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This appears to be something brand new, and it gets past AVG antivirus. I have antivirus and am pretty careful, and can't remember the last time I picked up anything that messed up my computer like this nasty thing. It takes over when you boot up, and won't let you go into task manager or anything. I got rid of it by going into safe mode (press f8 during boot) and looking at the properties of the shortcut on the desktop. It pointed to the executable file C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\24180116\24180116.exe. I deleted this executable file and removed the...

If the new Location-Aware Browsing (a.k.a. Geolocation) feature in Firefox 3.5 makes you worried about your privacy, you can turn the feature off with a simple about:config tweak. A Quick Look at Location-Aware BrowsingFor those who are curious about this new feature, here is a quick look at what happens when you encounter a website that triggers the function in Firefox.  You can also visit a website that has been set up as a Geolocation demo (link at the bottom of the article). Note: The Location-Aware Browsing feature uses Google Location Services to determine your location with the following: your...

Real Networks, makers of the RealPlayer music and media management application, have launched a new version of their software. RealPlayer SP for Windows is available immediately as a beta download, with a Mac version expected by the year end.

Experts Say Chinese Filter Would Make PCs Vulnerable By ANDREW JACOBS BEIJING — Filtering software that the government has mandated for all new computers in China is so technically flawed that outsiders can easily infiltrate a user’s machine to monitor Internet activity, steal personal data or plant destructive viruses, experts who have studied the program say. “It contains serious vulnerabilities, which is especially worrisome given how widely the software will be adopted,” said J. Alex Halderman, a computer science professor at the University of Michigan who examined the program. “What we found was only the tip of the iceberg.” Known...

There comes a time when despite the allure of the market, Western industry should band together and turn its back on China. A time when the computer and Internet industry realizes that the censorship-and-repression tax the government is intent on levying is too high a price to pay.Is this, at long last, that moment? Well, it’s doubtful. But it should be.Starting July 1, computers sold in China must include government-provided spyware that blocks pornography and political dissent from Chinese citizens’ view, The New York Times reports, following up a Wall Street Journal report. Called “Green Dam” — green being a...

he FBI has used a secret form of spyware in a series of investigations designed to apprehend extortionists, database-deleting hackers, child molesters and hitmen, according to documents obtained by ZDNet Asia's sister site CNET News.com. One suspect used Microsoft's Hotmail to send bomb and anthrax threats to an undercover government investigator; another demanded a payment of US$10,000 a month to stop cutting cables; a third was an alleged European hitman who was soliciting for business from a Hushmail.com account. CNET News.com obtained the documents--totalling hundreds of pages, although nearly all of them were heavily redacted--this week through a Freedom of...

Federal agencies are facing emerging cybersecurity threats that are the result of increasingly sophisticated methods of attack and the blending of once distinct types of attack into more complex and damaging forms. Examples of these threats include spam (unsolicited commercial e-mail), phishing (fraudulent messages to obtain personal or sensitive data), and spyware(software that monitors user activity without user knowledge or consent). Click to read more ...

(beginning of article snipped) Obama's team may not be so lucky. It got off to a bad start by breaking loads of existing links, and by using WebTrends tracking code without making this clear to users. Also, while everybody loves YouTube, it may not be the best idea to serve WhiteHouse.gov videos from there. YouTube is owned by Google, which was one of Obama's contributors. (snip)

If there's a poster child for the dangers of spyware, it's Julie Amero. The 41-year-old former substitute teacher was convicted of four felony counts of endangering minors last year, stemming from an Oct. 19, 2004, classroom incident where students were exposed to inappropriate images. Prosecutors had argued that Amero put her students at risk by exposing them to pornography and failing to shield them from the pop-up images after they appeared on her classroom computer. Amero was an unlikely porn surfer. Four months pregnant at the time, she said she had only just learned to use e-mail. She says she...

<p>Thursday, November 20, 2008 The Pentagon has suffered from a cyber attack so alarming that it has taken the unprecedented step of banning the use of external hardware devices, such as flash drives and DVD's, FOX News has learned.</p> <p>The attack came in the form of a global virus or worm that is spreading rapidly throughout a number of military networks.</p>

Army Colonel Gets Spyware From N.Korea Amid lingering controversy over the arrest of a North Korean Mata Hari, a malicious North Korean e-mail has been sent to a colonel at a field army command. Military authorities have reportedly provided the entire army with updated anti-hacking software. A military intelligence source on Monday said the e-mail was sent early last month to the colonel via China. The source added that the e-mail was programmed to automatically steal stored files if the recipient opened it. But whether military secrets were actually stolen by way of this e-mail was not known. Military authorities...

