Our office will be closed tomorrow - 07/03/09 in honor of Independence Day weekend. This means that we will not be answering the phones that day, but we will still have support available.

If you are in need of assistance email support will still be provided by emailing support@betterantivirus.com - and we will still be processing orders as well over the weekend. Our office will be open again on Monday July 6th. We apologize if this causes an inconvenience to anyone.

Everybody have a fun and safe 4th of July!

Spammers are pumping out an increasing number of garbage messages as they regain their capacity to send spam through hacked PCs, according to the latest statistics released by Google on Wednesday.

Google releases quarterly statistics from its Postini antispam group. For the second quarter, spam volumes are up 53 percent over the first quarter of this year, said Adam Swidler, product marketing manager for Google Enterprise.

Compared to the same period a year prior, spam volumes are up 6 percent. Google posted more information about spam on its enterprise blog.

Google filters around 3 billion to 3.5 billion spam messages a day for its 50,000 or so customers. Spam volumes have been increasingly erratic as some ISPs notorious for allowing spammers to use their infrastructure have been taken offline, Swidler said.

Last month, the U.S. Federal Trade Commission persuaded a federal court to issue a temporary restraining order to shut down Pricewert, an ISP that did business under the names 3FN and APS Telecom. The FTC said Pricewert was entwined with child pornographers, hackers and malicious software developers.

Swidler said Google immediately noticed a 30 percent drop in spam following the shutdown. Pricewert's closure cramped spammers' capacity to send spam through compromised home computers that form botnets.

Continue reading "Google: Spammers Regroup After ISP Takedowns "

New versions of ESET Smart Security and ESET NOD32 Antivirus have been released, with additional languages and trial versions to follow.

4.0.437.0 - Danish (DAN), Norwegian (NOR), Swedish (SWE)
4.0.438.0 - Slovenian (SLV)
4.0.441.0 - Chinese Simplified (CHS), Chinese Traditional (CHT)
4.0.447.1 - Finnish (FIN)

Despite the differences in build numbers, the only changes in these releases are localization of the user interface and online help. They all have the same functionality and feature set as version 4.0.437.0. For information about changes in version 4.0.437.0, see the changelog.

Copies of the software can be downloaded from the ESET Download Center. For more information or to request an evaluation copy, contact your local reseller, distributor or ESET office.
Continue reading "New versions of ESET Smart Security and ESET NOD32 Antivirus released"

The settlement must still be approved by a court

The Federal Trade Commission has suspended the majority of a judgment levied against two defendants accused of selling bogus security software to up to 1 million consumers.

James Reno and his Web hosting company, ByteHosting Internet Service of Ohio, now have to forfeit $116,697, just a fraction of the $1.9 million the judgment had originally required Reno and the company to pay. The settlement must still be approved by a court, the FTC said.

The rest of the penalty was suspended because the defendants wouldn't be able to pay it all, the agency said. However, if it is found that Reno and the company misrepresented their assets, they will have to pay the full amount.

More than $100,000 in assets were frozen after a federal court issued a temporary restraining order in December following the FTC complaint. Among other conditions, the court ordered six people and two companies to stop advertising so-called "scareware" security programs under the names WinFixer, WinAntivirus, DriveCleaner, ErrorSafe and XP Antivirus.

The applications are sold via deceptive pop-up ads that falsely alert people that their PCs have security problems, badgering them with warnings until they buy the software, which can cost around $40.

The FTC complaint asked hosting providers to prevent people from accessing the Web sites that host the programs. The FTC asked the court to force the defendants to forfeit money from the scam and compensate consumers.
Continue reading "FTC suspends heavy penalty against scareware defendants"

Minutes after any big celebrity dies, Internet swindlers get to work. They pump out specially created spam e-mails and throw up malicious Web sites to infect victims' computers, hoping to capitalize on the sudden high demand for information.

Michael Jackson's death was no different, and security experts say the fraud artists are just getting started.

The scams started cropping up almost instantaneously as Jackson's death was still hitting the news. As days have gone by, they've gotten more sophisticated — and dangerous.

Jackson's death "took a lot of people by surprise — the spammers, too," said Dermot Harnett, principal analyst for anti-spam engineering at Symantec Corp., a security software maker. "It might take them some time to really pounce on this issue. They are catching up pretty quickly, though."

