Why Do Users Keep Falling for Scams?

This guest post is contributed by my Aussie mate, Jim Hillier. Jim is the resident freeware aficionado at Dave’s Computer Tips. A computer veteran with 30+ years experience who first started writing about computers and tech back in the days when freeware was actually free. His first computer was a TRS-80 in the 1980s, he progressed through the Commodore series of computers before moving to PCs in the 1990s. Now retired (aka an old geezer), Jim retains his passion for all things tech and still enjoys building and repairing computers for a select clientele… as well as writing for DCT, of course.

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*Social engineering: refers to psychological manipulation of people into performing actions or divulging confidential information. A type of confidence trick for the purpose of information gathering, fraud, or system access — Wikipedia

It’s unfathomable to me why so many people still get caught out by social engineering techniques, being tricked into clicking that link or opening that attachment.

Social engineering is one of the most prevalent methods used by cybercriminals to infect a system and/or gain a user’s sensitive information. Ransomware, phishing emails, scams, all generally involve an element of social engineering. Why? Because it’s simple, effective, and lucrative. It stands to reason then that the most potent method for eradicating these types of threats would be to make them less effective and less lucrative. The question is; how to achieve that?

You’ve no doubt come across the saying “education is key” – and, when it comes to social engineering, nothing could be truer. Because of the changing nature of socially engineered exploits, security software cannot always protect users from themselves. That’s why Tech blogs are repeatedly issuing the same advice/warnings – don’t click on links in emails from unknown senders, don’t open email attachments from unknown senders, etc., etc., etc. In fact, I recently published yet another list of do’s and don’ts  “10 Golden Rules to Defeat Scammers” . Yet, despite all this, so many people are still falling victim to social engineering.

A large part of the problem I suppose is that the users who need this type of advice the most are generally not the sort of people who tend to visit and read Tech blogs.

I was recently perusing a well-known freeware site and came across a comment from someone complaining that, despite being protected by a commercial grade antivirus, his company’s computers had been infected by ransomware… twice. On both occasions the infection was initiated by an employee clicking on something he or she shouldn’t have clicked on. I suggested to him that perhaps his company needed to review and strengthen its staff training program. Education is key.

My own clientele consists largely of elderly folk and, in my experience, many are highly susceptible to phishing and scams in general. I have a theory about this; I’m sure it’s because they were brought up in an era when trust was inherent; leaving the front door to the house open, leaving the car unlocked and keys in the ignition. Do you know what I mean? It’s not so much that they are gullible, more overly trusting.

These people also tend to be not so computer/security savvy, so rather than hit them with a long list of do’s and don’ts, which might be difficult to follow, I condense it all down to just three rules for them to remember:

1. Treat each and every unsolicited phone call and/or email as highly suspicious.

2. Always be very wary about giving out sensitive personal information over the internet.

3. If it sounds too good to be true, it almost certainly is.

If the more savvy among us would only take the time to pass this type of advice around their own particular circles of family, friends, and acquaintances, I believe that we, collectively, might just make a difference.

PC Tools Exposes “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2” Cyber Threat

The waiting game is almost over for Harry Potter fans who are hungry to feast their eyes on the much-anticipated final chapter in the Harry Potter franchise – Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2.

There are always those of course who won’t wait – in this case until July 15. You know the type – the buttinskis who push ahead of you in line, or cut you off on the expressway – the ones you’d like to clunk upside the head.

Unfortunately, the obnoxious dimwits who behave in this way, tend to repeat this behavior across a broad range of personal activity, and I suspect, that the niceties of copyright law is well below their personal radar horizon.

The reigning experts in social engineering – cybercriminals (who, in my view, could teach “legitimate social engineering experts” a thing or two), are well aware of the “can’t wait buttinskis”, and in a perfect replay of the old “there’s no honor amongst thieves”, have made available through free torrent downloads –Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2, except…

Except – PC Tools, the company which brings you PC Tools Firewall Plus (free), ThreatFire (free), and of course a complete line of award-winning commercial grade security offerings, has discovered that these free torrent downloads are nothing more than a new online malicious scam. Gotta admit – I love Karma payback!

