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Filed under: OS Updates, Security, Macintosh, Apple

OS X 10.6.2 offers tons of fixes, breaks Atom support again

This Atom Hackintosh story's been flip-flopping like a dolphin at SeaWorld, but here's the final answer: OS X 10.6.2 is out, and it apparently does not run on machines with Atom CPUs. That's the bad news. The good news is that 10.6.2 offers an absolute smorgasbord of tweaks and fixes. Apple's release notes with one of these OS updates usually include some vague message about improved security and stability, and that's it. This time, there's a laundry list of improvements.

The update, which is around 160MB if you're upgrading from 10.6.1, corrects a few nagging issues in the Finder: Exchange contacts not showing up in Spotlight, flaky menu extras, wonky VPN connections and - this one was a personal peeve of mine - not being able to add photos to Address Book. Also, the problem with opening multiple downloaded files at once (a problem Apple never actually acknowledged) is now fixed. Hooray! The whole list is pretty long, and there's also an extensive list of potential exploits addressed by 10.6.2's security update.

Filed under: Internet, Security, Web

Hundreds of Facebook groups hacked and hijacked - to prove a point?


Facebook
is under attack! Okay, maybe that's a little too dramatic.

Recently, however, hundreds of Facebook groups were exploited by a group of attackers known as "Control Your Info". The hackers promise they aren't doing this for any malicious purpose though. The purpose of the mass hacking is to point out a major problem with the way Facebook handles groups management.

So what's the problem? The guys that did this said the problem has to do with group admins. When someone decides they don't want to be an admin any longer, virtually anyone can take over the group and make changes to members, group information, and pictures.

Unlike completely malicious hackers, the group says it wants to raise awareness and make sure people think about security. The groups that were hacked had their names changed to "Control Your Info" and profile images modified. A message appeared on many of the groups that said "Hello, we hereby announce that we have officially hijacked your Facebook group. If we wanted, we could make you appear in a bad way which could damage your image severely."

The group promised not to "mess anything up" and will return the groups to their original state by the end of the week.

Filed under: Internet, Security, Windows, Microsoft

Windows 7 security defeated by 8 out of 10 malware applications


Leading up to its release, there was a lot of concern regarding Windows 7's default User Account Control (UAC) settings. Namely: it doesn't actually provide any damn security. Alas.

Basically, Microsoft went ahead and reacted to the public outcry regarding the Vista security confirmations. I think we can all agree that they were really annoying (and most power-users turn UAC off because of how irritating they are). As a result, there are significantly fewer UAC warnings in a default Windows 7 installation -- hooray! The problem is that the new default setting in Windows 7 leads you to falsely believe that you have a secure installation right out of the box. Sadly, this is not the case.

It's no surprise then that 8 out of 10 malware applications defeated the default Windows 7 UAC setting in tests.

So practice safe surfing (duh!) or go and hoik your UAC settings up to the most secure -- and annoying -- setting. Ars Technica has a great guide on patching up your UAC for new Windows 7 users -- or even an experienced user like myself that falsely believed the default setting to be secure.

[via ZDNet]

Filed under: Security, Utilities, Windows, Commercial

Sandboxie on sale for half price until midnight ET

Sanboxie is a great little program. It provides an extra layer of security by forcing applications to write to an isolated "sandbox" instead of directly to your hard drive's filesystem. It's long been a favorite with Download Squad readers.

One other great feature of Sandboxie is its licensing. You only have to pay once. Ever - your registration is good for a lifetime (yours, of course).

On top of that, you're also allowed to install the app on every system you personally own and use.

Even better, there's a sweet 50% off discount available until the end of today. Just head over to Bits Du Jour and you can score Sandboxie for $19. That's an excellent deal for an app that can provide a major security upgrade for your Windows system.

Filed under: Security, Utilities, Windows, Commercial, Freeware, Windows x64

Winpatrol 2010 is out, and the little black scottie is leaner and meaner than ever

It's become a common practice to defend your PC with a handful of security apps rather than relying on a single program. One lesser-known app worth investigating is WinPatrol.

Just released, WinPatrol 2010 builds on the strengths of previous versions. It's now even lighter on memory use, weighing in at about 5Mb on my Windows 7 x64 system. Scotty's also learned to play nice by tweaking internal behaviors to reduce conflicts with antivirus applications.

The new version's cookies tab now handles Firefox and Google Chrome in addition to Internet Explorer. Users of the WinPatrol Pro will also enjoy improved realtime scanning speed - 30% quicker than the free version.

Winpatrol also scores serious points for its Pro licensing plan. Not only do you pay once for the software and receive a lifetime of upgrades, but developer Bill Pytlovany believes that your license should follow you - not your computer. That means you're free to enjoy your paid WinPatrol on any and all PCs that you personally own and use. Nice!

Both the free and pro versions of WinPatrol 2010 are available for download now, as is WinPatrol To Go -- the portable version, which is also free.

Filed under: Security, Beta, Browsers

Web of Trust (WOT) extension now available for Google Chrome

It's starting, people. Big name browser addon developers are starting to show Google Chrome some love. So far, we've seen AdSweep, RoboForm, LastPass (a personal favorite), and a few others.

