Antivirus vendors melt on Mac Malware Scare

Coincidence or not, a pair of antivirus software manufacturers offer new products at a time when Mac malware makes headlines.

The first is Avast free Antivirus for Mac. Although the product is not new, this version, now in beta, is strongly reworked from older versions. It includes analysis on application of the system of entire file and shields antivirus for e-mail, Web sites and applications.

The other program is F-Secure Anti-Virus for Mac, which costs $40 per year. It offers a virus in real time, scanner, and a "panic button" that instantly blocks all Internet traffic to the computer.

Other companies, such as Symantec and Intego, offered a software antivirus Mac for years.

Security Mac has been a major problem recently because of the MacDefender malware and its variants, stealthily on the Web through sites that use search engine optimization spam chapter in the search results. MacDefender is done so that the antivirus software, showing a Web page that looks like a screen for the detection of virus and then prompting the user to complete the installation process. If completed, the malware will require credit card information to remove non-existent viruses.

Apple to address this problem itself, with a security updating which blocks MacDefender and its variants. This resulted in a bit of carrot in which malicious programs try to defeat the defences of Apple, and Apple responds with daily updates of new malware definitions.

In other words, Apple security update is the work of antivirus software, at least for this particular strain of malicious software. An old issue: users of Mac Do need software antiviru in the first place?

Personally, I wouldn't install anti-virus on a Mac software. A threat against the malware as MacDefender may be rebutted with a little Krafty, because it cannot install without user's permission or deploy on its own. As for the virus, which can install and deploy on their own, there is very little evidence of major threats in the wild, and said Apple him have built-in protection against these attacks.

But MacDefender showed the bad guys are showing a greater interest in attacking Mac users. Anti-virus software manufacturers will argue that you can never be too cautious, but the best answer - and that does tax your wallet or your CPU - are attention without panic.

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Malware on the Rise

Malware is the thing to look out for these days. McAfee claims that they tracked more than six million different unique malware samples in the first quarter alone. Those numbers make the first quarter the most active quarter for malware issues ever.

In a statement, Vincent Weafer, the senior vice president of McAfee Labs, said, "It's been a busy start to 2011 for cybercriminals."

McAfee went on to say that February was the most active malware month. In February, 2011 there were 2.75 million samples alone. According to the company, in March, 2011 there were also more than 350,000 fake anti-virus software samples, which was the highest level in over a year; however, partially in part to the demise of the Rustock botnet, spam is at the lowest level since 2007.

"Even though this past quarter once again showed that spam has slowed, it doesn't mean that cybercriminals aren't actively pursuing alternate avenues," Weafer continued. "We're seeing a lot of emerging threats, such as Android malware and new botnets attempting to take over where Rustock left off, that will have a significant impact on the activity we see quarter after quarter."

The most popular OS for mobile malware is still Symbian, but McAfee reported that Android is gaining on Symbian and came in at number two. McAfee thinks that Android isn’t number one because Google allows for the side-loading of Android apps. This means that it does not have a main spot where it checks apps for any possible suspicious behavior.

Just this past week, Google had to remove more than two dozen apps from their Android Market due to malware issues. NetQuin, a mobile security firm, also identified more than 20 malware filled Android apps that went to the extent of auto-dialing phones to pile up high user fees.

When dealing with spam, McAfee tracked more than 1.5 trillion messages each and every day, but thankfully that number is less than half of what it was just a year ago.

Government agencies across the globe have been working hard to crack down on cybercrime. In September dozens of international cyber-gangsters who were responsible for the creation and spread of the Zeus botnet were arrested. Also, thanks to Microsoft, FireEye (an anti-malware company), the University of Washington and Pfizer (a pharmaceutical firm) Rustock was taken down in March.

In their statement McAfee warned that the creators of the Zeus bot are hard at work merging the Zeus code with the SpyEye botnet. This would affect banking and online transactions, so it could cause some major issues if it isn’t handled.

"There was a strong uptick in new botnet infections toward the end of Q1, most likely due to the reseeding process, where cybercriminals slow down activity in order to spend time rebuilding botnets," McAfee said. "The botnet takedowns have resulted in an increase in the price of sending spam on the underground marketplace, showing that the laws of supply and demand also apply to cybercrime."

So why are people even falling for these threats? Well, cyber-criminals are very sophisticated these days. They make their scams look legit, so it’s hard to tell that it’s a threat sometimes until it’s too late. It seems that the spam that is promoting an actual product seemed to lure in the most people. IGNORE the e-mails advertising iPads and HDTVs. McAfee also noted a rise in “banker” Trojans. They lure people in talking about things like UPS, FedEx, USPS and the IRS. Unfortunately, on top of that, scammers are also taking advantage of crisis events like the Japan earthquake and tsunamis.

It’s just important to pay attention to what you are opening up or downloading before you do it. If you’re careful and take the necessary precautions, you should most likely be able to avoid any issues.

