Starting last night (September 9), I began seeing Skype messages popping up from people on my Skype list that clearly were not from them. Tammy got one too. Here's what it looks like:

I've blocked out the name on the chat to retain the privacy of the infected person, but as you can see it's pretty clear something has taken over her Skype and is trying to send out links to *probably* porn, or maybe even other infected .jpg files.

The ones that I got had more than 1 link, and sometimes even kept going while I was on the phone with the person that owned the Skype account.

If you are compromised like this, please call me right away, and let's get your system cleaned and protected! I will hook you up with my INVISUS team of trained experts, and we'll get you cleaned up and protected right away!

My guys will actually remote to your PC, run in-depth scans and clean-up tools on your computer.

Do you dare take the risk that more than your Skype has been commandeered?

Get Protected now with the Internet's ONLY Managed PC Security Solution, INVISUS!



UPDATE: More has come into the news from today (9/12/07).

Here is more information on this worm from the Skype Forums: READ HERE

And a full blown article in Computer World.

Been getting a lot of spam lately? More than usual? Well, I have found what I think is the reason why. Check out this article, and see if you agree. This is just CRAZY stuff! After you read this, you might understand more easily why I say that if you aren't protected with the kind of Quality INVISUS offers, then you are PART OF THE PROBLEM!

Inside Edge - IT News, Analysis and Opinion

Davey Winder, Staff Writer

Tech Talk - For the average user spam has always been an annoyance. For the average spammer it has always been about making money. For the criminal gangs that have muscled in on this lucrative industry during the last few years it is now about territory and control. Control, that is, of the botnets behind the malware distribution networks that they rent out to the spamming middle men to enable them to ply their trade in relative safety from the crippled arm of the law.

Leading AV researchers at Kaspersky have now identified three criminal gangs which are participating in an increasingly desperate battle of the botnets. This turf war is, as all turf wars have a habit of doing, turning nasty and it is the average computer who is getting caught ion the crossfire. No longer are the gangs happy to settle for a slice of the spam pie, they want it all. And that means control over as many compromised third party computers to create the biggest of mega zombie botnets. To accomplish this, the gangs behind the Bagle, Warezov and Zhelatin worms are turning their attention to ridding those compromised computers of rival gang malware infections in order to install their own and gain that control.

Spammers pay a lot of money to rent time on these mega botnets, and the bigger the botnet, the bigger its capacity to distribute spam, the more valuable a commodity it becomes.

Kaspersky Lab senior virus analyst Alexander Gostev writing in the latest Viruslist.com Malware Evolution report states that “war had been declared in cyberspace between the groups producing Warezov and Zhelatin. Taking into account the size of the botnets used by both groups, and their clear aim to conduct a large number of attacks, the situation was clear: this was threatening to become one of the most serious problems on the Internet in recent years.” Gostev identifies three groups from different countries who were all busy with the same thing, creating spam harvesting and distribution botnets. “This brought the three groups into conflict with each other, and they are willing to use everything at their disposal to gain an advantage” Gostev concludes.

The end result has been a huge increase in attacks on users, with an emphasis on developing new techniques to infect end users and evade detection by AV filters. If you need any evidence of this, 32% of all malicious code in email traffic during March 2007 was made up of Trojan-Spy.HTML.Bankfraud.ra according to Kaspersky, and indicating clearly that Bagle, Warezov and Zhelatin have created an epidemic.

Although there has been some success in dealing with high profile botnet related security incidents, including the 57 month prison term for Jeanson James Ancheta for infecting 400,000 computers for botnet use, this really is tip of the iceberg time. The really organised criminals will be using exactly the same techniques to evade capture and to protect the business of criminality as is seen in the drugs war. You can be sure that while sacrificial lambs get jail time, the gang bosses and the real botnet builders will continue to prosper. Until, that is, law enforcement, the judiciary and governments around the world start to take the spam problem as seriously as they do the drugs one. To be frank, I don’t see any evidence of that happening any time soon.

Get your turf out of the war! Get INVISUS, and rest easy that you are indeed part of the solution, and not just another PC in the botnet of the problem!

 

Jim Dickinson here, back this week with another great tip. I'd like to refer to a scary article from the BBC showing how a hacker can compromise a computer in EIGHT SECONDS!!!

From the article:

We're always telling you how important anti-virus and firewall software is for securing your home PC - the Internet is a dangerous place for unprotected PCs. Spencer Kelly met up with a reformed ex-hacker, who gave him a demonstration of just how much damage a worm or virus can do to your home computer.

