Continue reading »]]> The following article appeared on FOXNEWS. COM. Read through it and educate yourself on these rogue programs. It might just save you a visit from ‘the doctor’.

Technology

Beware of Link: E-Mail Virus Plays Havoc With Internet

By Jeremy A. Kaplan & Jana Winter

Published September 09, 2010

| FoxNews.com

AP

Here you have … one heck of a mess.

An e-mail virus swept through the Internet Thursday, snarling traffic and taking down servers at ABC, NASA, Comcast, and Google — and possibly even affecting the Department of Homeland Security.

The virus, called “Here You Have” (or VBMania, though different security companies have different names for the same virus), is a simple Trojan Horse: An e-mail arrives in your inbox with the suggestive subject line “here you have.” The body reads “This is The Document I told you about, you can find it Here” or “This is The Free Download Sex Movies, you can find it Here.”

Click the link in the message and you launch a program that spams the same Trojan Horse out to everyone in your address book, flooding and crippling e-mail servers.

Leading virus monitors such as McAfee Labs and Symantec are currently investigating the threat.

This particular virus is especially challenging to monitor, noted McAfee’s experts, since it seems to be replicating in several forms.

“It looks like multiple variants may be spreading and may take some time to work through them all to paint a clearer picture,” warned Craig Schmugar on the company’s Threat Response page.

Difficult indeed.

In addition to a variety of major corporations, the virus appeared to take down internal servers at the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on Thursday. Numerous sources told FoxNews.com that some DHS agencies that run on the Immigration and Customs Enforcement server crashed and were mostly disabled throughout Thursday.

But U.S. officials denied that issues with its servers were related to the virus, telling FoxNews.com that “neither DHS nor ICE were agencies that were affected.”

“It’s a phishing attack — when you click on the link in an e-mail it goes into the address book. It was clogging a bunch of e-mail and that’s it,” officials told FoxNews.com. “It’s too early to say how sophisticated it was, but a number of companies and agencies were affected.”

DHS spokeswoman Amy Kudwa said that Homeland Security’s experts were investigating the situation. She explained the U.S. Computer Emergency Readiness Team — US-CERT, the agency tasked with preventing cyber attacks against the government — was actively sharing its expertise with departments and agencies that had been affected, as well as private companies.

“US-CERT has received multiple reports from a number of federal agencies and private sector entities experiencing an email worm. A full assessment is being conducted – US-CERT is in the process of collecting and analyzing samples of the malware and has developed and disseminated mitigation strategies.”

“Basic cyber security practices and hygiene are essential to maintaining the security of networks and individual computers,” Kudwa advised.

Hopefully , that advice makes its way back to NASA, where employees were hampered throughout the day — and took to Twitter to complain about the problem.

(Source: www.foxnews.com – Dated 09-10-2010)

Continue reading »]]> The following article appeared on MSNBC. COM. Read through it and educate yourself on these rogue programs. It might just save you a visit from ‘the doctor’.

Give me your money, or your computer gets it

Posted: Friday, January 29 2010 at 06:00 am CT by Bob Sullivan

Turning hijacked computers into cash is still hard work for most computer criminals.  They’ve got to trick the infected PC into sending spam, then trick a recipient into buying a useless product — or they have to steal online banking passwords, log onto a victim’s account, bypass the bank’s money transfer fraud controls, and so on.

It’s much easier to just demand cash directly from infected users — a crime that’s the Internet’s equivalent of kidnapping. 

“Give me all your money or your computer gets it-” is the basic proposition. 

The technique was dubbed “ransomware” many years ago by computer virus researchers, and is not new.  What is new is the explosion of ransomware, thanks to the evolution of ever-more-believable tactics during recent months.

In December, the FBI issued a warning about a broader category of malicious programs called “rogueware.” These programs appear on users’ machines and claim to find viruses, then offer to clean them for $50.  Rogueware looks so realistic — complete with Windows-like dialog boxes and scary warnings — that Web users were tricked into sending $150 million to criminals last year, the FBI says.

The new ransomware is similar, but far more aggressive.  Once a computer is infected with it, the program does more than recommend a software purchase –it simply won’t let users continue to use their PC until they pay up.

Luis Corrons Granel, a researcher at Panda Security, said use of ransomware by criminals is exploding — 25 percent of all rogueware in the past quarter involved a family of intimidating products named “TotalAntivirus.” It demands that users pay $50 for two years, $79 for a lifetime license.

“The increase (in ransomware) has been really significant,” Granel said. A single family of ransomware programs called “Total Security” made up one-quarter of all rogueware programs detected during the past three months, he said.

To an average user, most rogueware would be indistinguishable from other standard antivirus products.  They look like fully functional software, showing Windows-like screens for firewall settings, file scanning, and every other tab you’d expect from standard antivirus products. “Total Security” even lets users choose their language — English, Spanish, and German are offered.

The switch to ransomware by the bad guys makes sense, says Peter Cassidy, spokesman for the Anti-Phishing Working Group — because computer criminals are refining their programming methods, and getting more aggressive about taking people’s money.

See ransomware in action with this video from PandaLabs.

“Instead of trying to fool people and getting one out of 1,000 to pay, what they’re doing now is just locking up the PC and telling them they have to pay,” he said.  “It’s a really violent approach, really nasty.”