Antivirus XP 2008 By: webmaster | Under: Unwanted Programs 26 Jun Updated: July 30, 2008 Antivirus XP 2008 is a bogus antivirus application for Windows that was promoted and downloaded automatically by redirecting users internet browser to its predefined website. Aliases: Adware.AntivirusXP2008 Risk Level: Medium File Size: Varies Affected System: Windows Common Symptoms: 1. Redirects web broswser and pop-up scan results. It will then prompt the user to buy the licensed software.

A software update for the Windows operating system has left hundreds and thousands of computer users unable to access the internet. The update, known as a "patch", conflicts with another piece of software, the Zone Alarms firewall, that many people use to protect their computers from hackers and viruses. The patch, codenamed MS08-037, was designed to fix a security loophole in the way Windows handles website addresses. It was discovered that there was a weakness with the operating system that could allow hackers to re-route legitimate web pages to malicious websites instead, and leave internet users open to fraud...

In my little house we have an HP desktop and an ARCHOS 605 wifi (amongh other things) and for the longest time they worked perfectly together. Then one day they were no longer on speaking terms. Though each by itself worked out-- and checked out-- AOK. So, after some very careful investigation -- and a $$ an hour computer guy -- the problem almost certainly is a virus, or what have you. So, can anyone recommand a good de-bugging program? We just have the plain-vanilla AOL virus protection (quit snickering) and so...well...any recommandations? Thanks

Is anyone else using Avast Free Virus Scan getting a Trojan alert on Super Anti Syyware.exe command? I'm getting it on the boot up scan and Avast has no way of marking it a false positive. Warning shows Win32: Trogan-Gen with no anme associated except the Spyware program.

Yahoo search to 'battle spyware' SearchScan is a free tool embedded into search Yahoo is introducing new technology to its search engine which will warn users if they are about to click on a website that hosts viruses, spyware and spam. SearchScan uses security firm McAfee's SiteAdvisor technology to warn users about "potentially risky sites". The service, which is switched on by default, produces an on-screen alert. "Our goal is to protect users by allowing them to make a more informed decision about the sites they visit," said Yahoo's Priyank Garg. Rival firm Google introduced similar technology in 2006....

How can I remove system integrity scan wizard from my system? Since yesterday, this keeps popping up. I have run my Professional AVG AV software as well as Adaware and this is the one thing that I am unable to get rid of. Is there a free online program that will remove this? Thanks!!

The sheer volume and complexity of computer viruses being released on the Internet today has the anti-virus industry on the defensive, experts say, underscoring the need for consumers to avoid relying on anti-virus software alone to keep their home computers safe and secure.

From iPods to navigation systems, some of today's hottest gadgets are landing on store shelves with some unwanted extras from the factory -- pre-installed viruses that steal passwords, open doors for hackers and make computers spew spam. ADVERTISEMENT Computer users have been warned for years about virus threats from downloading Internet porn and opening suspicious e-mail attachments. Now they run the risk of picking up a digital infection just by plugging a new gizmo into their PCs. Recent cases reviewed by The Associated Press include some of the most widely used tech devices: Apple iPods, digital picture frames sold by...

Hackers launch massive IFrame attack Gregg Keizer March 13, 2008 (Computerworld) Hackers using a new scam continue to subvert hundreds of thousands of Web pages with IFrame redirects that send unwary users to malware-spewing sites, researchers said today. The attacks, which began about a week ago, show no signs of slowing, said Dancho Danchev in a posting to his blog yesterday. "The group is continuing to expand the campaign," said the Bulgarian researcher. "These are the high-profile sites targeted by the same group within the past 48 hours, with the number of locally cached and IFrame-injected pages within their search...

My computer is infested with this crap and I can't get rid of it. None of the free services can solve the problem, and I might even pay for such a service, except that all of them seem to be just folks willingly to take advantage of you and charge you more money, and possibly infect you more. Has anyone here seen this? How should I and anyone else deal with this?

