• Their anti-virus programs blocks 1 billion malware a month. That’s 1,000,000,000 attempts to install viruses, trojans, password stealers, etc on to people’s PCs. A month. And that’s just by one small company.
• 1 in 15 people encounter a malware every day.
• They find about 3,000 new malware each day (that’s new and unique viruses, trojans, etc). They have 2.1 million in their database.

These statistics are not just marketing numbers, they give you an idea of how serious a problem malware is. If you don’t have a good anti-virus system installed on your computer they you need to take action now (today) and install something to protect you. Good anti-virus systems generally cost money – it’s a good investment, the cost of not buying one is usually greater.

And get something from a known vendor. Last week I talked about a comparison of anti-virus programs, you can use this as a guide.

And Macs and Linux computers aren’t safe either.

What’s wrong with Torrents?

• Don’t download Windows from file sharing systems such as BitTorrent. Get it from Microsoft or one of their vendors.
• If you download free operating systems such as Linux from torrents know how to do a checksum test.
• Don’t use pirated software. Apart from being immoral and illegal, pirated software is often plagued with malware.

What if you already downloaded Windows 7 RC from BitTorrent? The safest thing to do is to download it again from Microsoft’s site, reformat your PC, and reinstall the official version. It can be safely downloaded from: http://www.microsoft.com/Windows/Windows-7/download.aspx As a side note I’d like to point out that Windows 7 RC is a test version, it’s not the finished product. And while it’s free for now it has a couple of restrictions:

• on 1 March 2010 it will start rebooting every 2 hours
• on 1 June 2010 it will completely stop working.

Update: There are now 25,000 PCs infected with the malware as a result of downloading the wrong copy of Windows 7 RC. These 25,000 PCs are being controlled by hackers as part of a botnet.

The short answer is yes.

A botnet is a collection of infected PCs under a hacker’s control. There are millions of PCs today forming these botnets (millions of infected home computers being controlled by hackers). Some new research on botnets shows that they sometimes include code to completely disable the PC.

In April 2009 a malicious hacker decided to “kill” the PCs he was controlling using a botnet. It disabled Windows on 100,000 computers, making all those PCs useless until a technician can repair it. (This is a slight simplification but for the general public it’s accurate enough). These 100,000 computers belonged to real people using their computers at home or at the office. One day it just stopped working because a malicious hacker thought it’d be fun. You can read more detailed information about this here.

And then there are other malware (viruses etc) that can damage the PC in more serious ways. In March 2009 researches created a sample malware that writes itself to the computer’s BIOS (the BIOS is inside a chip inside the PC) . Reformatting the PC won’t remove it, buying a new hard drive won’t remove it either, and they claim that even a “BIOS flash” won’t remove it. You’d have to buy a new PC (or if you’re technical, a new motherboard) to fix it. More info here.

In the past there have been viruses that could damage drives and monitors but there’s been very little of this lately.

So overall malware can cause your PC to visit a repair shop for servicing, which is not only an inconvenience but also costly. It’s always better to prevent malware than to repair the damage (and often you may not know a PC is infected). And the usual tips apply here:

• Use a good anti-virus package, the kind that updates itself several times a day and scans web pages as well as files. They’re not expensive.
• Always patch and update your programs, including your operating system (Windows, Linux, Mac OS X).
• Never assume it can’t happen to you or that your computer is somehow better than others.
• Use one of the newer browsers such as FireFox, Chrome, or Opera. Read about browser hacking here.
• Don’t download programs from hacker sites such as password generators (they’re usually infected with malware).
• Don’t be tricked into installing something to watch a funny video. If your computer can’t play the video as it is then it’s probably not worth watching. Read more about it here.
• Don’t be tricked by fake anti-virus programs. Examples here.
• And backup your files. Do this often.

When you install it, it adds something to your Mac so that every 5 hours it will try to download malware. So if your Mac becomes infected with malware and you clean it, in 5 hours it’ll download another one. This is pretty common these days.

So if you come across MacCinema don’t install it. And if a web site tells you that you need to install something to watch their videos, don’t trust it (this applies to Mac OS X, Linux, and Windows).

• Safari running on Mac OS X – hacked in 10 seconds
• FireFox running on Windows – hacked
• IE 8 running on Windows – hacked
• Chrome running on Windows – was not hacked

When a web browser is hacked (like in this competition), it means someone out there in the real world can do things on your computer, such as installing a virus or taking control of your PC.

You can see photos of the winners here. These are talented people that are using their skills to help developers fix their browsers. There are many more people who use their hacking skills to install malware and steal money from people’s bank accounts (this isn’t just about winning competitions).

