CyberDefender has issued an alert to surfer considering any last minute searches on the web for Halloween costume purchases. It has identified a dangerous Anti-Virus/Trojan downloader presently infecting searches for Halloween costumes. Upon visiting the malware site, the fake antivirus installer hijacks the user’s web browser and initiates a malicious process that could infect home PCs.

Cybercriminals often focus on subjects presently popular to search on Internet. Users querying the topics click on infected links which result with their internet browser hijacked and malware and adware downloaded instantly.

“Popular Search terms have always been a target for cyber criminals,” says Achal Khetarpal, Director, CyberDefender Research Labs.

How Spyware in “drive by download” works?

A person simply click on the website link in search results and instantly get pop-ups. You close the web pages however weird errors pop-ups again. You think that nothing dangerous may have come out of it, you merely “drove by” the site. You did not install anything at all. However your pc had a software program flaw that allow the website install spyware without having your authorization. You did not get any warning since it was a flaw in the programming of the web browser. You now have spyware and adware resident in your system. What you key in web forms, login pages, chat as well as just what websites you visited might all be delivered to the hacker’s website.

Internet user should always make sure their pc is protected by active and updated antivirus software before even going online.

So what exactly is a trojan horse? A giant wooden horse made to fill with warriors who are set to jump out once they have breached the walls of an enemies city! No, not that kind of trojan horse.

A trojan horse is simply a computer program that claims to do one thing, but instead does damage when you execute it. These programs can come in any form. It could be a video game, an anti virus program, or even just a photo. They are set up to initiate once you have double clicked them. Trojans can only cause harm if you have executed them. They have no way to replicate themselves automatically.

Some people will exclaim that they have gotten a trojan horse from someone! But the reality is that if you have a trojan on your computer, it is because you have opened a file that included the trojan.

What Can A Trojan Horse Do?

A trojan can do anything from allowing a hacker to control every aspect of your computer. They can move your mouse before your eyes, or open your rom right in front of you as if you had done it yourself. They can also completely erase your hard drive, or implant more malicious information onto your computer. If you computer contains sensitive materials, a trojan will be your worst nightmare as anything saved to your hard drive will become available to the hacker who is using the trojan horse.

The best way to avoid a trojan horse is the same as avoiding a virus. Never open anything that hasn’t been virus scanned first. But it is important to also remember that not all trojans can be found through a virus scanner. Be sure to download a trojan cleaner and occasionally run it on your computer to be sure of the safety of your files and programs.

By Spyware News (www.spywarenews.org) – Malware creators and third party trojan programs are not a new thing. Ever since the days of Sub7 and its ilk, novice hackers have already used freeware tools and programs that were created by other more experienced cyber criminals. But with the advent of the Trojan Creator named, Turkojan, a commercial malware creator, the cyber criminal world has entered a new era: Cybercrime as a business.

Turkojan allows even beginner malware programmers to create new, undetectable trojans or virus for different operating systems without them having to learn a new computer language or to deal with lengthy manuals and scripts. The malwares they can create are not simple TSR annoyances either, since Turkojan is powerful enough to create trojans that can provide real time screen viewing, keylogging, streaming of audio taken from the microphone, and streaming of webcam signals.

The Trojan creator Turkojan offers three different versions of its malware construction kit, with the gold edition – priced at $249 US dollars – going so far as to offer 24/7 customer support for six months as well as patches and updates in case virus scanners have started detecting and blocking the malwares they created using the Turkojan trojan creator.

There is currently no news yet as to what authorities can do to stop the software makers and its devastating effect on computers all over the world, since there has not been any publicized news on whether they have found the person responsible for Turkojan. This is something I will definitely keep my eye on. – www.spywarenews.org

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By Spyware News www.spywarenews.org – A couple of teens from Tesoro High School in Orange County, California, are being charged with multiple felony charges after being caught of hacking into their school’s computer network in order to infect it with spyware designed to monitor and change their grades.

The teachers at Tesoro High School started to suspect foul play when they noticed that the two 18-year old high school hackers, Tanvir Singh and Omar Khan have unusually high grades that conflicted with their actual classroom performance.

According to official police reports, Khan and Singh conspired and plotted their theft and hacking activities as far back as January of this year. Concurrently, Khan himself broke into the school on several occasions and has stolen the school’s master key, which he then used to gain easier access to the school facilities. He then stole his teacher’s login and passwords and used it to alter his and Singh’s grades, along with 12 other students.

Tanvir Singh is now facing four counts of felony, which consists of burglary, conspiracy, computer fraud, and altering public record. If found guilty, the 18-year old Singh could be sentenced to a three year prison term. On the other hand, Omar Khan, who is currently being held on a $50,000 bail, could be sentenced to as much as 38 years in prison, due to the severity of the felonies that he committed.

This news was both unexpected and tragic for the relatives and friends of the two teenagers, since both would have graduated from Tesoro High last June 18 if the debacle did not happen. – www.spywarenews.org

Adware pushers have found a new way to trick you into downloading their annoying products: fake MP3 files.

On Tuesday, security vendor McAfee reported that it’s seen a huge spike in fake MP3 files spreading on peer-to-peer networks. Although the files have names that make them look like audio recordings, they’re really Trojan horse programs that try to install a shoddy media player and adware on your computer, said Craig Schmugar, a researcher with McAfee.

“Once you run it, there is no content. You’re taken to this site to install this player which you don’t really need,” he said.

Fake file names include: preview-t-3545425-changing times earth wind .mp3 and t-3545425-just got lucky.mp3. Users are first asked to OK an end-user license agreement before the Trojan installs two programs, Mirar and NetNucleus, on their PCs.

Ironically, while the Mirar software tells users that it doesn’t display popups, NetNucleus does deliver popup ads, so users who do not realize that they are installing two programs might feel tricked, Schmugar said. “You have a Window telling you that there are no popups and right behind it is a popup.”

Although McAfee has seen some nasty software disguising itself as media files in the past, it has never seen anything on this scale, Schmugar said. Over the past 24 hours, nearly a third of the McAfee customers who reported data back to the security company have detected these files, he said.

In the past few days McAfee has spotted the files on more than 360,000 users’ desktops.

Tags: McAfee, Adware, Trojan

source:www.pcworld.com/businesscenter/article/145567/trojan_adware_hiding_in_mp3s_mcafee_says.html

There are many programs out there that can help you with Spy ware and Mal ware protection.

Some of the best programs to us are as follows;

The Cleaner Trojan checker For Trojan checker.
Male-ware Protection – http://www.malwarebytes.org/mbam.php
AVG – Offers free virus protection for your pc without causing vulnerabilities

Many other are available but be sure you get them from reputable services. All information secured on hard drives makes some people thing they are secure. They are NOT if they do not follow the simple instructions to avoid opening up our computer to malicious attacks.