Placebo AV - The Ultimate Solution

From the well known security icon DOXdesk, we are told

Today's AV is a dead loss. But you can't simply not install any, or everyone will complain. That's where PlaceboAV comes in! It's the fantasic anti-virus solution that's super-fast and absolutely reliable... because it does nothing at all.

A detailed evaluation by a DSLReports Anonymous Poster boasts

PlaceboAV from 419 Software Development, the Nigerian anti-malware experts, is absolute magic!

I'm beta testing the soon-to-be-released ProPlus version which has anti-virus anti-rootkit, anti-spam, anti-popup, anti-adware and antiphlogistine in one small (only 22kb) package.

I had Norton, Kaspersky, NOD32, Trend, McAfee and Avira running on my PC and they all told me I had Vundo, Zlob, Mist, Badtrans, and several serious rootkit infections.

When I uninstalled them all and installed PlaceboAV ProPlus it gave my PC a clean bill of health on the first run. How's that for disinfection efficiency?

PlaceboAV never needs updates, and it won't slow down your PC because it uses no CPU resources.

The good news is that the 5 years ProPlus license will be free! (419 Software requires a notarized copy of your birth certificate and your credit card details and bank account password for identification purposes only.)

Best of all, if you join the beta team you get a bonus of 100,000 shares in the company for only $10,000.

My friends and business associates keep telling me I'm sending them infected emails, but they're still using the same old crappy AVs I got rid of, so what would they know?

Better get yours, folks, before the introductory price expires, and they go to 6 month subscriptions.

But, if you actually install it, heed this warning from DOXdesk.

DOXdesk is not responsible for any viruses you get whilst using PlaceboAV under the impression it is actually doing something. Well, we probably are responsible, but we're not going to do anything about it and you'll not get a penny out of us. Go away now.

And, if you're humour impaired, note the Wikipedia definition of placebo.

A placebo is a substance or procedure which a patient accepts as a medicine or therapy but which has no specific therapeutic activity for the condition. Any effect is thought to be based on the power of suggestion.

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419 Conference And Travel Scams Now

Surely you're well used to the email that starts

Dear Sir,
I so desperately need your assistance.

and goes on to suggest to you how you can get $1,000,000 or more by helping some endangered African citizen smuggle a quantity of hidden funds, or maybe diamonds, into the USA. I bet you'll appreciate a new twist on that old 419 scam - where you are invited to a two site International Conference (first California, then Africa), and you pay only for your hotel booking in the African half of the conference.

PaperGhost, MVP - Security, presents an intriguing description of his invited participation, in the 2008 World Youths Organisation conference on ChilD Abuse and Racism.

Get your passports up to date, folks (not).

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Kaspersky Internet Security Falsely Identifies All BlogSpot URLs With Phishing Attack Warning Messages

Kaspersky Internet Security, with its update of 8 February 2008, has apparently falsely identified all of "*.blogspot.com" as containing malicious code which indicates a phishing attack. Kaspersky customers, as well as numerous bloggers, are discussing this issue in their various support forums.

If your computer is protected by Kaspersky, you've probably already observed a warning, as most of my blogs are hosted on BlogSpot. My apologies to you, if you've been alarmed by this unfortunate problem already.

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RIAA Again, Admitting To Lies This Time

The RIAA has been pushing our legislators for bills to protect their pocketbooks, such as the College Opportunity and Affordability Act of 2007. This was justified based upon a 2005 MPAA study, where they blamed 44 percent of the movie industry's losses on college students illegally downloading movies.

Associated Press MPAA Admits Mistake on Downloading Study reports

But now the MPAA, which represents the U.S. motion picture industry, has told education groups a "human error" in that survey caused it to get the number wrong. It now blames college students for about 15 percent of revenue loss.

And it gets better.

Mark Luker, vice president of campus IT group Educause, says it doesn't account for the fact that more than 80 percent of college students live off campus and aren't necessarily using college networks. He says 3 percent is a more reasonable estimate for the percentage of revenue that might be at stake on campus networks.

NewsWeek, in MPAA admits mistake on downloading study reports

The original report, by research firm LEK, claims the U.S. motion picture industry lost $6.1 billion to piracy worldwide, with most of the losses overseas. It identified the typical movie pirate as a male aged 16-24. MPAA said in a statement that no errors had been found in the study besides the percentage of revenue losses that could be attributed to college students, but that it would hire a third party to validate the numbers.