The best thing you can do right now is:

• Stop using Internet Explorer (IE) for everything.
• Use Google’s Chrome as much as possible, at the moment it seems to be the most secure browser
• Keep updating your web browser – the latest updates are there to fix up bugs and security vulnerabilities
• Keep updating Windows (or Mac OS X or Linux) whenever a new update is released.
• Install a good anti-virus package that blocks web sites that have malware on them. This might cost you a bit of money (you usually have to pay a yearly subscription fee) and it’s a good investment.
• Don’t be ignorant and assume it won’t happen to you.
• Keep reading Fraudo to learn about online fraud and what you can do to prevent it.

It’s called ClickJacking. The problem is in Adobe’s Flash player, which just about everyone in the world has installed (sometimes without even knowing it). 

The vulnerability makes it possible for someone to control your computer’s webcam or microphone, lettting other people spy on you. It’s a serious problem.

Who’s at risk?

Anyone who has Flash version 9.0.124.0 or earlier is at risk. This includes Windows, Mac, and Linux users, and FireFox, IE, Safari, Chrome, and Opera users (does this list include you?)

What can you do to protect yourself?

Adobe is publishing a fix very soon and the best thing to do is to upgrade to the latest version of  Flash. Flash should prompt you to download an update – say yes to this. Otherwise download the latest version from Adobe’s web site.

If for some reason you can’t update Flash on your PC there’s another way to protect yourself (this is a last resort tactic, updating Flash is much safer). The workaround is to set the Always Deny option, as detailed here on Adobe’s site.

Further info:

Someone has gone to the trouble of setting up a sample of how the exploit works and recorded a video to demonstrate. Play the YouTube video in this article.

• You open a web page that has a hacked bit of Flash (sometimes it’s a hacked ad shown on an innocent page)
• The Flash code puts a link in your computer’s clipboard
• Every time you do a “paste” (e.g. Control-V) you’ll see the hacked link appear

It’s difficult to stop it once it’s started, usually until you restart your browser, or in some cases until you restart your PC. Copying something else into the clipboard doesn’t work, the malware will continually overwrite your clipboard.

Who does this affect?

Windows, Mac OSX, and Linux users, using Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Safari. That includes pretty much everyone.

At the moment it’s only been shown in a proof of concept demo (i.e. it’s not a major threat today). But as usual it’s only a matter of days until it’s put to bad use and this is used to trick people into going to dangerous web sites.

What can you do about it?

• Purchase and install a good antivirus package that scans web sites.
• Disable Flash on your PC – this is usually impractical, it would be an extreme measure.
• Be aware of this hack, if you experience it then restart your web browser

Version 6.0 came out a few days ago. It’s open source, meaning everyone is free to review the source code. It’s available for Windows (Vista, XP, 2000), Mac OS X, and Linux.

http://www.truecrypt.org/

• FireFox: 2.0.0.14
• Safari: 3.1.1

This applies to Windows, Mac and Linux users. The updates fix vulnerabilities and hence are important security updates.

The new version that you need is 9.0.124.0 and it fixed this new vulnerability.

AIR1.0 is also affected because it includes a Flash player built in. If you use AIR upgrade to version 1.0.1.

Adobe’s security bulletin says that this affects all platforms, so that would include all versions of Windows, Macs, and Linux.

Most people who carry notebook computers (laptops) keep sensitive files on the machine’s drive. Business documents, business databases, contact lists, emails, chat logs, password lists, etc. The most common situation is someone carrying confidential documents on the computer.

If the notebook is lost or stolen then whoever holds the notebook computer has access to the files. Login passwords aren’t enough to protect the documents, they’re easily recovered by anyone.

A more worrying trend is for international business travellers who carry confidential data on their notebooks. There have been many instances of airport customs staff not only inspecting the notebook for banned items but they’re now looking in the notebook’s hard drive and looking through any documents stored there. Their excuse is that they have to search for anything that’s a threat to national security. Irrespective of why they’re doing this the point is that someone else can gain access to your files at airports. Read this article for an example. And for examples of lost or stolen notebooks see here.

Most large companies are now telling their staff to wipe all documents off notebook computers before travelling. This is excellent advice.

Another solution is to use whole disk encryption. This is a software technology that encodes the entire drive so that it’s unreadable without a password. At present this technology is rarely used on notebooks.

