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| Here's your "Security Alert News Reporter"
for December, 2004 |
|
The
"NewsReporter"
is published 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. Many of our comments are based on personal experiences.
Protecting
your safety, security, and privacy is not a simple task.
We are trying to make it a bit easier for you to accomplish.
_______________________ |
Latest Virus Threats
reported
December 30,
2004 by McAfee:
Full descriptions including virus characteristics, symptoms, aliases
and removal instructions are available by clicking on the
link. This virus alert is in addition to those posted in previous
month's News Reporter
issues.
|
Some notes about the Zafi.d worm
(W32/Zafi.D)
This new variant contains the
following characteristics:
- W32/Zafi.D
added December 14
US-CERT reported a new variant of the Zafi virus referred to as
"W32/Zafi.D" or "W32.Erkez.D@mm". It arrives as an attachment to
an email containing a holiday greeting message. Upon opening the
attachment, the virus scans certain files on the user's system
collecting email addresses, then attempts to mail itself to all
e-mail addresses it found. It will also display an error message
"Error in packed file!".
In addition to email propagation, the virus attempts to spread
through peer-to-peer file sharing networks by copying itself as
either 'winamp 5.7 new!.exe' or 'ICQ 2005a new!.exe' into certain
folders on the user's system.
In summary, this worm :
- contains its own mail engine to
construct outgoing messages
- spoofs the From: address
- harvests target email addresses
from the victim machine
- outgoing email message body is
either in Hungarian or English
- displays Peer to peer
worm behavior
- shuts down security services (This
is really nasty!...Richard)
|
In last month's issue of the
News Reporter,
I posted an alert to be wary of 'friendly email messages' arriving
during the holiday season. Through a careless moment, the CWS.mrhop
returned to my computer with a vengeance. I opened an email attachment
from a friend, a friend whose emails never caused a problem.
To learn how easily bad things happen, and heed the advice on how you
can avoid making these simple mistakes, the details are posted
on our Blog
here
If this can happen to someone who uses the internet a lot, think of all of the unwary and inexperienced people who enjoy surfing
the internet and communicating with family and friends. Their
computers are among the prime targets to be attacked (and we have
recently found just the thing to help them
keep the Hackers from
loading their PCs with viruses, worms and other
pests).
How to help everyday internet users become aware, and protect them from the
potential
loss of private and personal information, files, important data, and
even their
identity is the Goal of many organizations, software providers, and
even
some individual webmasters, is the theme of our publications.
You can be a part of our "Computer Virus Awareness Campaign"
and direct your family and friends to these helpful websites, such as
ours, at
https://www.firewalls-and-virus-protection.com ,and suggest they
subscribe to this newsletter.
The Firewalls and Virus Protection website contains the information
they
really need, it's easy to read and understand, and it wont cost you a
cent. |
To Top
Here's our usual reminder that you can download a free virus checking
and removal tool at the Firewalls and Virus Protection site.
STINGER checks and removes viruses already in your computer.
The program fits neatly on a floppy disc - a perfect way to clean up
your computer if a worm or other 'rogueware' has disabled your ability
to use your computer to get back on the Internet and update your
security ware.
If
you don't have an online anti-virus program yet, I suggest you use
STINGER until you do....Richard
|
Download this FREE scanning and
removal tool from the Firewalls and Virus Protection
website at
STINGER. It finds and removes
about 45 other active viruses and worms.
Download the
December 14 ,2004 update |
Look for the STINGER Icon
|
|
Ever wonder How you can
really Keep hackers, Worms and Germs out of your PC? We feel
that we discovered the Mother LODE of information on protecting
ourselves from continuing attacks by Hackers. It's an eBook by
the 20 plus year veteran of internet security consulting ...Mr Bill
Hely.
We found "The Hacker's Nightmare"!
There's so much
valuable information and just plain common sense
contained in this
eBook, that we could fill this and future issues of our News
Reporter for the next few months just talking about it.
Every single user of an
Internet-connected Windows computer NEEDS the kind of
information contained in
The Hacker's Nightmare. Even so, until now only experts had
this knowledge. Now this essential information is yours --- in a
language you can understand and in a format you can easily
implement for yourself.
