[Nfbf-l] Fw: [accesscomp] from Accessible Devices

[Sherri]

Important message about computer viruses.

----- Original Message ----- 
From: Bob Acosta
To: Bob Acosta
Sent: Wednesday, May 18, 2011 4:05 PM
Subject: [accesscomp] from Accessible Devices



    The next time a website says to download new software to view a movie or
fix a problem,
think twice. There's a pretty good chance that the program is malicious.
In fact, about one out of every 14 programs downloaded by Windows users
turns out
to be malicious, . And even though Microsoft has a feature in its
Internet Explorer
browser designed to steer users away from unknown and potentially
untrustworthy software,
about 5 percent of users ignore the warnings and download malicious
Trojan horse
programs anyway.
Five years ago, it was pretty easy for criminals to sneak their code
onto computers.
There were plenty of browser bugs, and many users weren't very good at
patching.
But since then, the cat-and-mouse game of Internet security has evolved:
Browsers
have become more secure, and software makers can quickly and
automatically push out
patches when there's a known problem.
So increasingly, instead of hacking the browsers themselves, the bad
guys try to
hack the people using them. It's called social engineering, and it's a
big problem
these days. "The attackers have figured out that it's not that hard to
get users
to download Trojans," said Alex Stamos, a founding partner with Isec
Partners, a
security consultancy that's often called in to clean up the mess after
companies
have been hacked.
Social engineering is how the Koobface virus spreads on Facebook. Users
get a message
from a friend telling them to go and view a video. When they click on
the link, they're
then told that they need to download some sort of video playing software
in order
to watch. That software is actually a malicious program.
Social-engineering hackers also try to infect victims by hacking into
Web pages and
popping up fake antivirus warnings designed to look like messages from
the operating
system. Download these and you're infected. The criminals also use spam
to send Trojans,
and they will trick search engines into linking to malicious websites
that look like
they have interesting stories or video about hot news such as the royal
wedding or
the death of Osama bin Laden.
"The attackers are very opportunistic, and they latch onto any event
that might be
used to lure people," said Joshua Talbot, a manager with Symantec
Security Response.
When Symantec tracked the 50 most common malicious programs last year,
it found that
56 percent of all attacks included Trojan horse programs.
In enterprises, a social-engineering technique called spearphishing is a
serious
problem. In spearphishing, the criminals take the time to figure out who
they're
attacking, and then they create a specially crafted program or a
maliciously encoded
document that the victim is likely to want to open -- materials from a
conference
they've attended or a planning document from an organization that they
do business
with.
With its new SmartScreen Filter Application Reputation screening,
introduced in IE
9, Internet Explorer provides a first line of defense against Trojan
horse programs,
including Trojans sent in spearphishing attacks.
IE also warns users when they're being tricked into visiting malicious
websites,
another way that social-engineering hackers can infect computer users.
In the past
two years, IE's SmartScreen has blocked more than 1.5 billion Web and
download attacks,
according to Jeb Haber, program manager lead for SmartScreen.
Haber agreed that better browser protection is pushing the criminals
into social
engineering, especially over the past two years. "You're just seeing an
explosion
in direct attacks on users with social engineering," he said. "We were
really surprised
by the volumes. The volumes have been crazy."
When the SmartScreen warning pops up to tell users that they're about to
run a potentially
harmful program, the odds are between 25 percent and 70 percent that the
program
will actually be malicious, Haber said. A typical user will only see a
couple of
these warnings each year, so it's best to take them very seriously.
Robert McMillan covers computer security and general technology breaking
news for
The IDG News Service.


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Robert Acosta, President
Helping Hands for the Blind
Email: boacosta at pacbell.net
Web Site: www.helpinghands4theblind.org

You can assist Helping Hands for the Blind by donating your used computers 
to us. If you have a blind friend in need of a computer, please mail us at 
the above address.