Computer Security Today

Keeping Safe this Holiday Season

steven@saacomputer.com (Steven Young) — Thu, 2 Dec 2010 21:13:00 -0800

In the last year internet scams and theft have risen so much, I don't even dare guess at a percentage. I do know though even with that going shopping is in stores is becoming a thing of past. More stores are putting their better sales amd inventory online and making in store experiences worse so they can drive the customer online instead. The reason, pure and simple bottom line.

With that said your security while shopping is even more at stake. Criminals are becoming trickier at mugging you. Just as if it was in the parking lot at Kroger or Sam's Club. You watch for suspicious things. In this case, emails and bad web links are the first clues.

1) Never click a link in your email to log in and check your account. The email may say it is from someplace, but actually be some place else set to steal your information.

2) Never, Ever, Ever email your password to anyone. Even someone claiming to be technical support. Usually Tech Support can access your password themselves. If not then call them to give it.

3) Always make sure the website has either a https address or uses a payment solution like paypal, google wallet, or such.

In these changing times, we as consumers need to change as well to stay safe. The time of traditional brick and mortar stores is not at an end, but an evolution. Criminals are changing as well and even though businesses do their best, we need to still watch as well.

Steven Young
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Someone's Still Trying.

steven@saacomputer.com (Steven Young) — Thu, 3 Jun 2010 16:42:00 -0700

Well it would seam that 3 days down was not enough for someone to be content, this time they tried a java exploit. Children, please go get a job for real, all you will do is end up in jail if you keep this up. Note, this does show that Qualys does work and does catch things. Thanks to access loggging as well I have the IP addresses to turn over to the authorities as well.

Steven Young

Seem's someone is noticing me

steven@saacomputer.com (Steven Young) — Wed, 31 Mar 2010 15:39:00 -0700

Well it would seem in the last week or maybe even longer someone has noticed me, My website http://www.saacomputer.com has come under attack. Some of you out there would say 'yeah right' but I use Qualys to scan my site daily, on both the 29th and the 30th my site tested true for Malware. Both days that it was found I imeadiatly upon being notified of the infection cleaned the site. Both days the infection was employed differently, first was through an iframe implementation and the second time was an embedded javascript. All I can think off is that someone does not like the fact I inform users of what is out there and what to avoid. Educated users are less likely to become infected which in turns lowers the rate of which these malicious children are able to do damage. Well I have to thank the children as now I know at least someone reads my posts and notices my work. It also tells me that I may be on the right path of educating people.

Steven Young
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steven@saacomputer.com
Cell 503-851-6977
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Field Nation Tech #17515

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SEO Poisoning, The latest CSI episode or just kids with to much time?

steven@saacomputer.com (Steven Young) — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 21:23:00 -0700

SEO Poisoning, Sounds like a murder mystery for Sherlock Holmes or Gil Grissom (Though I like Abby on NCIS better). In fact it is the art of getting websites that will make you infect your computer with Rogue AV's to the top of very recently popular searches. Rogue Anti Viruses are really Viruses Desqused as Anti Viruses and will cost you Money, Stress, and Time. The rogue AV will say your infected with a large number of Viruses usually Trojans and will then say to remove them you need to buy the full version. This in turn means you enter your credit card information and hit the Buy button, then, wait, and nothing happens. It does not activate or remove the viruses, in fact it sent your credit card information to the writters of the virus. They now have your CC Info and you still have the virus. All because you were searching for the latest gossip about some famous person, or the latest game scores, or the olympic outcomes, while the games are actually still playing. That is what SEO Poisoning is, not you getting upset and feeding your marketer Hemlock cause your google rank is not high enough. So what does this mean? It means that even though you just heard about it today or that the big game is on and your looking for the latest instant replay, you could still be searching for trouble and find it in the form of a computer virus.