I’m posting the bulletin PC Tools sent me yesterday on this, since it’s very instructive in terms of just how much effort cybercriminals will go through, in order to penetrate a target’s computer.

It’s not often possible to capture an online attack as it occurs, but in this case, PC Tools managed to do just that – see images and links listed below.

Here’s how the malicious scam works:

• First, a user searches torrents for free downloads of the final Harry Potter movie
• Results claiming to offer a free download of the new movie appear
• Once users download the file, .RAR file and password.txt downloads appear
• Users receive a message saying, “This video is password protected to stop automated leeching and detection. To get your password, please visit:
• Here, users are taken through a series of instructions to obtain their password.

One of which is choosing a link for a special offer while the site “verifies” the password

• Once users click on an offer, a new tab and pop-up open, asking users to save what seems to be a legitimate file
• After saving the file, cybercriminals have access to your computer—and the movie, of course, never appears on the screen

Harry Potter Threat  Exposed

Here’s what victims find while searching for the Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 movie or videos:

Users can discover apparently ripped versions of the new Harry Potter movie on file-sharing websites.

It looks like the movie is being downloaded on the victim’s computer.

The victim is instructed to decompress the archive.

RAR and password.txt files suddenly appear.

User is told to visit separate website by password.txt file.

The victim then sees this screenshot, claiming to be MovieYT.com.

User follows 3-step instructions, which takes them to a verification code check.

User clicks on VLC Player and a new tab is opened.

When hovering over the download button, the download executable file looks real.

Once the user clicks on the file, they are prompted to save it – this, of course, contains malware.

While all this is happening, the user is still waiting for the “Verification Check” from MovieYT – but the cybercriminals now have access to the victim’s computer. They have your password and other personal information that they can use to further attack you, your finances, your friends and social networks.

Worth repeating: Consider the trade-offs, and the very real risks involved with Peer to Peer and Torrent applications.

Privacy: When you are connected to file-sharing programs, you may unintentionally allow others to copy confidential files you did not intend to share. So be sure to setup the file-sharing software very carefully.

If you don’t check the proper settings when you install the software, you could allow access not just to the files you intend to share, but also to other information on your hard drive, such as your tax returns, email messages, medical records, photos, and other personal and financial documents.

It’s extremely important to be aware of the files that you place in, or download to, your shared folder. Don’t put information in your shared folder that you don’t want to share with others. Your shared folder is the folder that is shared automatically with others on peer to peer file sharing networks.

Copyright Issues: You may knowingly, or otherwise, download material that is protected by copyright laws and find yourself caught up in legal issues. Copyright infringement can result in significant monetary damages, fines, and even criminal penalties.

Some statistics suggest as many as 70% of young people between the ages of 9 – 14, regularly download copyrighted digital music. If you are a parent, you bear the ultimate responsibility for this illegal activity.

Adult Content: Again, if you are a parent you may not be aware that their children have downloaded file-sharing software on the family computer, and that they may have exchanged games, videos, music, pornography, or other material that may be unsuitable for them. It’s not unusual for other peoples’ files to be mislabeled and you or your children can unintentionally download these files.

Spyware: There’s a good chance that the file-sharing program you’re using has installed other software known as spyware to your computer’s operating system. Spyware monitors a user’s browsing habits and then sends that data to third parties. Frequently the user gets ads based on the information that the spyware has collected and forwarded to these third parties.

I can assure you that spyware can be difficult to detect and remove. Before you use any file-sharing program, you should buy, or download free software, that can help prevent the downloading or installation of spyware, or help to detect it on your hard drive if it has been installed.

Viruses: Use and update your anti-virus software regularly. Files you download could be mislabeled, hiding a virus or other unwanted content. Use anti-virus software to protect your computer from viruses you might pick up from other users through the file-sharing program.

