Hackers hijack web search results ( BBC News )

Deliberate poisoning of search engines endangers Windows computers using Google, MSN and Yahoo search engines. Comments from Sunbelt, Trend and others.

It gets worse everyday, as the criminals try to find new ways to sneak into your private information.

Sunbelt's blog has more details http://sunbeltblog.blogspot.com/

Remove Spyware Free - Best Anti-spyware

I have used counter spy to fix other people's computers when I had tried everything else but reformatting (its a control issue :P), and it WORKED! I've been a fan of Sunbelt Software for several years. Their CEO has a blog (I've referred to many times), and they have a presence on Second Life, where they are giving away Counter Spy to 10 lucky people a day! Back on topic (cough cough)... So they've offered a competitive upgrade price of 9.95 for any anti-malware tool (paid OR free)! So I wanted to pass it on.

--MissM
I apologize if this sounds like an ad, but I've been really impressed with the whole organization and their products and wanted to introduce y'all to Sunbelt Software. :)

Remove Spyware Free - Best Anti-spyware

SunbeltBLOG: Seen in the wild: Zero Day exploit being used to infect PCs

This is a different exploit than the one Jack posted below, and its been out a few days, but I've accumulated some links about it, here.

Day Zero
Still Day One: Sunbelt
Microsoft's response (Still Day One)
Minor fix to exploit mitigation
Secunia: Day One

The President of Sunbelt Software publicized this first, on his blog. As I recall one company discovered it, and notified Microsoft, but hadn't announced it yet. Why two days before it was posted here, you ask? Well, my reluctance was because it was an IE exploit, I thought, and I didn't want to repeat what an excellent browser Firefox is. But, I hope that this adds to your knowledge of the current exploit being used by the scum of the internet.

--MissM

SunbeltBLOG: Remember to report your phishes to PIRT

I like the idea of PIRT, which is a group that works to eliminate phishing sites. I was reminded of it by Sunbelt Blog. The President of Sunbelt Software Alex Eckelberry writes:

Remember to send in phishing scams to PIRT, the Phishing Incident and Takedown squad for takedown.

Two ways:

1. Email them to pirt @ castlecops.com as an attachment.

or

2. Go to the web interface at castlecops.com/pirt, and enter at least the phishing URL.
Also, we still need more volunteers to help take these sites down. Nothing more satisfying than toasting a fresh phish. Join the crew by clicking here.

--MissM
SunbeltBLOG: Remember to report your phishes to PIRT

Sunbelt BLOG: Google helps to fund an antispyware site

Alex Eckelberry says the following:

According to an article by Ryan Naraine in eWeek, “Web search powerhouse Google has joined with Sun Microsystems to fund a new anti-spyware coalition that is on tap to launch on Jan. 24…”. It will be operated by the Berkman Center at Harvard and the Oxford Internet Institute at Oxford University.

Apparently, the site is going to be an information clearinghouse and help center for consumers. In an article in the Christian Science Monitor, the group’s co-director was quoted as saying “the coalition will act like a "neighborhood watch" for the Internet, relying on citizens to report problems.”

The new site, “StopBadware.org” will be up tomorrow. The domain is owned by Google.

He has links to all the articles, so go check it out. It will be interesting to see how this all pans out in practice, my first impressions are good, but I'm posting this before reading all the links, myself [full disclosure, eh? ;) ]

--MissM
[for RSS readers]Sunbelt BLOG: Google helps to fund an antispyware site

Sunbelt BLOG: Workarounds for the WMF exploit

I received this link from the president of SunBelt software Alex Eckelberry. Alex points out that the temporary fix does NOT work on Windows 9X, their only workaround is probably to unregister shimgvw.dll, it's in their blog.
This is very important so please if you are the family geek, tell your family to do this workaround until Microsoft comes out with a patch.
Remember this fix must be uninstalled before you apply the Microsoft patch.

Security Now! Now featuring episode #9

Superb Podcast on rootkits, with Leo Laporte and Steve Gibson, "la creme de la creme," of explaining technical subjects . They pick one topic a week and talk for about 30 minutes or so, and thoroughly explain the topic. Its a great thing to see two such professionals cooperate on such a desperately uncovered topic, security.

My interest in rootkits was motivated by a post at Sunbelt Blog. This rootkit detector /fixer found a couple suspicious entries, but couldn't fix them. Therefore I need to find out more info, and poof! Leo and Steve do a podcast on rootkits (insert twilight zone theme here (yes, I tried to find the blasted thing, and couldn't)). In addition to the rootkit detector above, Steve Gibson mentioned that sysinternals has one too, I am not going to post the url here, cause anybody who's not afraid to break their computer, can find it :)

I was typing this as I listened to the podcast, Steve says MS is going to, if not already, going to check for rootkits, so this vulnerability is getting more and more attention paid to it, Bravo!

All the posts at sunbelt blog are interesting, its one of the blogs that I subscribe to, in my rss aggregator.

Back to my rootkit research....

--MissM

courant.com | Amero Granted New Trial

I had mentioned this travesty of justice before, and this week was supposed to be sentencing, which could have been up to 40 years. As a result of a state police forensics examination AFTER the guilty verdict, the judge ruled that a new trial was in order. I've posted the highlights of an article pointed to by the Sunbelt Blog.

