Spyware Search and Destroy

Posts Tagged ‘Security’

Understanding Computer Security Dangers In The Digital Wild West

Today, more than ever, criminals are targeting computer systems in an attempt to wreak havoc. Complacency and ignorance, regarding security issues, are computer hacker’s best friends. Computer Repairs Brisbane understands these risks and can help you implement a risk mitigation strategy. Some of the methods used to collect information about a system, network, and its users are: footprinting, scanning, and enumeration.

Footprinting is the methodical gathering of information about a company or individual’s intranet, extranet, internet, and remote access usage. Hackers exploit publicly available information like the name, address, and contact information for the party who registered the domain by using whois services. They harvest employee, vendor, and location details from the company’s website. With an employees first and last names, hackers are often able to guess their usernames. More investigation of the employee on social networks will reveal a date of birth, children, spouses, and pet’s names, home addresses, and phone numbers. Unfortunately, these are the very things that many people use as passwords.

Scanning is the electronic equivalent of casing a home or business for easy access. A burglar will check for unsecured windows and doors. Hackers search for unsecured networks by using ping sweeps, port scanning, and active operating system detection tools. If a hacker can access an unsecured port, they can exploit known vulnerabilities in your operating system or other application software.

Enumeration techniques seek out information about the services running on the network. Cyber criminals use banner grabbing to watch the output from remote applications. Applications like telnet send usernames and passwords across the network in plain text. Given the fact that many people use the same usernames and passwords for access to many different systems, this compromise can be devastating.

These are just a few of the methods used by hackers to document, assess, and attack your systems. Let Computer Repairs Brisbane be your first line of defense. Our technicians have the knowledge and skills to help you protect your network by implementing border protections, intrusion response and detection systems, and will provide you with the information that you need to make informed security policies.

The Answer To Computer Security – Anti Virus Software

In the computer world today it is important to remember that at every second your computer is at risk of being contaminated with an ugly virus. There are many ways your computer may become infected from e-mail viruses to Trojans. These infections can cause damage to your hard drive, attach themselves to your programs, or can even spread to other peoples computers from your e-mail. It is essential to protect your computer from these invasions by using a good anti-virus software program.

There are many different types of infections that can invade your computer some of which include viruses, worms, e-mail viruses, and Trojans. A virus can be transmitted from computer to computer by attaching itself to another program. When the program is running the virus is able to infect other programs or documents. Worms are a computer program that copies itself from computer to computer through the use of computer networks. They are often used to invade security holes in software programs. The latest computer invaders are e-mail viruses. An e-mail virus moves around in your e-mail messages and duplicates as it automatically sends itself to people in your address book, which in turn infects their computers in the same way. A Trojan horse invades your computer by pretending to be a program it’s not. When you open the program, the Trojan wreaks havoc on your computer that can cause irreversible damage.

In order to protect yourself from such invasion it is very important to make sure your computer is safe. One thing you can do is to run a more secure operating system like UNIX that can protect your computer from traditional viruses. Another option is to buy virus protection software if you are using an unsecured computer. Avoiding programs from unknown sources, disabling floppy disk booting, and making sure that Macro virus protection is enabled, are also things that can further protect you from invasion.

The best option for protecting your computer though, is to invest in an anti-virus program. There are many anti-virus programs like Norton antivirus, McAfee, and PcCillin, and some are even free like Avast and AVG. Anti virus programs work by keeping patterns of virus infected files and compares them to the files stored on your computer. If it finds any viruses you are immediately prompted to delete the contaminated file. Make sure to up-date your anti virus software consistently, which can be done through the Internet and most up-dates are free of cost.

If you are going to use the computer it is always best to protect yourself and your precious memories from all the dangerous computer infections. When you invest in a good computer and store your information on it, you are setting yourself up for a potential disaster that many viruses can cause. It is essential that you make sure that your computer is always protected by investing in a good anti virus program.

Computer Security isn’t Just for Professionals

Since you’re reading this article, you’re already connected to the Internet. You’ve probably already thought about security on your computer or network. Every day seems to bring new threats and it can seem pretty daunting, but the key thing is to have a common sense approach and to take a few basic precautions.

