Kraken botnet is really dangerous

Kraken is the most dangerous botnet ever

Per Gary,the Kraken botnet is the mother of all botnets

Kraken 's success again emphasizes that antivirus software makers need to move away from the binary evaluation model of finding malware

The Kraken botnet is virtually undetectable by antivirus software, because antivirus software makers such as McAfee and Norton antivirus rely on binary code evaluation to detect and damage control malware

By altering its binary repeatedly, the Kraken botnet has been able to evade common antivirus programs

To detect malicious botnets such as Kraken, antivirus software makers need to move to an alternate model of damage control and virus detection

Image Spam- Antivirus companies cant handle image spam

Image spam-what is image spam

Image spam typically refers to email spam where the "text" in the email is actually image spam, where the email consist of a single link to the image, which consists of a spam message

Image spam makes keyword based spam prevention techniques obsolete

Image spams consist of no keywords, in fact,email spams consist of no text except a typical link to a spam image

Image spam is undetectable by standard email spam detection techniques, since email spam detection techniques rely typically on keywords in the email, and image spam have almost no keywords to analyze

Image spam leaves antivirus and anti-spam software useless

Due to the inherent features of image spam, antivirus and anti-spam software are rendered useless by image spam and antivirus software companies such as Symantec are almost clueless about detecting image spam

Ways to combat image spam

Some ways for antivirus software companies to combat image spam

• Image spam combat using CAPTCHA technologies.This anti image spam technique needs to utilized by email vendors and antispam software vendors.Captcha can combat email spam since CAPTCHA uses the funny wavy characters to distinguish between legitimate human sent email and robot based email image spam


• Image spam combat using behavioral anti-spam techniques-Antivirus anti-spam software companies need to use more behavioral anti-spam techniques to combat image spam to study the typical characteristics of email spam. This behavioral characteristics of email spam are then used to combat at least the typical email scams

Botnets- 25% of world's computers infected

Botnets could have infected 25% of world's computers on the internet

Botnets are the latest computer virus scourge to hit the internet. The botnet threat has been highlighted by even Vint Cerf, known as the Father of the Internet.

Botnets could take control of a quarter of the world's computers on the internet and launch a concerted malicious attack on a corporate or Government website. This botnet threat is incredibly serious and we are almost on the verge of an imminent botnet driven attack 

Botnets such as Spam Thru make the detection and removal of botnets incredibly difficult

Botnets such as Spam Thru are capable of protecting themselves and prevent removal from the host computer.This botnet "intelligence" is the other scary component of this latest internet vulnerability- heuristic based antivirus software are just unable to detect or remove botnets from host computers

Botnets -What can we do to protect data centers from botnets

In the absence of good antivirus software to protect data centers from botnets, the only recourse seems to be to hope and pray that botnets are not targeted at your data center :-)

Spam thru Botnet- Biggest threat to cyberspace security

Spam Thru Botnet- the biggest threat to cyberspace security

The Spam Thru botnet is rumored to be the most powerful botnet launched on the internet. The Spam Thru botnet

Spam Thru Botnet has its own virus protection

The Spam Thru Botnet is so advanced that it has its own virus protection system.The Spam Thru Botnet uses this virus protection system to ensure that the Spam Thru Botnet remains the dominant botnet on vulnerable computers and other botnets on the same computers are made ineffective

The Spam Thru Botnet tested the vulnerability of cyberspace in end 2006

According to Mark Sunner of MessageLabs, Spam Thru tested the vulnerability of cyberspace systems and its own ability to hijack computers at the end of 2006 by launching a small version of a future Spam Thru Botnet attack . This Spam Thru Botnet attack caused a massive exponential surge in cyberspace traffic

The Spam Thru botnet is dangerous and points to a disturbing phase of world cyberspace vulnerabilities to virus attacks using the Botnet route

Symantec antivirus users turn zombies!

Symantec antivirus software users turn zombies

A vulnerability in Symantec antivirus software has successfully turned PCs hosting older versions of Symantec antivirus software into zombie computers that can be remotely controlled by malware exponents

If you have Symantec antivirus software, your credit card details could be at risk

Symantec antivirus software has been penetrated successfully by this zombie virus and your most personal information including your credit cards could be at risk if you have installed Symantec antivirus software

Symantec antivirus corporate users at high risk from zombie virus

Corporate users of Symantec antivirus software are at an incredible risk since Symantec antivirus is the preferred software among business network systems. If you are a CIO or CEO reading this article on the zombie attack on Symantec antivirus, you had better immediately upgrade your Symantec antivirus software on your corporate networks or better still, if you are smart enough, replace Symantec antivirus software altogether by a different vendor