Click Here to watch the video report (it's 8.8MB and requires Windows Media Player).

Pretty insane, huh?!? Look, friends, this is all very real. Do you want to get protected and be worry-free? I can show you how to get that protection for free, too. Or turn it into an income stream for you as a home business...

Interested? Get Protected NOW.

There are two things I hear all the time, so let me see if you are thinking the same things:

1) Nobody wants what is on my computer, and
2) I've got (insert name brand program here) so I don't need any more protection.

Let's talk about that. In that video you just watched, they showed the sasser worm. The purpose of the sasser worm is to drop a payload of remote control software (yep, it really is a remote control) on your PC so the controlling hacker can use your PC for their own purpose. What purpose you ask? Just about anything they don't want to use their own computer for...illegal activities, hacking other computers, sending spam, spreading their worm some more...the list goes on.

From this same article with the video:

Perhaps the most sinister thing about an infected PC, is that it can become part of a 'botnet' - a network of seemingly innocent but infected machines whose combined processing power can be hired out to organized crime.

These botnets can comprise hundreds or thousands of zombie PCs, all awaiting instructions. One of the most common instructions would be to launch a concerted attack on a popular website - a DDOS (distributed denial of service attack), where major websites are flooded with repeated bogus requests from hundreds of zombie PCs. Overwhelmed by the traffic, the site goes down.

Several large websites, including Google, have already fallen victim to DDOS attacks.

But just consider this one thing. A hacker can record keystrokes on your PC can capture your credit card number, your PayPal login, your banking login, etc. At that point they don't even have to USE your credit card to steal your money. No...they will just sell it to someone else who will and the hacker makes a fortune.

Are your credit card numbers at risk? Get Protected NOW.

Now to address the notion that you have a great piece of software already, why would you consider something else. I have lots of good reasons, but my reasons aren't necessarily your reasons. Why don't you call me and we can discuss it (801-427-5074)? I won't try to sell you anything. My goal is to get you protected. I will help you identify if your current software is doing that. Here's what the Invisus service will provide:

1. First and foremost, this is a SERVICE. You get EXPERTS that are looking after your PC. You hire them for your tiny $15 a month. They offer *F*R*E*E* tech support, and will even fix your problems remotely if they can't give you a simple answer over the phone. Will your current protection do that for you? Secondly, because it's a SERVICE and not a software package, the package can change, and they will still support you. All of the INVISUS software is provided at no extra charge. They put the best of breed on your PC to protect it. And why wouldn't they? They want to reduce the amount of free tech support they have to do, don't you think?  :)

2. The software is comprehensive! The INVISUS Direct Managed Security Service is all the Protection you need...ONE Simple Service Solution. Get MAXIMUM protection against hackers, viruses, worms, spyware and other dangerous Internet threats, with the most comprehensive PC security solution available to the public in a single subscription package.

INVISUS Desktop Firewall

Locks out hackers and other unauthorized intrusions.

INVISUS Anti- Virus Guard

World-class protection — stops viruses dead in their tracks.

INVISUS Spyware & Hacker Tool Detection

Monitors, detects, and destroys more than 80,000 hacker tools and utilities, Trojan horses, and spyware from your PC.

INVISUS Patch Management

Automatically Finds and fixes security holes and other vulnerabilities in your PC.

INVISUS Security Alerts

Warns you of brand new viruses, worms and other security threats as they emerge.

INVISUS Premium Support

UNLIMITED expert tech support for ANY security related problems or issues on your PC.

INVISUS Identity Theft Protection *

$25,000 per person of identity theft protection, and recovery services for up to 2 people.*

With INVISUS Direct you’re covered at every level! Does your current software package offer that? If it does, you are good to go. But I'd be willing to bet it doesn't. And that security hole in your defenses could cost you your business.

Do you have holes in your security? Do you have free support?

Get Protected NOW.

If you travel and use your hotel's business center, or other PCs made available for use by their guests, BEWARE! Those PCs are likely not protected by Internet Security software, nor are they managed by security experts. And they very likely don't have INVISUS Direct's managed Internet Security Solution in place...

Your Passwords are not safe if you log into them from one of those PCs! DO NOT DO IT!

Watch this video on ABCNews to see the scary details of how hackers a having a hay-day on hotel PCs!

A very prominent Internet Marketer posted on his blog yesterday that he has been robbled blind and left naked and penniless!

Joel Comm, most known for his NYT best-selling book The AdSense Code, was at a conference in D.C. this past weekend. He also likes to play World of Warcraft to unwind.