There are lots of great tools available to help and you don’t have to break the bank to get them. Here are some areas to take a look at:

BACKUPS

Securing your information starts here. You’ll need some or all of the security tools listed below, but even then you can’t guarantee 100% that you won’t have a problem. Hardware failures do occur so backup your data. One easy way to keep your important files is to burn them onto CD or DVD.

ANTIVIRUS SOFTWARE

An absolute must have. Alright, you already knew that, but I can’t stress too strongly the importance of having good, up-to-date antivirus software. With new threats and Viruses arriving every day it’s important to maintain update subscriptions and download virus definition updates as soon as they become available.

There’s a lot of good antivirus software available, both free and for low cost. I’d recommend going for paid software…you just never know when you’re going to need to call a helpdesk and that’s generally the difference between the free stuff and the stuff you pay for. Norton, McAfee, AVG and others all sell antivirus software that’s affordable on a low budget.

FIREWALL

A firewall is always recommended to help protect against unauthorized access to your PC. For a small number of PCs a software firewall is usually best and is the easiest to work with if you’re not an IT expert. However, don’t discount hardware firewalls, especially if you have a network with a lot of devices on it.

Whatever you do, don’t rely on the Network Address Translation or packet filter built in to your ADSL or Cable router. It almost certainly won’t be enough.

If you’re buying a particular company’s Antivirus software it’s worth considering buying their integrated AV and firewall package if they have one (if they don’t then maybe you should try someone else). It may well save you money and be easier to configure and maintain.

ANTI-SPYWARE SOFTWARE

If you spend a lot of time browsing the Web (and let’s face it, who doesn’t?), then spyware is going to find its way onto your machine. A lot of it isn’t particularly nasty, but the really bad stuff can send important information like passwords, bank details or credit card numbers to people you really don’t want to have access to that stuff. At the very least it can slow down your PC and since you didn’t ask for it in the first place then you should get rid of it.

Some tell-tail signs that you have a Spyware infection are:

- You’re getting pop-up ads all the time

- Your default homepage or other settings in your browser suddenly change (especially if you can’t change them back)

- Your computer is slow (there could be other reasons for this, but it’s worth checking for spyware)

There’s some good free software available from Lavasoft called AdAware. Microsoft also have their own free tool for Windows users called Windows Defender. Among the paid-for Anti-Spyware software Webroot’s

Spy Sweeper regularly picks up awards from computer magazines.

PASSWORDS

More and more people are accessing secure sites for shopping, banking, etc. Provided you take sensible precautions it’s a great way to shop.

If you’ve been doing any online shopping you’ll be used to dealing with secure sites. Whatever methods these sites use to secure their servers or encrypt your traffic, if they’re accessed by passwords then you share some of the responsibility for the security on your transactions. Here are a few tips on how to keep unauthorised users from accessing your accounts:

- Be inventive with your passwords. Don’t use easy to guess stuff that a lot of people know about you or can find out. Use a mixture of uppercase and lowercase characters, numbers and special characters (again be inventive. Just using a 1 instead of the letter i is no use if it still spells out an easy to guess word).

- Use different passwords for different accounts. If you always use the same one and it’s compromised then someone will have access to everything.

- Don’t write passwords down on paper or post-it notes. That’s a hacker’s favourite way to find passwords if they have physical access to your office.

- Don’t get Web browsers to remember your passwords on shared machines or in office areas. If you log into a machine that other users have access to then never use Windows or Web browser mechanisms that remember your account details.

Having different passwords to lots of different accounts does make it more difficult to remember them and it’s important that this doesn’t lead you into bad habits. So what do you do?

You could look at getting some password management software. Naturally, Norton has a password manager, but other good options include “Web Replay” from Deskperience or “PC Password Manager XP” from CPLab.

WHERE TO NOW?

You don’t have to go out and buy every piece of security software right away. Prioritise one or two to start with (I’d suggest Antivirus and Firewall software). Also download trial versions so you can be sure you’re happy with them before you part with your hard earned cash.

