What in the world is an acai berry? If you are into fad diets, then you probably have heard of the acai berry. It is purported to be the next wonder drug, which is all natural by the way. It is supposed to make you lose weight like no other substance in existence. It is also supposed to make you feel better and younger because of its curative properties.
Anyhow, I have nothing against the acai berry fad per se. I mean, these fads come and do and it’s up to you if you want to try them or not. What is happening to me is another story, however. You see, I have somehow been victimized by the acai berry virus (or so I’d like to call it) on Yahoo messenger.
I didn’t have any inkling as to what was happening until I suddenly got this slew of offline messages last week. People on my contact list – even those with whom I had not spoken for months and months – suddenly started sending me offline messages. Their messages seemed to be in reply to something I had sent.
Yesterday, an old friend sent me an SMS saying that I might have a virus. He said that I kept sending him messages on Yahoo Messenger about this acai berry thing. Obviously, it was not me.
I am pretty sure that I am not alone in this thing. I have scoured the web for similar reports and have found a lot of other people complaining of the same thing! The solution? I scanned my laptop for malware using Spybot last night. I am about to scan again using Avast. Then I am changing my passwords. Let’s see if I can get rid of this thing.
Any suggestions?
Categories: IM, Instant Messaging, Malware, Real-World Issues
We all know that some people using the web for success are desperate and regardless if the message comes to you via email, comments or an instant message, do not click! It is easy to spot suspicious messages. For one, if there is no sane explanation on why you should check it out, refrain from doing so. The difference between clicking may make the difference as far as safety and security for your computer or workstation is concerned.
For most, this may seem redundant. Who in his right mind would click a link gone unsolicited? Well that is true but we forget to consider that not all people are aware of the benefits and dangers that await them on the web.
Just like in modern society, you can expect some tactics that can really deceive you. They are not obvious and in fact can come in any from. In fact, you can even get them from friends who may think that such links to site as harmless. Leading the pack for suspicious links would include:
1. Free software links
2. Files or Images
3. Money making scheme programs
4. Unsolicited Sign Ups
Of course, you would have to consider, to get people to click on links, it has to be entirely in their interest. For most, it is too tempting to resist. Especially if you have not encountered them or have been educated of these threats, chances are you may experience them first hand and may become a forgettable one for overlooking the value of security on the web.
Tags: hyperlinks, identity-theft, messaging, phishing
Categories: IT Security Basics, Instant Messaging, Malware, Privacy & Anonymity, Spyware
Came across the incident on InfoWorld and it seems quite interesting for it involves spam messages on your mobile. That might seem a long way from the world of IT but as more and more of us turn to the mobile workforce that may present a big problem that can rival spam in your email inbox. The incident has a user from a certain location who moves to a different location that didn’t have the best of service availability when it came to his mobile carrier. He was contacted by AT&T and was informed that due to some technical constraints that cannot guarantee their full range of services. So in the end he was forced to sign up with an alternate mobile provider (Sprint) from which he began receiving marketing mail and text messages that were on the same level as phishing scams out for your personal information.
Unsolicited marketing is banned (which led to the downfall of most off-site call centers) in the US and almost anywhere else if I got it right, so why does a leading provider allow such things to happen? Well, the marketing industry for one is one of the most aggressive when it comes to the utilization of new technologies to further their reach and mobile phones being almost part of everyday life (except for some far reaches of the Amazon or Africa) it is a ripe and well established area to focus on for marketing drives.
Communications is the key and mobile workforces being very dependent on it makes them prime targets as prey for such marketing drives. The poor fellow isn’t alone for millions of us do get unsolicited voice mail or text messages from time to time (some more than others) and there should be something done to correct such menacing and disrupting activities.
Source : InfoWorld
Tags: Marketing, New Arena, spam, Spam Menace
Categories: General, IM, IT Security Basics, Instant Messaging, Malware, Privacy & Anonymity, Real-World Issues
The move to shift from multi-level communications and incorporating Unified communications such as VoIP and other unified platforms has become the prime targets of hackers who are now turning to IM attacks as their targets. Offices have de-centralized communications and other systems combining them into one system that is capable of handling communications eliminating the need for maintaining several systems each with its specific function. IM or Internet Messaging is cheaper and allows office workers in the field to communicate cheaply with the office and VoIP allows them to communicate cheaply over vast distances.