Steven Young
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Fake PIN pad units in US chain store

steven@saacomputer.com (Steven Young) — Wed, 17 Mar 2010 19:24:00 -0700

In a daily digest I get from another blog source about security, I see this story titled 'Fake PIN pad units in US chain store' my first thought is. Oh Great! and not in a good way. I am a Point of Sale Tech, that means I service registers and ATM devices like these. An average month I can replace 15 to 20 of these at times. Does this mean my work will slow down cause people are afraid to have their registers serviced? These skimmers are hurting more than the people that they get Credit Card info from, they are hurting the stores, and the service techs because now people will not trust the techs that work on the systems.

Steven Young
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S.a.A. Computer Repair
steven@saacomputer.com
Cell 503-851-6977
Field Solutions Tech #44922

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System Defender and Other Rogue Antiviruses on the rise.

steven@saacomputer.com (Steven Young) — Tue, 2 Feb 2010 22:03:00 -0800

Rogue Antiviruses are actually a Virus themselves. Youer surfing along and you get a "system" alert saying a spyware operation is in progress, click ok to start System Defender. Then you got some seemingly windows security tool telling you everything is a virus and blocking you from doing anything at all. These are designed to do one thing get you to buy thier tool, that never activates even after you give them your credit card. Yeah, thats right, it is your credit card numbers they are after. If you get a box like this

Then DO NOT CLICK ON IT, it is the method of infection, instead just shut down and reboot, even if you have to just use the power button. It is safer to hard boot the computer than to install that virus. In the last week i have seen more than just a few of these cases now.

Now it is not like I dont mind the work, if it was not for things like this I would have less, but i hate having the cussing from the customer when they find out that no anti-virus software will clean or prevent this one yet. It is propigated by user error and designed to get your credit card number and wreak havoc until it does. It is not a browser exploit or system flaw, it is just that mean and nasty.

You do not want any form of this program, I have removed successfully every copy over the last 2 years I have seen of it but one, and that was on a cash register at a restaurant. The reason I could not remove it was the system would not allow me to boot into safe mode. So if you do get this or a variation of it, you need an experience expert because it has to be manually removed.

Steven Young
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First Tutorial on How to Keep Your System Secure Using Spybot Search & Destroy

steven@saacomputer.com (Steven Young) — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 02:06:00 -0800

In this Tutorial I show you the simple task of updating your software. I know simple enough, right? I see day in and day out where even this simple task was not done,

Steven Young
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Drive-by Virus's On The Rise, But Not New

steven@saacomputer.com (Steven Young) — Sun, 24 Jan 2010 09:56:00 -0800

Well last night I saw a news article on Fox about Facebook status messages that are linked to a site that downloads viruses to your computer. This drive by attack is not new. MySpace users have faced it for years with injection code in themes and advertisements. Back in 2006 there was an attack on MySpace users through a flash vulnerability where user accounts were hijacked and menus were inserted. Yahoo and AOL chat users get regularly attacked with links to malware sites. The first and best advise I have for my customers is use trusted anti-virus and spyware software.

Free Trustable Solutions:
AVG
Avast
Avira
Spybot S&D

I use all 4 of those on my own system, My parents computers, and my customers systems. With all the malicious website out there you cant afford to trust bloated antivirus software that admits that they do not look for even one half of the virus's they used to.

Even While writing this another drive by site was formed with a sensationalized news headline about a Hollywood Icon Killed in a Car Crash and spread by Twitter and Facebook users. So new ones are formed as soon as the old are caught and removed. Do Not Let Your Guard Down Ever.

Steven Young
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IE Flaw leads to Intrusion at Major Companies

steven@saacomputer.com (Steven Young) — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 15:05:00 -0800

Well here we are again, Due to bad code in Internet Explorer 30 some companies including Google, Adobe and Microsoft themselves were compromissed. What were tha hackers after? What else customer data, I know times are tough but come on people you dont need to be stealing other peoples identities to survive. Just go get real job. If you dont want a real one, I know write something to actually fix the problem you found and exploited and sell it to Microsoft. if your good enough to write bad code, I am sure your good enough to write good code to, and hey, not get locked up in a fedral penetentary without being alloewed to touch a computer again. That would mean oh, I dont know, maybe only working construction or Burger King forever. I know what I say wont change thier minds but I am still entitled to My Opinion. For all of you out there dont forget to keep your Automatic Updates on I am sure a patch will be released Tuesday or soon at least to cover this flaw.