Advantages:

• It’s not possible for someone to extract files from a lost or stolen notebook computer
• You don’t have to remember to turn it on or to prepare anything before you leave home or the office. It’s always enabled

Disadvantages:

• Not all encryption programs are free (read below for some good news on free software)
• It slows down the computer
• You have to enter another password before using the computer
• It doesn’t protect you from malware (trojans etc). You still need a good antivirus system
• You must have a backup of all your data at home or at the office. If something goes wrong with the computer then there’s no way to recover the data without a backup
• Security is only as good as your password. If you use your car number plate or some other easy to guess password then it’s not really secure. You need to use a good password.

So with more disadvantages than advantages you’re probably put off. It depends how valuable your files are. If you’re a lawyer carrying around all your client’s documents then your files are probably quite valuable, and you should be doing everything in your power to stop strangers getting at them.

How does it work?

The technical explanations are beyond the scope of this article. It’s enough to know that it encrypts all of the drive. Older encryption programs encrypt some files only and smart hackers can usually recover all or part of documents. Therefore the “whole disk” part of the encryption program is important. The disk is completely unreadable and unusable without the password.

What whole disk encryption programs are available?

Recently there has been some progress on this and there are now good free versions including ones for Mac notebooks, as well as commercial solutions.

Free Windows Solutions:

There are quite a few solutions, below are the more popular ones available today.

• BitLocker – it comes with Windows Vista Enterprise, Windows Vista Ultimate, and Windows Server 2008
• TrueCrypt – a popular open source solution (see notes below). Available for Windows, Mac and Linux.

Commercial Solutions:

Below are low cost commercial solutions. There are many expensive enterprise level solutions not listed here.

• PGP – This program has been around for a very long time and is trusted by many people and companies. On the 13th Feb 2008 a version was also made for Apple Macs.

Summary

If you take your computer outside of a secure environment (home, office, etc) and you have anything on there you wouldn’t like others to have then whole disk encryption is a must.

As for airport customs and other law enforcement agencies, a lot of countries have laws making it possible for them to demand your password. So while you can keep random strangers from reading your data it’s really up to you how you comply with legal requests to hand over data. At least you have a choice.

Notes:

Open Source: in security it’s often a good thing to make programs or algorithms open source. It enables the programming community or security community to review the code and find any possible bugs as quickly as possible. It’s also a form of full disclosure. With commercial solutions you have to trust a company that they didn’t include a backdoor for whatever reason. With open source solutions everything’s exposed for public review.

The web site looks nice, contains a blog, a news section, and reviews. The authors went to some effort to make it look convincing. Most of the links on the site even work. It would be difficult to tell that this site will compromise your computer.

Good anti virus software these days has the option to filter all web pages and they stop most of these sites before your web browser starts loading them. It’s a good investment.

Another technique to avoid these traps is to use a less popular web browser such as Firefox or Opera, or to use a less popular operating system such as Mac OS or Linux.

At the moment the majority of malicious code is designed to target Windows and Internet Explorer. That’s not to say that other systems are immune, malware is just less common on them.

It’s important to patch all of your software. This includes the operating system itself (e.g. Windows, Mac OS, Linux), your web browser (e.g. Internet Explorer, Firefox), and all your applications. And of course in an office environment patches should be carried out by IT administrators (complete with backups).

This serves as a gentle reminder to our previous post on patching. Read Secunia’s article here.

The primary reason they state is that fewer attacks are written for Macs than for Windows. This seems true for now.

One common weakness between all operating systems (Mac, Windows, Linux, etc) is the user. People can be tricked into clicking on things or carrying out other hazardous tasks no matter what computer they use (this is where security education comes in).

More details here.

In this article critical software is the collection of programs (both visible and those that run in the background) that transport information from a web server to your screen. It’s the chain of data flow that you use the most often when using the internet.

You have your operating system (e.g. Windows, MacOS, Linux), a web browser, and a stack of drivers that basically make the internet work for you. This is a simplified model, most people’s computers will be unique and full of all sorts of programs.

Because information is flowing along this chain of programs, data being handed off from the operating system to the web browser, every link in the chain is critical. And like the old mantra, the price of security is eternal vigilance. In this case we’re looking at the eternal task of patching your software.

Patches are released by software vendors, whether it’s a free open source program or from a commercial software company. Patches are written because the programmers are always fixing bugs, in particular they’re always fixing security vulnerabilities as they are discovered. It’s a way of strengthening each of the links in your data chain.