Just one of the treasures we found is the Free Anti-Virus
program by GRISOFT,
highly recommended by Mr. Hely and available to all of our
readers. We downloaded and are using it now. Get your Free
download
HERE
And how about building your own Rock Solid Firewall from an old
PC?
Bill Hely has designed a webpage that describes many of the
security tricks and tools that will help keep that nasty stuff
out of your computer.
Review The Hacker's Nightmare Story HERE. Some sample (Free)
chapters are available to early visitors.
Don't think that this is is
just for Professionals and Small Business Operators. Much of
Bill Hely's information can easily be applied to keeping even
the less experienced internet user out of the deep and murky
depths of despair resulting from Hacker attacks, virus grief and
spyware intrusions.
Visit now
and Learn the Truth About Computer & Internet Security
I'm confident that this will be a rewarding experience for you.
... Richard |
To
Top
More about using the
Newest AOL Web Browser
In recent issues, we commented on our experience with a variety
of web browsers. After our IE hijacking experience, we
looked at a few other browsers that might be less targeted by
hackers and crackers.
We upgraded the AOL Service on another of our
computers with the new AOL
9.0 Security Edition. Because it is a fairly old
computer with a slower dial-up modem, we used the Free CD
provided by AOL.
Installation was quick and very easy.
The program works great and has a bunch of new features. Primary
among them is the anti-virus feature. You'll still
need a strong firewall and the program will detect and advise
you if you have an existing firewall. You'll also need to spend some time reading how to make the best
use of this version, and locating and resetting many of the
things that are changed to AOL's new default settings or
provided as options.
Among the first things we noticed after installation was the
addition to the desktop of many little icons linking to a bunch
of AOL features and services. The main AOL program Start links
appeared as icons in the Start up list, in the task bar at the
bottom of the desktop and on the desktop itself.
Since we don't expect to be using many of these features linked
to the icons, we made a desktop folder, named it 'Other AOL
links', and dragged and dropped the ones we might eventually use
into this folder.
From a security point of view, it appears as if AOL 9.0 Security
release has anticipated many of the concerns of everyday
internet users. Among the features that we found very valuable
are the built in Anti-virus protection, and
email
spam protection
Web pop-up controls
Parental controls
spyware protection
Computer system check-up
security based AOL extras
Because there is so much that AOL 9.0 has to offer, lesser
experienced users will probably need help in setting it up to
benefit from all of the Security and User Accessibility
features.
Our opinion: Current users of the older AOL programs should
seriously consider up-grading and using the default settings as
they learn the tricks to personalizing their copies.
We're still 'personalizing' the Firefox1 browser to suit our preferences
and will report on this in a future
News Reporter.
.............Richard |
To Top |
Privacy Theft
- -
This message is being shared
among many people on the internet. I put it here as an alert because
it describes a very clever way that scammers can steal credit card
and other personal information from you.
These scammers didn't sound like thieves, which is the way
internet phishing theft often happens.
The person that was scammed has related
this as a personal experience.
Here's her story--
You can
Refresh your knowledge
on Phishing and Spoofing at the Articles and Reports
pages of our website; Firewalls and Virus Protection
Help for the Hijacked !
Even if you have only a few of hijacked
browser symptoms we've mentioned many times, scanning your computer for hidden CWS variants is a good
move. Let CWSShredder (it's included with
SpySubtract PRO where
you can
Download a free trial) find and remove these potential browser
hijacking parasites, and then check out the Xsoftpy program. It's one of the few virus
scanners we've found that actually finds and removes CWS.mrhop.
Download XoftSpy and Scan Your PC for Free!
We encourage you to visit
SpywareInfo.com/ It's loaded with
powerful information and helpful advice that zeros in on the hijacking
problem. If you are experiencing any similar problems, be sure to
follow the link to their forum. There are literally thousands
of postings from which you will learn and possibly find the advice
that will help you resolve your own issues.
We receive no compensation from SpywareInfo, but we do support their
completely Free website, newsletter and software with a small
financial contribution so that they can continue to provide this
outstanding service to their thousands of appreciative followers, like
us. If you have occasion to use it, would you consider doing the same?
