By Avanti Kumar, MIS Asia Nov 22, 2009
Security solutions firm F-Secure Malaysia says greater vigilance is needed as the use of social networking is gathering pace compared to e-mail. F-Secure Malaysia senior security response manager, Chia Wing Fei, said the company noted the significant shift from e-mail to instant communication channels provided by social networking sites. "This trend has important security implications as this means greater vigilance is required against links and messages sent from hacked accounts." "According to statistics from research firm Nielsen, the number of users on social networking and other community sites increased by 31 per cent in the period August 2008 -- August 2009, while e-mail use increased by 21 per cent," said Chia. "It may be too early to pronounce that e-mail is dead but the figures do highlight a growing trend." "Cyber criminals have already responded to the changing patterns of communication by focusing more activity on popular social networks," he said.
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Monday, November 23, 2009
Google hoodwinked into pushing Chrome OS scareware
Tamper tantrum
By John Leyden, 23rd November 2009
Rogue anti-virus scammers have tainted search results for Chromium OS - the open source version of Google's Chrome OS - in a bid to expose surfers hunting the web operating system to a fake anti-virus scan scam instead. Search terms such as "chromium os download" point to sites featuring scripts that redirect stray surfers towards scareware scam portals. These sites falsely report that users PCs are loaded with malware before pushing users to download a clean-up tool little or no utility. The SecureKeeper utility offered through the scam uses a series of aggressive and misleading tricks to coerce people into paying $49.95 to purchase a licence, as explained in a blog post by security firm eSoft here. Something very similar happened when Google released its Wave collaboration tool. In both cases, surfers are only redirected to scareware-punting portals in cases where they arrive as bobby-trapped URLs via Google search results. Both the Google Wave and Chromium Os scams refer to a product or service that is not yet generally available, a factor that arguably increases the potency of scams.
Read more here -->Link
By John Leyden, 23rd November 2009
Rogue anti-virus scammers have tainted search results for Chromium OS - the open source version of Google's Chrome OS - in a bid to expose surfers hunting the web operating system to a fake anti-virus scan scam instead. Search terms such as "chromium os download" point to sites featuring scripts that redirect stray surfers towards scareware scam portals. These sites falsely report that users PCs are loaded with malware before pushing users to download a clean-up tool little or no utility. The SecureKeeper utility offered through the scam uses a series of aggressive and misleading tricks to coerce people into paying $49.95 to purchase a licence, as explained in a blog post by security firm eSoft here. Something very similar happened when Google released its Wave collaboration tool. In both cases, surfers are only redirected to scareware-punting portals in cases where they arrive as bobby-trapped URLs via Google search results. Both the Google Wave and Chromium Os scams refer to a product or service that is not yet generally available, a factor that arguably increases the potency of scams.
Read more here -->Link
Apple Reportedly Voids Warranties Due to Smoking Related Damages.
Smoking Near Apple Macintosh Creates Hazards, Voids Warranty
by Anton Shilov 11/23/2009
Apple has reportedly voided two warranties because of secondhand smoke. Apparently, the company claims that computers used intensively in rooms full of smoke become dangerous to repair workers and such systems will not be fixed. At least two people were told that their computers were bio-hazard because they were used by smokers and technicians were not allowed to repair them. What is rather noteworthy is that in both cases end-users owned extended Applecare warranties, which meant that they were eligible for higher quality service. Apple not only reportedly said that smoke damaged the Macintosh personal computers, but also indicated that it was dangerous to repair them. “They told me that they would take pictures of the computer – both inside and out before determining whether to proceed and that if the only problem was the optical drive, they'd probably just replace it. Dena called me earlier this week to deliver the ‘bad news’. She said that the computer is beyond economical repair due to tar from cigarette smoke! She said the hard drive is about to fail, the optical drive has failed and it isn't feasible to repair the computer under the warranty. This computer is less than 2 years old,” explained one unhappy Apple customer in a conversation with Consumerist web-site.
Read more here -->Link
by Anton Shilov 11/23/2009
Apple has reportedly voided two warranties because of secondhand smoke. Apparently, the company claims that computers used intensively in rooms full of smoke become dangerous to repair workers and such systems will not be fixed. At least two people were told that their computers were bio-hazard because they were used by smokers and technicians were not allowed to repair them. What is rather noteworthy is that in both cases end-users owned extended Applecare warranties, which meant that they were eligible for higher quality service. Apple not only reportedly said that smoke damaged the Macintosh personal computers, but also indicated that it was dangerous to repair them. “They told me that they would take pictures of the computer – both inside and out before determining whether to proceed and that if the only problem was the optical drive, they'd probably just replace it. Dena called me earlier this week to deliver the ‘bad news’. She said that the computer is beyond economical repair due to tar from cigarette smoke! She said the hard drive is about to fail, the optical drive has failed and it isn't feasible to repair the computer under the warranty. This computer is less than 2 years old,” explained one unhappy Apple customer in a conversation with Consumerist web-site.
Read more here -->Link
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