Generally, your virus filter should prevent your computer from receiving possibly destructive files. While downloading, you should avoid files with extensions such as .exe, .scr, .lnk, .bat, .vbs, .dll, .bin, and .cmd.

Default Closing Behavior: It is critical that you close your connection after you have finished using the software. In some instances, closing the file-sharing program window does not actually close your connection to the network. That allows file-sharing to continue and will increase your security risk. Be sure to turn off this feature in the programs “preferences” setting.

What’s more, some file-sharing programs automatically run every time you turn on your computer. As a preventive measure, you should adjust the file-sharing program’s controls to prevent the file-sharing program from automatically starting.

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Web of Trust (WOT) And Facebook Collaborate To Protect Users From Malicious Links

If you’re a Facebook user and you haven’t met a cybercriminal yet; hang in there – you will. Survey after survey continue to show that cybercriminals are picking off Facebook users as if they were shooting fish in a barrel.

Most cybercriminal schemes on Facebook are outrageous. But the bad guys know, that even the most outrageous schemes stand a better than average chance of being successful when targeted at Facebook’s largely unaware, and unsophisticated, user base.

With the collaborative effort announced today by Facebook and Web of Trust, WOT will now provide protection against dubious and malicious web links, that Facebook users continue to be exposed to. When a Facebook user clicks a link that leads to a page with a poor reputation rating as defined by the WOT community, Facebook will show a clear warning message.

Click on graphic to expand to original.

The plan is to roll out to US users 100% on May 12, and then the following week, after the translators have time to finish their work, roll out globally.

A quick reminder:

WOT’s Browser add-on users see reputation icons on Web sites, Google search results, email links, Twitter, as well as shortened URLs. WOT ratings are recalculated every 30 minutes to ensure users have the freshest and most reliable information. The free WOT add-on works in all web browsers and can be downloaded here.

You can read a full review on the benefits of adding WOT to your Browser here on this site – WOT (Web of Trust) – Is It The Most Important Browser Security Add-on You Need To Install?

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WOT Beta for Social Media – Facebook, Twitter Protection And More

WOT (Web of Trust), has just raised the Internet security bar a notch by releasing a Beta version of their award winning Browser add-on which will provide protection against cybercriminals in a number of their favorite hunting grounds – Facebook and Twitter.

Hopefully, WOT’s reputation icons on links in Facebook, Twitter and additionally for shortened URLs by most popular services, such as bit.ly and t.co, will help thwart some of the most outrageous criminal schemes perpetrated on unaware social networking site users.

At the moment, the beta of WOT for social media is available for Firefox only. But, be quick – there are only 1000 preview downloads available!

Download the beta version of WOT for Social Media here.

According to WOT – “The new WOT version will be released in a few weeks for general WOT users, and newcomers.”

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Super Bowl Sunday – A Super Opportunity For Cybercriminals

Unfortunately, exposure to cybercrime is one of the hidden costs associated with the use of the Internet. It’s not fair – but that’s the way it is.

Experienced computer users are aware that if an event is newsworthy, cybercriminals will exploit it to their own advantage. A reminder, from time to time however, is in all our interest.

Cybercriminals have jumped (as expected), on Super Sunday, and are already exploiting this annual event. It’s hardly surprising then, that security experts are predicting record-breaking numbers of Super Sunday related online threats, and cyber attacks.

Cybercriminals are experts at exploiting our curiosity surrounding current events through social engineering , and according to PC Tools, Stephanie Edwards, “Whenever there is a major event, like Super Sunday, we see this kind of increased activity.”

Given the frequency of cybercriminal activity on social networking sites, (designed, in part, to drop malicious code on computers), users need to be aware that the use of social media sites demands an extra degree of caution.

From the Web:

Ad Age predicts that advertisers will use social media at record levels to fan the flames of their ads. Increased numbers of fake ads targeting young males will appear in popular forums and sites. These ads featuring attractive women or cheerleaders encourage people to click on the links which may take them to suspicious or malicious websites.

