AIM worm plays nasty new trick
http://news.com.com/AIM+worm+plays+nasty+new+trick/2100-7349_3-5920403.html
A worm found spreading via America Online's Instant Messenger is carrying a nastier punch than usual, a security company has warned.
The unnamed worm delivers a cocktail of unwanted software, including a so-called rootkit, security experts at FaceTime Communications said Friday. A rootkit is a tool designed to go undetected by the security software used to lock down control of a computer after an initial hack.
"A very nasty bundle is downloaded to your machine" when you click on the worm link, said Tyler Wells, senior director of engineering at FaceTime. "This is the first time that we have seen a rootkit as part of the bundle of applications that is sent to your machine. It is a disturbing trend."
IM worm and malicious code attacks are happening more than ever before. The number of threats detected for instant-messaging and peer-to-peer networks rose 3,295 percent in the third quarter of 2005, compared with last year, according to a recent report from security provider IMlogic.
In addition to the "lockx.exe" rootkit file, the new worm delivers a version of the Sdbot Trojan horse, said FaceTime, which sells products to protect instant-messaging traffic. Sdbot opens a backdoor on the infected PC. The worm also places several spyware and adware applications, including 180Solutions, Zango, the Freepod Toolbar, MaxSearch, Media Gateway and SearchMiracle, the company added.
All that unwanted software can eat up system resources, slowing down the PC, Wells said. Also, the malicious applications will attempt to disable security programs and change the search page on the user's Web browser, FaceTime said. Selling green buildings with people power ID theft: Can it really be prevented? Bloggers jump on Libby indictment 'Lost' finds deeper reality online Previous Next
The worm was spotted in an AOL IM chatroom and infected one of the PCs that FaceTime uses for worm bait. The company said it also has seen the pest hit other computers. "It is still out there, and it is definitely something the user should be leery of," Wells said. "The rootkit is designed to not be detected, and that is the scary part."
Worms on IM networks can spread rapidly. They appear as a message from a buddy with a link that looks innocent, but in fact points to malicious code somewhere on the Internet. Once the user clicks on the link, malicious code is installed and runs on the computer. The worm then spreads itself by sending messages to all names on the victim's contact list.
The advice to users is to be careful when clicking on links in IM messages--even when they seem to come from friends--and to use up-to-date antivirus software. When receiving a link in an instant message, the best practice is to verify with the sender if the link was sent intentionally or not.
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Monday, October 31, 2005
Sunday, October 16, 2005
free programs for Virus scans,Spyware
I notice many new laptops/PCs come with Norton Internet Security 2005 AntiSpyware Edition.below is a poor review,at $80, Norton Internet Security 2005 AntiSpyware Edition doesn't offer the ease-of-use or the protection of some competing products.
for Virus scans,there are lower priced ,or free programs, like these links:
ClamWin Free Antivirus.
http://www.clamwin.com/
AVG Anti-Virus products
http://www.grisoft.com/doc/1
trendmicro
http://housecall.trendmicro.com/
panda
http://www.pandasoftware.com/products/activescan.htm
kaspersky
http://www.kaspersky.com/scanforvirus
as for Spyware,there are free programs,such as Lavasoft\Ad-Aware SE .
Norton Internet Security 2005 AntiSpyware Edition
Norton Internet Security 2005 AntiSpyware Edition is an all-in-one security suite that leaves most of the protective decision making for adware and spyware blocking and removal up to the user. One wrong choice and your system may continue to spy on you or dish up ads. It's one hefty product too, consuming over 300Mb and installing 11 services, 3 startup items, 2 Toolbars and 2 BHOs - thus it may be less than ideal for already taxed PCs.
Product features Norton Internet Security 2005 AntiSpyware Edition offers a fairly generic collection of features, including antivirus, antispyware, firewall, spam prevention, and privacy controls. The firewall is a blend of packet filtering and permission-based controls. Some sites that required our logging in were blocked by Norton and permissions had to be manually configured. In other cases, we found a wide range of carte blanche permissions had been granted - including the dubious Windows Messenger Service (not to be confused with MSN Messenger, the chat client). The Windows Messenger Service is most frequently targeted by adware and spyware purveyors to push unwanted advertising popups onto unsuspecting users' systems.
We did not test the spam filtering capabilities, a feature now offered by most major ISPs. And while its antivirus capabilities are as robust as most of the other major antivirus products, the update schedule is not. Typically, Symantec releases new updates on a weekly schedule unless a new threat is deemed medium level or higher. Symantec tends to be pretty conservative in this regard, and thus a new threat could circulate hours, days, or even a week before signatures are released.
