Beware of "scareware" scams

[Robert]

I've seen more of this kind of emails lately, and BBC is reporting


Symantec says more than 40 million people have fallen victim to the "scareware" scam in the past 12 months.

The download is usually harmful and criminals can sometimes use it to get the victim's credit card details.

The firm has identified 250 versions of scareware, and criminals are thought to earn more than £750,000 each a year.


http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/technology/8313678.stm

Just a heads up, be careful with what you click in your email inbox! Lots of tricky stuff out there.

On a related note, I had to spend hours and hours trying to clean a PC in our office, where someone had clicked on a "DHL tried to deliver" email message. Attached was a zip file with some very nasty stuff inside and the instructions were to open it. So she did.... :thwap

[rylanmartin]

On a similar note, the current Nigerian Royal family owes me a TON of money right now!!

[markb]

And I've won the Swiss lottery 4 times in the last 3 months :rollover

[Tig]

Also, watch out for the small pop-up that looks like a legitimate window that claims your system is infected with a virus (or similar language). Click any part of the new window and bam, you're system will download malware. :thwap

The best way to handle one is to Ctrl-Alt-Delete,
choose Task Manager,
and End Task all browser applications from there.

[SuperSwede]

Funny, I thought the best way to handle malware was to log in to www.apple.com and order a nice Mac with OS X :D

[Eric]

Funny, I thought the best way to handle malware was to log in to www.apple.com and order a nice Mac with OS X :D

I do think it's funny when people pimp their OS like Linux or Mac OS for being more safe; I attribute the safety mostly to the fact that it's a smaller target, so no mal/spamware is made for the OS.

I don't know enough about system architecture to say if there's a legit difference (I suspect there is), but I do attribute most of the added safety on Linux to the fact that the general populous doesn't care about Linux and fewer people use it than Windows.

Do any of you use NoScript in Firefox? I find it makes a world of difference for popups and the like.

[marnold]

I do think it's funny when people pimp their OS like Linux or Mac OS for being more safe; I attribute the safety mostly to the fact that it's a smaller target, so no mal/spamware is made for the OS.

I don't know enough about system architecture to say if there's a legit difference (I suspect there is), but I do attribute most of the added safety on Linux to the fact that the general populous doesn't care about Linux and fewer people use it than Windows.
With Linux there are some fundamental designs that inherently make it less vulnerable to some attacks. For example, you need to be root to have access to the entire system. Every Linux user should have it beaten into his head immediately that you do things as root only when absolutely necessary. If you are running as a normal user with regular permissions, running something that you shouldn't may very well destroy your /home directory (and subsequently all your personal files), but the system itself will remain unaffected. In most desktop versions of Windows, every user is essentially the root user, so anything you run can and, if it is malicious, will destroy your whole world.

Another difference is Windows' binary registry vs. Linux's /etc where all the config files are in plain text. That doesn't inherently mean that it will be easy to locate/fix something in Linux, but at least you have a fighting chance, especially if you have a basic knowledge of XML. Good luck with Windows' registry. That can ruin your day in a big hurry.

Finally, though, despite these safeguards intrinsic into Linux, it doesn't make you automagically safe. You need to make sure all the appropriate patches to your distro are applied as quickly as possible. Bugs can crop up that will allow for root access or crashing the system. Plus if your system is physically accessible by someone you don't want to have access to it, all the patches in the world won't help. And if your root password is "root" or you run everything as the root user, you're just begging for problems.

Some Mac virii and stuff are just now being seen in the wild, most likely because the market share has gotten significant enough to make it worthwhile. I don't know how they implement the safeguards in the BSD kernel at all. I'm not familiar with OSX. Nevertheless, saying "I'm using Linux (or Mac) and therefore I'm safe" shows a fundamental misunderstanding of the problem. Windows makes a big target. Unfortunately Microsoft is still paying for one of Bill Gates' biggest mistakes--thinking that the Internet would never take off. I'm hoping that Windows 7 will be better as far as security goes, but there's been precious little to come from Redmond that makes me think that there will be a revolution.

[Eric]

What he said.

That does make sense about root, though I tend to think that if software was tricky enough, it could probably convince you to type in your root password to gain access.

[marnold]

That does make sense about root, though I tend to think that if software was tricky enough, it could probably convince you to type in your root password to gain access.
Yeah, that's the whole social engineering thing. Of course, it's like anything else. If you're not sure what it's going to do, don't do it.

[Tig]

Funny, I thought the best way to handle malware was to log in to www.apple.com (http://www.apple.com) and order a nice Mac with OS X :D

If Mac OS X is so secure, then why do they keep having to make patches for all the vulnerabilities? :poke :yum

Sorry, but I couldn't help myself! In my past job/life, I was a security analyst. :D

[SuperSwede]

If Mac OS X is so secure, then why do they keep having to make patches for all the vulnerabilities? :poke :yum

Sorry, but I couldn't help myself! In my past job/life, I was a security analyst. :D

:what



:D

But really, Mac OS X is pretty secure even after a fresh install.. you dont need a bunch of additional programs (malware removers, anti-virus software and so on) if you are a basic user..

Here is some info on the OS X security functions http://www.apple.com/macosx/security/