A “drive-by attack” can occur when a link is inserted onto popular video sharing websites that promise users access to Super Sunday commercials. If a user clicks on the link, they may be redirected to ads not related to Super Sunday or in more extreme cases, users’ personal information may be taken unknowingly through malicious system exploits.

In addition to attacking users, hackers are increasingly targeting legitimate fan and sports websites through redirected links or ads. A football fan scanning the latest sports updates may unknowingly have malware downloading through interactive animations on the page.

Internet users are not entirely at the mercy of cybercriminals, and can take relatively effective steps to protect themselves  from being victimized. You may want to review the following actions you can take to protect your Internet connected computer system:

• When surfing the web – Stop. Think. Click
• Install an Internet Browser security add-on such as WOT , which provides detailed test results on a site’s safety; protecting you from security threats including spyware, adware, spam, viruses, browser exploits, and online scams.
• Don’t open unknown email attachments
• Don’t run programs of unknown origin
• Disable hidden filename extensions
• Keep all applications (including your operating system) patched
• Turn off your computer or disconnect from the network when not in use
• Disable Java, JavaScript, and ActiveX if possible
• Disable scripting features in email programs
• Make regular backups of critical data
• Make a boot disk in case your computer is damaged or compromised
• Turn off file and printer sharing on your computer.
• Install a personal firewall on your computer.
• Install anti-virus and anti-spyware software and ensure it is configured to automatically update when you are connected to the Internet.
• Ensure the anti-virus software scans all e-mail attachments.
• Consider running your system in a “virtual environment. You can search this site with the keywords “virtual environment” which will produce a listing of articles covering both free, and commercial, virtual applications and add-ons.

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To Watch This Video You Need To Install A Codec – DON’T DO IT!

If you are attempting to view a site’s video content, and you get a popup advising you that you need to download a new codec to enable viewing – DON’T.

A favorite method used by cyber criminals to drop malware on unsuspecting users’ computers, is the requirement that you must first download a “missing” codec, to enable viewing.

If you’re curious, or you’re not convinced that this is a potentially dangerous scenario – go ahead and click. But, before you do, make sure you have:

A current backup CD/DVD, or other media, containing your irreplaceable files – you’re probably going to need it.

Your original operating system install disk – you’ll need this too.

Your system and peripherals driver disks. Without these you’re going to spend hours on the Internet locating (if your lucky), drivers that were written specifically for your peripherals.

You can save yourself all this trouble, and heartache, just by one simple action, or more properly; by a single inaction. Don’t click!

It’s possible of course, that you may be lucky, and you may be able to recover control of your computer if your anti-malware applications are up to date, and the malware signature database recognizes the intruder as malware.

But I wouldn’t count on it. Often, anti-malware programs that rely on a definition database can be behind the curve in recognizing the newest threats.

Consider this: Currently there is an epidemic of so called “rogue software”, on the Internet, with much of it being delivered by the constantly evolving Zlob.Trojan, or the  Zlob.Video Access Trojan, which are often hidden in fake, and malicious, codec downloads.

As the following screen captures illustrate, there is a wide variance in these invitations to install a missing, or “required” codec.

Common sense should tell you, if a website does not recognize a standard codec, there is something wrong. Ask yourself this question; how long would a website stay in business if a visitor is required to download a specific codec to view content? The answer is clearly – not very long.

Don’t be the type of person who clicks indiscriminately at every opportunity to do so. If you do, I guarantee you – your computer will be infected within minutes.

To ensure that you have a full set of codecs on your computer, consider downloading one of the following free codec packs. With a full set of codes installed on your computer, any request to download a site specific codec, should be viewed with suspicion.

Windows Essentials Codec Pack – Windows Essentials Media Codec Pack provides a set of software codecs for viewing and listening to many forms of media in Windows Media Player. While this program merely enhances a media player, it does a fine job of accommodating many different and unusual types of videos and music.

Download at: Download.com

The K-Lite Codec Pack – There are several different variants of the K-Lite Codec Pack. Ranging from a very small bundle that contains only the most essential decoders, to a larger and more comprehensive bundle.

