite locations using FTP.

Dave Cole, senior director of consumer products, Symantec, said:
“Norton Ghost has been the essential imaging and recovery product since 1996. Consumers PCs have never been more central to people’s lives, or more at risk due to cybercrime and critical failures. Ghost 15 not only is a powerful disaster recovery tool, but also it adds important features such as Windows 7 compatibility and Blu-ray Disc support to keep current with the way people are using their computers today.”

Symantec highlights the fact that their Norton Ghost 15 is also supported by Windows 7 Bitlocker. This provides enhanced data protection through drive encryption and integrity checking, keeping stored data safe and protected. They also point out that it works with both 25G and 50G Blu-ray Discs and most storage drives. This includes external hard drives, networked drives and recordable, and rewritable, CDs and DVDs. And the hot backups feature allows users to back up their computers without having to shut it down first.

The cold imaging technology employed by Norton Ghost 15 effectively backs up files without installing the product which, says Symantec, saves time and money. A handy feature is that after purchasing a new computer, users can image the PC immediately before any software is loaded which means that factory settings remain intact. It also allows easy back up of a system by simply booting to the recovery environment (which is a light version of the Windows operating system) from the Norton Ghost CD, and then initiating a backup.

Guest Article by Neil Camp 

A recent report from computer giant Symantec – creator of the Norton brand of anti-virus products – has concluded that cybercriminals are employing increasingly persuasive online scare tactics to convince users to purchase rogue security software.

“Scareware”, a term for rogue security software, pretends to be legimate anti-virus applications and ironically, are often carriers of malicious code themselves.

The findings were part of Symantec’s Report on Rogue Security which is based on data obtained during the 12-month period of July 2008 to June 2009.

It is a simple case of preying on people’s fears that they may be vulnerable to attack say Symantec, who as of June 2009, had detected more than 250 distinct rogue security software programs. The most common method used by cybercriminals to infiltrate their rogue software involves placing ads on the screens of unsuspecting users which typically include false claims such as “…if this ad is flashing, your computer may be at risk or infected…” It urges the user to follow a link to scan their computer, or get software to remove the threat.

Worryingly, according to the study, 93% of the software installations for the top 50 rogue security software scams were intentionally downloaded by the user.

Stephen Trilling, Senior Vice President, Symantec Security Technology and Response, said
“The findings of our Report on Rogue Security Software make it clear that cybercriminals are willing, eager, and well-equipped to prey on today’s Internet user. To avoid becoming a victim of such predatory practices, Symantec strongly urges Internet users to make sure they are using the latest security protection and always obtain their security software directly from trusted vendors’ websites.”

Furthermore, said David Wall, PhD. professor, Centre for Criminal Justice Studies, University of Leeds:
“Scareware creators can scam thousands of people for comparatively small amounts of money all at the same time and make huge aggregate profits. This type of fraud works because the fake security software tricks users into believing they have an immediate threat which only their program can resolve. Ultimately, it’s a con. I would advise Internet users to be careful while online and only download from trusted sources.”

The report stated that the money lost by people downloading such rogue software programmes varied from $30 to $100, but the costs of regaining back personal details from an identity attack could be far greater.

It also said that not only did these pieces of malicious code try and attack a user’s computer, they could set-up a person’s computer for future attacks from other cybercriminals.

Symantec, like many other computer security companies, actively advises people to be aware that their personal details can be sold and bought on the internet in what is a thriving trade between cybercriminals.

They also advise computer users to be on their guard against the tricks employed by cybercriminals to get their rogue software in place.

Computers users should employ a number of tactics to keep themselves safe, including:

• avoid using website links in emails. Although it may look like a site you know, it may have been subtly altered into appearing to look the same, but actually link you to bogus site which does contain malicious software;
• when emails arrive with attachments, ensure they are from trusted sources, otherwise never view, open, or execute them;
• be suspicious of emails not directly addressed to your email address;
• beware very aware of pop-up windows and banner advertisements that mimic legitimate displays;
• look out for suspicious error messages displayed inside the web browser which are used by rogue security software scams use to lure users into downloading and installing their fake product.

Guest Article by Neil Camp

Along with Symantec and McAfee, and a whole host of other computer security companies, BitDefender has announced that its new line-up of products which are compatible with Microsoft’s new operating system Windows 7.

BitDefender’s products – including Total Security, Internet Security and Antivirus – have all received certification ensuring that they work with Microsoft Windows 7. And they claim they provide customers with enhanced security, as well as innovative user interface features and reliability improvements.

The 2010 BitDefender line-up includes a number of new features:

• optimised scanning improvements
• active Virus Control
• first-ever usage profiles
• key system enhancements which is aimed at providing industry-leading proactive protection against all internet security threats, without slowing PC performance.

Ross Brown, Vice President of ISV and Solutions Partners for the Worldwide Partner Group at Microsoft, said:
“Our ISV community is alive with innovation, and we’re committed to helping our partners drive the next generation of software experiences. Adding compatibility for the latest Microsoft operating systems helps ISVs to stay ahead of the competition and give their customers access to cutting-edge technologies.”

Vince Hwang, BitDefender Global Director, Product Management, said:
“Working together with Microsoft to achieve this certification allows BitDefender to meet the changing needs of our customers and provide the very best in security solutions to our users. These include intuitive user interfaces with usage profiles that cover anyone from gamers to parents, as well as improved security and reliability features including Active Virus Control, an innovative technology that monitors programs running on a user’s computer and detects malware-like actions as they execute.”

BitDefender claims to be the creator of one of the industry’s fastest and most effective lines of internationally certified security software.

The Company’s Antivirus 2010 product BitDefender Antivirus 2010 has also just received AV-Comparatives’ top certification level for its quality of performance. In all, some 16 antivirus products were tested by AV-Comparatives in August. They sought to find out which software had the highest detection rates and lowest false positives.

