Antivirus News

Microsoft's Whitelist Helps Hackers

2010-03-01T22:46:00.000-08:00

Microsoft was trying to help consumers save time while fighting off spam, viruses and hackers. However, it looks like their tips are also helping hackers - far from what Microsoft hoped to be doing.

A Microsoft support article, Virus scanning recommendations for computers that are running Windows, recommends that users exclude certain files and folders from antivirus software to avoid situations where "serious performance problem" could occur as a result of file locking.

Many security experts and software manufacturers, like Trend Micro, have taken exception to this advice noting that "we are concerned by the fact that this was released publicly." David Sancho, a malware researcher with Trend Micro argued that the list will be a boon to hackers, as they can know strategically drop or download a malicious file into one of the folders mentioned in the exclusion list. Sancho admitted that the risk is not immediate, but it is on the way - "Following the recommendations does not pose a significant threat as of now, but it has a very big potential of being one."

It is important to note that Trend Micro has a history of butting heads with Microsoft. Like many other third-party security vendors, Trend has mocked Microsoft's moves in the antivirus market, However, other security experts that don't directly compete with Microsoft have also reaised concerns. Andrew Storms, director of security operations at nCircle Network Security, backed Sancho on that. "I would agree with Trend that making any sort of whitelisting with your security software is not for the average user or the faint at heart," Storms said in an interview conducted via instant message.

This scenario only highlights the challenges of security. Microsoft wanted to help consumers avoid issues - but any attempt to increase convenience can unfortunately also decrease security.

Source: Google

Boeing 787 searches hijacked by rogue anti-virus

2010-03-01T22:45:00.000-08:00

Today, the Boeing 787 Dreamliner jet completed its much awaited first flight. As users searched to find videos and news articles related to the story, blackhats quickly moved in for yet another attack against Google search results.

Source: Google

Ten Top Anti-Virus Software Reviews on Topsofts.com

2010-03-01T22:44:00.000-08:00

Topsofts.com has reviewed ten top Anti-virus Software and the champion is Kaspersky Anti-Virus.
Anti-virus Software Reviews

Online PR News – 23-December-2009 – Kaspersky Anti-Virus is a complete antivirus solution with automated real-time protection from a range of threats, including viruses, Trojans, bots, worms, and even spyware. Kaspersky Anti-Virus 2010 is the backbone of your PC’s security system. it provides you with automated real-time protection from a range of IT threats:

Kaspersky Anti-Virus has many features such as:

Real-time scan for files including compressed files, web pages, instant messages, emails, webmails and e-messages and so on.
Basic identity theft protection (IMPROVED!)
Color-code the links to unsafe websites (NEW!)
Disable the links to malicious websites
Block suspicious programs based on their behavior (IMPROVED!)
Protect your PC from hijacking
Self-protection from malware
Regular and emergency updates for always-on protection

Wanna more information about ten top anti-virus software reviews, please feel free to visit the page below.

Source: Google

Kaspersky Internet Security 2010 named 'Best Buy' by Computer Shopper

2010-03-01T22:43:00.000-08:00

Kaspersky Internet Security 2010 received a five-star rating and Best Buy status following the comparative testing of 11 popular security solutions that included freeware, shareware and commercial versions

Mumbai, Maharashtra, December 23, 2009 /India PRwire/ -- Kaspersky Lab, a leading developer of secure content management solutions, announces that the UK magazine Computer Shopper has awarded Kaspersky Internet Security 2010 its 'Best Buy' rating for an antivirus solution.

Kaspersky Internet Security 2010 received a five-star rating and Best Buy status following the comparative testing of 11 popular security solutions that included freeware, shareware and commercial versions.

The products were rigorously tested against real threats that are currently live on the Internet - malicious programs that use drive-by downloads to infect users' machines without their knowledge. The protection solutions were installed on identical PCs running the Windows XP SP2 operating system.The products were rated on detection level, quality of system recovery, use of system resources as well as the number of false positives generated by a collection of clean files which, just to make things more difficult, included potentially unwanted programs such as password crackers. How easy the product interfaces were to navigate, the variety of useful functions and the retail price were also taken into consideration.