Any major world event, such as the recent protests in Iran, triggers a barrage of Internet attacks. Security experts say the malicious traffic associated with Jackson's death will likely match and perhaps exceed those of other big spamming campaigns, such as those connected with the swine flu outbreak and Saddam Hussein's execution.

Spam is the most common way for fraudsters to find victims after these types of events. They can use a shotgun approach with a boilerplate message about Jackson, taking advantage of people's interests in the topic to improve their batting average over their usual spam campaigns.

By enticing users with such messages and tricking them into clicking on e-mail attachments, scammers can easily infect victims' computers and take command of them for more nefarious activities.

The spam about Jackson's death gets more convincing every day.

One message promises a YouTube video showing the exclusive "last work of Michael Jackson." Instead, victims get a malicious program that steals their passwords. Another promises to show the "latest unpublished photos" of Jackson if you click on a link — one that also tries to install a password-stealing program on your machine.

Others purport to be from legitimate news outlets and may contain accurate enough information to convince viewers they're real enough to click on. Others promise access to secret songs.

The effects of specific spam campaigns, like the one surrounding Jackson's death, are hard to quantify, though. Spam levels are already so high that there might not be a noticeable increase in overall spam levels, Harnett said. By some estimates spam accounts for more than 90 percent of all e-mail sent around the world, though the bulk of the messages get filtered out before ever reaching the user.

Celebrity deaths are a gold mine for criminals because lots of people go online looking for news. Google Inc. says the spike in searches for news stories about Jackson's death was so sharp the company initially mistook it for an automated attack.

Many of the information-seekers can be tricked, via e-mail, into visiting malicious Web sites. That opens the door to all kinds of nastiness, like spying on what someone's typing or using the hijacked machine to send spam.

There are also so many more Web sites about celebrities after their deaths that it's hard to figure out which ones are legitimate fan sites, and which ones were created by criminals.


Continue reading "Jackson's death unleashes barrage of online scams "

By John Leyden

US consumer watchdogs at the Federal Trade Commission have agreed to settle a lawsuit against rogue security software distributors on reduced terms.

James Reno and ByteHosting Internet Services were found responsible for distributing scareware products that used underhanded methods. The scam foisted software of no utility on the basis it was necessary to fix supposed security problems or remove smut from the PCs of prospective marks. The defendants - found responsible for tricking more than a million punters into buying rogue products including WinAntivirus, ErrorSafe, and XP Antivirus - were ordered to pay $1.9m last year.
Continue reading "FTC settles with scareware scammers on reduced terms"

If you happen to see a too-good-to-be-true offer to watch the latest Harry Potter movie online for free, watch out.

According to anti-malware software maker PC Tools, opportunistic crooks are using poisoned blog comments and dirty search engine optimization tricks to highlight lures such as 'Watch "Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince" online free. Clicking a link would take you to a post that would then attempt to fool victims into downloading and installing a "streamviewer" to see the movie, which is of course actually malware. Online crooks have used fake video codecs and viewers for years as a favorite social engineering tactic.

While you're at it, keep an eye out for malware-spreading e-mail that attempts to foist the "Zbot" Trojan onto victim PCs. The bad guys are using a variety of e-mails, including some that warn of a supposed critical update for Microsoft Outlook, or declare that you've received an eCard. TRACElabs has a number of screen shots of the fake e-mails in their post. Some e-mails link to a malicious download, while others link to it directly.

There are tell-tales in the e-mails for an astute surfer, but they're hidden behind a layer or two of obfuscation. For example, the displayed link to the fake Outlook update shows as http://update.microsoft.com/...., and checking the actual URL by moving your mouse over the link might initially look legit as well, until you notice that the real URL is http://update.microsoft.com.[fakedomain].com...

Such links are another favorite bad-guy tactic. To guard against all this evil social engineering, your best bet by far is to always send downloads and attachments to Virustotal.com (the site the pros use) for a free multi-engine malware scan before running them on your PC.

Our Comment: It seems we have to be wary of everything now and check all of it out.