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Fake MacDefender Malware Originating from Russian Payment Processor

For about a month there has been a fake MacDefender malware that has been circulating and plaguing Apple computer owners. No one seemed to know where it was coming from, but finally on Friday, May 27 a computer security researcher made the claim that the fake malware could be traced back to an online Russian payment processor called ChronoPay.

"Some of the recent scams that used bogus security alerts in a bid to frighten Mac users into purchasing worthless security software appear to have been the brainchild of ChronoPay, Russia's largest online payment processor and something of a pioneer in the rogue anti-virus business," wrote security researcher Brian Krebs on his KrebsonSecurity blog.

The fake MacDefender and the incredibly similar scareware called MacProtector and MacSecurity tended to attack from points like infected Google Image search results. Once your computer is infected, it is incredibly difficult for Mac users to remove the malware. The issue is that the malware doesn’t have a dock icon and it attaches itself to the launch menu of the computer.

Krebs was able to trace the newest strains of the scareware back to ChronoPay by simply examining the two different domains that the software directs all of its Mac users to go to for a paid software security solution. While investigating, he found out that both mac-defence.com and macbookprotection.com were associated with the e-mail address fc@mail-eye.com. According to leaked ChronoPay documents, this e-mail address is owned by Alexandra Volkova, the company’s financial controller.

According to Krebs, both of the Mac domains listed above have been suspended by Webpoint.com, which is a Czech registrar; however, Krebs said that the fc@mail-eye.com account was used recently to register appledefense.com and appleprodefense.com. Despite this, Mac users have not yet reported being directed to either of these sites via malware like MacDefender.

"ChronoPay has been an unabashed 'leader' in the scareware industry for quite some time," Krebs writes. Just in 2008, it was the core processor of a site called trafficconvertor.biz. This was an “anti-virus” program that was designed to release the first strain of the Conficker worm. It was an incredibly destructive virus that still works to infect millions of computers across the globe.

"In the coming days, Apple will deliver a Mac OS X software update that will automatically find and remove MacDefender malware and its known variants," Apple wrote. “The update will also help protect users by providing an explicit warning if they download this malware."

Apple also released a document with detailed instructions for Mac users on ways to eliminate MacDefender from their computers.

Find out what is going on in the Tech Army World.



What are the Top 10 Money Making Missions?

What other companies have joined and what do they do?

How do I join the
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Microsoft Security Essentials beta

Hi

Test it from Microsoft Connect:

http://go.microsoft.com/fwlink/?LinkId=197385

I used MSE and I am delighted with it.

Good Free solution

sAnTos

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FortiCleanUp Tool for S60

The FortiCleanUp tool has been developed by the FortiGuard Antivirus team to disable and remove the specific mobile malware and related variants. The tool, once installed, allows the user to perform quick scan to auto deactivate. A full scan can then be performed to remove the malware and its variants from the file system. A license to use the application is provided free of charge, courtesy of Fortinet.

Support has been provided for the following vulnerabilities: CurseSMS

Free Download: FortiCleanUp_CurseSMS_103.sis
(for S60 Symbian 7/8)
FortiCleanup_CurseSMS_v_1_0_3_signed.sis
(for S60 Symbian 9)

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Microsoft Synthetic Ethernet Port error.

Hi

I have a DL380G5, 22G, 80G HDD.

I have Hyper-V with some VMs.

I have a lot of problems:

a) I switch on the VM. I got this error: Microsoft Synthetic Ethernet Port error.



b) I stop the Hyper-V service. All VMs configured disapared.
c) The VM never switch on.

My first thought was the Hyper-V version.
I got the last version with all updates.

Finally. The problem was the TrendMicro Antivirus.
I uninstalled it, all everythig goes well.
I think, It occurs with all antivirus.

Regards
sAnTos

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Kaspersky Anti-Virus Mobile v6.0.0.49

Description:
Kaspersky® Anti-Virus Mobile is a convenient and reliable solution that protects smartphones from malicious programs that target mobile platforms.

In addition to protecting your mobile device from viruses, worms, and Trojans, Kaspersky Anti-Virus Mobile filters out spam and protects your personal information.

Scanning and updates are automatic by default, but there are convenient settings built in that allow the user to set up manual scanning and update schedules. In addition, database updates can be done via computer.

Requiremetns:
- Smartphone WM 2003

More information:
http://www.kaspersky.com/...

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Airscanner Mobile AntiVirus v3.0

Description:
Simply the best antivirus for smartphone

Features:
Airscanner Mobile Antivirus is so advanced, attractive, and easy to use, beginners and experts alike love it.
• Quarantine or eradicate airborne viruses and malware.
• Fast, optimized scanning speed based on patent pending technology.
• Real-time background virus scanning.
• Automatic online updates of virus signatures and scanning engine.
• A very advanced, granular scheduler allows you to design your own test plans.
• Easy to use, yet powerful enough to satisfy the most knowledge-hungry power users and network admins.
• Intercept memory resident viruses with an advanced task manager/process killer.
• Detect spware, Trojans and other malware with expert tools.

More information:
http://www.airscanner.com/downloads/smartphone/smav...

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