Symantec Inc still in state of denial about zombie attack on Symantec antivirus installed computers

Sure,Symantec Inc probably finds it embarrassing that the antivirus software it created is used not to protect computers from viruses but to spread viruses and steal customer information.But, a so-called responsible corporate antivirus vendor like Symantec should definitely not be in a state of denial,it should logically accept that its older antivirus software is vulnerable to zombie viruses and try to make more money thru upgradation :-)

Best Antivirus software for mobile phones (cell phones)

Antivirus software for mobile phones (cell phones)

We are reviewing antivirus software for mobile phones (cell phones) A lot of people have written to me asking for my opinion of F-Secure antivirus software for mobile phones (cell phones) - I have decided to research on the products available in the market for mobile phone (cell phone) security.

A recent news article suggests that Nokia is planning to tie up with Symantec for a pre-installed Symantec mobile antivirus solution

The quality of Symantec's mobile antivirus solution for mobile phones (cell phones)

Now, we dont really have a high opinion of Symantec's other antivirus offerings- but it will be interesting to review Symantec's antivirus solution for mobile phones (cell phones)

Antivirus software scan scam. Free antivirus scan? You bet

A popular antivirus or antispyware scan spam that is used by antivirus vendors worldwide

A popular antivirus software scan that is doing the rounds has a simple technique

• The antivirus software offers a free antivirus software scan (sometimes, its a free antispyware scan) that is supposed to detect viruses and spyware on your computer for free.
  



• The antivirus software free scan software is then downloaded onto you computer.
  


• The antivirus software infects your computers with viruses and spyware during the installation of the software
  


• The antivirus software scan then detects these viruses and spyware and displays them prominently (the same viruses and computer spyware that were installed by the antivirus software scan in the first place!)
  


• The next step, is to ask you to buy the antivirus software or antispyware software for just 29.99$
  

Since the antivirus software or antispyware software cleans up the computer viruses on your computers, the customers are also very happy with the antivirus software product and give the antivirus software glowing testimonials.

This antivirus or antispyware software scan spam is almost perfect- Its high time authorities cracked down on this mother of all spams!

Uninstall your antivirus software NOW

Can we uninstall the antivirus software on our corporate machines after Microsoft Vista?

Uninstalling antivirus software that is expensive and requires expensive bandwidth for regular updates is the dream of every corporate information security manager.

It may be time to uninstall your antivirus software since third party antivirus software is often also the cause of opening your corporate networks to external exploits and hacker attacks - One vulnerability in your corporate antivirus software such as Symantec and McAfee antivirus software can expose your entire corporate network to external hacker attacks from around the world.

It is definitely high time you uninstalled your antivirus software if Microsoft Vista truly achieves its promise of a great security, firewall and antivirus protection solution

Dont allow Google Desktop downloads in corporate networks

Avoid Google desktop downloads in corporate networks

In my last post on Google Desktop security,I had mentioned that corporates should go on a security witchhunt against recognized brandnames such as Google and instead focus on small antivirus and antispyware players.

My views on Google Desktop security were absolutely wrong :-)

I was wrong about the security implications of Google Desktop in a corporate network.
I would of course blame the holiday season for my niceness towards Google Desktop security hazards - The other reason for my good words for Google Desktop security could be the nice friends from Google whom I met last week :-)

Google Desktop security - you gotta watch out

I had a meeting with a Fortune 50 corporate security honcho this week, and he convinced me that Google Desktop was one of the biggest security risks to hit the market,simply because of the popularity of Google Desktop downloads. Again,why should a so-called desktop application have to communicate with home base so often? Imagine your entire corporate network being compromised by an external competitor- thats the security risk that Google desktop entails

In summary, watch out for the security risks in allowing Google Desktop to be downloaded in your company.

Google Desktop is a huge security risk?

Google Desktop has been identified as a security risk to corporates by many recent corporate audits. The security audits suggest that Google Desktop is an enormous security risk since Google Desktop is one of the most popular downloads in corporates today.

I believe that labelling Google Desktops as a security risk is a flawed conclusion. Not doubt, Google Desktop opens up the corporate network to a host of vulnerabilities but at least the software comes from Google engineers who hopefully will not be very interested in a malicious intent

In comparison to Google Desktops, corporate users around the world download a host of dangerous software - many even written for malicious attacks on corporates.

Do you agree that people are more paranoid about security risks from big business rather than small hackers who can be even more malicious.