Viorel Canja, BitDefender’s head of antimalware lab, said:
“We are particularly pleased with this achievement as it is further proof that BitDefender provides the highest level of protection. The test shows that on this occasion we have outperformed our rivals in terms of false positive ratings with the lowest number of occurrences.”

Guest Article by Neil Camp

The worldwide computer security software market is set to grow some 8% in 2009 to a total value of $14.5 billion, compared to growth in 2008 of 19%.

Figures come from research group Gartner who have forecast 2010 growth of 13%, taking the market’s worth to $16.3 billion.

Europe’s share of the 2009 total market value is €3.2 billion in 2009, which represents a 7% growth from 2008.

Ruggero Contu, an analyst at Gartner, said:
“Although the worldwide security software market is affected by the economic downturn, the growth will continue to be strong in 2009 as security remains a critical area where drastic cuts cannot be afforded. In the medium term, the greatest growth opportunities will come from software as a service (SaaS), appliance based offering and small and medium businesses (SMBs), which are in security catch-up mode compared with large companies and therefore spend a higher percentage of their budgets on security.”

Mr Contu went on to say that:
“The security software market in 2008 was characterised by a high level of consolidation with the examples of McAfee purchasing Secure Computing, Symantec and Sophos acquiring MessageLabs and Ultimaco, respectively. This is a sector where further consolidation is expected in the near future.

“End-users are gradually moving to better-integrated multi-products, particularly in areas such as endpoint security and identity and access management. Vendors offering good integration in an already established and trusted technology partnership will be best-placed for success, as buyers prefer to deal with two or more vendors that already trust each other’s software and practices.”

The figures also revealed that in 2009, consumer security will remain the largest segment (in terms of total software revenue) in the security software market, representing 25 per cent of the total market.

Gartner goes on to estimates that it will account for $3.6 billion, growing nearly 5% in 2009. The enterprise security software market, formed by a number of segments including endpoint protection platform, email security boundary and user provisioning, is predicted to account for $10.9 billion, reaching 9% growth in 2009.

Gartner claims to be the leading information technology research and advisory company.

Guest Article by Neil Camp

Computer security giant Symantec has launched the 2010 line-up of Norton products.

And, boast Symantec, Norton Internet Security 2010 and Norton AntiVirus 2010 are their best products yet. Rowan Trollope, senior vice president, Consumer Products and Marketing, Symantec, said:
“One in five people will become a victim of cyber crime.. “We know that hackers don’t destroy computers, they destroy lives. The powerful new reputation-based security in Norton 2010 gives people the power to deny digital dangers wherever they are found online.”

According to Symantec, the Norton 2010 products have maintained an eye on performance, in spite of adding significant new protection technology to the release. Independent third party test lab, PassMark Software, was commissioned to benchmark Symantec and top security software competitors’ performance impact on key metrics. Their main conclusions were:

• Fast install. Norton Internet Security 2010 installs in about a minute;
• Least working memory usage. Norton Internet Security 2010 uses just over 10MB;
• Fastest scan. Norton Internet Security 2010 scans in only 61 seconds on a hard disk drive and in only 31 seconds on an solid state drive.

But that’s not all. Symantec claim that the Norton Insight family of technologies in the new 2010 products uses extensive online intelligence systems to proactively protect the PC. This helps keep users informed of the security and performance impact of files and applications that they encounter in their everyday online experience.

Individual ‘intelligence’ components include:

• Norton Download Insight. This uses extensive online intelligence systems leveraging reputation to proactively protect a PC. Analyzes and reports on the safety of new files and applications before users install and operate;
• Norton System Insight. This provides features and easy-to-understand system information to help keep PCs performing at top speed. Automatic and on-demand application optimization rejuvenates application performance. Also provides a view of recent events on the computer, providing the information required to research and analyze PC issues. Performance graphs help pinpoint what’s causing a computer to slow down;
• Norton Threat Insight. This gives details on threats that have been detected on a PC – including useful information on where it came from (the URL) and when it was initially encountered;
• Norton Insight Network. This leverages a cloud-based approach unique to them, say Symantec. Based on the Quorum technology, it takes cloud-based security beyond traditional blacklists and whitelists. It uses a statistical analysis of file attributes based on billions of scans on millions of computers to identify the trust level of a file. This way Norton can identify files to be trustworthy, or untrustworthy, that would otherwise fall into the grey area of the unknown with only traditional security methods.

The Norton 2010 line-up also has a number of additional key technologies:

• SONAR 2. This is sophisticated second-generation behavioural security technology that detects entirely new threats based on their suspicious actions, without the need for traditional fingerprints. Leverages data from the reputation cloud, firewall, network communications, and file attributes such as location on the PC, to decide when to detect a program as a threat;
• New Antispam (Norton Internet Security only). This is a powerful enterprise-grade spam blocking engine helps keep a user clear of unwanted email and safe from email-based scams and infections. It is 20% more effective than the previous engine and requires no training;
• Norton Safe Web (Norton Internet Security only). This is a website rating service that annotates Google, Yahoo! and Live.com search results with site safety ratings to warn users about sites that may pose a danger to them. It also includes ecommerce safety ratings to help users make safer online shopping decisions;
• OnlineFamily.Norton (Norton Internet Security only). This is for Norton Internet Security 2010 and users can opt to try a subscription to OnlineFamily.Norton. This is a new Web-based service that keeps parents in the loop on their kids online lives and fosters communication about what’s appropriate and inappropriate behavior on the Internet.

Norton 2010 offers free technical support and continues to deliver free support to Norton 2010 customers across all available channels, via the web, email, chat or phone. All products support Microsoft Windows XP, Windows Vista and Windows 7.

Guest Article by Neil Camp