Virus Alerts by E-Trust from CA
CA Security Advisor Threat Alerts
Virus Alert
Recommended
Intercept, read, kill spam on the server BEFORE they are downloaded to your computer!
With this software (over 3 million users and growing) you can check and delete all email BEFORE spam and viruses get into your computer's inbox!Click banner for information and downloads
Use Secure Emailing with HushmailHushmail, recommended by EPIC (Electronic Privacy Information Center) is a secure, advertisement-free online mail service.
The premium service at around $2.95 a month offers the capability of unlimited email aliases ... essential for the real defense of your Internet privacy!
Both the free service and the premium service are truly far superior to any other online services!
Both can be configured to send you "email received" alerts to any other email address of your choice: both have in depth spam control.
Click link for information and download.
About RATs: From MicrosoftRemote Access Trojans and how to help avoid them
Click for more info.
About Zombies and Botnets: From MicrosoftQuote: "Online criminals can use a virus to take control of large numbers of computers at a time, and turn them into "zombies" that can work together as a powerful "botnet" to perform malicious tasks."
Click for more info.
About Rootkits: Be Afraid! Rootkit is a piece of software that cloaks the activities of a virus: its like the crooks putting a photo of the security vault door in front of the security camera so that they can get on unseen with their malicious efforts. Its worse than that!
Click for much more information
Rootkit Removal. Be Afraid! Rootkit is a piece of software that cloaks the activities of a virus: its like the crooks putting a photo of the security vault door in front of the security camera so that they can get on unseen with their malicious efforts. Its worse than that!
Click for much more information and free tool download of RootkitRevealer by SysInternals.
The dangers of MS WordMS Word attachments are considered bad because old versions of MS Word cannot (intentionally) read word documents from new versions of MS Word. Therefore such attachments are non-standard.
MS Word documents carry draft versions of the document: you cannot see the drafts, but they are there and a savvy receiver could check to see how you may have modified your document. Do you really want that? The overhead is that the MS Word document attachments are big.
And then, because MS Word allows you to use macros, macros can be inserted into your document without your consent. Macros can carry viruses, so can infect the receiving machines.
Click to find out how to use alternatives attachments
Free Online Virus Scan at HouseCall by TrendMicroYou should always use an online anti-virus service in addition to whatever AVS you have installed on your computer.
Free Online Virus Scan at ActiveScan by PandaYou should always use an online anti-virus service in addition to whatever AVS you have installed on your computer.
Run Free MSRTThis is the online Malicious Software Removal Tool from Microsoft. You can also download it for free in which case it will always run in the background and update itself.
You should understand that this tool will check and attempt to remove specific rootkits from a list specifically aimed at Microsoft systems.
Click to check your computer now or to download the tool. from Microsoft.
Why is FirefoxThis is a full explanation by the people from Mozilla.org
Click to read their reasons safer?
My computer is virus free! Isn't it?
"Watch out! Attacks on personal and business PCs aren't just being committed by amateurs anymore." warned PC WORLD February 2005PCThe PC World article went on to say: "You--or your business--may be the next target of a new breed of professional Internet criminals, who now apply underworld tactics to the Web.
"These cybercrooks use malicious software such as viruses and worms to generate illegal profits.
"One security expert we interviewed called this type of crime the cocaine trade of the new century.
"In this five-part series, we show you the global scope of the problem and how innocent PCs are turned into zombie armies used to threaten and extort money from businesses."
Click link for the five-part series.
What are these attacks? Typically they are viruses, worms, email viruses, and TrojansA virus is a small piece of software that piggybacks on real programs. Each time the program runs, the virus runs, too, attaches copies of itself to other programs and can wreak havoc in a computer.
An E-mail virus comes to you in an e-mail from someone you know and usually replicates itself by automatically mailing itself to dozens of people in your e-mail address book.
A worm is a small piece of software that uses computer networks and security holes to replicate itself to other networks/machines. The process is only stops totally when all cleaned out of all networks/machines.
A Trojan is simply a computer program. The program claims to do one thing (it may claim to be a game or a speed optimizer or an anti-virus program) but instead does damage when you run it (it may erase your hard disk). Trojan horses have no way to replicate automatically.
Click link to read full PC World article
The attacks are mounted against you by email Never open an email attachment.
Never click on a link in an email.
Most people will not follow these two rules because curiosity and a general disbelief that anything bad can happen to them make them open attachments and click on email links. Worse, most people firmly believe their anti-virus protection is infallible!
Consider these facts:
Computer viruses propagate themselves by sending copies of themselves in attachments to the email addresses found on a computer, often adding the first name of an address in the greeting. Viruses do this without the knowledge of the person owning the 'originating' computer.
Many web sites are designed to secretly install Trojans or worms on 'drive-by' computers and then later carry out malicious acts including turning the infected computer into a Zombie machine that can be used to attack even more computers.