You can download HijackThis from the Software link on the
SpywareInfo website. Be sure to read and follow their instructions to
the letter if you want good results.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
We learned about this program from the extraordinary website and
forums built and maintained by James Healan, webmaster of SpywareInfo.com.
We encourage you to visit
SpywareInfo.com/ It's loaded with
powerful information and helpful advice that zeros in on the hijacking
problem. If you are experiencing any similar problems, be sure to
follow the link to their forum. There are literally thousands
of postings from which you will learn and possibly find the advice
that will help you resolve your own issues. |
To Top |
Family Security
We post these links to help parents, grandparents and guardians
guide today's young internet surfers to safe sites. There are many
other website creators who feel the same concerns and responsibility.
These are just a few of their sites that we have
personally reviewed and tested as safe for our Grandchildren. Check them out and share them with the
young people you care about.
Please note the 'AMBER ALERT" scrolling at the bottom of this
table
|
Reviews of
Family Safe Sites |
|
CRAYOLA
|
The Crayola website goes
beyond being just for Kids with its sections for Parents
and Educators, too. We wouldn't hesitate to send our children
and grandchildren here for entertainment and education. Here's
the LINK |
|
|
PBS Kids is a respected and trusted site.
We would not hesitate to send our children and grandchildren
there for entertainment and education, either. Their Privacy Policy is
very assuring. Families visiting the site can feel safe
regarding potential threats to family privacy and their children's
welfare. Jump to it from
HERE http://pbskids.org/ |
|
 |
Our Firewalls-and-virus-protection.com
website has been Certified 'Family Safe' by the
Institute of Family Safe Businesses. |
|
Ask Jeeves for Kids
|
Ask Jeeves is a
trademark of Ask Jeeves, Inc., Copyright 1996-2000 Ask Jeeves,
Inc.
Ask Jeeves for Kids has great Study Tools, Fun and Games and
News Resources, all Safe.
Visit Ask Jeeves
for Kids Home page Here |
|
|
Check out the
Kid Friendly pages HERE |
and the
Parent Friendly Links HERE |
|
|
We receive no compensation for
displaying these links and you will be under No Obligation when
you visit them. They are here because we care about the safety
of everyone who uses the internet, especially our Kids. |
|
|
See more family related links on the
Personal Privacy and
IdentityTheft
page at the Firewalls-and-virus-protection website if you are at all
concerned for your own security
and that of your family.
Here
are A few more helpful resources
"Keep
Your Private Information PRIVATE"
 Lock away all of your Passwords, Images,
Documents,
Video and Audio into one Encrypted database for your eyes only.
Enigma enables you to Encrypt and store almost anything so that only
you can access the files through a master password chosen by you. Of
course, all or any of your Encrypted files can be restored to their
original state any time you choose.
You can even backup and restore the entire database to and from CDs to
ensure that you lose nothing even if your hard disk dies.
To
Top |
|
Publications
Use these Free Reports to help your
family and friends:
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 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 some important chapters from our
Firewalls site and created small downloadable reports
that can easily be printed and distributed to the people you'd like to help
avoid 'virus grief'.
|
 |
Bookshelf and
Special Report Alerts
|
Is Your
Firewalls and Virus Protection Safe Enough?
This FREE report will help you identify viruses, prepare for attacks
and infections and guide you in their removal. It's a 9 page,
easy reading guide that covers the threats we all face in our
daily use of the internet. It's a basic education in
understanding and Avoiding Virus Grief
Down load it from this link (it's in PDF format):
http://www.RichardPresents.com/safefirewall.zip
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 |
|
|
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Is a Keystroke Logger Being Used To Spy
On You?
Many of the tools and tricks in use today to spy on
your internet activities are exposed in this 7 page report. This
look into spyware will alert you to the ease in which your
identity could be compromised, or stolen.
Open the FREE report in a new webpage by clicking
Are
Keystroke Loggers
Spying On You?
