5 – Vulnerability that lead to Identity Theft

I found this interesting article about identity theft and what are the 5 major ways Identity Theft occurs.  The first one is that people don’t change-up their daily routine.  If people are watching you and your routine doesn’t change they have any easy way into your world.  The next two are ones we have talked about several times in social networking and computer scams.  Part of our guide to social networking is that you should never post sensitive data on you page and make sure your profile is set to private.  Computer and internet scam are running wild all over the internet.  Several computer security experts say that scareware and spyware has grown by over 600% in the last year.  The fourth way is through hackers (internal and external) stealing sensitive information of customers.  We hear stories all the time about credit card companies or financial companies losing customer data.  I wish I could say that is going to slow down in the future but I expect it to actually grow over the next several years.  I also expect that Identity Theft will grow by over 15% in the next and 20% the year after that.  The last method is through Healthcare moving to electronic records.  I agree that in the move to electronic records that we will see more identity or fraud from this activity.  I just wanted to share what the article said are the five vulnerabilities for identity theft and that we have to agree with all of them.  The biggest threats rights now come from the internet and internet scams.  The internet is full of spyware and scareware that is waiting to steal your identity or to harm your computer.

Article Link

Time Warner High Speed Internet Users at Risk

If you have a SMC8014 cable modem/Wi-Fi router from Time Warner Cable you may be leaving your computer network open to risk.  It was discovered last week that over 67,000 Time Warner customer were at risk of having their network hacked, web browser hijack or snoop sensitive data that use that particular modem/Wi-Fi rotuer.  The flaw hasn’t been released to the public but it does involve how your network gets encrypted .  Time Warner has released a press release that they have temporary patched the hole but Bloggers are reporting that the security issue hasn’t been fixed for everybody.  A final patch should be released later this week according to Time Warner.  We recommend that if you the SMC8014 cable modem/Wi-Fi router you should ask for a replacement with a new model.

Story

New Phishing Botnet spreading across the Internet

A new Zbot botnet is infecting computers all across the Internet stating that their computer is infected with the conficker worm and you need to a “system update” to remove it from your computer.  The messages are coming in the form of emails telling you need of a “system update”  and that you need to get the new “cleanup utility.”  When users click on the link they are then infected with the Zues Trojan.  The Zues Trojan is designed to steal financial information from your computer.  If you get an email stating that your computer is infected with conficker or that you need a “system upgrade” don’t click on the link.  You should delete the email immediately.   Remember that they key to internet safety and security is to understand the threats.

Article

Adobe Patches 28 Holes in Adobe Reader and Acrobat

Adobe finally released several patches to fix several of the known vulnerabilities in the Adobe Reader and Acrobat products.  Adobe recommends that if  you are using reader 9.13 or lower that you upgrade to version9.2.  The adobe reader has had known zero day flaws that were being exploited.  If you are using any abode products you need to update the software as soon as possible.  It is important to upgrade your software as soon as possible to assure maximum computer security.

Adobe Security Bulletin

Gmail Passwords Released on the Internet

Yesterday Microsoft Hotmail was a victim of a phishing scam and today Google Gmail becomes a victim of a phishing scam.  Google has announced that only about 500 accounts were compromised in the attack.  Internet phishing is not going to slow down anytime soon infect I expect it to grow dramatically over the next couple of years.  If you get an email stating you need to update your account information don’t click on the link inside the email.  Open a new internet browser and type in the website address manually.  This will help prevent you from becoming a victim of fraud or Identity theft.  We also encourage everybody to read out guide on how to spot a phishing email .  Remember that internet safety is about education and understanding the dangers.

Google Article

Internet Safety Center

Computer Security and System Checkup

We are just reminding everybody that if you are using Windows you should visit Windows Update to check for new security patches.  If you are using Microsoft Office you should also visit Office Update and get the latest patches.  Remember that computer safety and security starts with patching Windows.

All computer users should perform a full system scan to check for viruses, spyware and malware.  You should run the scan overnight so the virus scan doesn’t slow you computer down while you use it.

If you computer is running slow remember to run disk defragmentor.

Internet Safety Center

Microsoft Releases Critical Patche

It is the second Tuesday of the month and Microsoft has released several critical patches.  One of the patches is a zero-day patches means that criminals have been exploiting the vulnerability.  Remember that installing the latest patches from Microsoft is the first step in computer safety and security.
Internet Safety Center

News From The Last Several Days

Google has released several new patches for Chrome.  If you are using Chrome you need to update your browser.

Mozilla Firefox has released a new patch for Firefox 3.5.  If you are not using Firefox 3.5 we don’t recommend upgrading at this time.  Mozilla has had a few problems with 3.5 so waiting until they get the bugs fixed is a good idea.

Symantic the maker of Norton has removed a patch for their software.  The patch was causing there antivirus programs to freeze and not work.  Hold of updating your Norton software for the next day or so.

Internet Safety Center

Hackers are now using WiFi to hack into Computers

Hackers have found a new way to hacker computers by using you WiFi connection.  The are now able to hack updates going to your computer to gain access to your computer.

Hackers using Wifi

New Virus Spreading Across the Web

A new virus described as providing naked pictures of an ESPN commentator is spreading rapidly across the internet.  If you get an email about naked pictures of Erin Andrews don’t open it.  You will get a virus and not pictures.

Internet Safety Center