Unified communications is the next step towards virtualization which is currently being developed and tested by various developers. IM is one of the most convenient means of communications which has the capability to receive mail from all over just as SMS or Text messaging has done in the Mobile Industry. Every user who uses the internet may have one or more IM accounts with the many free mail providers or through their company hosting service. Using the IM allows hackers to send malware, unload their payloads and go on to propagate through the networked system, which if looked at from a business perspective crippling one of the vital communications links. There are still mobile phones and other means communications but being ever present at every desktop, any unsuspecting user can download malware without proper intrusion prevention and detection systems in place. Mobile phones have also suffered attacks from malware that is designed to attack stripped down versions of popular Operating systems, the forays of hackers into unified communications may mean they are keeping pace with the development of new technologies as fast as businesses adopt them and accept them as just part of the game.
Tags: IIS, IM, Microsoft, Unified Communications, voip
Categories: General, IM, IT Security Basics, Instant Messaging, Malware, Network Security, News, Privacy & Anonymity, Real-World Issues, Security Policies
Experts have said it again and again and history has shown us that money is the root of all evil and so it goes the same for the development and eventual spread of more sophisticated malware intended for the ever growing mobile computing environment. Current malware is simple yet experts are warning users and other experts alike that it would only be time before some hacker develops a more robust and discreet form of malware that would circumvent standard virus scanners. As we have seen and read in news articles, these viruses, Trojans and other forms of malware are evolving so fast that removal and detection experts are finding it very hard to get one step ahead of them. In the time it takes to read this post, about 35 or so new types of malware would have been released into the wild to infect any of the millions of unprotected systems over the internet. The problem has gone into the pandemic stage that no system is safe for long. The soonest a new and more robust intrusion prevention and security system is in place, several new vulnerabilities in the computer systems we use are found and immediately exploited by hackers and their minion.
Economics or the promise of earning a buck from such malware creation and spreading is the major motivation for hackers. Say you get into the cell phone of your favorite Celebrity and get hold of private pictures, or get hold of a confidential report which lists the amount of funds along with the corresponding account information and much more information that one can sell quite profitably over the internet.
Tags: Malware, Mobile Malware Threat, viruses
Categories: Cryptography, General, IM, IT Security Basics, Instant Messaging, Malware, Network Security, News, Operating Systems, Real-World Issues, Security Policies, Spyware
In the endless fight for IT security in the vulnerable internet, even Google’s Orkut has been hit by a self-propagating Trojan which is currently being studied for a possible cure to remove it from the wild. The Trojan works when the creators get information and send messages with links that prompts users to install a newer version of the flash player program. The user is greeted by a pop-up window that tells the user an installation of a newer version of software being used is in need of download and subsequent update. The program downloads a seemingly legal copy of the software installer which in turn begins to unload it’s payload of malicious code and propagates by sending more messages with the addresses that are tagged as friends in the victim user’s address book. So far, the pop-up message that promotes the spread of the Trojan is only in Portuguese which has been seen only in Brazil and with a few in India, but the security experts at Symantec are worried that an evolved version can unload more malicious code that can do more damage to the millions of users on the web, even cause another cascading slowing down of the internet as a whole if these Trojans begin to overload vital internet hubs forcing them to shut-down due to the infinite requests for direction which it would be unable to handle. Google has been warned by Symantec which has yet to release a reply to that warning. Symantec and many other industry leaders in the development of virus/,alware removal software have predicted the rise in attacks that would take effect this year as more and more people get onto the social network bandwagon making the world a smaller place but at the same time opening previously shut doors ripe for attack fromt the ever changing face of malware.
Tags: Google, Orkut, Trojan
Categories: General, IT Security Basics, Instant Messaging, Malware, Network Security, News, Privacy & Anonymity, Real-World Issues, Security Policies
Some of these updates and patches are well publicized and known to media and IT circles while others are not. The real truth, not all users want to know the details of the several updates and patches that are being installed as long as they get to use the internet and other software without issues. This is a dangerous tightrope to walk for like the Facebook incidents and MySpace problems, and yes even Google (with their customer purchase tracking system which they took out of service as people took notice and were pissed they were being monitored as to shopping habits etc).
Even the most popular web search engines have come under fire when people took notice of their tracking systems and how that information is used to target them for advertising campaigns. The web is a true and proven signal of unparalleled freedom for it allows you to get information all with the press of a few buttons. But the battle begins at your desktop or laptop where the OS resides and is installed on making it the root of all possible problems. Yes, Attacks do come from the net but they are targeted at your home or office desktops using them as propagation tools to spread them all over the globe. Privacy and the right to know is quite battered on these fronts with many problems being discovered at every turn. People love intrigue and they will continue to scrutinize and criticize the work of others may they be friends or foes. On goes the OS wars and we are on the sidelines waiting to suffer all the fallout of their drive to be the first to release the most innovative and feature loaded software (with bugs and system crashes all bundled and included in the box, well till they release the respective fixes and patches to remedy them).
