Social networking sites have become very popular among many of you. Among them, Facebook is one such social networking site which has many users and is a nice way to stay in touch with our loved ones and friends. According to a recent survey in USA, many people first check their Facebook status first thing in the morning and then go to the bathroom.
Isn’t that amazing? However there are certain security issues which were recently raked up by many users, like identification theft and the like. Let’s have a look at some of the viruses and how you can stop them. When you try to login to your account, you receive many requests for changing your password.
It is ok, if the question comes once, but not too many times, otherwise it is a hacker who wants to infect your PC or laptop with Koobface virus. If at all this virus is successful then your entire profile details can be leaked to anyone and your PC or laptop can crash.
How your Facebook account can get hacked into
It can get infected or hacked when you go into your friend’s account which has been phished. Hackers do that by posting malicious code within it and you or your friend won’t even know about it until it’s too late.
This is the most common method many of you get your account hacked. You do that by downloading stuff you don’t even know. There are so many applications so make sure you pay close attention to the applications that you are permitted to access to and need.
It is true with Face book you can stay in touch with many friends and relatives, but when you receiving links from someone you don’t know, then it is better to avoid clicking on that or encouraging them to send further links. When you get a link with some nice looking lady, then guys think twice, often they are hackers in disguise waiting to harm your account and system.
Now let’s find out what to do if at all your account has been hacked. The first thing you need to do is change your password as it is known by the hacker by now. The virus will use your profile to message other friends in your account and continue spreading itself. The next step would be to get Face book virus software. You can contact a computer dealer or you can also get lot of information on the internet about social networking antivirus software.
You need to be alert and smart on all occasions for the facebook virus and security issue as hackers are always searching a way to enter through your account.
Image source: facebook.com, flickr user Max-B
Published by Spyware, Adware and Computer Security News (www.spywarenews.org)
The Apple Ipad sure has been a hit among the masses and the proof of that is with the number of ipads disappearing from the shelves in many shops. According to information, the company sold around three thousand ipads on the very first day itself. Now that gives you idea on how popular this device is turning out to be.
source:apple.com
It has some exciting features like it just weighs 1.5 pounds, operates quite fast, has many applications, and most importantly it has an extraordinary battery which can run for ten hours on a single charge. You can go on and on about this device, but in spite of this device having all of the above, there are some serious ipad security issues which you need to be aware of.
How to Protect Your Ipad
If you go through articles in the PC world or other computer related magazines on the internet, you can get an in depth information on the security flaws of the ipad. However I have summed up few and you can benefit from reading this article. Did you know that your handset’s operating system can be corrupted when you run unauthorized software? The reason for that is it increases the risk of downloading malicious applications in the future.
The software I’m referring here is Frash, even though the software company is encouraging users to use their software, security analysts are warning against use of this software. It allows your device to be run third party applications which have not been sanctioned by Apple. That does sound disturbing as it can increase the chance of your ipad getting infected with malware.
The problem here why many users are using this software is, Frash makes your ipad or iphone more attractive when you want to surf for extra web sites. But your device can be easily broken into once you install the software allowing the loading of applications from any source.
The iPad, which usually runs OS 3.2 has the same firmware updates provided in Version 3.1.3, but in spite of all this your data is vulnerable for getting hacked. So think wisely and don’t install software on your ipad which is unauthorized.
Published by Spyware, Adware and Computer Security News (www.spywarenews.org)
It seems these days you can’t sneeze without hitting half a dozen news stories about companies misplacing data or accidently making private data public or leaving lap tops lying around only to be handed onto the nearest journalist. It’s not surprising businesses are worrying about their data and if you’re not worried you probably should be. The majority of businesses ensure they’re protected against external threats, from malicious hackers looking to steal data to harmful viruses looking to delete data, you’re potentially under attack from so many different angles it can be impossible to protect yourself against all of them. No matter how much you’ve invested in your IT security, and no matter how secure you think your business premises are you can still be at risk.
Did you know the biggest threat to your IT security is your own staff? Maybe even you yourself?
I’m not saying your staff are actually a team of highly skilled hackers or they they’re even out to deliberately sabotage you, but the majority of attacks on IT security come from within your own walls.
