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NSF “all-in” for battle Against Computer Viruses

August 30th, 2011 by zam17 No comments »

New proactive approach and funding will seek to thwart attacks before they begin.

According to University of Texas – Dallas computer scientist, Kevin Hamlen, the future of computer security will not simply be to analyze threats by form and appearance, but also by anticipation of their actions.
The National Science Foundation has begun a 5-year, $500,000k project to do just that.

“Results from the research will lead to powerful new strategies, concepts and practical tools that give defenders a significant new advantage in the virus-antivirus arms race,” he said.

The new approach will still include pattern recognition, but the second part of the equation – anticipating the future – will get a lot of the attention. It will work by deploying algorithms that watch the suspicious code as it begins to spread, and instantly engage it as soon as evidence of impending harm becomes obvious.

“The scale of the malware problem demands such innovative tactics”, he said.

Computer Troubleshooters Partners with Wifi Networks to Provide Public Wifi Access for Downtown Carmel, IN

August 15th, 2011 by zam17 No comments »

Residents, businesses, and visitors of Carmel, IN will now have wifi access when downtown. Computer Troubleshooters, a company providing computer services for the area, has partnered with Wifi Networks to provide a wifi network specifically for the downtown area. Computer Troubleshooters will design, build and manage the network .

“The need for a dedicated, citywide, wifi network was blaringly evident,” says Feras Mash, owner of Computer Troubleshooters. “I’m glad our team was able to step up to the challenge to provide business owners, residents, and visitors to our great city with this feature. This is the first part of this wifi network as we are planning on extending access to other parts of the city beyond downtown.”

Computer Troubleshooters has been helping the city in other ways as well. Because of this new partnership and demand for wifi and other computer services, Computer Troubleshooters has expanded its downtown service center and increased staff. This helps boost the local economy.

Excellent service is synonymous with Computer Troubleshooters. When it came time to launch the downtown Carmel, IN wifi network, staff worked hard to ensure it was done correctly.

“They did a great job. It was fabulous. They were very timely. Everything was completed in less than 24 hours. Everything is running smoothly. Their follow up is fabulous,” states Ms. K. Packard, managing partner at Marketshare Financial.

Computer Troubleshooters provides small business with the support they need, whether it’s with laptops, desktops, and now public wifi.

“Extremely knowledgeable–Computer Troubleshooters explained the technical parts for me in a way that I could understand. He gave advice, but applied no pressure. The tech had a very pleasant personality which I enjoyed,” said L. Bangs of Carmel, IN.

To learn more about Computer Troubleshooters, the computer services they provide and the new wifi network in downtown Carmel, IN, visit ctcarmel.com. For specific Wifi information please visit WifiCarmel.com

src – PRWeb.com

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New Virus Scam Ripping Through Canada

August 3rd, 2011 by zam17 No comments »

Maybe it’s the polite, trusting nature of the Canadians. Who knows. But yet another virus scam is ripping through Canada.

The scam involves the dupe getting an unsolicited call from someone claiming to represent an official sounding computer technology firm. The representative then convinces the victim to give him access to his/her computer remotely in order to remove a bad virus on the machine. Once in, he installs software which will let him remotely connect to the machine at any later time of his choosing, thus giving him access to every file on that users machine, and potentially, their network.

Tips to keep safe if this hits your town:
-Beware of unsolicited calls from any organization wanting access to your computer.
-If the person recommends that you keep your computer on at all times, even afterwards, ask why. If they respond that it is the only way to make sure the virus doesn’t come back, or something similar, you know they are selling a lie.

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Posted in cybercrime, malware, scams

Tags: scams virus

Japanese man arrested for having a virus on his PC

July 27th, 2011 by zam17 No comments »

He could get two years!

Yasihuro Kawaguchi, 38, of Gifu Prefecture, was arrested at his home after police located a virus on his PC.

The virus copied worked by copying graphic files on a computers that also contained certain peer-to-peer file sharing software.

Kawaguchi at least wisely selected his victims. He named it so that it appeared to be illegal, under age pornography. Users would attempt to download it, and then open it, would be infected.

Evidently in Japan it is illegal to not only infect other computers but even to have a virus on one’s PC that could potentially be used to infect other computers (how it is determined if one got infected on their own is unclear. Read more here.)

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Posted in cybercrime, malware

4 Computer Performance Tips

July 5th, 2011 by zam17 1 comment »

Every wondered why your computer ran really fast when you purchased it, but over time slowed to a crawl? There are some simple maintenance items you can do yourself to help keep your machine fast. Below are 4 computer performance tips.

Remove all programs on your machine, that you installed, that you no longer need.
Install proper anti-virus and malware protection software. Malicious software is often one of the biggest contributing factors to slow PC performance.
Stop unnecessary services. Some programs run in the background without your knowledge. These are generally “services”. Stopping services that not required to run your computer can have a huge impact on speed. Not sure which ones to stop? Bring your machine in and we give your machine a computer diagnostic.
Run a registry optimizer and cleaner program, such as the free CCleaner.

If after performing these actions (And they should be done regularly), you still are having issues. Give us a call at 972.781.0011 and we will diagnose all issues, and make your computer run like-new again.

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Posted in Computer Speed, maintenance, performance

Tags: computer performance maintenance registry

Computer Terminology Explained

June 29th, 2011 by zam17 1 comment »

Computer jargon can sometimes be intimidating. With this in mind I present a brief guide to some commonly used, but not completely obvious, terms that some of our clients ask about. Hopefully, when surfing the net for information about your computer, this will help you make better decisions.