Second-guessing for better protection The newest feature in Norton Internet Security 2005 AntiSpyware Edition is, of couse, spyware and adware detection. To test its spyware and adware removal, we installed a variety of adware and spyware on our test systems, logging and monitoring 70 key components to see how well Norton Internet Security 2005 AntiSpyware Edition addressed them. While the overall results weren't bad (Norton nabbed 79% overall), we achieved this score only by second-guessing the product's recommendation. Had we followed Norton's suggestions, our overall adware and spyware removal would have been much lower.
Test Results Our 70 tracked components installed by various adware and spyware included 27 active running processes and services. Of these 27, Norton Internet Security 2005 AntiSpyware Edition nabbed 22 (88%). Eleven out of fourteen Browser Helper Objects and Toolbars were removed, for an overall score of 79%. Only 70% of Registry Run keys and Startup links were removed. However, Norton Internet Security 2005 AntiSpyware Edition did fare better with our browser start and search page changes - correcting 100% of these.
Repeated warnings Though Norton Internet Security 2005 AntiSpyware Edition recommended we keep several of our adware and spyware infectors, when we tried to follow its advice it often led to an endless loop of warnings with a recommendation to ignore or allow the infestation. On the plus side, the constant loop of warnings might annoy even those folks who would otherwise follow the Symantec recommendations - causing them to override the recommendation and remove the adware or spyware. But at $80, Norton Internet Security 2005 AntiSpyware Edition doesn't offer the ease-of-use or the protection of some competing products.
for Virus scans,there are lower priced ,or free programs, like these links:
ClamWin Free Antivirus.
http://www.clamwin.com/
AVG Anti-Virus products
http://www.grisoft.com/doc/1
trendmicro
http://housecall.trendmicro.com/
panda
http://www.pandasoftware.com/products/activescan.htm
kaspersky
http://www.kaspersky.com/scanforvirus
as for Spyware,there are free programs,such as Lavasoft\Ad-Aware SE .
Norton Internet Security 2005 AntiSpyware Edition
Norton Internet Security 2005 AntiSpyware Edition is an all-in-one security suite that leaves most of the protective decision making for adware and spyware blocking and removal up to the user. One wrong choice and your system may continue to spy on you or dish up ads. It's one hefty product too, consuming over 300Mb and installing 11 services, 3 startup items, 2 Toolbars and 2 BHOs - thus it may be less than ideal for already taxed PCs.
Product features Norton Internet Security 2005 AntiSpyware Edition offers a fairly generic collection of features, including antivirus, antispyware, firewall, spam prevention, and privacy controls. The firewall is a blend of packet filtering and permission-based controls. Some sites that required our logging in were blocked by Norton and permissions had to be manually configured. In other cases, we found a wide range of carte blanche permissions had been granted - including the dubious Windows Messenger Service (not to be confused with MSN Messenger, the chat client). The Windows Messenger Service is most frequently targeted by adware and spyware purveyors to push unwanted advertising popups onto unsuspecting users' systems.
We did not test the spam filtering capabilities, a feature now offered by most major ISPs. And while its antivirus capabilities are as robust as most of the other major antivirus products, the update schedule is not. Typically, Symantec releases new updates on a weekly schedule unless a new threat is deemed medium level or higher. Symantec tends to be pretty conservative in this regard, and thus a new threat could circulate hours, days, or even a week before signatures are released.
Second-guessing for better protection The newest feature in Norton Internet Security 2005 AntiSpyware Edition is, of couse, spyware and adware detection. To test its spyware and adware removal, we installed a variety of adware and spyware on our test systems, logging and monitoring 70 key components to see how well Norton Internet Security 2005 AntiSpyware Edition addressed them. While the overall results weren't bad (Norton nabbed 79% overall), we achieved this score only by second-guessing the product's recommendation. Had we followed Norton's suggestions, our overall adware and spyware removal would have been much lower.
Test Results Our 70 tracked components installed by various adware and spyware included 27 active running processes and services. Of these 27, Norton Internet Security 2005 AntiSpyware Edition nabbed 22 (88%). Eleven out of fourteen Browser Helper Objects and Toolbars were removed, for an overall score of 79%. Only 70% of Registry Run keys and Startup links were removed. However, Norton Internet Security 2005 AntiSpyware Edition did fare better with our browser start and search page changes - correcting 100% of these.
Repeated warnings Though Norton Internet Security 2005 AntiSpyware Edition recommended we keep several of our adware and spyware infectors, when we tried to follow its advice it often led to an endless loop of warnings with a recommendation to ignore or allow the infestation. On the plus side, the constant loop of warnings might annoy even those folks who would otherwise follow the Symantec recommendations - causing them to override the recommendation and remove the adware or spyware. But at $80, Norton Internet Security 2005 AntiSpyware Edition doesn't offer the ease-of-use or the protection of some competing products.
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