A small minority of users - as few as one in 20 - is running fully-patched Windows PCs. Just five per cent of newly-registered users of an online security inspection service Secunia came out with a clean bill of health, while more than 40 per cent have at least 11 insecure applications installed. The data is based on scans of 20,009 computers whose users recently installed Secunia's freely available software inspection tool. Secunia claims a total user base of more than 200,000 users for its free Secunia PSI tool. A survey of a different sample set of Secunia PSI recently...

If you've signed up to receive e-mails from Sears, and then clicked on to join the retailer's "My SHC Community," it's likely you've been providing more information to more people than you thought. Even more troubling, it turns out that you're not just sharing information with Sears, but also with a company called comScore, which tracks and aggregates Internet browsing habits. Installing the software from Sears results in the installation of software called VoiceFive, which provides data to comScore. It's essentially spyware. comScore is the company behind the (disputed) numbers that indicated more people were stealing Radiohead's latest album than...

Sears and Kmart are places you might go when you need a new air conditioner filter or a lawnmower; they're not generally thought of as havens for spyware. But that's what the two stores have become, at least online, where their websites were found to be installing software to track users' every online move—all without their knowledge. Security researchers are now hammering Sears (the owner of both Sears.com and Kmart.com) for the move, despite Sears' claims that users were notified adequately beforehand. The story goes like this: late last year, Sears.com and Kmart.com began asking users if they wanted to...

I am not sure what has happened but I always have my AVG Anti-Virus running and it used to be in the task bar. Yesterday, something strange happened. When I noticed it was not there, and after the kids were finished on the computer, I restarted it and got this message: C\WindowsSystem32\vtsqr.exe Windows cannot access the specified device, path or file. You may not have the appropriate permission to access the item. I got into my AVG program and ran it and some 44 Trojan Horse Dropper, generic THT items were found in many programs such as Acrobat Reader, in...

For the last couple of months my computer has periodically been freezing up when not in use. It locks everything, even the clock. I've not added any new programs. I even have uninstalled Symantic and went with Avast/Spybot/Windows firewall. When it happens I can't even use ctrl/alt/del. (It's a Windows XP OS.) I have to manually shut down the computer and reboot. Any suggestions? Thanx.

Over a year after first coming to light, the cache engines of major search engines are still providing a safe hiding place for malicious code, a security company has revealed. The latest warning comes from security company Aladdin, which logged an attack against a university Web site which was eventually traced back to just such a 'poisoned cache.' The originating site had been taken offline, but the code from it was still able to spread by living on in the caches of a major search engine. To make matters worse, cached malicious code could circumvent URL filtering systems because they...

Hackers have newer methods to hack into your systems. They are smart enough to detect security loop holes in your PC and enter through open ports,unencrypted Wi-Fi connections,malicious websites or internet servers. It is better you check your PC periodically for invasions and protect your system to prevent pilfering and damage of data. Detecting security loopholes. Eliminating malicious programs. Tracking hackers .

Okay, a question for you techies out there. I just renewed my Norton Anti-virus system and the renewal for my SpySweeper is coming up as well. Is it necessary to have SpySweeper also? If Norton Anti-Virus is sufficient then it doesn't make sense to renew SpySweeper. Some have said they might even be interfering with each other. So to renew or not to renew SpySweeper? That is the question.

Spying on lover's e-mail? Monitoring may be illegal Austin police have charged two recently with activity. By Tony Plohetski AMERICAN-STATESMAN STAFF Tuesday, November 13, 2007 Shawn Macleod wanted to know where his estranged wife was going on the Internet and what she was writing in e-mails, investigators said, so he secretly installed a program called SpyRecon on her computer that sent him electronic logs with the sites she had visited and messages she had sent. His spying resulted in a four-year prison sentence. Software programs created to monitor computer activity have grown in popularity in recent years as parents have...

Yesterday morning, Spy Sweeper detected a trojan called "ldpinch" on my computer. It was quarantined and I deleted it. It showed up again today so I called Webroot, which makes Spy Sweeper. I was on hold for over an hour. Customer service told me that it is a false positive, that it probably came from Windows updates for Windows Messenger. They should have new definitions to correct this false positive in the next 24 hours. Customer service said that they have been swamped with calls on this issue and that is why there is such a long wait. So now...