It's time for our legislators to take a hard look at bills like H.R.4137. The MAFIAA has been out of control for some time, and this needs to stop.

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Talk About Mixed Emotions

Hackers vs the RIAA. Hackers 1, RIAA 0.

Apparently the RIAA is so busy suing consumers that they forgot to hire a decent programmer. With a simple SQL injection, all their propaganda has been successfully wiped from the site.

As a networking / security consultant, I dislike hackers, even though I was one (very lame, I know) long, long ago.


Big smile of the week.



But I hate the RIAA (now calling themselves the MAFIAA - seriously!) even more. So I will say

Congrats

to the hackers.

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Alan Ralsky Indicted

The Detroit Free Press reports, in Mich. spammer, 10 others indicted in alleged Chinese stock pump-and-dump scam, that

Michigan spam king Alan Ralsky , his son-in-law and nine others have been indicted in Detroit on charges of violating federal anti-spam laws

.

Unfortunately, the most serious charges carry a maximum penalty of 20 years in prison and a $250,000 fine. But, it's a start.

Happy New Year 2008.

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Captchas and Online Games

This is a pretty long video (50 some minutes), but it's worth the time to watch. It discusses these issues, and more.

• What is a Captcha, and why is it not the ultimate protection against automated attacks?
• Why do I see a Captcha sometimes, when I'm looking at pictures?
• Why are there so many free online games?
• How does Google Images get their pictures labeled so accurately?
• How do hackers and spammers setup multiple online accounts, using scripts, even with Captchas required by the online accounts?

Captchas and Online Games: Human Computation (Luis Von Ahn: July 26, 2006)

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MySpace? Stay Away!

MySpace, as all active Internet services, is creating new possibilities for its members to "smarten up" their space, in this case, their home pages. In their attention to detail (or lack of attention), MySpace appears to make it possible for someone to create a home page that overwrites the portion of the screen whereon sits the account name and password, where you login.

Here is a very nice phishing opportunity. And the phishers didn't pass it up.

When you login, you innocently enter your account name (user name) and password. It's picked up by the phisher script, and added to their database. You login again, see your home page, and never realise that your details are now in the hands of the bad guys. Somewhere around 35,000 phishes, and you're one.

As reported in DSLR Forums Huge myspace phishing scam

MySpace is unable to recognize the risks when a new user creates their page to host a copy of the myspace login box that steal passwords.

We have verified that the simple scam has netted over 700,000 myspace login email addresses and passwords so far, and the data is still being collected as these trojan myspace pages are still scattered all over the site.

Note that 700,000 myspace login email addresses and passwords apparently resulted from a mere 35,000 individuals, each MySpace phish victim being fooled an average of 20 times each.

The average MySpace member is 13 and probably lacking in capital. The possibility of similar services, eBay and PayPal for instance, with duplicated account names and passwords, is probably going to keep the phishers happy for a while, though.

If you've used your MySpace account recently, you need to change your password there, and on any other accounts or services (eBay and Paypal, to start) where you're using similar account names and passwords. When you change your password, make it complex - not something simple like "password1".

If you've used your MySpace account recently, don't count on MySpace sending you a vulnerability warning. Get this done now.

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Another Reason To Avoid ICS

I've told you so many times that using your computer to share your Internet service - using ICS - is not a good idea. My reasons center around the needless complexity, and load, placed upon the server.

Now we have a new reason to avoid ICS. This week, ICS is being used as an attack vector. NetworkWorld: New Windows attack can kill firewall points out

The code, which was posted on the Internet early Sunday morning, could be used to disable the Windows Firewall on a fully patched Windows XP PC that was running Windows' Internet Connection Service (ICS).

So, if you're running ICS because you have 2 computers, and you think that Windows Firewall protects you, think again. Even if your computer is fully patched, if you have ICS behind WF, you are at risk.

Perimeter protection, aka a NAT router, is the only real protection.

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And Now Fake Codecs

So an EBud just sent you an E-Card greeting, supposed to be soo cute. And you play it, and you get a notice

Your player needs an extra codec. Shall we find it for you?

STOP! Right now, it's time to close the browser, flush your cache, and restart the computer.

Sometimes, you may see the above advice when surfing to various web sites that provide free movies (and no, we won't discuss what type of movies, though this problem is more common on certain types). It's the same thing though. The content (E-Card, online movies, whatever) is the attraction. The trojans are the payload. It's all just another way of hacking your computer.

