Trusted Cyber Security & Web Spam Intelligence
For the most part, adware-type programs have been pestering Windows users with unwanted pop-up and targeted advertisements. The Windows adware usually bundles with free third-party downloads. They deliver advertisements in a variety of forms, including in-text hyperlinks, banner and skyscraper ads and other commercial material. But now many Mac OS users have become bombarded with pop-up advertisements too.
This page contains information about the Shellshock software bug that affects Android, OSX, iOS, Windows, Linux, and others. What is Shellshock and what can you do about it?
5 million Google Gmail usernames and passwords have been leaked and published onto the internet by Russian hackers.The leaked usernames and passwords were not actually ‘hacked’ from the Google server. The information was likely acquired by email phishing scams, use of weak passwords, and other generic strategies.
Symantec Norton (Symantec) is one of the biggest names in Antivirus software. They claim their software is innovative and can “do it all.” Having said that, it’s strange that their software suites including Norton Internet Security and Norton 360 do not detect and remove the most common security threats in the world including Potentially Unwanted Programs (PUPs), like adware and browser hijackers that Anti-Malware software Malwarebytes or HitmanPro do… Well, until now. This fact has always given the latter a bigger advantage over Symantec’s security products as the previously mentioned Anti-Malware products begin to take over the security field based on the fact that they do detect and remove PUPs on a steady basis.
In regards to the plethora of major security breaches in 2014, including the Target indent and current P.F. Chang’s investigation, it seems using your credit card to make purchases might not be the way to go in the future. Instead, replacing your credit card with good ol’ cash appears to be the optimal choice.
If you were a customer to the China Bistro P.F. Changs between March and May of 2014, you may want to sit down. Customer credit card information has been found for sale on the website rescator ranging from $18 to $140 and charges on these cards have already been made. The credit card information stolen from P.F. Chang’s appears to be taken from at least six states as well as Puerto Rico, Mexico, Canada, Argentina, Chile, and the Middle East.
If you have an account with eBay (ebay.com) you are advised to immediately change your eBay password. In February and March of 2014 cyberattackers compromised and used several eBay employee log-in credentials in order to gain access to eBay’s corporate network. The cyber-criminals compromised a database containing encrypted passwords and other non-financial customer data. Customer and eBay user information including home addresses, email addresses, telephone numbers, date of birth, and full names have been breached by the culprits. eBay could find no evidence to suggest that financial information was observed during the cyberattack.
According to confirmed reports, Microsoft is aware of limited, targeted attacks that attempt to exploit a vulnerability in all versions of the Internet Explorer browser, including Internet Explorer 6, Internet Explorer 7, Internet Explorer 8, Internet Explorer 9, Internet Explorer 10, and Internet Explorer 11.
A very large wave of email spam being sent from facebookemail.com and others is designed to phish usernames and passwords. Once a username and password is stolen by the email spam, cyber criminals will have access to the compromised Facebook account.
Malwarebytes’ launched new product called Malwarebytes Anti-Malware Premium (Malwarebytes Anti-Malware 2.0). Unlike other Malwarebytes’ Anti-Malware Pro products, this new version called Malwarebytes Anti-Malware Premium will be an annual subscription at the same price as the Professional edition, it can support 3 PCs at once, includes an updated User Interface (UI), and a lot of other features. It is said to be more powerful than recent versions of Malwarebytes’ Anti-Malware software.
Piriform just launched CCleaner Professional Plus: a 4-in-1 tool that includes popular editions of their software including the Professional versions of CCleaner, Defraggler, Recuva and Speccy.
We are sad to learn that a 36 year old man in Romania killed himself and his son because of a common computer virus. The type of virus is malware, or a cryptovirus categorized as ransomware that typically locks a computer system and uses a message that claims the computer owner or user violated the law and must pay a hefty fine or face a deprivation of liberty for viewing prohibited. In this case child pornography was the reason. In other cases the virus may claim that the user also violated the law by using copyrighted content or spreading malware.