Original Article

Guy Kawasaki -- a Silicon Valley venture capitalist who was partially responsible for marketing the Macintosh in 1984 -- has almost 140,000 Twitter followers. Many of those followers likely thought it was strange that Kawasaki was suddenly into shilling porn, when a link purporting to host a pornographic video of "Gossip Girl" star Leighton Meester appeared on June 23. Anyone who downloaded the video discovered a virus that ravaged both PCs and Macs.

Antivirus organization Sophos posted a YouTube video explaining how the attack worked. As the Sophos video shows, the attack affected Macs. It can be taken for granted that the malware also infected PCs, because, well, everything infects PCs.

The malicious link has been disabled and no longer prompts visitors to download viruses.

Kawasaki claimed no responsibility for spreading the malware. He told his followers that his account was not hacked, but rather a page or its feed that he linked to was hacked. Kawasaki's Twitter account is hooked up to NowPublic, a user-contributed news site, and this tasty tidbit was filtered through into his account. Kawasaki also claims to have no idea who Leighton Meester is.

Twitter is no stranger to malware. Earlier this month, Twitter spam spread a worm that crippled Windows-based machines. There were also the Twitter worm attacks of April and May.

Twitter itself does not, and will not, filter links. It's the responsibility of the user and the reader to make judgment calls about whether they'd like to read about the Iran elections or expend pent-up energy on porn. The difficulty comes in the form of condensed URLs -- many users have no idea what they're clicking on, and by the time the mistake has been uncovered, it may be too late. It's particularly troubling when infected links appear on ultra-popular user sites that many people have grown to trust.

The Kawasaki Incident shouldn't tarnish your trust of all Twitter users, especially the megalithic ones. But if Oprah sends you off to scope out a raunchy video of Twilight's Edward Cullen, exercise a little self-restraint.

Our Comment: Be careful what you click on.

Original Article

Starting July 1, Those Who 'Phish' for Personal Data Online Can Be Prosecuted

By Karin Brulliard
Washington Post Staff Writer
Sunday, April 10, 2005; Page C08

The Virginia General Assembly this year passed a handful of new bills aimed at cracking down on computer and online crimes, including a statute that observers say is the nation's first law that criminalizes "phishing" schemes.

Phishing occurs when someone sends out bulk e-mail messages designed to trick consumers into revealing bank account passwords, Social Security numbers and other personal information.

Starting July 1, cyberscammers who deceive people out of that kind of information could face a felony charge punishable by up to five years in prison and $2,500 in fines. Those convicted of selling the data or using it to commit another crime, such as identity theft, would face twice the prison time.
Continue reading "Va. Lawmakers Aim to Hook Cyberscammers"

I've received several phishing e-mails that look surprisingly authentic and professional.

I do not know about you, but for the past couple of days my inbox has received several e-mails claiming to be from Microsoft while touting links to updates for Microsoft Outlook and Outlook Express. :>) Naturally, I clicked on those links right-away and installed me some updates (not).

However, in all honesty, I was surprised at the level of effort that the sender went through in making this phishing e-mail look more "authentic". For example:

•§ First, the message itself is formatted to look like a Tech Bulletin from Microsoft.

•§ There are links within the e-mail that link off to valid addresses on the Microsoft site.

•§ Lastly, the sender took care in crafting the update (phishing) URL such that it almost appears to be going to update.microsoft.com and has a valid query path for the update.

In other words, at first glance, the e-mail looks valid. And, thanks to the sender's efforts within the social engineering arena, I'm sure that the number of people falling for this e-mail is much higher than the normally lame phishing e-mails that are sent out. Thus, unless the e-mail was blocked by some kind of inbound gatekeeper, it's up to the receiver to determine how to handle this e-mail: delete it or fall into trap.

In other words, for organizations and even consumers, the best defense in this case is awareness, training, knowledge, etc. and not some fancy security software. Ah... if only all solutions were so simple.

Our Comment: Make sure that when you do updates that you go to the site not click on a link from an email.

Original Article

I've received several phishing e-mails that look surprisingly authentic and professional.

I do not know about you, but for the past couple of days my inbox has received several e-mails claiming to be from Microsoft while touting links to updates for Microsoft Outlook and Outlook Express. :>) Naturally, I clicked on those links right-away and installed me some updates (not).

However, in all honesty, I was surprised at the level of effort that the sender went through in making this phishing e-mail look more "authentic". For example:

•§ First, the message itself is formatted to look like a Tech Bulletin from Microsoft.