Lavasoft News Beware - Desktop Hijacks on the Rise Again says

Watch out for the Zlob Trojan that poses as a codec needed to view a video, then installs a fake virus and urges its victims to download a rogue anti-spyware program to remove it.

And again we see the repeated advice

...even a spoofed e-mail that claims to be Windows Update (Microsoft never sends updates via e-mail)

as if I haven't harangued you about that before.

The best prevention is avoidance. Stay safe.

Email Offering IE7? PASS!

Did you recently get email from "support@microsoft.com"? How many times have I pointed out that

Microsoft does not email software offers or updates.

Today, The Register: Trojan download site spoofs IE7 release outlet points out that

Hackers have created a bogus Internet Explorer 7 download site that attempts to load Trojan code onto the PCs of visiting surfers.

Traffic to the malicious website is being driven by a spoofed email message, claiming to be from support@microsoft.com, offering a link to download Release Candidate 1 (RC1) of Microsoft Internet Explorer 7.

Once again, here's a clue.

Microsoft does not email software offers or updates.

And, if you ignore the warning, yet another chance to become part of a growing trend: botnet membership, a club that you do not need to join.

Would You Like Fries With Your Virus?

A couple years ago, music giant Sony got caught loading their customers with hidden software, when they were stupid enough to load "extra content" from legally purchased CDs onto their computers.

Today, we hear of Apple, who shipped a small quantity of iPods infected with a virus.

As you might imagine, we are upset at Windows for not being more hardy against such viruses, and even more upset with ourselves for not catching it.

And earlier this week, we hear that MacDonalds in Japan gave out MP3 player infected with yet another virus.

We haven't seen these players ourselves, so we can't confirm how exactly you would get hit by this trojan, but some sources report you only had to plug it into your Windows PC.

Once again, practice Layered Security on all computers. Please. Botnets are more and more useful, so don't contribute to the population.

The Good Guys Win One

From Nigeria, actual tape of a cybercafe raid, with a band of 419 scammers arrested.

Interestingly, those not directly involved in the scamming still profit. Neighbours outside the cafe didn't react well to the arrests being made.

A New Security Risk: Your Old Cell Phone

In Dufus Or Joe Job Victim?, we looked at an idiot who sold a laptop computer, and came to regret it. Amir probably deserved what came to him, but it doesn't mean that we shouldn't learn from his mistake.

So how about your cell phone? You may be surprised to learn that it's a small computer. It may have an amazing storage capacity, and what's stored there can cause you embarassment, if you give away, lose, or sell the phone. Apparently, what's stored on your cell phone can be resurrected, even if erased - just as the contents of your computers hard drive can be recovered.

CNN Technology: Cell phones won't keep your secrets discusses experiences where

Curious software experts resurrected information on 10 used phones (purchased on eBay), including the racy exchanges between guarded lovers, and

• One company's plans to win a multimillion-dollar federal transportation contract.
• E-mails about another firm's $50,000 payment for a software license.
• Bank accounts and passwords.
• Details of prescriptions and receipts for one worker's utility payments.

The recovered information was equal to 27,000 pages -- a stack of printouts 8 feet high.

"Most people toss their phones after they're done; a lot of them give their old phones to family members or friends," said Miro Kazakoff, a researcher at Compete Inc. of Boston who follows mobile phone sales and trends.

Think next time, before you give your old phone away.

One Small Bit Of Good News

21 year old Christopher Maxwell was sentenced to 37 months in federal prison on Friday for hacking, that in the estimate of the Seattle FBI's cybersquad, netted Maxwell and two unnamed teenage accomplices "more than $100,000".

Maxwell, holding back tears, pleaded for probation in lieu of prison time.

I am a 21-year-old boy with a good heart and I made a mistake. I never realized how dangerous a computer could be. I thank God no one was hurt.

The judge was not taken by the tears, or the plea. While Pechman took Maxwell's age and lack of criminal record into account, she said the prison term was necessary to provide a deterrent to other hackers.

Victims of the hack included

• Colton Unified School District in California.
• Northwest Hospital in Seattle.
• The US Defense Department.

and doubtless thousands of unknown private computers that will never be identified.

He got off lightly, but it's a start. Hopefully the FBI is getting better at this now.

Pizza Order Credit Card Scam

OK, tonite you want a pizza for dinner. So you call your local pizza restaurant, and have one delivered.

But there's a problem. They don't accept cash payments anymore - it's pay by credit card only.

Right now is when you should smell a rat. But you're hungry, and you want to smell pizza. So you give them the number, they take your order, and you hang up.

