Consumer Security on the web, information to assist you in practicing safe computing
From the monthly archives:
Subject: Happy New Year!
Message body: blank
Attachment: postcard.exe
This worm has been mass mailed so you might expect one to fall into your mailbox.
Luder is an e-mail worm, a dropper for a trojan downloader and a file infector. The worm sends itself as attachment named ‘postcard.exe’ in e-mail messages with the ‘Happy New Year!’ subject. The trojan downloader downloads and runs files from a website.
Sandi Hardmeier blogs the latest on the Messenger Plus! sponsor’s Winfixer install.
If you don’t know what Winfixer is see: Rogue/Suspect Anti-Spyware Products & Web Sites
Help forums often see victims seeking assistance to remove this malware which is from the same company as the distributors of WinAntiSpyware 2006 and WinAntiVirus 2006.
If your PC has been infected, you can make your voice heard at Malware Complaints
Update:
Sandi reports that during the past two days Circle Development has edited the HOSTS file on machines running the Messenger Plus! Sponsor Program, blocking many Winfixer related URLs.
Story here
Feature Overview - The Secunia Software Inspector:
- Detects insecure versions of applications installed
- Verifies that all Microsoft patches are applied
- Assists you in updating your system and applications
- Runs through your browser. No installation or download is required.
Of 400,000 detected applications, over 35% were insecure.
Run the the Software Inspector here.
ComScore is an online research company widely used by companies such as The New York Times and Ford Motor, but is it sneaking onto computers without user consent.
During a three-month period Ben Edelman and Eric Howes separately observed hundreds of unauthorized comScore downloads.
ComScore (revenues: $50 million) denies the allegations, saying the company would never install software without permission.
ComScore apprantly engaged in partnership negotiations with DollarRevenue, an adware distributor, also giving that company test software.
Ben Edelman and Eric Howes:
Update December 8: Our follow-up comment to the FTC discusses additional concerns, further ongoing bad practices at Zango, and the special difficulty of enforcement in light of practices seemingly not prohibited by the proposed settlement.
Additional Comments on Improper Zango Practices. (PDF)
The last time I blogged this scandal was September 30th, 2006. “HP executives plead the fifth Amendment.”
HP has settled a lawsuit against it over the spying scandal for $14.5 million.
Under the terms of the settlement with the California attorney general, HP will pay $13.5 million to create a “Privacy and Piracy Fund” for law enforcement activities related to privacy and intellectual property rights operated in the state Attorney General’s Office.
The company will also pay $650,000 in civil penalties and $350,000 to cover expenses of the investigation, California Attorney General Bill Lockyer announced yesterday.
From the spywareguide.com blog.
A while ago on the Spywareguide Blog, I covered a technique being used in Peer to Peer land involving URLs being embedded in Quicktime movies, which would then pop open a website. This has now been taken to the next level, with an intensive and seemingly never ending Phish attack, the sole aim of which seems to be directing end-users to a collection of Zango movies on a pornographic website.
In the security forums it is not uncommon to see posts from confused users asking why (upon installing a Symantec product) they were told other programs they already had installed, such as Spybot-Search and Destroy, were incompatible and should be removed.
Bill Pytlovany of Billp Studios WinPatrol writes:
There’s a new malicious bot program making the rounds and Symantec has named it “W32.Spybot.ACYR”. Click to read more from CNet’s Joris Evans
In my opinion, this is a blatant attempt at discrediting a popular anti-malware tool. I can easily see WinPatrol.troj being named for the next Trojan they find patrolling the internet.
I have not recommended Norton in years.
Aside from their marketing tactics, perform a search on ‘Symantec resource hog’ and you will see why.
However, it must be noted that Sophos and Trend Micro among others, have also long used the term Spybot in naming the W32 infection.
Zango’s Founder and CEO Keith Smith was interviewed by Thomas Claburn of InformationWeek.
When InformationWeek asked what had been going on with the FTC, Keith Smith said:
It’s a great thing for us. It’s a great thing for the industry. For the first time, we have the federal government coming out and saying specifically yes, we do think that in order to install software on a user’s computer you should use plain language, notice, and consent, and there are the rules around that. So this is something that we’ve been doing since the beginning of the year, and it’s been a long process to get to the point where we could do that consistently in every single case. So we think it’s a good thing.
That strikes me as an odd statement, maybe the FTC should throw a few more 3 million dollar fines their way and make Zango really happy.
InformationWeek posed the question:
Have you resolved Ben Edelman’s recent complaint that Zango isn’t complying with the terms of its FTC settlement?
To which Smith responded:
I will say this: There are people, and I won’t identify anyone specifically, but if you look at the loud detractors of us in particular—not of the space, because spyware is a problem—but the loud detractors of Zango, most of them, if not all of them, have a direct financial benefit to continue to churn out fear about us and about this space. Whether they’re selling software or consulting services, they have a direct financial incentive to make us look bad.
That really doesn’t sound too bright coming from a CEO.
Ben Edelman and Eric Howes: Bad Practices Continue at Zango Just the facts Sir, just the facts.
Paperghost’s response to the interview.
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