Harry Waldron – Security News

PC Magazine reviewed and ranked cleaning tools, free AV projects, and premium suites in the attached article:

AntiVirus Products for 2012 – Review by PC Magazine
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2372364,00.asp

QUOTE: To evaluate antivirus utilities I rely on hands-on, real-world testing. The malware removal test involves installing each product on a dozen malware-infested virtual machines and challenging it to clean them up. This article explains how I get from those tests to the figures in the chart below: How We Test Malware Removal   I also refer to reports from major independent antivirus testing labs. The labs have vastly more resources than I do, so they can perform large-scale tests that would take more time than I have available. The chart below specifically lists results for the companies whose 2012 products are rounded up here.

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PC Magazine shares an recent review of MSE 4.0 … In personal testing on all family PCs, there is more consistency in auto-updating and it continues to be transparent in terms of impacting performance.   No issues so far in use on XP and Windows 7 systems.

Microsoft Security Essentials 4.0
http://www.pcmag.com/article2/0,2817,2403986,00.asp

QUOTE: This product is a straight-up antivirus, not a feature-stuffed suite wannabe. Its main window shows current security status, with a button to resolve any problems. Another button launches an on-demand scan. That’s it!

Pros — Does a decent job protecting an already-clean system. Good ratings from independent antivirus test labs. Free!

Cons — Unusually slow scan. Failed to run on one test system. Low detection rate in malware cleanup test. Failed to thoroughly clean up threats it did detect.

Bottom Line — Microsoft Security Essentials 4.0 does a decent job protecting a clean PC, but in testing its cleanup of already-infested systems wasn’t thorough.

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Facecrooks Security shares an awareness of another new scam in circulation:

Facebook – Free Facebook Credits Generator Scam
http://facecrooks.com/Scam-Watch/free-facebook-credits-generator-facebook-scam.html

QUOTE:  Alternate Message: Get Free Facebook Credits

Scam Type: Survey Scam

Trending: May 2012

Why it’s a Scam: First off, always be suspicious of special offers that require you to like multiple items. Also, requiring you to share posts on your Facebook wall is a favorite trick of the scammers. This is how the scam is spread very rapidly on Facebook. Think before you click, so you aren’t willingly spreading scams and spam on Facebook. When you ‘FINALLY Click here to claim your Credits,’ the following survey scam loads

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Facecrooks shares links to monitor developments in Privacy

Privacy – List of key web advocates
http://facecrooks.com/Internet-Safety-Privacy/top-facebook-pages-every-privacy-advocate-should-like.html

QUOTE: The organizations listed below offer educational resources and information on how you can get involved to help protect your digital privacy rights.  We encourage you to ‘Like” their Facebook pages and visit their websites. For your convenience, you can subscribe to a Facebook Interest List that we created - Online Privacy Resources (this list includes all of the pages below)

• Electronic Frontier Foundation - The Electronic Frontier Foundation (EFF) is the first line of defense when your rights in the digital world come under attack.
• EPIC – Electronic Privacy Information Center - Defending Privacy – EPIC is a public research center, based in Washington, DC. For 15 years, EPIC has been on the front lines of the leading battles to safeguard privacy, freedom of expression, and civil liberties.
• Center for Democracy & Technology - CDT is a public interest group working to keep the Internet open, innovative, and free.
• IAPP (International Association of Privacy Professionals) - The International Association of Privacy Professionals is the largest association of privacy pros with more than 10,000 members in 70 countries. It helps define, support and improve the profession through networking, education and certification.
• Data Privacy: NCSA - Data Privacy: NCSA is a a page managed by the National Cyber Security Alliance to help those interested in data protection and privacy keep up to date on the issues.
• Future of Privacy Forum - Advancing Responsible Privacy Practices.
• Privacy and Security Guide - Unofficial Guide To Facebook Privacy And Security
• Facebook and Privacy - Like this Page to learn how to exercise your choice to share what you want with those you want, keep up with changes, and talk with others about the importance of privacy in our digital age.
• TRUSTe - protects your privacy and help companies build trust with their customers and users

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Facecrooks security highlights a new tool available to assess privacy for popular Facebook apps

http://facecrooks.com/Internet-Safety-Privacy/privacyscore-new-tool-rates-privacy-risk-of-the-most-popular-facebook-apps.html

QUOTE:  Privacyscore, a project conducted by Privacychoice, recently released a Facebook application that rates the privacy risks of the most popular Facebook applications. Pictured below is what you’ll see when you visit the app. Hovering over one of the featured apps, displays their score.