The point of this article is that you should always update the following:

• Patch your operating system (Windows, Mac OS, Linux, etc). Yes there’s a risk in being the first to install a patch, it might break something. Large companies have long complicated procedures to test patches before installing them. Small companies and home users need to take the risk and apply the patch blindly, trusting the vendor. It’s a choice between having the most secure computer possible or waiting to see if a patch is released by mistake. My advice is to take the secure option and make regular backups of all your data (backups would be a good topic for a future article). Most operating systems these days have automated patching systems in place making this simple and often a transparent process.
• Patch your web browser. All web browsers need to be patched – Microsoft Internet Explorer (IE), FireFox, Opera, Safari, etc. Apply patches as soon as they’re released. Today a web browser is the most vulnerable program on a computer, it gets used to run code that other people write. Code that comes from all corners of the world and is almost always not certified in any way and there’s almost no way of trusting the code. Your web browser will execute it blindly, trusting that it’s safe and you trust that all other programs on your computer (including the operating system) will handle the attacks in a graceful way. Web browsers will be attacked, this is almost a certainty these days. So you need to very latest version that hopefully has had every known vulnerability fixed.
• Patch your antivirus software. This is often automatic, and it’s often a paid service. Antivirus companies spend a lot of time and money keeping their tools up to date and it’s in your best interest to use their technology. Consider it a good investment, it could cost you thousands of dollars if your system is compromised.
• Sometimes routers will have to be patched as well. This is a little more advanced and you should only do it if you’re comfortable working with your router.
• Personal firewalls should also be patched. If your antivirus software includes a [personal] firewall then it’ll be patched automatically, otherwise it’s a separate process.

All software that uses the internet in any way, including the various video and music players, needs to be kept up to date. Web browsers and operating systems are the most critical and should be patched the most often. The time and effort you spend is the price you pay for having a safe computer.

So you have a computer and are aware of the dangers present on the internet. You’d like to feel safe with as little effort as possible, and you’re even prepared to buy some antivirus software. Where do you start?

Anti-virus software is one line of defence, but you can’t rely on this alone. Online crime has advanced so much in the past few years that viruses are probably the least of your concerns. Nevertheless you still need an antivirus solution.

Viruses are programs that install themselves onto your computer and do something unwanted. Some are worse than others (it could delete your files, let hackers log into your computer, and copy itself to other computers). Antivirus programs scan everything on your computer and match it against a list of known viruses – new computer viruses get created every day. So yesterday’s antivirus software won’t protect you against today’s threats (it’s a fast paced world). What you need is a way to update your antivirus software every day. This is usually called a subscription, meaning you pay an annual fee to get the latest updates every day.

Some home users have outdated antivirus software. It probably came bundled with the computer with a 3 month trial subscription, and it probably expired. Some people think it’s ok to copy antivirus programs from a friend (which is morally wrong and illegal) and without paying for the subscription it won’t protect you. Bottom line here: pay the annual subscription.

The next line of defence is protection from trojans. The simple explanation is that some programs you download (or sometimes buy) include a hidden bit that connects out to the internet and does something bad without your knowledge. There are two things you can do to prevent and control this very serious problem:

1. Be aware of what you download. Only download programs you really need and preferably from sources you trust. Although this may sound vague it gets easier with experience.
2. Run a personal firewall. Read below on how this can help.

A personal firewall is a program you install on your computer that stops unknown programs from connecting out to the internet. In other words, it becomes very difficult for a “bad program” to use the internet without your permission. Windows now includes a firewall program but it’s worthwhile paying for a better one.

You also need to learn to use it. In its most basic form a personal firewall with ask you for permission whenever it finds a new program (attempting to connect to the internet). If you blindly click Accept then you haven’t really achieved any better level of security. You should take a moment to read what the message says and consciously decide whether or not to allow it. Don’t fall into the habit of clicking Yes to everything. In most cases if you’re intentionally telling a program to use the internet then you would want to allow it. Again this becomes easier with experience.

Lastly, the other main line of defence for a home computer is to keep it patched. Windows is not perfect (and neither is Linux or MacOS) and the programmers generally find ways to improve security. They release a patch and it’s up to you to apply that patch to your computer. This is often automatic, and for beginners this is how you want it to work. Windows XP and Windows Vista will let you know if patches are not being applied manually (in which case you should do this at least weekly). Patches can be applied by opening Internet Explorer and selecting Windows Update from the Tools menu, then following the prompts.

In summary there are three facets to securing a home computer:

1. Use antivirus software. It’s important that it receives updates at least daily
2. Use a personal firewall. Learn to read the messages it gives you and use it properly.
3. Keep your computer patched. This can often be automatic.

I think that’s enough for now. Each of the above three areas requires further articles, and there’s still an awful lot more to be learnt. I have deliberately avoided suggesting any products. This also warrants its own article and the market changes so fast that a recommendation would be out of date fairly quickly. Expect to pay about $100 per year per computer. This is reasonable considering that a computer typically costs over $1000 and your bank account could contain significantly more.