Your pizza never comes, and your credit card is now being used in a major shopping spree by the guy who just took your order. And he's not a pizza call center employee.

The bad guys convinced AT&T to route calls, intended for the pizza shop, to their phone number.

Hello, Big Cheese Pizza. How can I rip you off today?

The police know about this in Southern California, but it's possible that it's going on elsewhere. You don't really know.

What's the story here? >>> AT&T Service Reps must be really gullible.

August 2006 Patch Tuesday Report

Last week, Microsoft issued 12 security patches, 9 which they rated as Critical (Patch ASAP), and 3 Important (Patch As Soon As Convenient). ISC / SANS rated those patches, for computers used as network clients, as 2 Extra Critical (PATCH NOW), 8 Critical, and 2 Important.

One of those patches, MS06-040 (KB921883), fixes a vulnerability in the Server service (remember that almost all Windows computers will run the Server service, even though they may not be dedicated servers).

Today, ISC SANS issued MS06-040: BOLO -- Be On the LookOut (NEW), stating that

Over the weekend there was a botnet doing fairly wide scale scanning for hosts affected by the vulnerabilities in the MS06-040 advisory. While technically a botnet, it was spreading in a worm like fashion.

MS06-040 is one of the two patches that were rated as PATCH NOW by ISC SANS. Among the advice given:

• If you have not done so yet:
  • Roll out the MS06-040 patches ASAP.
  • Do not forget to reboot those machines after patching!

MS06-040 has passed from vulnerability, to Proof Of Concept exploit, and to active exploit in progress. This is a serious situation, as documented by US CERT. Patch Now, please.

For convenient immediate downloads, I offer direct links here. Or you can use Windows Update, or Automatic Update.

• Take a system checkpoint first.
• Verify your Operating System name and service pack level:
  • My Computer
  • Properties
• Download the most urgent patches, properly chosen for your operating system and service pack level, to an organised folder on your disk.
  • MS06-040 (KB921883)
  • MS06-042 (KB918899)
• Run each update, from the folder, using Windows Explorer.

Ongoing Stories.

• SANS Microsoft August 2006 Patches: STATUS
  
• MS06-040 exploit in the wild
  
• Windows 2000 [!] - WGA-Dienst hat sich heimlich installiert
  

Bots And You

For those of you who are maybe living in a cave (and if so, what ISP services you?), of the millions of computers in the world, a good portion of them are not controlled completely by the person who is paying for their Internet service. These computers, hijacked by a successful hacking campaign, and controlled by another person, we call bots. One bot is useless; bots are maintained in collections, called botnets. A botnet could range in size from 10,000 to 1.5 million hijacked computers.

I've been observing, and writing about, botnets for some time.

• In November 2004, some bad guys very deviously hijacked a German advertising server, and 4 other servers, and delivered the Bofra / IFrame exploit to 5,000 - 10,000 computers. These computers became part of a botnet.
• In May 2005, we saw a practical application of a botnet, as the Sober worm was used to distribute spam relevant to a German political battle.
• This year, we have botnets being used to hijack Blogger blogs, and create networks of blogs serving spam.

Most people don't realise that botnets are both the attack vehicle, and the payload of a successful attack.

Bump Keys - A Growing Security Problem

Securing your computers, and your network, begins with physical security. This is one reason why WiFi Security is so important, and so problematic.

But, if you're depending upon a cylinder lock on your front door, to restrict physical access to your network, you need to be aware of the newest threat - Bump Keys.

This looks real scary. But is it real? One would hope not.

Well, in typical You Tube fashion, when you watch that video, you will have a choice of several others like it in the You Tube library. Watch the others too. One video - maybe somebody's imagination. Two videos - maybe a game by some college studants. Five videos, a DSLR Forums thread, and an MSNBC article - a very real problem.

Stolen Computers And You

There are probably millions of computers, all over the world, being used or controlled by someone who is not legally entitled to do so. We've discussed botnets before. Once used mainly for spam delivery, they are now being used for hijacking Blogger blogs.

Since blogs and instant messaging, together, is replacing email for those tired of spam, the spammers have turned to spam blogs, or splogs. And botnets are being used to hijack legitimate blogs, with value to search engines, and make them part of splog nets.

Right now, this activity is, I believe, limited to attacks against Blogger blogs. It doesn't take too much imagination, though, to see the same techniques being used against online communities like MySpace and Yahoo 360.