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As with all BETA products, a good working knowledge of how to work around issues is essential:

Microsoft – Security Essentials v4 BETA release
http://betanews.com/2012/04/25/microsoft-releases-security-essentials-4/

QUOTE: Microsoft has released Security Essentials 4.0, the latest version of its lightweight, straightforward antivirus package. The bulk of the changes this time are under the hood. MSE’s “Automatic Remediation” now does a better job of quarantining threats on its own, for instance, no user intervention required. And Microsoft claims scanning performance and malware detection rates have both improved on the previous build.

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Facebook is now actively promoting AV solutions that include free 6 month trial periods plus products like MSE, AVG, or AVAST that are completely free

Facebook Security Page
https://www.facebook.com/security

Facebook Security – AV Products being promoted for better security
http://facecrooks.com/Internet-Safety-Privacy/facebook-announces-av-marketplace-free-antivirus-better-platform-security.html

QUOTE: One of the more exciting announcements made in the post is that the security companies mentioned above will be sharing educational materials on the Facebook Security page.

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Hundreds of pages of data are highlighted in the latest release

Microsoft SIR Volume 12 release – Huge release of analytical information
http://blogs.technet.com/b/security/archive/2012/04/25/microsoft-security-intelligence-report-volume-12.aspx

QUOTE: Today we released the latest volume of the Microsoft Security Intelligence Report (SIR) containing a large body of new data and analysis on the threat landscape.  This volume of the SIR includes:

• Latest industry vulnerability disclosure trends and analysis
• Latest data and analysis of global vulnerability exploit activity
• Latest trends and analysis on global malware and potentially unwanted software
• Latest analysis of threat trends in more than 100 countries/regions around the world
• Latest data and insights on how attackers are using spam and other email threats
• Latest global and regional data on malicious websites including phishing sites, malware hosting sites and drive-by download sites

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A good article documenting the need to review phone bills in detail each month:

Mobile Security – How can you tell your phone is infected?
http://securitywatch.pcmag.com/none/296919-how-to-tell-if-your-phone-is-infected

QUOTE:  On a PC the signs are pretty obvious. Your computer slows to a near-screeching halt, your browser re-directs you to random websites, your friends are suddenly calling asking about your career change to become a Viagra distributor (since your email has probably been hacked). Your IT guy can often tell by looking at your process names, as malware authors might name their malicious process ‘svchsot.exe’ to look like a legit one ‘svhost.exe’ (see what I did there?). 

Harder To Tell On a Phone  — According to Kaspersky malware researcher Tim Armstrong, users usually don’t discover something’s wrong until they look at their phone bills and don’t recognize the numbers of text message recipients. Premium rate SMS Trojans are the most common type of mobile malware. This malware disguises itself in a legit-looking app, and secretly sends SMS short codes that bill the caller. Nor will an average user really be able to tell by checking app permissions. Android developers can choose from dozens of permissions, and as Armstrong notes, it’s often impossible to guess which are legitimate and which are warning signs.

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Both Windows and Mac users are protected if they are up-to-date on security patches.

http://securitywatch.pcmag.com/hacking/297184-new-multi-layer-malware-attack-uses-same-exploit-as-flashback

QUOTE: A malware attack called Flashback infested well over a half-million Macs last week by exploiting a Java vulnerability. All Mac users have since updated to Apple’s recently-released Java update, thereby rendering all Flashback variants powerless. Right. In your dreams! In the real world, hundreds of thousands of Macs remain infested, and a new threat has surfaced that gains entry using the same exploit but goes on to wreak even more havoc.

According to a post by Graham Cluley on Sophos’s Naked Security blog, Sophos researchers determined that this new threat is attacking both Mac and Windows computers through the same Java vulnerability Flashback used. Windows users who permit automatic updates should be safe, as Microsoft patched the vulnerability in mid-February. Windows and Mac users who haven’t updated are vulnerable.

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