Says Joel:

Late Friday night, I was enjoying a session of World of Warcraft in my hotel room. The conference had ended for the day and I connected my laptop to the wireless network for some fun before heading to bed.

I awoke Saturday morning and spent the day in the conference room and meeting with my associates.

I came back to my room around 5 pm EST and decided to login to my WoW account.

That's when I was stunned to find myself the victim of a terrible and heinous crime.

My primary character, Riathamus, had been robbed blind.

He was virtually naked.

All his armor and weaponry had been stripped from his body and sold, the gold undoubtedly in the hands of unscrupulous people.

His bank account had been wiped out, save those items which could not be sold, and over 1300 gold was removed from his person.

That was gold that would soon pay for the flying mount Ria would've attained at level 70, which was just hours within his grasp.

All gone.

A further glance revealed that my other characters had also been stripped of their goods and robbed of their bankroll.

All told, I had lost nearly 2000 gold in cash and items.

What happened?

Joel believes that some hackers found his laptop on its wireless connection while he was sleeping and gone for the day, and controlled it remotely to access his game characters and steal from him in this virtual world.

He said:

Someone in the hotel must have been using a packet sniffer or keylogger to detect my login and password over the unsecured open network.

Frankly, if this is the case, and it's likely that it is, he is in a lot more trouble than he thinks. I am sure he has already changed all his passwords to his accounts, and called his banks, and so on...a lot like the same routine that you go through when you lose your wallet...

Regardless of packet snifing (which really only allows you to read packets that you send out to the network, and even then only if it's plain text), it's the keylogger he should be concerned with. And perhaps, more than that, HOW THE KEYLOGGER GOT THERE! Keyloggers and RAT (Remote Access Software) are installed on machines with vulnerabilities and virtually turn the PC into a Zombie.

Joel has far bigger problems than being 2000 gold pieces down in a game. Can you imagine what Joel would have written about if his PayPal account was left naked and penniless instead? Maybe he would be so embarrassed by it he would not have said anything about it at all!

He ends his blog post:

I am blogging this entry from my hotel room, but I've since purchased a virtual private network (VPN) service that protects me from further victimization.

Will Blizzard respond by restoring Riathamus and my other characters to their previous state? I don't know.

Regardless, I learned an important lesson about securing my computer. Since it could have been much worse, I think it was a small price to pay.

What do you think? Did I have it coming or are you sympathetic? Your kind words are always appreciated. And if you want to help me feel better, Comfort food always helps. [This is a link to buyjoeldessert.com where you can buy a backlink for the price of a after dinner treat.]

His post never addresses the REAL SOLUTION, though. He talks about encrypting his packets using PPTP (Point to Point Tunneling Protocol) so packet sniffers can't read his packets, meaning any passwords, etc., that he might be sending in clear text across the network. He doesn't talk about the malware he probably got from MySpace surfing, or spyware from a network attack because he isn't properly patched. He doesn't talk about anti-spyware or a bi-directional firewall to keep RATs and keyloggers off his system in the first place!

He never even address if he found a keylogger on his system, or not. And if he found one, did he get rid of it?

This would have been the perfect...PERFECT...scenario for a free call to INVISUS support to have the problem identified and eradicated. Perhaps more importantly, he would have very likely not had this problem in the first place with INVISUS Direct Managed PC Security Solution...and his cost for that?  $15 a month.

'Nuff said.  

ZDNet Tags:
• Hacking,
• Security threats,
• Security,
• Personal computers,

A security researcher has found a way hackers can make PCs of unsuspecting Web surfers do their dirty work, without having to actually commandeer the systems.

That's possible with a new security tool called Jikto. The tool is written in JavaScript and can make PCs of unknowing Web surfers hunt for flaws in Web sites, said Jikto creator Billy Hoffman, a researcher at Web security firm SPI Dynamics. Hoffman, who developed the tool as a way to advance Web security, plans to release Jikto publicly later this week at the ShmooCon hacker event in Washington, D.C.

"This is going to drastically change the scope of evil things you can do with JavaScript," Hoffman said. "Jikto turns any PC into my little drone. Your PC will start attacking Web sites on my behalf, and you're going to give me all the results."

With the advent of online applications, hackers have shown increased interest in breaching Web security. Though vulnerabilities such as cross-site scripting bugs and SQL injection flaws have been around for years, such security problems are increasingly being reported and exploited.

Jikto is a Web application vulnerability scanner. It can silently crawl and audit public Web sites, and then send the results to a third party, Hoffman said. Jikto can be embedded into an attacker's Web site or injected into trusted sites by exploiting a common Web security hole known as a cross-site scripting flaw, he said.