Click link for much broader information, web pages, downloads, pop-ups, CD or DVD copies, infected computers on same network. Additionally the dangers of the Internet Quoted from http://www.familysafemedia.com
US Statistics
Average age of first Internet exposure to pornography: 11
Average age of largest consumers of Internet pornography: 12-17
15-17 year olds having multiple hard-core exposures among 15-17 year olds:>80%
8-16 year olds having viewed porn online: 90% (most while doing homework)
7-17 year olds who would freely give out home address: 29%
7-17 year olds who would freely give out email address: 14%
26 children's characters (including Pokeman and Action Man) are used as search terms by thousands of porn links! , email and chat room safetyNetAlert, backed by Australian Government, provides information, advice and education and two special interactive child/parent web sites (for different child age groups) to help you motivate your children to practice Internet safety.
Click here to go there! for your children are very real! You should also check out: NetSmartzNetSmartz® is an interactive, educational safety resource from the National Center for Missing & Exploited Children® and Boys & Girls Clubs of America for children (ages 5-17), parents, guardians, educators, and law enforcement that uses age-appropriate, 3-D activities to teach children how to stay safer on the Internet.
Click link to study the information provided by NetSmartz, and CyberAngels 101Statistics from CyberAngels:
One of every 17 minors online has been threatened or harassed online.
75% of children share personal information about themselves willingly over the Internet in exchange for goods and services.
1 out of 5 U.S. teens who regularly log on to the Internet have received a sexual solicitation or approach over the Internet,1 in 33 have been aggressively pursued sexually online.
77% of youths are contacted by online predators by age 14, and 22% of children ages 10 to 13 are approached.
Click link to visit CyberAngels 101
Basic knowledge about the growing menace of Internet dangers is better than ignorance and the SophosSophos is top of the range anti-virus software (AVS) for large commercial networks.
Whatever anti-virus program you use, it is worth subscribing to the free Sophos alert.
The Sophos site also has an encyclopedia of viruses, hoaxes and scams and a downloadlable guide, probably the best, definitely the easiest to read and understand, with in depth information and advice about almost everything that can attack your computer.
Click link to go to the Sophos site guide is both essential and easy to read. Also worth exploring are the Cyber Tips at CERTUnited States Computer Emergency Readiness Team
or CERT offers non-technical information and advice on cyber security. Easy to read and worth knowing.
Click link to go to CERT while, over at TrendMicro there is a real-time world wide virus mapThe map is update every few minutes and you can check out the growth in terms speed and scope of any virus.
Click link to see the TrendMicro world-wide virus map. TrendMicro also offer an excellent and free online scanner/cleaner called HouseCallIt is essential that you never rely totally on one anti-virus defence.
The war against computer viruses is such that all anti-virus software is always one step behind the virus creators. Some AVS present update once a week, others, like TrendMicro PC-Cillin, every 3 hours! So I always recommend TrendMicro's online HouseCall as a "second opinion" anti-virus scanning choice.
It may take more time for some AVS companies to develop recognition methods and even remedies for any specific new virus, so getting a second or even a third opinion is essential. TrendMicro, like Etrust, are highly rated AVS companies that offer free online scanning and virus termination as a way of encouraging you to eventually buy their software. Others let you do the scanning but won't remove the viruses.
Click link for your free online scan. Use it now, even if you feel safe behind your existing AVS protection!
Norton's marketing team excels in getting its AVS installed on nearly every new personal PC: this does not make it the best! See the article about Norton, McAfee and TrendMicro by the prestigious ZDNet. You will see that TrendMicro offers more at a similar price but with FREE support. There are better alternatives: see About.com's anti virus software Top 7From About.com
Top 7 Windows Anti virus
1. Panda Software's Platinum Internet Security 2005
2. TrendMicro's PC-Cillin Internet Security 2005
3. Softwin's BitDefender Professional
4. ZoneAlarm Internet Security Suite
5. F-Prot for Windows
6. Kaspersky Anti-Virus Personal
7. AntiVirusKit 2005 (AVK) reviews. For more comparisons look at the 2006 AVS TOP 10 reviews. #1 BitDefender
#2 Kaspersky
#3 F-Secure Anti-Virus
#4 TrendMicro PC-Cillin (my preferred choice)
#5 ESET Nod32
#6 McAfee VirusScan
#7 Norton AntiVirus
#8 AVG AntiVirus (popular free version available)
#9 eTrust EZ Antivirus (my preferred choice)
#10 Norman Virus Control
Download and use the free FirefoxClick link to go to Firefox download site browser. Why?You can effortlessly do things in Firefox that IE users only dream about, without giving up most of the compatibility in the IE world that you need.
Click for 10 reasons why to switch to Firefox browsing It includes excellent pop-up blocking and is safer than IE. But, if you insist on using IE then go to this Microsoft page to find out how to enhance browsing security. Or download Pop-UpSentrya robust stand-alone pop-up blocker for only $29.95 offering 30 day money back guarantee.