Download at: Codec Guide.com

Media Player Codec Pack – The Media Player Codec Pack is a simple to install package of codecs/filters/splitters used for playing back music and movie files. After installation, you will be able to play 99.9% of files through your media player, along with XCD’s, VCD’s, SVCD’s and DVD’s.

Download at: Download.com

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Video Codecs – Gateways to Malware Infection

If you are attempting to view a site’s video content, and you get a popup advising you that you need to download a new codec to enable viewing – DON’T.

A favorite method used by cyber-criminals to drop malware on unsuspecting users’ computers, is the requirement that you must first download a “missing” codec, to enable viewing.

If you’re curious, or you’re not convinced that this is a potentially dangerous scenario – go ahead and click. But, before you do, make sure you have:

A current backup CD/DVD, or other media, containing your irreplaceable files – your probably going to need it.

Your original operating system install disk – you’ll need this too.

Your system and peripherals driver disks. Without these you’re going to spend hours on the Internet locating (if your lucky), drivers that were written specifically for your peripherals.

You can save yourself all this trouble, and heartache, just by one simple action, or more properly; by a single inaction. Don’t click!

It’s possible of course, that you may be lucky, and you may be able to recover control of your computer if your anti-malware applications are up to date, and the malware signature database recognizes the intruder as malware.

But I wouldn’t count on it. Often, anti-malware programs that rely on a definition database can be behind the curve in recognizing the newest threats.

Consider this: Currently there is an epidemic of so called “rogue software”, on the Internet, with much of it being delivered by the constantly evolving Zlob.Trojan, or the  Zlob.Video Access Trojan, which are often hidden in fake, and malicious, codec downloads.

As the following screen captures illustrate, there is a wide variance in these invitations to install a missing, or “required” codec.

Common sense should tell you, if a website does not recognize a standard codec, there is something wrong. Ask yourself this question; how long would a website stay in business if a visitor is required to download a specific codec to view content? The answer is clearly – not very long.

Don’t be the type of person who clicks indiscriminately at every opportunity to do so. If you do, I guarantee you – your computer will be infected within minutes.

To ensure that you have a full set of codecs on your computer, consider downloading one of the following free codec packs. With a full set of codes installed on your computer, any request to download a site specific codec, should be viewed with suspicion.

Windows Essentials Codec Pack – Windows Essentials Media Codec Pack provides a set of software codecs for viewing and listening to many forms of media in Windows Media Player. While this program merely enhances a media player, it does a fine job of accommodating many different and unusual types of videos and music.

Download at: Download.com

The K-Lite Codec Pack – There are several different variants of the K-Lite Codec Pack. Ranging from a very small bundle that contains only the most essential decoders, to a larger and more comprehensive bundle.

Download at: Codec Guide.com

Media Player Codec Pack – The Media Player Codec Pack is a simple to install package of codecs/filters/splitters used for playing back music and movie files. After installation, you will be able to play 99.9% of files through your media player, along with XCD’s, VCD’s, SVCD’s and DVD’s.

Download at: Download.com

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USBThief – Making it Easy for Cyber Criminal Wannabes

With access to your passwords, cyber-criminals (they come in all shapes, sizes and flavors – so don’t be fooled), can and will, steal your identity and without a doubt severely compromise your financial security. Stolen passwords have the potential to cause serious havoc in your life.

There are numerous ways of course that a password can be stolen. Popular methods employed by cyber criminals include, but are not limited to:

Email scams: Email scams work because the Cyber-crooks responsible use social engineering as the hook; in other words they exploit our curiosity to start the process of infecting unaware computer users’ machines

Search engine redirection: Cyber-crooks continue to be unrelenting in their chase to infect web search results, seeding malicious websites among the top results returned by these engines. Malware, including password stealers can be installed on a computer simply by visiting a site.

Drive-by downloads: Drive-by downloads are not new; they’ve been lurking around for years it seems, but they’ve become much more common recently. They are crafted to automatically download and install malware including password stealers on your computer without your knowledge.

