Nellie2

Forget avoiding your girlfriend in case she has decided that today is the day for the big proposal.

Today is also the last day that you will be able to sign the Downing Street petition calling for the UK Government to create a central E-Crime Unit.

The National High Tech Crime Unit was closed down almost two years ago.. The Serious Organised Crime Agency (SOCA) have been doing the best they can with the resources they have… but it’s not enough.

So get clicking on that petition.. show Gordon Brown that you are a concerned citizen.  Make sure you submit a valid email address as you will need to click on a link that will be emailed to you to validate your signature.

—–> Click Here For the Downing St E-Petition <——

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One of the security forums that I cut my malware baby teeth in is CastleCops… although back then it was known as ComputerCops.

Security forums are a valuable resource to our internet..and CastleCops have worked very hard over the last six years to build an effective and invaluable database of information and to provide a meeting place for experts from all different fields to enable us to work together and share information.

I’m proud to be a member of CastleCops… so happy Sixth Birthday guys…  lets hope you have lots more.

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Here we go folks, yet another rogue program for you all … with another really zippy name.

SpywareRemover is a rogue anti-spyware program that is advertised through the use of malware. When this malware, labeled Hoax.Win32.SpyWare.d by Kaspersky antivirus, is installed on your computer you will start to see popups for a variety of services. One of these is advertisements is a misleading popup stating you are infected and that you should install SpywareRemover to remove it. The title of this popup is Spyware detected! and the content of the popup is:

Windows has detected a spyware infection!
Please install Spywareremover to remove the infection.

Once SpywareRemover is installed, it will automatically scan your computer for infections and then display a variety of false positives as well as an interesting find; the malware that installed it in the first place. In order to remove these infections, though, you must first purchase a license for the software. (Surprise surprise) Screen shots of the SpywareRemover program can be seen below.

Above blurb and screenshot have been shamelessly pinched from Bleeping Computer. Needless to say… you won’t be doing yourself any favours if you do purchase this program because all you will be doing is putting money into the malware vendors pockets and your PC will still be infected.

For comprehensive self help removal instructions please visit Bleeping Computer.  If you are still having problems after following those instructions then please ask for help at one of the anti malware forums.

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There has been quite a bit of information on various security sites about the botnet bust in Canada last week… so I know I’m raking over old news.

But who cares… the point is, something is being done. The bad guys are getting tracked down and are being taken to task. Yes it’s a slow process and no.. they aren’t locking them up and throwing away the key yet… but every botnet that is taken down is one less that we need to worry about.

Over the course of the two years that this network was under investigation, the network took control of up to a million computers. When you figure the number of computers hijacked, the amount of the damages, and the number of people they were able to connect with this crime, this is a very impressive win for the Quebec police.

See the full story here at McAfee

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F-Secure have discovered the first rogue application that specifically targets the MAC, it’s called MacSweeper.

It will tell you your MAC is infected and that the only way you can get it clean is to buy the product, same old same old. Except this time it’s the MAC that is targeted. No operating system or computer build is totally secure… it’s the educated and aware person in control of the keyboard that dictates whether your system is safe or not.

Update from F-Secure see here

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I was checking out Bill Pytlovany’s blog and read about an ex husband who installed keylogging software on his wife’s computer.  You can read the details in Bill’s blog.

I did want to agree with Bill though, keylogging software is sold for legitimate reasons, but which ever way you look at it.. it is spying.  If you really don’t trust your children enough to give them internet access without a keylogger installed… then you should turn off the internet.  If you feel the need to install a keylogger for other reasons.. then perhaps you should have a good long talk with the person or person’s involved, sort out what ever it is that is bothering you.

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Ok so what’s a Rogue??  Well it’s a program that sorta tells you that your computer is infected and that it is going to roll over and die if you don’t purchase the program.  What it doesn’t tell you is that IT is the infection.  The latest one I reported on was Malware Crush… and boy is this blog getting a lot of hits from the search engines from that one!

If you are thinking of getting some new security software then a good site to check out is SpywareWarrior’s Rogue/Suspect Anti-Spyware Products and Websites list.

But if you find yourself with some sort of aggressive ‘free’ scanner screaming that you are infected with all sorts of nasties.. who do you tell about it?

My friends at Security Cadets have just opened a new forum for you to do just that.  It is also important to us that we get on top of these things quickly.. so we can figure out how to fix it.  Please bookmark this link and tell your friends and family about it.

Security Cadets Report Rogue Anti-Spyware Forum 

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I seem to be doing a fair bit of linking recently.. but I came across this post by Chris Pirillo and just had to link it on to you.  If you are a regular reader of my blog then you will know that Child Safety on the internet is one of my biggest concerns.

I’m not totally sure that blocking sites like MySpace and Facebook are a good idea.  Take your self back to your teenage years… if your parents specifically banned something what did you do??  Yeah…………. me too!!!

Keep the parental controls in place.. agree internet times, keep the computer in a family public area and keep your software and operating systems up to date and make sure your offspring are surfing using a limited user account.

And finally, remember that children are entitled to their privacy, by all means monitor their internet activities to make sure they are safe… but don’t go prying.

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