Archive for January, 2008

There are plenty of malicious websites today. Some of them install trojans and other malware once you visit them and others pretend to be legitimate websites that sell security tools. Both types of websites are harmful: either your computer is infected secretly or you spend money for software that is useless. More...

Several security research companies have warned PC users about the upcoming Storm, due to take off on 14 February. Love is not all Storm worm delivers of course, it also has got some nasty attachments with romantic names (i. e. More...

Blocking the unwanted content in your HOSTS file may sound challenging, but the truth is that even an inexperienced user can do it in just a few of seconds. Locating HOSTS file First, you have to find the HOSTS file in your system. These are the usual locations: Windows 95/98/ME = C:\Windows Windows NT/2K/XP = C:\Windows\System32\Drivers\Etc "C:" is what usually marks your system drive. More...

Excel user's are not entirely safe. A new vulnerability was found in Microsoft's spreadsheet program, Excel. This vulnerability can be exploited by hackers to create a malicious Excel document, which, when opened, would compromise the system. More...

Possible vulnerabilities of iPhone were widely discussed; however considerable period of time has passed till a malware dedicated for iPhone actually emerged. Although several iPhone vulnerabilities were demonstrated and discussed, there was no actual software to trick users and firmware and do some harm. Ironically the creator of the first iPhone trojan chosen tactics similar to those used by computer malware creators: the malicious package is masked to look like legitimate one, so people are interested in downloading it. More...

Microsoft first two patches this year are to ship today. As these are the first of undoubtedly many (Microsoft issued 69 security bulletins in 2007) to come, one of those rated “critical” (Microsoft’s highest severity rating), is for all versions, including the newest Windows Vista. The second issue (rated “important”) affects Windows 2K, XP and Server 2003. More...

We already got used to excessive advertising and false reports of rogue-antispyware and trojans, requiring the payment for the full version of the software in order to get rid of so-called threats. But there’s a new scheme around and, surprisingly, it does not involve credit card or any other personal information. Instead, the trojan completely locks down your system and displays a message, including a 900-type number that you have to call in order to pay for an “expired licence”. More...

People tend to rely on wireless networks a lot these days, but there are things concerning the security measures employed in this method of connectivity that people don't know about, thus putting themselves in danger of being spied on. It should first be noted, that wireless networks are less safe due to their nature: to spy on a wired network requires physical access to the cables, whereas spying on a wireless network can be done using the right radio. To further make matters worse, the security protocol used in most public hotspots, WEP (wired equivalent privacy), fails to disallow anyone with the right software tools from listening in on network traffic using an ordinary computer. More...