Kaspersky Internet Security 2010 passed the test with flying colors, demonstrating the best overall score and deservedly earning the top five-star rating and Best Buy status. The experts at Computer Shopper praised the product for its "outstanding malware protection", "easy-to-use interface" and affordable price.

"We are delighted to receive such high marks from a renowned British magazine. This reflects the popularity of our product in the UK," commented Stephane Le Hir, Vice President of Kaspersky Lab's Consumer Division. "It's particularly important that our products continue to fare so well in proactive protection tests because this is an area that is vital for the end user. It's also good to see that more and more IT publications and test labs are choosing this approach to assess the performance of antivirus solutions."

Kaspersky Lab's range of personal products, Kaspersky Anti-Virus 2010 and Kaspersky Internet Security 2010, are at the cutting-edge of information security. Kaspersky Internet Security 2010 combines advanced application control technology that assigns a risk rating to previously unknown malware with the innovative Kaspersky Security Network distribution system and unique sandbox virtualization technology that provides a safe environment in which to run suspect applications.

Source: Kaspersky

Using Facebook and Twitter safely

2010-03-01T22:42:00.000-08:00

You and just about everyone else, it seems, are spending more and more time on Facebook and Twitter, updating statuses and checking friends' tweets. That's all well and good, of course, but the amount of personal information that all of you share in real time, and the level of trust implicit with the social networking sites, do pose particular security and privacy problems.

A recent study from Sophos found that Facebook users reveal a lot of personal information to new friends, including ones they really don't even know or have never met. Using fake profiles, Sophos sent out friend requests to 100 random Facebook users, and more than 40 percent blindly accepted, giving the company access to birth dates, e-mail addresses, phone number and addresses--private information strangers shouldn't have.

The openness of Twitter--anyone can follow anyone else, and posts are indexed in search engines--makes it a nirvana for spammers. Kaspersky says there are nearly 500,000 new unique URLs that appear in Twitter posts daily, and of those, anywhere between 100 and 1,000 are malware attacks.

Here's a look at some of the specific threats users of the sites face and what they can do about it.

Source: Google

Microsoft's Whitelist Helps Hackers

2010-03-01T22:41:00.000-08:00

Lookout keeps an eye on mobile-device security (photos)

2010-03-01T22:40:00.000-08:00

Francisco start-up Lookout is launching this week. Shown here is co-founder and CEO John Hering at the company's offices in downtown San Francisco.

The Lookout software runs on mobile phones, offering antivirus and firewall protection, as well real-time cloud-based backup, the ability to locate missing devices, and manage many devices. The service is currently in private beta in more than 170 countries across 400 mobile networks, says Hering.

Source: Google

Avira Antivirus Is the Lightest Antivirus Software

2010-03-01T22:38:00.000-08:00

“Will it slow down my system?”, is a question antivirus vendors are often asked by worried customers. Indeed, antivirus utilities are infamous for having an adverse impact on system performance. A new report released by Av-comparatives – a leading antivirus software testing firm, provides us the answer to this oft-asked question.

Av-comparatives-Antivirus-Performance-Test

Av-comparatives used 16 popular antivirus utilities and measured the impact they had on various activities like file copying and downloading. Fully defragmented hard disks were utilized on each occasion and external factors like network and temperature were neutralized as far as possible.

None of the antivirus utilities had a significant impact on encoding/transcoding and archiving/unarchiving speeds. However, eScan, FSecure, G DATA, Microsoft and Trustport slowed down file copying significantly (more than doubled the time required to copy a file). Thankfully, due to fingerprinting technologies, all of them but eScan performed impressively on subsequent runs.

When it came to slowing down application installations/uninstallations Bitdefender, G DATA and Trustport were the biggest culprits. Trustport also increased application launch times by more than 100%. These three were joined by AVG in the file downloading hall of shame. AVG, Bitdefender, G DATA and Trustport more than doubled file download durations.

Throughout the tests Avira performed admirably and this was reflected even in the WorldBench scores. eScan, Trustport, Bitdefender and G DATA once again found themselves at bottom of the pile.