For a few hours late last week, visitors to the Bank of India Web site had their browsers covertly redirected to a site hosting malicious exploits. Increasingly, criminals, often without any technical experience, are defacing popular Web sites with code that allows them to direct your browser to download content without you even knowing. Finjan, a security company that's been on the cutting edge of detecting Web 2.0 malware, identifies 10 toolkits for sale on the Internet, up from earlier this year. If you are an online criminal these days, says Yuval Ben-Itzhak, CTO of Finjan, "you are buying a...

I have spent several days trying to rid my computer of a spyware virus, downloaded several "fixes," yet still have a popup telling me I have a spyware virus and need to download a winvirus. I don't often post vanity threads, but would appreciate any help, advice, you freepers can offer. I am pretty stupid when it comes to computing, except for sending email and surfing some websites. I appreciate any help or advice offered.

China is host to almost half of the world's malware-infected Web sites. According to a report released Monday by antivirus company Sophos, China--including Hong Kong--hosted 44.8 percent of the world's infected sites in August. The U.S. ranked a distant second, hosting 20.8 percent of sites that contain malicious code. The number of infected Web pages has also grown. Sophos said it detected an average of 5,000 new infected pages each day in the month of August. The company warned that simply staying clear of sites hosted in the top three countries of China, the U.S. and Russia is not an...

My out of state friend is lazy about computer protection, but he just bought a new laptop that has wi-fi (he may never use that). I sent him what I hope is an easy, minimal list of actions to take, until he can look deeper into the subject. I know that everyone has their own preferences for programs, and many of you computer guys have had to deal with indifferent friends and family. How do you guys keep it simple and free for them, keeping in mind that an imperfect defense that is implemented, is better than no defense at...

For many years, we've written some highly critical reports about Spyware vendors, some of whom would then e-mail us asking us to stop referring to their product as Spyware. Claria Corporation was perhaps the worst offender in this regard, threatening to sue anyone (AV Vendors or the press) who called their Gator spyware what it actually was. It has all been part of a massive attempt by the spyware industry to hoist some kind of pseudo-legitimacy on a sector that spent almost a decade trampling user rights and privacy. As part of this push, Zango (formerly 180Solutions) recently sued Kaspersky...

The FBI used a novel type of remotely installed spyware last month to investigate who was e-mailing bomb threats to a high school near Olympia, Wash. Federal agents obtained a court order on June 12 to send spyware called CIPAV to a MySpace account suspected of being used by the bomb threat hoaxster. Once implanted, the software was designed to report back to the FBI with the Internet Protocol address of the suspect's computer, other information found on the PC and, notably, an ongoing log of the user's outbound connections. Screen snapshot of 'timberlinebombinfo' MySpace account The suspect, former Timberline...

It's well known that organizations with nefarious and often criminal goals support and distribute malware and spyware that allows them to snoop on and/or manipulate people's computers. However, what is less well-known is that some of the people behind spyware are ostensibly the "good guys"—law enforcement officers who install the software on suspects' computers to assist them with their investigations. The existence of "policeware" is not well-known, but the US government has used this sort of software before. In 2001, federal agents obtained permission from a judge to enter a suspect's home and install keylogging software on his computer. The...

Ads could be targeted at users based on local system data. Microsoft has filed a patent application for a new method of targeting advertising, using information on the contents of a local computer rather than interactions with the web. While most current advertising relies on watching an individual's web browsing habits, selecting the type of ads to show them based on the type of sites they visit, the system proposed by Microsoft would analyse a user's computer to gather data from documents, emails, downloaded media content and even system settings, which would then be used to create a more accurate...

As of yesterday I'm getting an unbelievable amount of Micrsoft Internet Explorer "search results" (which I never searched). Before I rebooted five minutes ago I had about 20 and I didn't even have MIE open. I'm getting this message: The instruction at "Ox44ooaccc" reference memory at "Ox4400accc". The memory could not be "read". Click on "Ok" to terminate the program. I don't click click on "Ok" because more crazy warnings come up. I just close it out by clicking the "X". Then I get MIE websearch homepages for: www.play65.com www.rewardamazon.com (about six times) www.musicplustv.com www.whichcelebrityareyou.com www.consumerpromotions.com www.paidmarketingpanel.aavalue.com www.arn.aavalue.com www.moneyinaclick.com www.sportsbook.com...

