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This Newsletter is sent out periodically
only to those people who have
registered for Security Alert Service from one or more of the websites
published and maintained by
www.RichardPresents.com. If you are
no longer interested in up-to-date Security Alerts, use link at end of
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| Here's
our "Security Alert News Reporter" for June, 2004 |
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The "News
Reporter" is published
periodically to keep you up-to-date on the latest information we
gather for avoiding and surviving the hectic hacker attacks on your computer
security and personal identity that take place constantly on the
internet.
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Latest Virus Threats
reported June 12, 2004 by McAfee:
Full descriptions including virus characteristics, symptoms, aliases
and removal instructions are available by clicking on each of these
two links:
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Since the arrival of Sasser, more
than a half dozen new worms and several versions of eachCycle,
Gaobot, Bobax, Korgo, Kibuv and Sdbot, are circulating on the
internet.
The Gaobot and Wallon worms attempt to exploit Windows vulnerabilities
from earlier security bulletins. But the most insidious threats are
still the e-mail viruses Netsky.P, Bagel.X and Dumaru.
Sasser.B remains at the top of the active infectious lists, despite
the fact that Microsoft reports the number of downloads of the
MS04-011 update, which could block a
Sasser infection, is four times the amount of previous Free downloads.
If you haven't updated and haven't
been infected by Sasser yet, you're lucky. Update now. Try
the FREE scanning and removal tool available on the Firewalls and
Virus Protection website at
STINGER. It also checks for
about
40 or more other active viruses and worms
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Look for the STINGER Icon
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Privacy Theft
'Hottest' issues everywhere you
turn today are about 'Phishing' (pronounce that like FISHING)
and Brand Spoofing (both of which should be pronounced 'Theft")
And well they should be.
"Phishing" describes a combination of techniques used by cyber
crooks to bait people into giving up sensitive
personal data such as credit card numbers, social security
numbers, bank account numbers, dates of birth and more.
There's a new Article about the dangers of
phishing on the Firewalls website. It's a SCAM that works extremely well
for 2
basic reasons. Read the article and learn how to best protect
yourself from the theft of your Identity.
"Brand spoof spam" scams increased nearly 500% since January,
and by 51 times since May 2003.
Thats according to research by SurfControl, a London-based e-mail
filtering company. The company described a new trick used by brand
spoof spammers, a fake address bar that appears in an e-mail
recipients' Web browser and makes these e-mail scams look even more
legitimate. (Think eBay, PayPal, Microsoft, and more)
The increase in such dangerous spam is linked to the continuing growth
of the Internet and unwary e-mail users. Spammers are flocking to
offshore 'bullet proof' Web
hosting companies not governed by U.S. laws, who guarantee they won't
be shut down. The growth of viruses like MyDoom, give spammers
the ability to send e-mails anonymously through compromised machines,
Following the usual guidelines will help protect you from brand
spoofing and phishing threats:
►
Do Not share confidential
information in response to
unsolicited emails.
►
Never follow links to an unsolicited or
suspicious
email.
►
Make sure that all of your anti-virus operating system
software is up to date.
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Family Security
The Federal Trade Commission of the
United States Government has many publication relating to protecting
the security of your family, both on the internet and off. They are
FREE at their website. Check out their pages covering Consumer
(family) protection
HERE
There are some interesting
discussions and helpful family related links on the 'Identity Theft'
pages at the
Firewalls-and-virus-protection website, including some very recent
updates.
If you are concerned for your own security and that of your family, visit
the 'Identity Theft' pages
HERE
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Publications Here's a way you can help your
family and friends
We are repeating this announcement because
of the interest level it created after presenting it in the last
issue of the
News Reporter
and
because of its popularity, we will
continue to create similar reports that can be downloaded,
printed and shared. When the next publication is available, a
brief special announcement will be sent to our subscriber
community with downloading information. |
Many people using the internet wonder
if their firewalls and virus protection are good enough to
keep them safe. For
those of you who have visited our Firewalls site, you
know that the information there is all directed toward
keeping you safe from hacker and cracker attacks.