•§ There are links within the e-mail that link off to valid addresses on the Microsoft site.

•§ Lastly, the sender took care in crafting the update (phishing) URL such that it almost appears to be going to update.microsoft.com and has a valid query path for the update.

In other words, at first glance, the e-mail looks valid. And, thanks to the sender's efforts within the social engineering arena, I'm sure that the number of people falling for this e-mail is much higher than the normally lame phishing e-mails that are sent out. Thus, unless the e-mail was blocked by some kind of inbound gatekeeper, it's up to the receiver to determine how to handle this e-mail: delete it or fall into trap.

In other words, for organizations and even consumers, the best defense in this case is awareness, training, knowledge, etc. and not some fancy security software. Ah... if only all solutions were so simple.

Our Comment: Make sure that when you do updates that you go to the site not click on a link from an email.

Original Article

SAN FRANCISCO, June 26 (Xinhua) -- Computer security firms are warning users to be vigilant about spam messages capitalizing the sudden death of U.S. pop star Michael Jackson.

The 50-year-old "King of Pop" was pronounced dead on Thursday afternoon at the Medical Center of the University of California in Los Angeles, after he was in a full cardiac arrest.

Security firm Sophos on Friday reported that about eight hours after Jackson's death, its experts witnessed the first wave of spam messages taking advantage of the breaking news in the subject line and body of the email.

In these messages, the spammers claimed that they have vital information about the death of Michael Jackson to share and asked for a reply.

Experts said the spammers can easily harvest recipients' contact information via a free live email address if users reply to the spam message.

"The untimely death of the King of Pop, Michael Jackson, has sent shockwaves through the entire world -- but unfortunately, this type of huge news story is also the perfect vehicle for spammers to snare vulnerable computer users," Graham Cluley, a senior technology consultant at Sophos, said in a statement.
Continue reading "Security firms warn of Michael Jackson spam messages"

ESET Plug-in for Cisco NAC Release Candidate is now available for public testing. This phase of public testing is expected to last four weeks.

The current versions of ESET NOD32 Antivirus and ESET Smart Security have built-in interoperability with Cisco Network Admission Control (NAC) to ensure endpoints on a network comply with network security policies. With the ESET Plug-in for Cisco NAC, earlier versions of ESET NOD32 Antivirus (2.7 and 3.0) and ESET Smart Security can also achieve Cisco NAC compatibility.

With Cisco NAC and ESET security software, network administrators can ensure each endpoint has the required security status before granting it access to the network, ensuring a high level of security.

For more information or to download a copy, please visit ESET’s Beta Test Program portal.

Our Comment: This is great news for people with the business edition.

Original Press Release

LONDON — Britain is hiring former computer hackers to join a new security unit aimed at protecting cyberspace from foreign spies, thieves and terrorists, the country's terrorism minister said.

Alan West said the technology-savvy staff will join efforts to trace the source of — and prevent — cyber attacks on Britain's government, businesses and individuals.

The country also will develop its capability to wage cyber warfare against the country's foes, he said.

Prime Minister Gordon Brown announced the creation of the unit Thursday as he published an updated national security strategy, detailing Britain's response to global terrorism and emerging threats.

"Just as in the 19th century we had to secure the seas for our national safety and prosperity, and in the 20th century we had to secure the air, in the 21st century we also have to secure our position in cyberspace," Brown said.

West said British government systems had probably come under cyber attack but that he did not know of any specific cases where sensitive data had been lost.

British telecom BT Group PLC, one of the world's largest telecommunications providers, estimates it has about 1,000 attempted cyber attacks per day on its systems, West said.
Continue reading "Britain Hires Ex-Hackers to Beef Up Cybersecurity"

Version 1049 of the ESET Smart Security Personal firewall module was released Wednesday, June 24. After downloading the new version, some users may have experienced difficulty connecting to the Internet, depending on their system configurations and version of ESET Smart Security. The problem can be fixed by upgrading to the latest release of ESET Smart Security.

If you are experiencing a loss in network connectivity as a result of this update, please click here for step-by-step instructions to resolve this issue.
Continue reading "Network connectivity issues with version 1049 of the ESET Smart Security Personal firewall module "