All you need to do to be infected by this virus is visit the homepage of Web hosting provider FortuneCity.com. CNET reports that a malicious program, dubbed QHosts, infects PCs using a recent flaw in Microsoft’s Internet Explorer to take control of how computers look up Internet addresses. The program takes advantage of a critical flaw … Read more
Virus writers are getting smarter. It’s official. The latest bi-annual Internet Security Threat Report from Symantec found that 64 per cent of all new attacks targeted vulnerabilities less than one year old. The Blaster worm, for example, appeared only 26 days after the vulnerability it exploited was announced, according to The Register. Symantec’s study … Read more
Fridrik Skulason, founder of anti-virus maker FRISK, has fired off a broadside about a problem I looked at in recent postings and my last Dow Jones column (sorry, subscribers only…): that some anti-virus companies are partly to blame for the recent e-mail flood generated by the Sobig.F worm. In an open letter, he wrote: “What … Read more
Fridrik Skulason’s open letter draws attention to another point: that while Sobig.F was scheduled to die out on Sept. 10, we might just have been lucky this time. He compares the two recent attacks — Sobig and Blaster — and concludes that if the guy or guys who write the next version of Sobig look closely, … Read more
Here’s one way to get rid of spyware and adware — software that’s inveigled its way onto your computer and is phoning home on your browsing habits, usually to throw unwanted ads onto your screen. interMute, Inc. has released a new version of SpySubtract, that detects and safely removes spyware and security threats, which includes … Read more