Thanks to an outstanding all round performance Avira was the overall winner. Kingsoft, F-Secure, Sophos and Kaspersky were the other products which made it to the top five.
Performance Chart

1. Antivirus Name – Score (Higher is better) AVIRA AntiVir Premium 9.0 – 199
2. Kingsoft Antivirus 9 Plus – 196
3. F-Secure Anti-Virus 2010 – 195
4. Kaspersky Anti-Virus 2010 – 193
5. Sophos Anti-Virus 9.0.1 – 193
6. Microsoft Security Essentials 1.0 – 190
7. avast! Free 5.0 – 188
8. Symantec Norton AntiVirus 2010 – 188
9. ESET NOD32 Antivirus 4.0 – 183
10. McAfee VirusScan Plus 2010 – 174
11. Norman Antivirus & AntiSpyware 7.30 – 169
12. AVG Anti-Virus 9.0 – 164
13. BitDefender Antivirus 2010 – 154
14. G DATA AntiVirus 2010 – 152
15. eScan AntiVirus 10.0 – 137
16. Trustport Antivirus 2010 – 125

Source: Avira

‘Brittany Murphy death’ searches return rogue anti-virus

2010-03-01T22:34:00.001-08:00

Websense Security Labs’s ThreatSeeker Network has discovered that Google top searches on ‘Brittany Murphy death’ returns rogue anti-virus websites.

The Hollywood actress Brittany Murphy died suddenly during the weekend, causing many to search for more news on what happened.

However, when searching for ‘Brittany Murphy death’ on for example Google, users can be redirected to malicious domains offering rogue anti-virus software if they click the matches.

The malicious domains try to convince people that they are real anti-virus software websites, so that people will download and execute malware.

“There are now a lot of variants available, typically named install.exe, and at the moment it seems they haven't attracted much attention from AV companies”, Websense said in its security alert.

This article is featured in:
Malware and Hardware Security • Public Sector

Microsoft has the best anti-virus too!

2010-03-01T22:33:00.001-08:00

So Microsoft has the dubious distinction of selling Operating Systems that attract a whole galaxy of viruses, of all types and proportions. This has been an eye sore in an otherwise extremely popular and high selling Windows Operating System. Microsoft on its part has always been pushing regular patches and updates to fix loopholes as and when they are found, either internally, or from external auditors. Taking this one step ahead, Microsoft had come up with their own anti-virus software some time back, which has been made available for download and usage, free of cost – an anti-climax, considering the anti-virus market is huge what with players like Symantec making a killing out of it.

Microsoft’s Security Essentials has been well received by critics and users alike, and now they have another certification from AV Comparatives. As per their recent evaluation of free and commercial anti-virus software in the market, Microsof’t tops the free anti-virus manufacturer’s list with the best performance in removing malware, in addition to being fast. That should come across as some relief to Microsoft which has long been at the receiving end of mischievous programmers.

Source : Google News

Malware Variants Explosion

2010-01-23T05:41:00.000-08:00

Malware Variants Explosion Make Antivirus Programs Inadequate & Ineffective

According to the news published in Emirates Business24/7 on November 19, 2009, given the growth of Internet threats and an overabundant supply of exclusive malware variants during 2009, antivirus solutions don't seem to be enough for protecting enterprises.

According to the "Predictions for 2010" by online security firm 'Symantec,' there is a realization among industry players that conventional antivirus solutions (based on file signatures as well as behavioral/heuristic abilities) aren't sufficient to safeguard from modern threats.

The company also said, certain expected security trends for 2010 point to the fact that anti-viruses will be overwhelmed. Social engineering tactics will play a key role in these expected attacks. Rather than targeting operating systems or system devices, attackers will aim users directly and deceive them by meeting all their demands.

According to Symantec, the Conficker virus, which is a highly-prevalent malware globally, in fact attained its status to some extent on account of certain large antivirus companies' underplaying of the worm's continuity.

At the conference on security forecast for 2010, Orla Cox, Symantec's Senior Manager, acknowledged that the extremely fast propagation of Conficker had found the company off guard. According to her, researchers at Symantec knew that a malware item could potentially exploit the vulnerability, but they thought that people probably knew what to do on the basis of past experiences, as reported by Mxlogic on November 17, 2009.

