And you thought anti-virus software did wonders
KOLKATA: Consider this. Having discovered a virus in its mail system, a mid-sized Indian pharmaceutical research company downloaded a free antivirus software from the Internet. It cleaned the viruses and apparently everything was fine. Until it discovered that sensitive information was being passed off to its competitors.
“We discovered that the antivirus had, in fact, silently planted a spyware that sent every copy of emails to another address from where it was being passed off to its competitors. Even antivirus softwares may not be safe!” Ironport Systems’ regional director for India & Saarc Ambarish Deshpande told ET.
The incidence of viruses normally sees a spurt during the festive season. “For example, last year, a Trojan email with a harmless attachment ‘Merry Christmas’ was sent with another malicious attachment which automatically downloaded itself.
The virus heavily compromised security of PCs and laptops as it kept sending unsolicited email from the infected computer,” said Mr Niraj Kaushik, country manager, Trend Micro, India and Saarc.
Viruses can convert PCs and laptops into zombies that will keep on generating and sending malicious programmes to others. In case the law enforcing agencies track the computer generating such mails, chances are you would be behind bars for sending spams.
“Spamming increased almost 300% in 2006. In 2007, spam volume is expected to more than double, putting strain on global email infrastructure and causing disruptions in legitimate email delivery,” Mr Deshpande added. Year 2007 is expected to see an increase in threats arising from the spread of phishing — fake sites, bots spreading via known vulnerabilities in software, spam, spyware and mobile viruses.
“Home users are the most attacked sector, accounting for 86% of all targeted attacks. Attackers are using evasive tactics to avoid detection, and large, widespread Internet worms have given way to smaller, more targeted attacks focusing on fraud, data theft, and criminal activity,” said Annette Martis, manager, consumer products and solutions — India, Symantec Corporation, the company that sells Norton Anrivirus.
To keep devices attack proof users should always ensure that security patches form the software vendors are up-to-date. Users should ensure that passwords are a mix of letters and numbers and avoid using dictionary words. Changing passwords frequently helps keep threats at bay. And different password for different web mail accounts or banking/ stock broking/ any transaction sites would also help.
Beware that anti-virus software
Computer users need to know how to recognise computer hoaxes and phishing scams as well. Hoaxes typically include a bogus email warning to “send this to everyone you know” and/or improper technical jargon that is intended to frighten or mislead users. Phishing scams are much more sophisticated.
Often arriving in email, phishing appears to come from a legitimate organisation and entice users to enter credit card or other confidential information into forms on a website designed to look like that of the legitimate organisation.
Much like the recent UTI Bank, phishing attacks where some foreign nationals were involved in sending out fake emails to bank’s account holders. The best course of action is to simply delete emails when in doubt.
That course of action makes sense as both spyware and adware can be automatically installed on a computer with the installation of file sharing programs, free downloads, and freeware and shareware versions of software, or by clicking on links and/or attachments in email messages, or via instant messaging clients. Therefore, users should be informed and selective about what they install on their computer.
“Don’t just click those “Yes, I accept” buttons on end-user licence agreements (EULAs). Some spyware and adware applications can be installed after an end user has accept the EULA,” Mr Martis said.
Beware of programs that flash ads in the user interface. Many spyware programs track how users respond to these ads, and their presence is a red flag. When users see ads in a program’s user interface, they may be looking at a piece of spyware.
:tea:
Source ET
[email protected]
KOLKATA: Consider this. Having discovered a virus in its mail system, a mid-sized Indian pharmaceutical research company downloaded a free antivirus software from the Internet. It cleaned the viruses and apparently everything was fine. Until it discovered that sensitive information was being passed off to its competitors.
“We discovered that the antivirus had, in fact, silently planted a spyware that sent every copy of emails to another address from where it was being passed off to its competitors. Even antivirus softwares may not be safe!” Ironport Systems’ regional director for India & Saarc Ambarish Deshpande told ET.
The incidence of viruses normally sees a spurt during the festive season. “For example, last year, a Trojan email with a harmless attachment ‘Merry Christmas’ was sent with another malicious attachment which automatically downloaded itself.
The virus heavily compromised security of PCs and laptops as it kept sending unsolicited email from the infected computer,” said Mr Niraj Kaushik, country manager, Trend Micro, India and Saarc.
Viruses can convert PCs and laptops into zombies that will keep on generating and sending malicious programmes to others. In case the law enforcing agencies track the computer generating such mails, chances are you would be behind bars for sending spams.
“Spamming increased almost 300% in 2006. In 2007, spam volume is expected to more than double, putting strain on global email infrastructure and causing disruptions in legitimate email delivery,” Mr Deshpande added. Year 2007 is expected to see an increase in threats arising from the spread of phishing — fake sites, bots spreading via known vulnerabilities in software, spam, spyware and mobile viruses.
“Home users are the most attacked sector, accounting for 86% of all targeted attacks. Attackers are using evasive tactics to avoid detection, and large, widespread Internet worms have given way to smaller, more targeted attacks focusing on fraud, data theft, and criminal activity,” said Annette Martis, manager, consumer products and solutions — India, Symantec Corporation, the company that sells Norton Anrivirus.
To keep devices attack proof users should always ensure that security patches form the software vendors are up-to-date. Users should ensure that passwords are a mix of letters and numbers and avoid using dictionary words. Changing passwords frequently helps keep threats at bay. And different password for different web mail accounts or banking/ stock broking/ any transaction sites would also help.
Beware that anti-virus software
Computer users need to know how to recognise computer hoaxes and phishing scams as well. Hoaxes typically include a bogus email warning to “send this to everyone you know” and/or improper technical jargon that is intended to frighten or mislead users. Phishing scams are much more sophisticated.
Often arriving in email, phishing appears to come from a legitimate organisation and entice users to enter credit card or other confidential information into forms on a website designed to look like that of the legitimate organisation.
Much like the recent UTI Bank, phishing attacks where some foreign nationals were involved in sending out fake emails to bank’s account holders. The best course of action is to simply delete emails when in doubt.
That course of action makes sense as both spyware and adware can be automatically installed on a computer with the installation of file sharing programs, free downloads, and freeware and shareware versions of software, or by clicking on links and/or attachments in email messages, or via instant messaging clients. Therefore, users should be informed and selective about what they install on their computer.
“Don’t just click those “Yes, I accept” buttons on end-user licence agreements (EULAs). Some spyware and adware applications can be installed after an end user has accept the EULA,” Mr Martis said.
Beware of programs that flash ads in the user interface. Many spyware programs track how users respond to these ads, and their presence is a red flag. When users see ads in a program’s user interface, they may be looking at a piece of spyware.
:tea:
Source ET
[email protected]