Because it isn't always convenient to share your computer
with family and friends, we have excerpted an important chapter from our
Firewalls site and created a small downloadable report
that can easily be printed and distributed to the people you'd like to help
avoid 'virus grief'.
It's a 9 page, easy reading guide. The
download includes
a ReadMe page with instructions for unzipping and using
your Acrobat Reader, and even a link to the Adobe website where you
can get
your own free Acrobat Reader if you don't already have one.
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Free
Resources
There is really no reason for
anyone not to have the latest Firewall, anti-virus, spam blocking, and
spyware removal software installed on their computers. You can
download all of these programs, and more, mostly for FREE, from our
Firewalls-and-Virus-Protection website.
They're there for the taking. If you need to block Spam,
check the links on the 'Spam and Spyware' page. Same thing for Cookie
Crumbling tools, Spyware protection, etc.
Start at the
Firewalls page and check out each
page, downloading what you need as you go through the whole site.
The 'Articles and Reports' section has some recent
interesting and helpful additions. We encourage you to visit it, too.
There are regular updates to this section of our site.
Same thing for protective software. We add it whenever we
find tools that will benefit our site visitors. It would be a
good idea to bookmark and check back regularly so that your don't miss
newly added items.
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Reviews (of the news).
We think that this is very
good news!
A U.S. House subcommittee approved a bill this month that would
regulate computer "spyware," forcing software makers to notify
consumers before installing some kinds of monitoring programs on their
PCs.
The bill, introduced by California Republican Mary Bono and New York
Democrat Ed Towns, is one of several targeting the kinds of annoying
or potentially dangerous applications known as "spyware," "adware" or
"malware."
Bono and Towns' H.R. 2929 , now renamed the "Securely Protect Yourself
Against Cyber Trespass Act," was amended in committee to bar practices
such as key logging--a way of spying on computer users' actions by
recording every stroke on the keyboard--and the display of
advertisements that can not be closed.
Bono and Towns' bill will be heard next by the full House Energy and
Commerce Committee. A similar bill has been introduced in the U.S.
Senate, and is currently being reviewed by the Commerce Committee
there.
Also Good News
THE 1ST WORLDWIDE INTERNET SECURITY CAMPAIGN IS UP AND RUNNING
WITH THE AIM OF MAKING THE INTERNET A SAFER PLACE
►
Organized by the Internet Users Association and Panda Software and
under the slogan Ridding the Planet of Viruses, the campaign has
been set up to make the Internet a safer place for users
►
The campaign is available at
http://www.worldwidesecure.org and in
the eight most widely-spoken languages, covering 86.4% of Internet
users
►
Internet users can access the information, training and solutions they
need to protect their PCs against Internet threats until July 31 on
the campaign site
►
This open initiative has both private and public support in over 50
countries. Any individual, company or entity can join in and help
promote this initiative
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We are proud to
announce the RichardPresents.com family of websites is actively
participating in this vitally important campaign to Rid the
Planet of Viruses |
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NewsReporter
Reader's Questions
??????????
Send in your
questions. There is no such thing as a stupid question. Some people
are bashful about asking, but there are always many others who share
the same question, and will benefit from the answers to yours.
email your questions to us at
Questions@Firewalls-and-Virus-protection
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Sharing ?
If you had the opportunity to help
family members, associates, or friends by sharing any of the
information in this
News Reporter,
please suggest that they subscribe for their own personal copy.
They can subscribe here and we'll never share their information with third
parties.
Read our Privacy Policy |
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As promised in our first
issue, we aren't going to stuff your mail box with un-ending mailings every
day, week, or month. When there's some important news about the topics
we've noted, we'll let you know.
To avoid unwanted and unnecessary filtering of our messages, we will
send a very brief text email to you. It will have a link to this
News Reporter and an un-subscribe link
The email subject line will identify the contents as
"Latest Security Alert News Reporter - Issue ##" and the
email "FROM" address will be "richard@richardpresents.com"
Thank you again, for your interest and trust. We'll do our best to
honor it.
Richard
Richard@Firewalls-and-virus-protection.com
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