Computer Safety & News

Corporate and business users should track this important change and it’s availability in early 2014: http://www.zdnet.com/microsoft-office-2013-service-pack-1-to-arrive-in-early-2014-7000023505/ QUOTE: Microsoft is planning to deliver Service Pack (SP) 1 for Office 2013, SharePoint 2013 and Exchange 2013 in early 2014, company officials said on November 20. Microsoft shared a partial list of some of the updates that will […]

McAfee’s Q3 Threats report focuses on Digital Trust concerns: http://blogs.mcafee.com/executive-perspectives/serious-trust-issues-abound-in-the-mcafee-labs-q3-threats-report QUOTE: Most important was the issue of whether we question the validity of our digital trust mechanisms upon which our software-driven Digital Age has relied for years. Every organization on the face of the earth relies on security controls, be they on the endpoint or […]

Symantec documents several fake AV update email or website messages http://www.symantec.com/connect/blogs/fake-av-software-updates-are-distributing-malware QUOTE: A new clever way of social engineering spam is going around today that attempts to trick users into running malware on their computers. The methods malware authors are using include emails pretending to be from various antivirus software companies with an important system […]

Symantec shares  safety awareness tips for Cyber Monday … http://www.symantec.com/connect/blogs/cyber-monday-shoppers-and-retailers-beware-scams-and-attacks QUOTE:  December 2, 2013 marks Cyber Monday, the day when Internet retailers expect to experience a major surge in traffic thanks to people shopping online for the holiday season. The concept of Cyber Monday, or Mega Monday as it’s known in Europe, was introduced back in […]

F-Secure shares an informative article related to cybercrime attacks against digital currency http://www.f-secure.com/weblog/archives/00002644.html QUOTE: Bitcoin, and other digital currencies such as Litecoin and Peercoin, will change the way we exchange money. But they come with a major flaw: they can also be used to turn infected computers into devices that “print” money. The beauty of […]

Trend Labs share an informative article that this holiday season is most dangerous times of year, due to heavy e-commerce and gift giving.  Cybercriminals see as “prime opportunity to steal“ http://blog.trendmicro.com/trendlabs-security-intelligence/the-season-for-danger-holiday-season-spam-and-phishing/ http://about-threats.trendmicro.com/us/webattack/74/Beware+of+HolidayThemed+Multicomponent+Online+Threats QUOTE:  For many, the holiday season is a season for shopping and spending. But cybercriminals see it in a different light—they see it as […]

Trend shares awareness of new targeted attacks circulating in Asia-Pacific region http://blog.trendmicro.com/trendlabs-security-intelligence/jpeg-files-used-for-targeted-attack-malware/ QUOTE: We recently came across some malware of the SOGOMOT and MIRYAGO families that update themselves in an unusual way: they download JPEG files that contain encrypted configuration files/binaries. Not only that, we believe that this activity has been ongoing since at least […]

More details on Windows XP zero day exploit circulating … Ensuring Adobe Acrobat reader is patched will help mitigate dangers and all users have until April 2014 to move to later versions of Windows. https://technet.microsoft.com/en-us/security/advisory/2914486 https://isc.sans.edu/forums/diary/Microsoft+Security+Advisory+2914486+Vulnerability+in+Microsoft+Windows+Kernel+0+day+exploit+in+wild/17117 http://blog.trendmicro.com/trendlabs-security-intelligence/exploit-targeting-windows-zero-day-vulnerability-spotted/ http://www.fireeye.com/blog/technical/cyber-exploits/2013/11/ms-windows-local-privilege-escalation-zero-day-in-the-wild.html QUOTE (Trend Labs): We acquired this sample from a targeted attack. In this incident, a malicious PDF […]

Home and corporate users will benefit greatly in phasing out Windows XP, for the more secure kernel and browser architectures offered by Windows 7 and 8.1 … PC Magazine shares awareness of new vulnerability affecting older Windows XP version only. http://securitywatch.pcmag.com/vulnerabilities/318465-latest-microsoft-zero-day-targets-xp-unpatched-adobe-reader http://www.fireeye.com/blog/technical/cyber-exploits/2013/11/ms-windows-local-privilege-escalation-zero-day-in-the-wild.html QUOTE: Microsoft confirmed a zero-day vulnerability in Windows XP and Windows Server 2003 […]

PC Magazine shares awareness of extensive connectivity to Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and other social networks. Users need to think ahead of security risk especially with large # of malicious applications in circulation http://facecrooks.com/Internet-Safety-Privacy/85-Consumers-Use-Social-Media-Networks-While-Connected-Public-WiFi.html/ QUOTE:  They’re so popular, those ubiquitous mobile devices. For better or worse, we’ve evolved into a society that is a texting, Facebooking, […]