Today’s business world is becoming more and more virtual. As business share information virally, and as cloud computing is becoming more common your business is likely to have more data coming and going than you can reasonably track. This doesn’t just apply to multinational corporations it applies to you too. The chances are the majority of your correspondences are sent via email as are all your staff’s too. Email’s great, it’s quick, easy and convenient. It also has great potential to infect your computer and your severs. No matter how careful you are about what you do and don’t open, can you guarantee your staff are just as meticulous? A good firewall will be able to quickly scan any files sent to you and decide whether they’re safe enough. Unfortunately they can’t see the actual contents of any file; all they can do is glance at the outer packaging. Like a letter, you can see the envelope and usually you can tell from the envelope whether its junk mail but the envelope doesn’t always tell you what’s inside. The easiest way around this is to ensure your staff have had extensive training. Never open anything that looks suspicious especially if it’s been filtered into the junk mail folder and try to discourage your staff from sending and receiving personal emails at work.
You may also want to look at the levels of access your staff have. It’s often easier to grant everyone a basic administrative access to the whole system but do they really need it? Does the work experience kid downstairs really need to same access as the marketing executive? If you have a new starter you need to make sure they only have access to the information they’re going to need to do their job properly. If it turns out later they need more access it can be granted. It’s not a case of not trusting your staff it’s simply a case of protecting yourself. Maybe your accounts manager can be trusted with access to the marketing accounts but maybe he talks in his sleep and his wife works for your competitors or maybe he has one too many down the pub Friday night, ok that’s a little farfetched granted but I’m sure you get my point.
What about passwords? You may have everything including the company stapler password protected but how secure are your passwords. The most common passwords are 123456, password and iloveyou. If you have more than ten staff at your company (and they’re not particularly tech savvy) then research has shown at least one of them will have one of these passwords. Research has also shown that one out of every three people will use a spouse, child or pet as at least one password. There’s no point having different levels of user access in your business if anyone who’s spent more than five minutes with your staff can guess their password. Passwords should ideally be a random combination of upper and lower case letters, numbers and at least one character. These maybe harder to remember but they’re safer.
Well I think I’ve proved my point; here are just three examples of how your staff have compromised your businesses security without even meaning too. With a little extra time being invested in your IT security all these examples can be easily prevented.
Kim works for an inventory software management company
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.
By Spyware News (www.spywarenews.org) – It’s fairly easy to protect yourself against identity theft when you’re online, since all you have to do is keep your softwares patched and up to date, install a good antivirus and anti spyware program, and to never visit untrustworthy sites as well as click links on untrustworthy emails. However, very few people know that a lot of identity thieves find their victims offline. Here are some ways you can protect yourself against ID theft:
By Spyware News (www.spywarenews.org) – A lot of relationships, particularly those with men or women who have weak bonds with each other, tend to get ruined or at least marred with discrete online affairs. If you have glaring suspicions about the online habits of your partner, you may want to try spouse computer spying first, before making an assumption and ending the relationship.
By Spyware News (www.spywarenews.org) – SpywareQuake is part of a new breed of adware/scam hybrids that act as trojans and infect systems via email spam or website scripts. Once infected, SpywareQuake bombs the user of the computer with fake security notification pop-ups, telling them that their computer is infected. Once the pop up is clicked, a fake scan will show and a link to purchase the full version of SpywareQuake, which is not a real anti spyware program.
By Spyware News (www.spywarenews.org) – It would seem that NebuAd, the behavioral targeted advertising protocol used by some Internet Service Providers, is basically like a version of Gator that works at the ISP level. For those of you too young to remember, Gator is one of the frontrunners of spyware/adware distribution a few years ago. Their program came bundled in with programs such as download managers and configuration tweakers, and tracked your surfing and browsing patterns so that it can serve targeted advertisements. The company later changed its name from Gator to Claria in order to get rid of their negative image as spyware distributors.
By Spyware News – According to a recent press release by Zango, the famous adware company has recently terminated the employment of 68 out of the 200 plus people that comprise its total workforce. The lay offs were done as a means to streamline and narrow the company’s goals and focus, hot on the heels of the launch of their new Platrium offering, which is a casual gaming site that entered beta just last month.
Zango spokesperson Steve Stratz has denied rumors that the lay offs were a result of Zango going bankrupt, after their services were met with hostilities, particularly from anti-spyware activists who complain that Zango’s obstrusive pop-up serving software were popping up in computers of people who did not volunteer to download it. Additionally, just last year Zango has agree to pay $3 million in order to settle an FTC complaint pertaining to improper or dishonest installations. Another outcome of the fiasco is that Zango has been mandated by state laws to make sure that their software will not be installed without making sure that people have consented, and that they will closely monitor third party distributors in case they try to install the software discreetly.
Platrium, while still an ad server, works on a different way by making free games available to users who install their toolbar. Zango has stated that Platrium is 100% free of pop-up ads, and will instead use a custom “slider” ad, similar to an instant message notification both in terms of size and delivery mode. – www.spywarenews.org
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
