Monthly Archives: January 2008

Is it safe to give out your bank account number?

Posted by on 18 January, 2008 1 comment

No, it’s not safe to give everyone your bank account details.

Jeremy Clarkson of Top Gear fame believed that all people could do with his bank account number is put money into his account. He was so sure he published the details in a newspaper.

atm Soon after he found £500 missing from his bank account, someone had set up a direct debit from his account and donated it to a charity called Diabetes UK.

Lesson? Don’t give out your bank account details to just anyone. In fact, give out as little personal details as possible. There are so many people in the world looking for opportunities to commit fraud and to take your money, usually using what’s called identity theft.

Sometimes you have no choice, e.g. you want to sell someone an item and you want them to deposit money in your account. It’s difficult to completely avoid these situations, but keep the information as private as possible.

Read about the incident here, it’s amusing.

Photo Gallery Downloads

Posted by on 18 January, 2008 No comments

powerstation This isn’t a new trick but scammers still try it. An email is sent telling the story of a tragic accident that’s happened (e.g. a nuclear meltdown in some city). There’s a link to a website with photos. It seems interesting except you’re asked to download a plugin (or codec) to view the photos.

You don’t need any plugins or codecs to view photos. And more importantly, the story about a nuclear meltdown or whatever other large disaster they think of is most probably false.

Be very cautious of anything that asks you to download a plugin or codec. It’s almost always not worth the effort and it’s almost always malware of some sort.

Valentine’s Day Malware Reminder

Posted by on 18 January, 2008 No comments

heart

As with every festive event Valentine’s Day brings a whole new wave of malware. Emails are already being sent around the internet carrying dangerous attachments. While the subject keeps changing, the more common attachments seen so far are:

  • withlove.exe
  • with_love.exe
  • Greeting card.exe
  • love_me.exe
  • porno_03.exe
  • valsday.exe

Never open attachments that end with .exe. Unless you’ve specifically asked someone to send you a file with that exact name, it’s almost certainly malware. Delete it.

False Malware Cleaners

Posted by on 18 January, 2008 No comments

There are some programs that claim to test your computer for malware, then it will always tell you it found something bad. After that it either asks you for money to clean it or does some other misleading action.

tempted by a poison apple Based on some security company’s research there are now 500 of these programs, including some for Mac as well as for Windows.

They look like serious programs, have interesting names, and are complete with websites. Below are some of the more recent ones:

  • AVSystemCare
  • DriveCleaner
  • MalwareAlarm
  • AntiSpywareSheild
  • MacSweeper (written for the Mac)

Avoid all of these programs (don’t download or install them).

Unfortunately this is a growing trend with new products popping up all the time. Use a trusted antivirus package such as the kind that can be purchased from shops.

Only 5% of Windows PCs are fully patched

Posted by on 15 January, 2008 No comments

A recent survey by a security company called Secunia shows that only 5% of computers are fully patched. The other 95% are running insecure software.

pie_chart It’s important to patch all of your software. This includes the operating system itself (e.g. Windows, Mac OS, Linux), your web browser (e.g. Internet Explorer, Firefox), and all your applications. And of course in an office environment patches should be carried out by IT administrators (complete with backups).

This serves as a gentle reminder to our previous post on patching. Read Secunia’s article here.

Don’t trust public computers in hotels

Posted by on 15 January, 2008 No comments

hotel If you use public computers in hotels and similar environments (e.g. internet cafes) you need to keep in mind that the computer could be capturing your passwords. You can’t just assume it’s a safe computer.

This week a man was sentenced for installing key-logging programs on hotel computers in Miami, Las Vegas, and other US cities. Customers used these computers and whenever they entered a credit card number, the number was captured and used to buy over US$400,000 worth of products and services.

Mario Alberto Simbaqueba Bonilla, a 40 year old engineer, was arrested in Miami International Airport last year and has just pleaded guilty. He installed the key-logging software onto hotel computers and watched as hotel guests used the computers.

This isn’t a once off incident. If the computer isn’t yours then you just have to assume someone can capture your passwords or credit card numbers. If you need to use these computers to log into a corporate network or some other secure service (such as online banking) then think twice. Is it really that important? If so, then change the password as soon as you get onto a different computer.

MySpace Pages Can Carry Viruses

Posted by on 14 January, 2008 No comments

There have been some pages on MySpace that cause a window to popup telling used to install a Microsoft Security Update. And instead of installing a security update it installs some malicious code.

The last one to make the news involves requests coming from a user called "Rita". This is just an arbitrary name that someone has setup, and it won’t be the last.

So if websites like MySpace or Facebook ask you to install programs on your computer you should generally ignore or deny them.

ADSL Modems in Mexico are being attacked

Posted by on 12 January, 2008 No comments

Yesterday’s article explained how DNS poisoning works. And there’s already quite a bit of it happening. In Mexico there’s an ISP that offers their customers ADSL modems with the brand 2Wire.

There’s an exploit for this particular model making it easy for their DNS settings to be changed, effectively attacking the internet of users. It’s as simple as opening an email with the malicious code.

If your modem is a 2Wire then change the password and filter your emails with a good anti-virus program.

MP3 players sold with malware

Posted by on 12 January, 2008 No comments

Victory LT-200

Some MP3 players sold in the Netherlands have been found to contain malware. The model is "Victory LT-200".

This isn’t the first time gadgets come with viruses already installed (such as Maxtor’s  external drive). There have been USB flash drives, camera memory cards, and even GPS navigators that have been sold with infected files pre-installed.

Often it happens when a computer at the factory is infected and somehow the files end up on the device during testing.

Any good anti-virus program would be able to detect the files and clean them for you.