Vulnerability scanners by themselves aren't new. Hackers often use such tools to find holes that let them break into systems. Jikto is like Nikto, a Web application bug-scanning tool popular among hackers. The difference is that Nikto is a traditional PC application, while Jikto runs in a Web browser and distributes the bug-hunting task across multiple PCs.

Jikto can hunt for various common security holes and can connect back to its controller for instructions on which Web sites to hit and what flaws to look for, Hoffman said. For example, it could be programmed to scan major banking Web sites for SQL injection vulnerabilities. Such vulnerabilities could be serious and open databases to attack.

"Half of hacking is collecting information and then sorting it. An attacker can now distribute this job to many people," Hoffman said. As a bonus, the targeted Web site won't know the identity of the attacker because the site is being probed by the unsuspecting Web surfer who happened upon a Web page rigged with Jikto.

Jikto is an interesting example of how JavaScript can be used maliciously, but traditional vulnerability-scanning tools probably are a more efficient, said Fyodor Vaskovich, creator of Nmap Security Scanner, a tool widely used in the security community to find vulnerabilities.

"These JavaScript attacks are usually very slow to perform compared to the attacker scanning from an already compromised machine," Vaskovich said. "Hiding the attacker and distributing the scanning can be useful, but the reality is that attackers can generally scan pretty widely with impunity, or they just use a chain of proxies."

Because it is created in JavaScript, a scripting language commonly used on the Web, Jikto will run in most Web browsers without any warning. Internet users who hit a Web site with Jikto embedded likely won't even know what's happening. The tool will run as long as the browser is open and disappear without any obvious trace, or residual damage.

Jikto is different in that way from bots, a common method miscreants use to take control over PCs. Typically, bots compromise PCs through security holes in Web browsers or e-mail messages laden with a Trojan horse. Somebody with a patched browser, smart e-mail habits and updated security software would typically be protected against bot software.

"As a user you really can't do much against Jikto or other JavaScript-based threats," Hoffman said. "I am not giving you a Trojan or a traditional backdoor. I am not really compromising your computer. That is what makes this so scary. Antivirus is not going to help you."

JavaScript plays a major role in the Web 2.0 boom, which is causing a splash as it stretches the boundaries of what Web sites can do. But malicious JavaScript, especially in combination with the increasingly common Web site security flaws, could lead to insidious Web-based attacks, security experts have said.

Right now, Jikto only crawls and detects vulnerabilities. Hoffman is working on a next version that can also exploit vulnerabilities and extract data. That version may be presented at the Black Hat security conference in Las Vegas this summer, he said.

CNET News has some of the most interesting articles.
Back on June 19th they reported that a university in Scottland will be offering a degree course in computer hacking in response to industry demand for IT security experts. There will be about 30 students taught how illegal hackers do their dirty deeds, so they can be best equipped to stop them as computer security experts. Teach them 'black hat' skills so they can become great 'white hat' hackers to be the good guys.

That is what it takes these days to fend off the hackers, it seems. Or does it?

Home PCs are already the single-most targeted computers on the net, where the users are most certainly NOT schooled in fighting off hackers. Home users often rely on their "brother-in-law" to keep them safe, or they just live with their head in the sand, because "after all, who would want what is on MY PC!" That kind of thinking is so outdated and dangerous.

The truth of the matter is this...

Hackers don't really care what is on your PC...but they do like to grab your passwords, credit card numbers, online banking info, and so on. Do they think they can rob you blind? I suppose some do, but most just want your data to add to their list...a list they can sell for very good money to people who WOULD like to steal your your money, your identity, or more. Seriously folks, the threat is now 7 in 10 are going to be a victim and you don't even have to know about it! Want to take that risk?

How do you keep them away?

It's really not all that hard, when you think about it. You simply make your PC invisible to hackers. Or at least unattractive. You need a Firewall, AntiVirus, AntiSpyware, and a way to keep all your security patches up to date. No one wants to manage their own security, it's a full time job these days. So let the experts do it for you. You let your insurance guy protect your car, your home, your money, your boat....and you live on your computer with the most sensitive of information coming in and going out all day long. Something to think about.

INVISUS Direct will do all this and more. You will also get a $25,000 ID Theft Insurance Policy, and a crack squad of security experts (not unlike those schooled in Scotland) to work with you as your free PC Security Tech Support team.

 

We would love to have you part of the Club of those that are safe and protected. Welcome!