NEW LONDON -- A Superior Court judge Wednesday granted a new trial for Julie Amero, 40, a Norwich substitute teacher whose faulty computer spewed pornographic images in her seventh grade classroom. [snip]

But today, Smith [the prosecuting attorney] said state would take no position on Dow's motion for a new trial, making it unlikely she will be tried again. Smith also acknowledged that erroneous information about the computer was presented during trial.

--MissM

courant.com | Amero Granted New Trial

The 59 Top Influencers in IT Security

The first name I recognized in this list was Bruce Schneier and he's #5, but I thought I'd recognize more than 4 or 5 names on the list. Some names that I thought might be missing were, of course, Ben Edelman (a previous guest on the show and focus of several blog posts) and Alex Eckelberry of Sunbelt Software. Perhaps they don't qualify as influencers though, just documentation and protection from spyware and adaware.

Anyway, go read the article and leave people that you think were left out in the comments. Thanks!
--MissM
The 59 Top Influencers in IT Security
I was looking for the DST2007 blog from MS, but couldn't find it, and am in a rush. Sorry. I hope to find it later, and post it for your edification. :)

SunbeltBLOG: The Consumer Reports testing scandal: It's far, far worse than we initially thought.

I'd heard about Consumer Reports creating viruses to test anti-virus software, well apparently they didn't properly test anti-spyware software, either, I've posted the first part of the president of Sunbelt Software article about it, but the whole thing has to be read to be believed. This is the first black eye that Consumer Reports has ever gotten (that I know of, anyway....), even though I don't always agree with their tech advice.

Over the past two weeks, Consumer Reports has been slammed by the bulk of professional researchers in the security community for testing antivirus programs using 5,500 “fake” viruses.

Consumer Reports fans and a minority group in the security community, however, fought back —– after all, Consumer Reports is seen by many as a competent, independent testing lab and antivirus companies are generally seen as lazy, self-serving, money-hungry companies who have been soaking users for years with crappy products and high subscription fees, etc, etc. So even though Consumer Reports was lambasted by professional security researchers with no ties to antivirus companies, it was seen by some as whining by money-hungry antivirus companies.

Well, ok, on to Chapter 2, which is more damning than the AV test. Because I have something which is so incredible, it boggles the mind

In addition to antivirus programs, Consumer Reports tested antispyware applications. And they have now confirmed that they did not test against any spyware for their antispyware testing. (Feel free to read that sentence again.)

Instead, their entire test of antispyware applications was based on running applications against Spycar, a set of applications written by Intelguardians that mimic spyware behavior — directly against the explicit instructions of the Spycar developers.

--MissM
The post link:SunbeltBLOG: The Consumer Reports testing scandal: It's far, far worse than we initially thought.

Online Neighborhood Watch Nails Phishers

A volunteer group, dubbed the Phishing Incident Reporting and Termination squad (PIRT), will take in reports from consumers of suspected phishing Web sites and work to take the sites offline.

On Friday, before its official launch, the group received 100 phishing reports, and 30 of those were shut down in a few hours.
More info at one of the founders: Sunbelt BLOG: Become a phishing terminator
Check it out!
--MissM


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Sunbelt BLOG: Beware Vcodec

NOD32 (Click to buy AND support the show) and Kaspersky both detected this as a bad thing, and protected the computer with it installed.

"Wondering how people get to these bogus security sites and download junk like SpyAxe?

Our spyware researchers have been investigating Vcodec.com. This is a site that has a program called “VCodec v3.05b is new generation multimedia compressor/decompressor which registers into the Windows collection of multimedia drivers...”"

--MissM

Hard drive manufacturer accidentally slips trojan onto drives

DOH! First creative now, hard drives are infected with viruses(sp?), Sunbelt blog has the link to the article, and the source for him. :)

--MissM

Sunbelt BLOG:Bad Capacitors are still an issue.

I thought this was an old issue, but its apparently not, there's a link to the CNET story, with a picture of bad caps. The degree of leakage is way less than I thought, and I may have had some bad caps on the ASUS board that failed on me 2 weeks, ago, I'll definately have to go back and look at it.

--MissM

Sunbeltblog: CoolWebSearch issues statement

The Response to threatened legal action by CWS, by the company that discovered it. "Sunbelt has never said this keylogger was coming from CWS. We said exactly the following: 'This keylogger is not CoolWebSearch. It was discovered during a CoolWebSearch (CWS) infestation, but it actually is its own sophisticated criminal little trojan that’s independent of CWS.'

Alex Eckelberry"

I am APPALLED that CoolWebSearch threatened legal action when allegedly accused of a "new spyware identity theft ring". What part did they object to? Does this mean every OTHER thing ever put on the internet, about cool web search, is true?

--MissM
{caveat} the opinions expressed here are my own. ;)

Sunbelt blog posts about the keylogger

A bit of additional information about Joe's post on the keylogger, from the blog of the company that publicized it. In my opinion, this just reinforces how important firewalls, and updating your Windows OS are to keep you as secure as possible. Perhaps a new meaning to ASAP? :)

--MissM

ID theft ring hits 50 banks, firm says | Tech News on ZDNet

ID theft ring hits 50 banks, firm says | Tech News on ZDNet: "A major identity theft ring has been discovered that affects up to 50 banks, according to Sunbelt Software, the security company that says it uncovered the operation. "
Are you protected from spyware?
Joe