Be careful on the Internet, but don’t let it spoil your day.

Computer security & encryption becoming more vital ….

One of the greatest miscalculations a business owner can commit is by not prioritizing how he will protect his computer system from unauthorized intrusions and data theft.

There is a common belief among business owners especially those that do not operate a big business that their small size makes them safe from the malicious intent of computer phreakers and data thieves. They think that in a sea full of big fishes a small fish will be ignored, secure in the fact they are not worth the exertion and computer time for notorious data thieves.

Nothing can be farther from the truth. In fact, smaller businesses are far more vulnerable to internet security threats and all manner of data theft and electronic sabotage. Based on a study made by research firm AMI-Partners, almost half of all small and medium sized businesses have failed to implement even the most rudimentary security precautions – which includes the installation of antivirus and anti spyware programs. This oversight could be the main reason why when the Mydoom worm hit a few years back, one in three small and medium sized businesses were affected compared to just one in six among the larger companies were affected. The Internet Security Alliance, a non-profit organization that deals with information security issues, discovered this.

In fact, now more than ever data and network protection should be given more attention because of the ever-evolving sophistication of data thieves. They are now more equipped with the software and hardware necessary to break into security measures instituted by data managers. What could the chance be for a company to weather an attack if the owner forgets or ignores putting in place data security and encryption policies for his business because he thinks it will just be an additional cost? Practically zero and the untold cost to his business would be far more greater.

It is for this reason that data security and encryption should be one of the priorities of a business. Anyone is vulnerable to an attack whether that business is an international conglomerate or a new start up. In fact, a big business will have more chance to recover compared to a small business because a big company will have the read funds available to rebuild the business. A small business, on the other hand, will not have the necessary funding to start the business all over again – making an attack quite catastrophic.

These facts are not lost on many software providers who are now coming up with many types of solutions that guarantee the safety of data in an office’s network. There are also software that bring security to a higher level by incorporating encryption technology in order to safeguard not only sensitive data but also to make it harder for hackers to get into networks or intercept data being transmitted from the corporate network to devices outside of the network. Encryption technology can, in fact, be seen as one of the highest levels of protection that a business can employ in order to ensure the integrity of its data and its computer network.

Top 5 Computer Security Mistakes

If you own a computer, which you probably do, you know how important it is that your computer functions to the best of its ability every day. In fact, more and more people are banking on their computer, shopping online, and sharing sensitive information. And just like humans, computers get sick. The difference lies in how we care for them. The majority of working people also have health insurance in order to cover themselves and secure their financial well-being should anything happen to them. Given the importance of physical and financial stability, this makes perfect sense. So why doesn’t it make sense to many people that they should secure the well-being of their computer (and particularly the information stored within it) with a comparable level of care? That being said, here’s a look at the top 5 security mistakes people and companies make when it comes to insuring their network’s security.

1. Impatience – I’m not necessarily ranking this mistake as number one because it’s the most important, but rather for those of us who have ADD/ADHD/I-have-somewhere-more-important-to-be. These people happen to be the same people that make this common mistake. Most Computers are not made to be taken straight out of the box and immediately connected to the internet. Spyware scanners, virus protection and many other types of protective software needs to be installed first. So take a deep breath and take the time to protect your computer before you take it for its first spin. You’ll thank yourself later.

2. Ineffective Passwords – Passwords were created for a reason. And come on, with all of the evil geniuses out there, do you really think that setting your password to a cop-out code such as “admin,” “password,” or even [insert your company's name here] will protect you from your 12-year-old trying to do some online shopping, let alone those experienced hackers trying to decimate your credit with a few keystrokes? No, me either. So make good use of your password by including both upper-case and lower-case letters, numbers and characters, and changing it once in a while for good measure.

3. Not creating backups – Easy enough mistake to make. Why? Because it requires that you do exactly NOTHING. No one likes extra steps these days, but a backup is a step you’ll never regret, even if it only ever earns you peace of mind. Create backups as often as possible, and instead of writing over previous backups, keep those and create new ones… they might just come in handy some day.