Web of Trust is now onboard as well, announcing the release of their extension today. I've written about WOT before -- it's a great addition for anyone wanting a bit of added security and safety when they browse. It's listed in my 6 Windows tools to prevent PC problems on your own and 14 useful Firefox addons.

For those of you who are unfamiliar with WOT, it's a kind of community-powered rating service. Users submit trust, privacy, reliability, and child safety scores for sites they visit. When you browse a site that's in the WOT database, you'll see the result of those ratings in easy-to-understand color coding. Green is good, red is bad, yellow means exercise caution.

If you happen on a particularly bad site, WOT will block it completely and display an alert page instead and give you the choice to bail out or disregard the warning and continue.

The WOT .crx extension for Chrome can be downloaded from the Wiki, though it's a bit hidden in all the text. Here's a direct download link to make things easier for you. Like other recent extensions, you'll need to be running Chrome's developer channel build to use WOT.

Filed under: Security, Mozilla, Beta, Browsers

Turn your head and cough, Firefox! Mozilla's plugin check is live


Whichever browser you happen to be using, there's more to keeping it up to date than running automatic updates for the browser itself. There are all those nasty plugins -- like Flash, Java, and Quicktime. Each one presents new opportunities for malware pushers, so an outdated plugin can put an unsuspecting web user at great risk.

Mozilla announced a while back that they were tweaking the "What's new?" landing page to alert users to possible danger. After a Firefox update installs the page is displayed in a new tab when your browser re-opens, hopefully urging you to update an unpatched Flash player.

Taking things a step further is the new Plugin Check, which looks at all the popular plugins. If things are up to date, you'll see only green "Learn More" buttons. If you fall behind and aren't running the latest version but there's no major risk, you'll get a yellow "Update" button.

If there's a known exploit fixed by a newer version of a plugin, you'll get an un-subtle red "Update NOW." And in the event that some horrible exploit is floating around with no known patch, the button will offer to disable the offending plugin for you.

Am I the only one daydreaming about a 1950's style public service announcement warning Johnny about this sort of thing?

"Not so fast, Johnny! You shouldn't be browsing with that old Flash Player plugin. Haven't your parents talked to you about unsafe browsing?"

Filed under: Security, Google, Yahoo!

Google and Yahoo banner ads delivering trojans

Users who clicked on booby-trapped banner ads served by Google's DoubleClick and a Yahoo-owned service called Right Media ended up having their machines infected by a trojan, according to a report from The Register. The sneaky ads showed up on the Drudge Report, Lyrics.com, slacker.com and horoscope.com. Google says that publishers who use DoubleClick have to approve the banner ads that show up on their sites, implying that these four sites are at fault for the attack on their users.

The trojan itself was installed via an infected PDF file that opened and closed when a user clicked an ad. It's called Win32/Alureon, and it opens backdoor access to infected machines. This is serious business, and it's hardly the first time we've seen "malvertising," but who's to blame when it happens? Should site owners who buy ads have to scan them first, or should the big ad networks be responsible?

Filed under: Security, News, Blogging

Wordpress under attack, upgrade your blog now

Several sites are reporting that a major attack on Wordpress blogs started yesterday. The latest version of Wordpress, 2.8.4, is not vulnerable to this particular worm, so upgrading now could save you a lot of headaches. The worm creates a new, hidden administrator account on your blog, allowing whoever's behind this thing to access the guts of your blog, databases and all.

How do you know if your site has been affected? Lorelle on Wordpress offers two possible ways to find out:

There are strange additions to the pretty permalinks, such as example.com/category/post-title/%&(%7B$%7Beval(base64_decode($_SERVER%5BHTTP_REFERER%5D))%7D%7D|.+)&%/. The keywords are "eval" and "base64_decode."

The second clue is that a "back door" was created by a "hidden" Administrator. Check your site users for "Administrator (2)" or a name you do not recognize.

Wordpress has acknowledged the attacks and encouraged users to upgrade their sites. Wordpress.com users aren't affected, as the whole system has already been updated to 2.8.4. If you've already been afflicted by the attack, start on the steps in Wordpress' FAQ.

[via Mashable]

Filed under: Security, Adobe, Mozilla, Browsers

Mozilla tweaks Firefox "What's new?" page to check for outdated Flash plugin


Keeping your system is about more than running automatic updates to your OS. It also means keeping applications current - and they plugins they use since those have become a favorite target for exploits.

Plugins like Adobe's Flash Player. To that end, the crew at Mozilla have come up with a thoughtful tweak to the Firefox 'What's New?' landing page that will help keep future users running the latest (and hopefully most secure) version of the Flash plugin.

Any time you upgrade or install Firefox from now a few lines of Javascript code on the first run page check your current Flash version. A notice like the one above will recommend a prompt update if you're running behind, so it's quite likely that recent upgraders to Snow Leopard are going to see it.

Yes, Flash Player is supposed to keep itself updated automatically. However, plenty of users disable the update feature and it never hurts to offer another reminder just in case.