Added to the burden we already carry in protecting our computers, our private personal information, and our confidential financial information, we now have to be careful, and perhaps even suspicious of our friends, or for that matter anyone, who inserts a USB drive including MP3 players, such as a iPod, into a USB port on our computer.

USBThief is a free hacking application – available for download on virtually every torrent download site that I investigated – which can be installed on a USB flash drive, or even an iPod, or other MP3 player.

I haven’t tried (yet), to install this on a Digital Camera, but I suspect (with some modification), that it can be done. Consider how often a friend, or family member, has connected any one of these peripherals to your machine.

USBThief has been designed and crafted with only one purpose in mind, and that is to steal both the passwords, and software keys, on the duped party’s computer.

There is no requirement that the culprit is a seasoned hacker – all that’s needed is that an ethically challenged individual download the program; decompress the archive and put all the files located in the folder “USBThief” onto a USB drive.

After connecting and removing the tweaked USB drive from the victim’s computer, the cyber-criminal simply views the dump folder to view the captured information.

Learning to use this application is an absolute “no brainer” – there are multiple sites on the Internet offering tutorials (including video tutorials), in the use of  USBThief.

Here’s a little blurb from a hacking site:

1.Insert the USB in your victim’s computer.

2.View folder “dump” to see the passwords. It also makes a second dump folder in the batexe folder. Tested and Working perfectly!

I have not written this article to produce paranoia, or to make you suspicious of either your family, or your friends, but so that you are aware of the ever increasing challenges we all face in protecting valuable information in a world that threatens us, at every turn it seems.

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If it’s in the News – Watch for an Email Scam

If an event is newsworthy, you can be sure cybercriminals are exploiting it to their own advantage. Cybercriminals have jumped (as expected), on the earthquake tragedy in Haiti, and are already exploiting this sad event.

Cybercriminals are experts at exploiting our curiosity surrounding current events, and by focusing on this aspect of social engineering, they are increasingly creating opportunities designed to drop malicious code on our computers. Most of this activity is designed to separate unwitting victims from their money.

Cybercriminals can be much more direct though (without attempting to compromise your computer), in their attempts to separate you from your money.

Even though the the majority of seasoned computer users (I suspect), are familiar with the infamous “419” or advance fee fraud scam, in which the victim is encouraged to sent money to the scammer, with the promise they will realize a significant gain, this type of scam is every bit as popular as ever.

Earlier today, Symantec Hosted Services alerted me to a new “419” scam they have just become aware of. An email claiming to be from Hassan Ali Abdul Mutallab, the brother of Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab, who allegedly attempted to blow up Northwest Airlines flight 253 over Detroit on Christmas Day, is the scam vehicle .

The scammer, supposedly Umar Farouk Abdul Mutallab’s brother, claims he is looking for a “Muslim brother/sister” to help retrieve funds belonging to the alleged bomber. But, as Symantec  stated in their alert, “before the non-existent money can be released, various increasingly inventive fees and charges have to be paid. These fees continue until the victim of the scam eventually realizes that they have no chance of getting any money, and gives up. Victims are often too embarrassed to contact police, and the scammers continue”.

Every day, I receive 10/15 of this type of scam in my “Honey Pot” email account. Here’s just one example from today.

How gullible can people be? When Michael Jackson died, I wrote a piece entitled “Hey Sucker – Read This! Michael Jackson’s Not Dead!”, simply as a test of “curiosity exploitation”.

The results that followed were astonishing – within days, this article was getting 1,000’s of daily hits. Even today, this nonsensical article continues to get hits. Talk about gullible people!