Tags: Apple, linux, Microsoft, OS Wars
Categories: General, IM, IT Security Basics, Instant Messaging, Malware, News, Operating Systems, Privacy & Anonymity, Programming, Real-World Issues, Security Policies, Spyware
Research has shown that a survey conducted within a large company shows that although telecommuting is very much productive for many firms it tends to be on the downside for those employees who do stay within the physical office itself. This can be in the areas of personal assistants/secretaries and other office workers who are left to run the office in the absence of their counterparts/coworkers. This leads to dissatisfaction in the workplace hence lowering productivity and encouraging home-bodies to engage in dangerous liaisons from within and outside of the office.
The hatred felt is seen in the rising occurrences of these same people becoming the entry point for attacks on corporate networks when they visit social sites to pass on the otherwise boring day. This is also counterproductive for their attention to work and the other nuances such as physical security and IT security is so much a threat that it is under study on how to improve the working conditions for these people. They are distracted and left to do almost anything they please which is where the security gap seems to be, using the corporate network to access social sites to which they are members of. Even the installation of hardware and software security measures cannot guarantee security coverage at all angles for the main security risk is still the human behind the keyboard who does the typing and not on the structure of the system itself. It might be helpful to get them out more often to allow their facilities more practice letting the steam and pressures/boredom to dissipate. Role rotation may be a key but is not always feasible for there are certain knowledge associated issues that have to be addressed to be able to do that. Training and re-training people allows them to sharpen skills and add new knowledge to their already bored lives.
Tags: Mobile-Workforce, Telecommuting
Categories: General, IT Security Basics, Instant Messaging, Malware, Network Security, Physical Security, Privacy & Anonymity, Real-World Issues, Security Policies
A new twist into the old email scam books, the fraudulent scam that asks for money from unsuspecting friends and acquaintances listed in your address books. True, many have been victimized by the said ploy wherein people gain access to your address book and sending out email that solicits cash funds to be wired to a location somewhere around the world. The scam began in Africa when a journalist began receiving unexpected calls and email regarding his misfortune in the African continent where he was supposedly on vacation and stuck in a hotel without any cash funds or other form of identification.
The incident used Yahoo which the perpetrator has broken into and taken the liberty of obtaining all the names and email addresses contained in the popular email facility service’s files. These addresses were then sent fake email messages telling the unfortunate story of you getting into misfortune somewhere and that you are in dire need of cash which you are supposed to pay back as soon as you return from the said trip ending the ordeal. It is a fake emergency message though and there have been many reports of similar cases happening using all the email services around. How the thieves got into the address book getting the necessary information is still a mystery and the guy who reported it first (who happens to be in the journalism business) had to go through a long process of getting all the account information from yahoo through phone after a lengthy conversation to prove that he was actually who he claimed to be. So, people be alert for the said scam and be sure to verify all incidents with the senders as well as alert all members of the family and your friends of such crazy behavior.
Tags: Email-Scams, Fraudulent-email, Scams
Categories: General, IM, IT Security Basics, Instant Messaging, News, Privacy & Anonymity, Real-World Issues
Employee’s love them, Network Administrators hate them, the advent of more function packed handheld devices have sparked a re-evaluation of the threat these small devices pose. Traditionally, networks were quite safe for to gain access to it you needed to be hooked up to the network, physically with a LAN cable. Now that the shift to wireless has become the network engineer’s best friend the network has surely been simplified and companies are switching to the new technology. Thy no longer needed wires and all existing computers are either replaced with ones that support Wi-Fi or bought individual dongles that allowed connection within the office. That was still an easy security agenda for they usually had a range of a couple of hundred feet.
Then came wireless internet hotspots which commercial developers started to put up to get more workers out of the office into their shops allowing them to work while, say having coffee. That’s where the problems began for the more office correspondence left the walls of the office, the more harder was it to secure. VPN’s were implemented that allowed a secure channel within existing networks making it a bit better. But that was still quite vulnerable to attack and security experts needed a better way of securing corporate data where-ever the user might be. Projections by business and security analysts estimate volume to increase to 100 million email transactions to and from outside the office locations that is still causing nightmares as the next step is found in the drive to secure this network without physical bounds.
[tags]Handheld Computing, Mobile Computing[/tags]
Tags: hackers, internet, security, Vulnerabilities, Wireless
Categories: Cryptography, General, IM, IT Security Basics, Instant Messaging, Network Security, News, Real-World Issues, Security Policies, Wireless Security
