News

I've noticed a recent and disturbing surge of news stories on Internet scams and personal security, and many of these scams prey on human nature and generosity. In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, for example, donors were duped into sending aid to false charitable organizations, and Trojan viruses, which came attached to photos of the disaster, attacked many.
Amidst all of this, software-makers are still trying to fend off pesky hackers. In a recent report from the FBI, Internet auction fraud was sited in 62.7 per cent of victim complaints to the Internet Crime Complaint Center (IC3). I don't mean to cause alarm, but even with the antivirus software available to us today, Internet crime, identity theft and computer viruses are still a serious concern.

The phenomenon is global, spanning both the real world and cyberspace. The U.S. Department of Justice reported recently that to date, "Operation Global Con" has arrested 565 people throughout North America and Europe for being involved in various offline and on-line mass-marketing schemes. Most Internet fraud occurs through "phishing", which happens when an unsuspecting computer user is coerced into revealing personal bank account information or login passwords. Many times, these attacks come in the form of an e-mail, which claims that your account information has either expired or needs updating. These e-mails then link to a website that looks incredibly similar to that of eBay, PayPal or even your bank.

If you're fooled by the scam, scammers can purchase stock, manipulate auctions or buy items on-line using your account info. Plus, it's all done in a way that's difficult to trace and often goes undetected until the victim has been cheated out of thousands of dollars. It's very rare for your bank to ask for any personal account information by email, and you should never enter personal information on-line unless you're absolutely positive that the source can be trusted.

Unfortunately, scammers are also taking advantage of people's kindness and generosity. Posing as officials from government agencies, banks or insurance companies, scammers will claim to use donations to help victims of natural disasters, but the goal is to steal your bank or credit card information. Many times these scams come in via email, so again, you should be wary of responding to any unsolicited material. Sometimes these emails will also contain Trojan viruses, embedded in purported photo attachments disaster relief efforts. I cannot stress enough how important it is for you to refrain from opening attachments from unidentified sources.
Even in this day and age, with our highly evolved antivirus software, computers and software programs are under constant attack, and it's not just the average consumer that needs to be on the defence. Just a few weeks ago, the city of Rocky Mount, North Carolina, was forced to shut down a number of its computers due to a viral attack. Although the public was spared any inconvenience, police and fire officials were left scrambling to deal with routing fire trucks and police cars via an old-fashioned paper system. At the height of the emergency, 30 city computers were affected.
And it seems that even the world's leading software security firms aren't completely immune to virus attacks either. eEye Digital Security recently found a flaw in Symantec's antivirus software system — one that could have potentially put users at risk of an Internet worm attack. Worms are incredibly destructive programs that replicate in disks and memory, eventually shutting down entire systems and allowing hackers to gain complete control of a machine. The discovered flaw affects Symantec's antivirus and antispam products, giving hackers an opening through a number of gateways, including email and file transfers. Computers at risk include those that run Symantec's software to scan files in Windows, Mac OS X, Linux and other operating systems, but the flaw doesn't affect any of the latest product versions (such as Norton Antivirus 2005).
In response to the security finding, Symantec responded immediately with Intrusion Prevention System (IPS) signatures that provide users with protection against possible worm attacks. Symantec is distributing the patches through its LiveUpdate service and its web site.
Software giant Microsoft is also not immune from attack, as it recently released 12 patches for its Windows operating system and other Microsoft applications. The move came as Microsoft announced its intention to purchase the security company Sybari, putting Microsoft in the antivirus software market.
There's no question that threats on-line remain as rampant as ever, with hackers and scam artists willing to go to any length to infect your system or, worse, steal your identity. So spare yourself a potentially huge hassle and be sure to keep your computer updated with the latest antivirus software, and be very careful with your personal information on-line.