4. Being too trusting – Yes, when a pop-up tells you there’s a threat to your computer, of course you want to click it and diagnose the problem. But don’t. These pop-ups are often the cause of the problem. Instead, run all tests within your security software; if there’s a problem, the programs will find it. If not, rest easy-you’re in the clear for now.

5. Not encrypting data – If you deal with a lot of credit card and/or banking data, it is very dangerous to be holding on to unencrypted data. In fact, it is the same as posting it on a billboard for all to see and use. So take this very important extra step. If you’re unfamiliar with this technology, consult an IT specialist, or even better, a geeky friend (that’s what they’re there for, right?).

So the moral of the story is to leave any lazy tendencies behind when it comes to protecting your computer, especially when there is sensitive data stored on it. Just as the bank takes extra measures to protect goods placed in safe deposit boxes, you must do the same for the information on your computer. Because when disaster strikes, there’s no better feeling than knowing the important things are safe and sound.

Top five strategies for combating modern computer security threats

Top five strategies for combating modern threats:

Is anti-virus dead?

Changing environment and threat

The corporate IT environment has changed irrevocably over the last few years.

Threats are no longer high-profile viruses that spread themselves obviously to millions of internet users for maximum publicity. Now they are highly targeted, silently infecting computers to steal data and make money for criminals. They are increasingly surreptitious and low profile, mutating in hours or even minutes to evade detection.

At the same time, today’s working environment is rapidly changing. The network perimeter has dissolved to such an extent that it is virtually unidentifiable. Yesterday’s “castle and moat” architecture – with its office-based desktops and servers protected by a gateway firewall – has crumbled. Remote working, the use of endpoint devices such as USB sticks, constant internet access and the rapid emergence of Web 2.0 technologies have redefined how employees interact with an organization’s systems. In addition, increasingly complex networks must accommodate not just employees, but also outside contractors, vendors and customers.

The need for all points protection

Cybercriminals exploit any vulnerability they can find to infect corporate networks. Their latest tricks use countless loopholes in web security to get malware onto a user’s computer in seconds. One new infected webpage is discovered every five seconds, and over 90 percent of these pages are on legitimate websites that have been compromised.

Users are duped into visiting these compromised websites, typically via links in spammed emails. There can be layers of complexity with the original website going to another site and that in turn going to a third, and so on, ending with a Trojan being downloaded onto the user’s computer – all of this happening in a matter of seconds.

The task of securing the network against this and other exploits – at the web, email and endpoint – is a daunting challenge for today’s IT departments who are being asked to do more and more with their constrained budgets.

Reducing the attack surface

Within this new threat environment, and as attitudes to work and information continue to evolve away from those of the past, organizations have become more aware of the acute need to control all points on the network to protect its data and systems from criminals. However, the speed with which new threats emerge and infect means that defenses are often inadequate and usually out of date.

Protection versus detection

While much can be achieved by user education and enforcement of acceptable use policies – for example, banning unencrypted laptops and USBs from being taken out of the office, or stipulating what can and cannot be sent by email1 – there is need to take a different approach to technology in order to reduce the attack surface and protect the network, systems and data from malware.

In addition to the ability to detect, there are several criteria that need to be taken into account to ensure ongoing manageable protection. The key strategies are highlighted below.

STRATEGY 1

Maintain traditional anti-virus protection

Totally reliable malware detection remains at the core of any security solution, and updates created by security vendors from samples of particular viruses still form the basis of efficient detection.

Issues of manageability and automation are important – anti-virus will only protect the network if it is correctly configured, deployed and updated across the whole network, and new computers logging on to the network need to have anti-virus software installed immediately and automatically.

So while organizations need to take other approaches into account too and use other technologies, powerful traditional anti-virus protection remains crucial. It is relying solely on the traditional reactive approach that is no longer adequate.

STRATEGY 2

Proactively protect the network

Traditionally, protection against malware and spam was created by security vendors collecting samples of particular viruses and spam, and then developing specific protection. Today this method is simply too slow and inadequate – there are too many targeted threats and they mutate too rapidly. For example, SophosLabs sees over 20,000 new malicious samples every day. Such large volumes of rapidly mutating malware require proactive, zero-day protection, to protect against threats that the vendor has not yet seen or analyzed.