Save yourself from being victimized by scareware, or other malware, and review the following actions you can take to protect your Internet connected computer system:

• When surfing the web – Stop. Think. Click
• Install an Internet Browser add-on such as WOT (my personal favorite), which provides detailed test results on a site’s safety; protecting you from security threats including spyware, adware, spam, viruses, browser exploits, and online scams.
• Don’t open unknown email attachments
• Don’t run programs of unknown origin
• Disable hidden filename extensions
• Keep all applications (including your operating system) patched
• Turn off your computer or disconnect from the network when not in use
• Disable Java, JavaScript, and ActiveX if possible
• Disable scripting features in email programs
• Make regular backups of critical data
• Make a boot disk in case your computer is damaged or compromised
• Turn off file and printer sharing on your computer.
• Install a personal firewall on your computer.
• Install anti-virus and anti-spyware software and ensure it is configured to automatically update when you are connected to the Internet.
• Ensure the anti-virus software scans all e-mail attachments.

If you found this article useful, why not subscribe to this Blog via RSS, or email? It’s easy; just click on this link and you’ll never miss another Tech Thoughts article.

Be Prepared for 2010’s Malware – PC Tools Malware Trends in 2010

All the signposts point to 2010 being a banner year for cyber-criminals. Being prepared and being aware, while not a panacea, will continue to be a key element in mitigating risk exposure.

We’ve said it many times here, but it bears repeating – “Being aware of Internet threats is critical to your security on the Internet, so that you can protect yourself and stay ahead of the curve. Knowledge is a critical ingredient in ensuring your personal safety on the Internet”.

In this article, guest writer Sergei Shevchenko, Senior Malware Analyst at PC Tools, offers a peek into the 2010 malware landscape.

Cybercriminals operate in the same way as legitimate organizations – they’re looking for the best return on their investment. It’s therefore inevitable that as we move in to 2010 there will continue to be increased interest in producing malware that brings swift and healthy dividends, with a focus on new and diversified rogue security solutions and in continuing to employ social engineering techniques.

Malware authors will continue to shift their focus towards the services, platforms and architectures that are the most popular and offer the largest market share.

We can expect to see more attacks against Windows 7 and other new operating systems as their installed-base grows, such as Apple customers running Mac OS X. Users must ensure that they have comprehensive security solutions to protect them against new and unknown threats.

Traditional techniques were aimed at causing system shutdowns and denial of service attacks. Now Cybercriminals are more focused on data loss, financial fraud and identity theft and as such threats are becoming increasingly sophisticated.

Old techniques are unlikely to become completely obsolete – because often the greatest threats materialize when the least expected malware techniques re-emerge.

We expect future trends to blend existing malware techniques with new inventive schemes that assume tighter social interaction with the public and look less-underground related.

When the initial “accumulation” phase of the rogue security software businesses comes to completion, we might expect cybercriminals to start using their budgets for establishing call centers, support lines, virtual offices, registering off-shore companies, and even launching advertising campaigns.

Attacks will also be designed to exploit vulnerable systems and users by evading the latest detection systems and why behavior-based software is so integral to comprehensive protection. It recognizes that a threat is present and works to neutralize it.

Methods such as virtualization, behavioral analysis, cloud-based detection and remediation will all become increasingly important in detecting, repelling and removing the latest malware.

Users who keep an eye on the range of security software solutions on the market will be aware that many vendors already provide at least one of these services. The difficulty lies with making an informed choice on which offers the best protection – and that’s where the independent anti-malware testing labs come to the fore.

Stay tuned – in the next few days we will be reviewing PC Tools Internet Security Suite 2010, and we will be offering you an opportunity to win one of ten free licenses in a contest give away.

In recent independent tests performed by AV-Test GmbH, a leading service provider for IT security testing, PC Tools Internet Security 2010, scored the highest of the 12 products tested in blocking malware, with a a success rate of 94.8 percent.

Followed by Symantec Norton Internet Security Suite 2010, with 92.8 percent; Kaspersky Internet Security 2010, 89.8 percent; Panda Internet Security 2010, 88.7 percent; Avira Premium Security Suite 9.0, 87.2 percent.

As well, we are currently running a contest give away in which you have an opportunity to win one of ten free licenses for PC Tools Spyware Doctor with Anti-Virus. Go to, Spyware Doctor with Anti-Virus 2010 – Worth the Money? on this site, and and get your entry in.

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