Moreover, Symantec stated that during 2010, consumers might witness the perpetrators of scareware (or fake security software) move up to a higher level to compromise people's PCs, make their systems inoperable, and then demand money to liberate them. Additionally, a not so severe next move might be software which isn't overtly malicious, but deceptive to the maximum.

Symantec also states that a point has been reached where the creation of new malware is greater than that of quality or good software. Apparently, a point has also been attained where it's no longer sensible to concentrate only on investigating malicious programs. Rather, security approaches which seek for methods to encompass all reputation-based security would be foremost during 2010.

Source Google News

Security Firm Finds Spammers Thriving in U.S.

2010-01-23T05:36:00.000-08:00

Americans love their celebrities, and spammers have gotten wise. Security software vendor McAfee has a new report warning of the activities of U.S. spam purveyors operating under the radar, and eSecurityPlanet's got the story.

McAfee's December spam report suggests that while antivirus and antispyware vendors continue to improve their security software offerings on a daily basis, hackers are still taking advantage of America's technology and fascination with pop culture to spread their spam.

Jan. 1 marked the sixth anniversary of the Federal Trade Commission's Can-Spam Act, a piece of legislation that was supposed to help curb the geometric explosion in spamming and phishing attacks in the U.S. by virtue of a $16,000 fine per incident.

But according to McAfee, the Can-Spam Act as well as other technological and legal instruments designed to rein in spammers have failed to slow the flow of unsolicited e-mails into Americans' inboxes.

"We have seen the amount of spam sent to the average e-mail address rocket upward to peaks as high as 92 percent of all traffic only a few months ago," McAfee researchers said in their report.

Source Google News

Windows 7 still needs anti-virus, susceptible to 8 out of 10 viruses

2009-11-16T01:06:00.000-08:00

During the launch of the new Windows 7, Microsoft had a lot to say about the safety features it offered, and especially protection from viruses and malware. While it was always meant to be taken with a pinch of salt, the guys at security firm Sophos decided to put the operating system to the test.

Chester Wisniewski of Sophos writes that they loaded up a machine with a fresh version of Windows 7, and left all the User Account Control options at default. Then, they grabbed the next 10 unique virus samples that arrived in the SophosLabs feed to see how well the newer, more secure version of Windows and UAC held up.

“Unfortunately, despite Microsoft's claims, Windows 7 disappointed just like earlier versions of Windows. The good news is that, of the freshest 10 samples that arrived, 2 would not operate correctly under Windows 7,” Wisniewski writes.

Lesson learned? You still need to run anti-virus on Windows 7. A viable option could be the new, free Microsoft Security Essentials suite that the company has launched recently. Ars Technica reported a few days ago on an antivirus comparison by AV-Comparative that puts Microsoft Security Essentials as the best free anti-virus solution out there, ahead of names like AVG, Avast and Avira.

Windows 7 debut is a hit
Meanwhile, market analysis firm NPD has released a report that says Windows 7 has done extremely well since its launch on October 22. According to NPD’s weekly tracking service, Windows 7 software unit sales in the U.S. were 234 per cent higher than Vista’s first few days of sales.

“Microsoft’s program of early low-cost pre-sales, high visibility marketing, and aggressive deals helped make the Windows 7 software launch successful,” said Stephen Baker, vice president of industry analysis at NPD. “In a slow environment for packaged software Windows 7 brought a large number of customers into the software aisles.”

Antivirus News

Microsoft's Whitelist Helps Hackers

Boeing 787 searches hijacked by rogue anti-virus

Ten Top Anti-Virus Software Reviews on Topsofts.com

Kaspersky Internet Security 2010 named 'Best Buy' by Computer Shopper

Using Facebook and Twitter safely

Microsoft's Whitelist Helps Hackers

Lookout keeps an eye on mobile-device security (photos)

Avira Antivirus Is the Lightest Antivirus Software

‘Brittany Murphy death’ searches return rogue anti-virus

Microsoft has the best anti-virus too!

Malware Variants Explosion

Security Firm Finds Spammers Thriving in U.S.

Windows 7 still needs anti-virus, susceptible to 8 out of 10 viruses

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Wednesday, September 2, 2009