Viruses, Trojans, Spyware, etc
If you receive an email offering a free screen saver chances are the screen savers are infected with malware.
Screensavers are just like any other program and can carry malware. And as always you shouldn’t trust unsolicited emails offering something free.
FlashGet is a popular free download manager. The latest version has a problem and someone exploited this problem causing anyone downloading this program to install a trojan on their computer.
Any version starting with the number 1.9 is susceptible to this problem. And if you downloaded it between the 29th of February 2008 and the 14th of March 2008 then it probably installed a trojan on your computer.
This is what FlashGet looks like:
Some useful advice:
There’s a new virus affecting mobile phones (cell phones) that use Symbian series 60. It’s been detected in China and is called Kiazha-A Trojan.
It gets transmitted through Bluetooth or MMS messages so you can’t completely avoid receiving it but you can delete it if it arrives on your phone.
It first deletes all text messages in the phone then displays a message asking for RMB 50 yuan (US$7) to get them back.
We have a list here showing some of the more popular phones that are vulnerable. If your phone uses Symbian S60 then be aware of virus messages like this one and delete them if you receive it.
It’s also a good idea to backup your phone’s contents to a memory card every couple of months.
Windows powered phones are also susceptible to viruses, as we’ve mentioned here.
Haute Secure is a security service developed by 3 former Microsoft security specialists. It’s designed to filter the web pages you browse and it blocks any websites known to contain malware.
It’s free for people to download and install on their computers. If you run a website they charge money so they can scan your website and alert you if it gets hacked and infected with malware.
Most of the good antivirus packages have had this feature for a long time, and it’s a good idea to invest in one of these.
If you really believe it’s not worth spending money to keep your computer secure and you insist on using free antivirus programs, then this will make a good addition since free antivirus programs don’t usually filter web sites.
There’s a malware program called MonaRonaDona, if you end up installing it (by being tricked into downloading something you don’t really need) it causes a bit of havoc with your computer.
It then suggests you try an antivirus program called Unigray. This is one of those fake antivirus programs that have been appearing lately. All it does is mess up your computer, and you’re asked to pay $39.90 for it.
So stay away from MonaRonaDona and Unigray. Use one of the popular antivirus packages (such as those you can buy in a computer shop).
If you receive an email taking you to a web site called “FunnyPostCard” delete it, it’s a trick to get you to download a malicious bit of code that takes over your computer.
The website also says www.funnypostcard.com , or FunnyPostCard.Com . The files it asks you to download is called e-card.exe and postcard.exe .
Some new statistics on how widespread malware has become. This research comes from Google’s Anti-Malware team (full document is here)
That’s 3 million web pages that will attempt to install some form of malicious code on your computer.
With things this bad you’d be crazy to use the internet without some kind of web filtering. This is different to virus scanning. Web filtering scans each web page before your web browser loads it, looking for things like phishing and malicious code.
All of the big antivirus products include web filtering these days, it’s a good investment if you haven’t purchased one already.
There’s a new trojan going around for Windows Mobile PocketPC devices. Once installed on a device it sends some details to the person who wrote it, and it leaves a back door to allow the author to install programs on your device without your permission.
It’s being called WinCE/InfoJack by antivirus companies. It gets installed when you download a legitimate program from a “hacked” site. For example, it’s been detected in Google Maps (a hacked version of Google Maps, not the original one).
To safeguard against these type of malware only download applications from the vendor who created it. In the case of Google Maps, you should download it from Google’s own website and not a more generic download site.
You should also invest in antivirus software for these devices.
A fraudulent Italian web site has appeared called the Comando Antifrode CAFF. This organisation doesn’t really exist but they’ve made it look like other Italian government web sites.
The site has links to download some malware files that install a trojan on the computer. It’s best avoided.