Anatomy of a threat

Here is how a significant number of infections are achieved:

As part of a highly targeted spam campaign, a user gets an email from a hijacked computer. The spammed email includes nothing more than a subject line and a link to an infected website. This is a legitimate site so the user is not suspicious and clicks on the link. Using a vulnerability to install, a Trojan is immediately downloaded onto their computer. Their computer sends confidential data to the hacker. The hacker also uses the newly hijacked computer to send out more spam campaigns.

This proactive protection can be achieved through behavioral analysis, a HIPS-like* technology that aims to stop malware before a specific detection update is released, by monitoring the behavior of code – not just when code is run, but also beforehand:

Pre-execution analysis – examines the behavior and characteristics of files before the file is run to find traits commonly found in malware.

Runtime protection – analyzes the behavior of files and processes as they are running, checking for suspicious activity.

An added advantage of strong proactive protection is that the number of individual threats that a research lab needs to analyze is reduced, enabling the rapid creation of new updates and protection where necessary.

STRATEGY 3

Use preventive protection

Network access control

A key weapon in exercising control to ensure security and productivity, is the assessment and management of network access. Finely controlled network access reduces the risk of infection by ensuring security policy is being complied with by all computers – not just those owned and managed routinely by the company but also those unmanaged guest computers connecting to the network.

By assessing and certifying systems before and after they connect to the network, network access control software can ensure compliance with policies, such as requiring all computers to have security software in place and properly configured, and operating system and application patches up to date. In this way organizations can enable safe access to the network, rather than simply blocking guests or maintain hugely inefficient pools of computers for contractors and partners to use.

Safe, effective web browsing

The need to control unauthorized endpoint access to the network is matched by the need to enable safe web browsing while preventing access to infected or inappropriate sites. Although the web has now become the key vector for online hacking attacks, as well as representing a drain on productivity for many businesses, the vast majority of businesses are unprotected against today’s modern web-based malware.

Solutions that offer reputation filtering, that is, that block websites known to be “bad”, provide some protection, but this is inadequate against “good” sites that have been hacked. Today’s threats require that the content itself is also checked – and all this without adversely impacting speed and efficiency.

STRATEGY 4

Control legitimate applications and behavior

Application control

Employees installing and using legitimate but unauthorized applications – such as Instant Messaging, VoIP, games, peer-to-peer file-sharing software, virtualization software, and unapproved browsers – are a real and growing threat. Not only can they introduce malware to the corporate network but they also seriously impact network and employee productivity and cause unnecessary support issues, and further security (and legal) risk if sensitive company or personal data is sent outside the company.

Restricting the use of these non-business-critical software applications narrows the threat vectors and is an increasingly important facet of an overall security policy. For maximum efficiency and return on investment it needs to be incorporated into the management and control features of an organization’s anti-malware solution.

Application whitelisting

Application whitelisting has been suggested as the modern solution to the challenge of protecting computers from unauthorized and malicious software. In this approach, known “good” applications form a whitelist and only this authorized software is allowed to run, in contrast to the traditional approach where “bad” applications (malware) are prevented from running.

The theory is that with application whitelisting, organizations do not need to rely on anti-virus companies to keep up with all the new malware released every day. While the approach has some merit, in reality it is just one of many technologies – such as anti-virus, HIPS and application control that need to be used to ensure comprehensive endpoint security.

STRATEGY 5

Control and encrypt devices and data

The protection of sensitive corporate data, especially in mobile computing, is more important than ever. The news is filled seemingly daily with reports of company laptops, CDs and USB keys packed with confidential information falling into the wrong hands. By using device control you can prevent data being copied and stored on devices like these. However, the problem is that modern business practice often requires the use of such devices. An effective solution to this obvious security weak spot is encryption to ensure that, though the medium might be lost, the data itself is protected and that no unauthorized person can access it or the rest of their IT infrastructure.