There might be one silver lining to the rise of ransomware, Cassidy said. 

“It’s not in that gray area of selling people useless crap,” he said.  “It’s clearly criminal, and extortion does get the attention of law enforcement officials.”

As is customary, computer criminals are fusing this new attack with successful, older methods, said John Harrison, a security researcher at Symantec Corp. In one recent example, criminals first engaged in search engine “poisoning,” so their booby-trapped Web sites would rate high in Google searches about Haiti’s earthquake. Visitors who clicked were tricked into downloading the ransomware software; and then were confronted with extortion demands.

“That’s their distribution model,” Harrison said -. “They used to do it subtly, but now they are doing it much more brazenly.”

In some versions, users will see a message that says, “Google recommends you install this,” or “Microsoft recommends you turn this feature on- … then, they take over your computer and all of a sudden it looks like you have 900 viruses,” he said. 

The latest flavor of ransomware, described on Jan. 8 by security firm F-Secure, doesn’t disable all software, but it does something just as debilitating — it encrypts all the files on a victim’s computer, and forces them to pay for decryption.  The program, which calls itself Data Doctor 2010, costs $89.

RED TAPE WRESTLING TIPS
In some cases, researchers say, paying the ransom does work, at least initially. Still, it’s a terrible idea to pay. On a grand scale, you’ve just subsidized a criminal. But there are far more practical concerns — why would you trust the author of ransomware with your credit card number?  Perhaps you think you’d never do this, but remember, the FBI says rogueware writers have made $150 million, so someone is paying up.

If an unexpected antivirus dialog box lands on your computer screen, close the window immediately by clicking on the ‘x’ i

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It’s the small things that can sometimes be the most frustrating.  Often times, the issue is not technical, but simply something you you’ve never dealt with before, and you just need a quick answer.  It is kind of like if you were to plant a flower for the first time and no one had ever told you how to care for one. Just getting a simple tip of ‘water it from time to time’ would save you lots of frustration.

Here, Mardo offers advice on how to take care of your computer.  Make sure to check back regularly for new tips, tricks, and articles that will save you time and money!

What is ‘ransomware’ and how can I guard against it?

Info on Email Viruses

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Mardo guarantees quality work!  You will experience worry-free assistence knowing Mardo is licensed by the city AND state, insured and certified.  Here are just a few of Mardo’s qualifications !

 Mardo is A+ certified, Dell certified, Microsoft trained and specializes in networks for home or business.

Software 

• Includes . . . . . . . .
• IE 2.0 – 8.x
• Intuit Quickbooks/Quicken
• MS/Access                                            
• MS Excel
• MS FrontPage
• MS Money
• MS Outlook/Outlook Express
• Ms Word – All Ver.
• Mozilla FireFox
• Netscape 1.0 – 5.5
• Paint Shop Pro 4.12-7.0PhotoShop 4.0
• WordPerfect 7.0
• Many others – Just Ask!                                             

• Windows NT 4.0 Wkstn. & Server
• Windows 9x, ME
• Windows 2000 Pro., Adv. Server
• Windows Server 2003-8
• Windows XP – All Ver.
• Windows Vista -All Ver.
• Windows 7 –All Ver.

 

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ON-Time / ON-Site Repairs

Don’t be fooled by Unlicensed, Uninsured, Inexperienced and Phony Computer Doctors!

Lately, there has been a rash of new individuals around Bakersfield calling themselves so-called Computer Doctors. Remember, Mardo is the ORIGINAL Physician of Computers in the Bakersfield Area. Don’t trust your computer to just any QUACK!

Three Important Questions to ask “YOUR” Computer Technician!

1. Is your tech Certified?
2. Is your tech Licensed?
3. Is your tech INSURED?

Mardo’s is certified, licensed and INSURED for your peace of mind!

Not only is it important that your tech be qualified, but you want to be assured that he/she has all of the proper credentials and certifications. Equally important is the simple, but often overlooked detail of insurance. Can you imagine an inexperienced, unlicensed, uninsured tech showing up and causing a catastrophic disaster at your home/office? The last thing you need is to worry about when getting your computer repaired is dealing with the heartaches and headaches of replacing a dwelling. Mardo’s is licensed with both the City of Bakersfield and the State of California (B.E.A.R.). We are Dell Certified and Microsoft Trained. And most importantly, we carry liability insurance for your piece of mind!

(Read here about a recent Computer Sting Operation held in the San Joaquin Valley conducted by B.E.A.R.)

Know Your Tech!

Mardo prides himself in knowing not only the customer’s PCs and network, but also the applications and programs they use. Also, you can rest assured that the tech that repairs the PC today will be that same tech who shows up the next time.

Of course, there will be times when even Mardo will need to take a system back to the shop. Some problems do require more time to repair. But rest assured, any amount of time spent repairing a system is documented and will surely be reasonable. More times than not, the customer is charged less than that actual time spent on the system.

At less than half the cost of the superstore repair price, Mardo’s customers are pleased to know their computer will be repaired properly “the first time” and at a reasonable price. Mardo’s wants your business and is not about to jeopardize the trust his customers have placed in him.

Next time, call Mardo and relax!

(661) 588-8862