Steven Young
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S.a.A. Computer Repair
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Cell 503-851-6977
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Field Sollutions Tech #44922

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Wordpress Owners Beware

steven@saacomputer.com (Steven Young) — Mon, 30 Nov 2009 12:53:00 -0800

There is an attack directed at sites using Wordpress as of lately. Read the whole story here http://weblogtoolscollection.com/archives/2009/11/30/distributed-wordpress-admin-account-cracking/ and make sure your up to date on your patches.

Tech Support Scams.

steven@saacomputer.com (Steven Young) — Wed, 4 Nov 2009 22:07:00 -0800

They claim to be Internet security watchdogs offering help with a computer virus you mistakenly downloaded. Their real intention: to get remote access to your files.

It’s the “tech support scam,” a ruse that has made headlines overseas and now is quietly targeting computer users in this country.

It starts with a phone call from someone claiming to be from a software provider such as Microsoft, Norton or McAfee, or your computer’s manufacturer. (Other callers say they represent Support on Click, a firm based in India.) You are told that your computer has a virus and may be in danger of losing all stored data, but the caller can help avoid that—if you follow his instructions.
Don’t take the bait.
“What they usually try to do is get you to download software that they say will fix the virus,” says Paul Aziz, who runs a computer repair business in Lebanon, Ore., and teaches older users about Internet security at Linn-Benton Community College.
“What that software really does is give them remote access to your computer and everything on it—your passwords, online banking accounts, everything.”
In some cases, users are directed to the website www.logmein123.com, which gives the hackers remote access to your computer, allegedly to “fix the problem.” Or they may ask you to provide your user name and password.

How are users targeted? Their names and phone numbers can be accessed from online telephone directories. Some calls may be made with an auto-dialer that calls numbers in sequence.
Charlotte Brooks of Bedminster, N.J., received several such calls from men with foreign accents saying they worked for her “computer monitoring firm.” “When I asked which firm, at least three correctly guessed Norton; the others fudged,” she told Scam Alert. “Each said it was extremely urgent that we go online immediately so he could help us get rid of this virus by letting him have remote access to our computer. When I sent an e-mail to Norton about this, they had no idea what I was talking about.”
Be on the alert for signs of trouble:

• The warning that you have a computer virus comes to you by telephone or e-mail. If a real virus is ever detected, you’re likely to receive a security update or warning directly on your computer.

• Callers try to sell subscriptions for “computer monitoring” or “security services.” Giving hackers your credit card information creates an added danger.

• When you answer the call, you hear a ringing tone. That indicates a callback system that could result in expensive long-distance charges to you, since these posers often call from Europe or Asia.

If you believe you’ve already fallen for a phony tech support scam, contact a computer repair company to stop the hackers’ remote access. Also notify your bank and credit card companies, and monitor your statements for any unauthorized charges.

Sid Kirchheimer is the author of Scam-Proof Your Life, published by AARP Books/Sterling.

Fake Blue Screen of Death on the Rise Again

steven@saacomputer.com (Steven Young) — Fri, 7 Aug 2009 16:00:00 -0700

Well they have Dusted it off and Re Written it for the newer Windows Versions. back in Windows 98 and Windows ME we saw another version of this. And then there was a version for Windows XP back in the early part of 2008 I saw about 4 cases of this. Each of those were scareware designed to make you buy their "removal" tool. Their tool of course would remove it but would then capture your credit card info and logins to sites you would use. Thus was a tool for Identity Theft, Norton would not catch it and neither would McAfee. the 2 that would catch it were Avira and AVG Anti Virus. If you ever get one of these sor t of virus's Never Buy thier Tools.

First thing that should be a red flag is a Virus that tells you the victim what tool to buy and use to remove it. This alone says it is released by the same author or one author is connected to the other in some way.

If you ever get something like that, Stop what you are doing and Call Us or Your Local Repair Specialist. Make sure to tell them You May have a Fake AntiVirus or Scareware on your system.

Steven Young
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S.a.A. Computer Repair
steven@saacomputer
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