[via H Online]

Filed under: Security, News, Windows, Beta

Trend Micro provides better web-based virus cleanup with Housecall v7


It's already been a big week for Windows antivirus, with the rollout of Immunet's new cloud based product and the first beta release of Avast! 5.0. Trend Micro also has an update for us -- a new version of their popular web-based scanner, Housecall.

Housecall v7 adds several new features and enhancements, including improved scanning speed and scanning history and restore functionality. On my test system, the full scan took just under three minutes. Not bad at all for a web-based tool.

Perhaps the most important change is that Housecall is now browser-independent, a change that is sure to be welcomed by non-IE users.

Remember, Housecall does not provide realtime detection. It's designed to complement your existing security software or to give you a fast, easy way to scan and clean infected machines that didn't have antivirus software installed.

It's also totally free to use, which is (almost always) a good thing when it comes to virus detection and removal.

Filed under: Security, News, Windows, Freeware, Beta

Immunet releases free cloud-powered antivirus for Windows

They're not the first company to push out a cloud-based Windows antivirus product, but Immunet is hoping to make a splash with their newly-released beta of Immunet Protect.

"People are still getting viruses at alarming rates and traditional Anti-Virus software catches less than 50% of todays new threats," said Oliver Friedrichs (Immunet's Founder and CEO) in a press release. While I'm not sure I've seen numbers that support that statement I'm still always on the lookout for better free antivirus protection for my customers.

The key advantages of Immunet? They're pretty well the same as those touted by Panda: less bloat, no massive, frequent pattern updates to download, and an added splash of community collaboration to thwart malicious software. It's also light on system resources, barely impacting CPU usage and sitting just under 32Mb of memory during a system scan.

It's worth noting that only application installs are monitored in realtime by default. To activate application launch protection, open the program's main window and head to the settings screen.

As is also the case with Panda Cloud AV, Immunet doesn't want you to install it on Windows 7. It's only XP and Vista compatible for now. It does, however, install and perform just fine on Windows 7 if you run the installer in compatibility mode for Vista. It won't, however, be recognized by the Action Center's security monitoring.

To test the software, head on over to the Immunet website and download the beta. Don't mind the Facebook connect form - it's not required to get the download.

We've also added Immunet to our popular list of free antivirus software for Windows.

[via VentureBeat]

First beta download of Avast 5.0 free antivirus released [gallery]

It's a little bit behind schedule (it was slated for the end of July/early August), but the first Avast 5.0 beta has been released for testing.

The most noticeable change for most users will be the restyled interface - gone is the overstylized media player look. There are, of course, a number of other improvements and new features which I mentioned back in July.

Bear in mind that this is a full-on beta. The forum post lists numerous features that are not yet implemented including rootkit detection. Definitions are also not fully up to date and the behavior shield is not fully active either. On top of that, Windows 7's action center doesn't recognize Avast 5 as an antivirus program yet.

Casual users looking for protection should steer clear for now. Experienced users who understand the risks and want to see what Avast.next will look like? Go nuts. Download it from the post and try it out!

Otherwise, check the gallery after the break! The final product is due in October, and we'll keep you up to date on its progress.

Read more →

Filed under: Internet, Security, News

It's official, there's a crapload of malware on the Internet

Man, I wish this chart illustrated my salary over the past five years. Sadly, however, it's AV-Test.org's look at malware in the wild.

The actual number of unique samples doesn't necessarily mean all that much. So many of the nasties floating around the Internet are just mutations of other infections. Just look at the vast array of crud SmitFraudFix cleans up - it's a whole lot more than the original SmitFraud infection.

What's much more alarming is the number of infected PCs. Trend Micro points out the following in their blog post: "in the first six months of 2008, [Trend Micro] recorded that 253.4 million systems were infected with malware. The comparable volume for 2009 is almost double at 491.2 million."

That's a whole lotta infections. Trend's opinion on how to tackle the growing threat? Look to The Cloud, of course. They offer four possible benefits:
  1. Each client is a part of a real-time global protection network.
  2. When the network detects an Internet security threat on behalf of any one participant in the network, all participants are automatically and immediately protected.
  3. All devices that connect to the Internet are protected. This protection complements your existing antivirus security solution.
  4. There's correlation among the global protection network.
With so many threats, a global defense network makes a lot of sense to me. It would be even better if security providers joined forces to create a stronger, more responsive system than any one provider could on their own. I don't think I'll hold my breath waiting for that to happen.

What do you think? Sound off in the comments!

Filed under: Security, Apple, iPhone

iPhone software update fixes SMS vulnerability

If you've got an iPhone, take the time this weekend to update your software to the latest version, 3.0.1. It doesn't have any flashy new features - sorry, no MMS just yet - but it closes a major security loophole that was made public at the Black Hat conference on Thursday. The exploit allows remote code execution on any iPhone, just by sending an SMS message.

In theory, this vulnerability could have been used to take control of large numbers of iPhones and access a huge amount of personal info, but Apple says no iPhones have been compromised by the SMS vulnerability. There was apparently a similar exploit for Android phones, but Google issued a patch before the Black Hat presentation. The iPhone 3.0.1 update is free, and available through iTunes.


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