By encrypting the entire contents of a hard drive, organizations can complement the operating system’s own mechanisms and safeguard the computer’s operating system along with its data, ensuring that no changes or unauthorized access can be made.

Is application whitelisting the magic bullet?

Application whitelisting – allowing only known “good” applications to run has both strengths and weaknesses as a solution to the problem of today’s threats.

Encryption software can also help avoid statutory public disclosure requirements and limit the liability associated with a data leakage incident as many data protection laws have been updated to accept appropriate encryption as an acceptable safeguard.

Strengths

A strategy which allows only good code to run is a very appealing concept.

Whitelisting is a valuable approach for locked-down parts of organizations, where there are already strong restrictions on what applications can be used and where those applications rarely change, for example Point of Sale (POS) terminals in retail outlets, or servers performing a limited, core set of functions.

Weaknesses

Application whitelisting does not deal with types of malware protection needs that depend on subverting known good applications, including script malware running in browsers, macro viruses in Office, buffer overflows.

If malware evades detection by a whitelisting solution, cleaning up the infection is a major task.

The whitelisting vendor has to keep up with every release of a good application, as well as custom applications.

Administrators need to know exactly what they want to allow in order to define policy and have to maintain at least some of the whitelist themselves.

When the policy is defined, there is still a major challenge in identifying and maintaining the list of authorized applications, without impacting user or IT staff productivity.

Strategy support through vendor expertise

Underpinning the technology of any security software solution is the vendor’s expertise, experience and understanding of the threat environment. The beginning of this paper demonstrated the complexity and blended nature of today’s threats. A vendor with truly integrated visibility of spam, virus and web-based threats will be able to ensure the rapid response needed to combat new threats. In addition, just as analysis needs to reach across all threat types and technologies, so does the support offered by help teams.

Conclusion

Although traditional antivirus protection remains the cornerstone of reliable security, modern threats require solutions that go beyond this, providing proactive protection against fast-moving, zero-day malware. The wider issues of controlling network access, web browsing and applications need to be addressed by organizations as a matter of urgency, and the importance of encryption in securing corporate data needs to be understood and acted upon. Finally, organizations need to ensure that their vendor has the cross-threat expertise both in its labs and in its support teams, to make the solution cost-effective and successful.

Remove Security Scan To Secure Your Computer Security With Best Antispyware!

Security scan is a kind of application used by some security programs designed to remove viruses and some other threats. However, those misleading security programs, called spyware or malware, aim to trick users into buying it without offering the service they have promised. If you have Security scan on your computer, it is suggested to remove Security Scan as soon as possible in order to secure you computer with a reliable best Antispyware.

Their fake Security scan usually shows exaggerated threats reports to warn and trick people into buying its program, and worse it may also download spyware, malware to compromise the computer system. Once Security scan is performed, you computer may appear to be much slower, and programs or files in your computer can not run normally or even totally destroyed. Meanwhile, Security scan may also execute unknown actions in the background including collecting and sending information. According to many computer users, even they have tried to uninstall Security scan, it is usually difficult to remove it thoroughly, as it may come back after you remove it yourself.

How to Remove Security scan Automatically and Effectively?

The most effective solution to get rid of Security scan and any potential spyware threats on your computer should be to use a truly reliable spyware removal tool. And, to secure your computer from any viruses, Trojans, spyware and malware, Spyware Cease is highly recommended if you really want an actually-work AntiSpyware. More, importantly it has been proved to be powerful with its Online Scan utility and is able to remove almost all the other computer threats. You can always get dedicated technical support from Spyware Cease support team whenever you have a spyware problem. This is really nice for most of us who are not very good at dealing with tough spyware threats, isn’t it?

No matter whether your computer has Security scan installed or not, whether you are a newbie or an advanced computer user, you are sincerely suggested tofree download Spyware Cease and run a scan on your computer right now, because we need a good and trusted Antispyware to safeguard our computers against existing or future spyware threats in this unpredictable Internet Age. Before you try other programs, give Spyware Cease a try, and you’ll be surprised!

Free Download a trusted and effective AntiSpyware Here: http://www.bestspywarescanner.net/. Give yourself a safer and better computer experience now!