Security

Many consumers think it's less likely you'll contract a malware infection if you buy your computer software at a store rather than online. For one U.S. woman, however, her latest store-bought accessory corrupted her computer minutes into the ... installation process. Over the Thanksgiving weekend, Anna Giesman bought a $10 webcam for her daughter to chat with her friend who had just moved to Germany. But when she put the CD that came pre-packed along with the Markvision Magnetic Webcam into her computer, a menu instantly popped up offering drivers and a link to the Markvision website. Trusting ... (view more)

Microsoft's next Patch Tuesday fix will solve a reported twelve security flaws, none more important than an Internet Explorer 8 vulnerability that the software company itself has marked "critical", its highest threat level. The next Patch Tuesday ... release is set for December 8, and the fixes it includes patch holes in several versions of Windows, including Windows 2000, XP, Vista, and finally Windows 7. Fixes are also due for Server 2003 and 2008. They'll cover a number of its most popular software packages, including Microsoft Office and its subsidiary programs Word, Work 8.5, and Project. ... (view more)

As " Black Friday " proved, online shopping is alive and well this holiday season. However, an increase in Internet shopping presents an opportunity for online deviants looking to cash in on as many victims as possible. As one security unit has ... proven, hundreds upon hundreds of web traps are known to be in existence. Officials at Scotland Yard's e-crime unit discovered a myriad of Asian hoax websites. However, the foreign fraudsters are even more deceptive in their actions this time around, because the infected sites are masquerading as British domain names. This is done to give false ... (view more)

As hundreds of thousands of children write their letters to Santa this holiday season, Infopackets.com weighs in on two possible phish-friendly tools that would top the wish list of any hacker. These particular tools of interest are able to scour ... the Internet and collect snippets of personal information from people via social networking sites and other public sources. The end result is a detailed profile with information voluntarily provided. Hackers May Look To "Bigger Picture" Rather than target certain people, hackers could use this stolen information as part of a bigger " spear-phishing ... (view more)

When Chinese officials warned Internet users of a new worm inching around online earlier this week, little was known about the virus. The source of the worm has now been identified as a direct descendant of the "Panda Burning Incense" virus which ... had infected millions of Chinese PCs almost three years ago. Also called Fujacks, the original Panda worm was initially launched during a time when public knowledge about computer security was lesser known than it is today. Not surprisingly, national panic ran wild as users sat back and watched in vain as the image of a panda bear holding three ... (view more)

With the limited number of hacks being reported for popular smartphone models like the Apple iPhone , many owners feel an added sense of safety when pressing the "on" button. However, according to a statement made by computer security firm F-Secure, ... people need not worry about protection against viruses, so much as protection against spying tools. F-Secure stressed their concern over the ever-increasing number of companies selling spyware products that target smartphones like the iPhone and BlackBerry, where users could manually install the spyware themselves. Phone Spyware: Infects in Two ... (view more)

The reputed "Godfather of Spam", 64-year-old Bloomfield, Michigan man Alan Ralsky, has been sentenced to four years behind bars by a U.S. District Judge in the Motor City. Ralsky and his co-conspirators were found guilty of leading an email stock ... scheme and money laundering operations. Ralsky, a West Bloomfield resident, was convicted alongside his son-in-law, 48-year-old Scott Bradley. Both designed an elaborate spamming operation that took aim at high-value targets: those in involved in the stock market. The pair were able to use spam to help inflate stock prices and in turn profited once ... (view more)

The iPhone has been hit by a virus for the second time this month. And this time the consequences are more significant than an unwanted picture of Rick Astley . A couple of weeks ago, a worm virus left some users of the iPhone with the image of 80s ... singer Rick Astley as their wallpaper. The virus only worked on phones which had been jailbroken: that is to say, their owners had altered them so that they could run software without Apple's authorization. Unfortunately, some of those who did so left the handset prey to a major security breach if they failed to change the default password for ... (view more)

There is some fear circulating among industry insiders over a domain name on sale right now. While wpad.cn might be of little significance to the average end-user, cybercriminals would rejoice over its acquisition. Duane Wessels, the president of ... Measurement Factory, knows how important the wpad namesake is. Wessels is the owner of five wpad domains: wpad.com, wpad.net, wpad.org, wpad.biz and wpad.us. While not a popular domain for Google searches, the sites are frequented by Windows computers erroneously searching for network configuration information, due to a decade-old Windows bug that ... (view more)

Less than a day after its last Patch Tuesday release Microsoft was forced to admit the existence of a Windows 7 zero day bug affecting the Server Message Block, or SMB protocol used for sharing files and printers. It's serious, too: according to ... reports, the vulnerability could allow a hacker to remotely crash Windows 7 (or, alternatively, a Windows Server 2008 R2 system). We first reported on this issue last week, but at the time the Redmond-based software giant had yet to weigh in. Microsoft responded to the issue by releasing an advisory that describes in closer detail exactly what Windows ... (view more)