Whe I come across a website that is downloading code, my anti-virus acts in one of two ways: (1) It grays out the screen and tells me a site is trying to download code, then gives me the option to accept or not. (2) It grays out the screen and tells me a site is trying to download code...but gives no option. Just blocks it and that is it. Three times now I have gone to Drudge and I was not given the option to proceed. My anti-virus viewed the content as so hostile it was number 2 only. What's...

Last week, when I condemned the flood of crippled trial software, ads and offers that come loaded on new Windows Vista computers, readers reacted strongly. I received roughly 700 emails, all but a handful agreeing with me. The column was the most popular article that day on WSJ.com and was cited on numerous other Web sites. Clearly, many people are furious about these unwanted programs and icons, which are sometimes called craplets. Many would like to smite them without going through the laborious process of uninstalling them manually, one at a time. Some readers suggested strategies. The following are some...

Out of curiosity, has anyone with a Mac iBook been presented with this message, when powering up in a different location than where you normally connect to the internet: "None of your trusted internet connections can be found, would you like to join the internet connection jdnetwork?" I'm posting this message for a friend who clicked "Yes" to that prompt and immediately the following happened: The pointer/hourglass locked upThe whole screen frozeHe had to power down by removing/reinserting the batteryUpon trying to turn on the iBook, no (green) power light was present. Not sure what to do next. The computer...

This spyware is the king of all spywares. Firefox, AdAware, and spybot all put together are WIMPS compared to this virus. They couldnt even find it, much less get rid of it. Has anyone else dealt with this spyware and have gotten rid of it? What steps did you take? What software did you use?

The Mozilla Foundation has released security updates to fix multiple flaws that could result in system hijacking in its open-source Firefox browser, Thunderbird e-mail client and SeaMonkey Internet applications suite. The bugs, deemed critical, are detailed in Mozilla's Security Advisory 2007-12. They include multiple vulnerabilities in Mozilla's Layout Engine and in its JavaScript engine that can result in memory corruption and lead to system takeover or DoS (denial of service). The function of a layout engine is to handle content such as HTML, XML, image files and applets as well as formatting information including CSS (Cascading Style Sheets) and presentational...

A new variant of the Russian Trojan Gozi, armed with keylogging functionality, is making the rounds again. What makes this time different is that the Trojan can scramble itself to avoid detection by your anti-virus software. The Trojan is believed to have been spreading since April 17. Like the original, which was discovered earlier in 2007, the new version of Gozi steals data from encrypted SSL (Secure Sockets Layer) streams. The latest variant was uncovered May 7 by Don Jackson, a security researcher at SecureWorks in Atlanta. Comments Posted by Steve 3:15 PM (CDT)

Every Sunday, I get a Dell Support pop-up which tells me to go to this site and download some driver: http://updates.visualnetworks.com/ I am hesitant to do this as I do not know anything about it and there is no explanation other than Dell saying my computer might suffer crashes if I do not update my network monitoring services.

The commissioners from the Federal Trade Commission (FTC) all trekked over to Congress yesterday for an appearance before the Senate Commerce Committee. During the hearing, the commissioners explained what their agency has been up to over the last year and asked for a bigger budget to continue fighting the good fight in the future. And the agency does good work: it continues to pursue spammers, spyware purveyors, and pretexters. Unfortunately, it doesn't pursue many of them. Testimony from FTC Chairwoman Deborah Platt Majoras revealed that in the last two years, the Commission has taken action against 11 spyware operators. Think...

Bloomberg is link only. Story

After having finally acquired IBM’s ThinkPad division, Lenovo has not really had an impressive ride thus far, and not without reason. There was a reason why ThinkPad was so successful (legendary reliability with support from one of the world’s largest technology companies). Users trusted IBM. In fact, they still do and that is one of the prime reasons that even though Lenovo has bought over the brand, nowhere on a ThinkPad does it say Lenovo. Despite the overall poor performance, Lenovo has still not gained the mindshare or the respect that the ThinkPads command. In fact, it has, to some...