(No downloading necessary, and you can print it right from your
browser window.)
|
|
|
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
How Much Money would it cost you to
regain the use of your computer after a serious virus infection?
It cost one of our friends a whole lot of money, much aggravation
and lost time, lost records, and a major inconvenience to recover
from the havoc caused by the worms and viruses that had infiltrated
their computer over a period of many months.
In case you missed this FREE report on the
Firewalls-and-Virus-Protection website,
you can read
it here. Our friends have recovered full use of their
computer and now encourage everyone to learn from their
experiences. Please print the report and share it with your
family, friends and associates.
|
|
Visit the
Federal Trade Commission (FTC)
website with its many publications relating to protecting the security
of your family, both on the internet and off. They are FREE. You can go to their pages covering
Consumer (family)
protection
HERE.
|
To Top
|
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.
Most of them have a purchasable Up Grade option, and by trying the
free versions, you can upgrade the ones that worked best for you.
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.
Same thing for protective software. We add it whenever we
find tools that will benefit our site visitors. (You did check out
this month's free download of the AVG virus protection program,
Didn't you?). It would be a
good idea to bookmark and check back regularly so that you don't miss
newly added items.
To Top |
Reviews
(some encouraging news
about controlling SPAM and Spyware ).
|
 |
A recent Associated Press article reported that a Federal Judge in
Clinton, Iowa has made a $1 billion award in a suit involving
Spam damages suffered by an Internet Service Provider. |
DAVENPORT, Iowa., December, 2004.
Felt to be one of the largest judicial decisions against companies
accused of sending junk e-mails, U.S. District Judge Charles Wolle
ruled that Mr. Kramer's business, CIS Internet Services, was harmed by
the unsolicited e-mails.
"It's definitely a victory for all of
us that open up our e-mail and find lewd and malicious and fraudulent
e-mail in our boxes every day,'' Kramer said.
He is unlikely to ever collect the
large award made possible through an Iowa law that allows plaintiffs
to claim damages of $10 per spam message, but he hopes to at least
cover his legal fees and expenses..
(Sounds to us like another win for the
Good Guys)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
"User Education" is the
focus of our Firewalls and Virus Protection website and this "Security
Alert News Reporter".
Please help us to help your family, friends, and associates enjoy a
safer and less frustrating internet experience. We encourage you to
share this information with them.
All of us, too, need to act, by educating ourselves and by making
sure we obtain the necessary programs to protect our computers.
Those programs include installing a firewall; installing and updating
anti-virus software; using anti-spyware software that can identify and
delete programs that have migrated to our computers; using spam
filters to protect e-mail; and downloading patches that update
software.
Keep in mind that these programs are only as good as their latest
updates!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Ever wonder how a Hacker
thinks?
The Tech Republic website has
the answer to that question in this free download at
Thinking Like a Hacker
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
To
Top |
A big Thank you to all who participated in the
Official U.S. Marines Toys
for Tots Program
again this year. Many
young children from financially disadvantaged families received gifts
that they would not have gotten without your help.
Thank you for your generosity...
Richard
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ |
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
With your permission, we'll publish your questions and answers in
forthcoming issues of the
NewsReporter.
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
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.
And finally for this issue,
we hope you can take our little
survey and visit our new
Blog Pages, read our postings and contact us with you comments
and opinions. Everything you have to offer will help us do a better
job to help you. Thank you. ...Richard
Read our Privacy Policy
|
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To
Top
As promised in our first
issue, we aren't going to stuff your mail box with un-ending mailings every
day, week, or whenever. When there's important news about the
topics we've noted, we'll let you know, usually monthly.
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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in our Computer Virus Awareness Campaign by Sharing this with a friend |
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Archives
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1, Issue 01
Volume 1, Issue 02
Volume 1, Issue 03
Volume 1, Issue 04
Volume 1, Issue 05
Volume 1, Issue 06
Volume 1, Issue 07 |
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CERTIFIED SAFE
for All Family Members
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Get the latest News
Take a look at our Security Alert Blog
HERE.
A Blog (web log) is a quick and easy
way to share timely information (nearly daily updated news, trends,
developments), answer questions, express opinions and exchange views. |
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