Router - A physical device that can join multiple network devices together (computers, printers, mobile devices, and more). If you have a home network with multiple computers operating on one Internet connection, you are probably using a router.

Cat 5 cable – The standard wire of choice for most computer network connections, including Ethernet. The thick wire that goes from the back of your computer to your Verizon. Time Warner, or other modem, is probably a Cat 5 cable.

Ethernet – A standard technology for computer networking. Others exist, but this is generally all the typical person will encounter.

CPU – Central Processing Unit. Essentially, the “brains” of a computer. It is the CPU that performs calculations and interprets instructions to be carried out by the computer.

Gigahertz – or GHz is a unit of measurement for CPU “clock speed”. The higher this number, the faster your CPU can perform calculations.

Dual/Quad Core Processor – Multiple cores allow a CPU to carry out multiple instructions simultaneously. For example if a dual core has a clock speed of 3.2 GHz and a single core has a clock speed of 3.2 GHz one can expect better performance from the dual core machine.

Worm – Like a virus, in that it is malware that sends copies of itself to other machines on a given network. It is different, though, because it doesn’t have to corrupt or alter existing files in order to do its damage.

Let The Computer Wizard to be your guide. 972.781.0011

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Posted in education, malware

Mommy, how are computer viruses “born”?

June 27th, 2011 by zam17 2 comments »

Often when I get an infected computer in the shop I am asked where did the virus come from. The client often says “I never open e-mails from people I do not know or trust.”

These days, your web browser is the most frequent means used to infect your machine. The virus can infect your machine simply by looking at a web page and clicking an image or link on it. According to a recent report from Cisco systems, most virus activity in early 2011 came from GIF injection attacks (hidden command code contained inside of an image).

Search engine related attacks were also common. These happen when you perform a normal search on Google, Bing, or Yahoo, and then get redirected to another page of search results from some unrecognizable search engine. Often, the results on this page will take you to an infected web page.

Facebook “likejacking” is also common. This is where you are made to “like” a page you didn’t intend to when clicking on an image on Facebook.

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Posted in malware

FBI Gets Tough on Scareware

June 24th, 2011 by zam17 No comments »

The FBI is “taking off the gloves.” The FBI’s attempt to smash ’scareware’ comes at a time with significant up-ticks in cyber-crime taking place. FBI’s “Operation Trident Tribunal”, in coordination with 12 nations, is an attempt to stem the growing “scareware” threat.

So whats the big deal? The insidious nature of scareware is quite troubling. Scareware works by pretending to be legitimate anti-virus software. It will scan your computer and then say it can clean malware from it – for a price. You do not get the option to simply say “not interested..” The scareware essentially holds your computer hostage.

The FBI, on their website, estimates that almost a million people have been scammed by this software. Most people who surf the Internet probably have seen phony anti-virus pop-ups at one time or another. NEVER click on these. Close them right away. It might also be a good idea to run your own, legitimate, anti-virus software after such an event happens (If you have questions, just give us a call 972.781.0011).

Scareware is very difficult to remove from a computer. Often it will even cripple your own legitimate anti-virus software. It can get so bad, that some uses simply end up reformatting their hard drive. Scareware attacks literally cost millions of dollars in damages, stolen money, and lost productivity. All while pretending to remove viruses that never existed in the first place.

The FBI’s investigation is ongoing. To this point, there have only been two arrests, but things are about to get very interesting.

UPDATE

Click here to read a ZDNet article about server and computer seizures related to the investigation.

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Posted in fake-antivirus

Scam Notice: New tactic of fraudsters calling you claiming to work for Microsoft!

June 23rd, 2011 by zam17 1 comment »

Police in Kitchener, Ontario have released a scam alert after getting numerous complaints over the last few days about a computer virus scam.

Victims say they have gotten unsolicited calls from a person claiming to work for Microsoft who offers to clean the computer of malware, viruses and other potential threats. The end result is that the victim will be guided into downloading malware from the impersonator that can scan their machine for personal info, including banking information.

“People need to be cautious,” Waterloo Regional Police public affairs co-ordinator Olaf Heinzel said. “No matter what company a caller says they are from, the recipient has to make suitable efforts to make sure that caller is legitimate.”

“It only takes one or two victims to make this scam pay off,” Heinzel said.

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Posted in fake-antivirus, malware, scams

Beware Firefox users! New Malware is targetting you!

June 16th, 2011 by zam17 No comments »

Yep, Firefox is the latest target in the ongoing Malware Wars! Firefox users are the focus of a new scam that attempts to install dangerous and fake antivirus software by displaying a very passable Windows Update page.

Fake virus scams have been around a very long time. What is strange about this latest version (credit Sophos with the discovery) is that it only becomes active to users on Windows and using Firefox.

The first big clue? Windows Update can only be started in the background in Windows or through Internet Explorer.The malicious popup that tries to get you to install malware is a copy of the Windows Update page offering an “urgent” 2.8MB download which will pretend to do a virus and malware scan, but really just install some of its own. It is a pretty clevel job the creators did. Click the image.

“Users need to be more vigilant than ever before as bogus security alerts pop-up in their browsers,” said Graham Cluley of Sophos. “Fake anti-virus attacks are big business for cybercriminals and they are investing time and effort into making them as convincing as possible.”

“Malicious hackers are using smart social engineering tricks more and more often, and the risk is that users will be scared by a phoney warning into handing over money to fix problems that never existed in the first place,” he said.

Attacking Firefox seems to be a bit in vogue, lately. Last week, a separate scam that throws up fake security warnings in an effort to throw more fake/malicious software onto users.