Careless Facebook profiling can lead to Identity Theft!

I just got in contact with a old friend from High school and another friend of mine suggest the new friend. I was looking at her profile and couldn’t believe what I saw:

Something users shouldn't do!!!As you can see this is not good I was amazed at how many people are giving out there birthdays and who they are married to to friends and family. So we heard about how people are claiming they need help or are in need of desperate money. This is nothing new, as you know people are having hard economy times and people are using the social engineering to scam people out of money.

I feel that I should warn people the important necessity.   You shouldn’t be broadcasting your DOB and who your married to to your friends, just in case they get hacked.

Recent activity indicates that identity thieves are hacking into trustworthy profiles before selling on the login details to interested parties. This information is used by spammers to target legitimate users, posting misleading links on their “walls” – personalized message boards.

[Via Computing.Co.UK]

This deservese a little mind and a lot of understanding.   By the spammers hacking into facebook accounts they have the chance to scam or spam people with links to possibly have a virus or trojan installer.

[ad#ad2-right]For example This one blog talks about the Virus:

Symantec’s Norton Antivirus software has flagged this as a “high risk” Infostealer.Gampass virus. More info on this particular Trojan vius is here. (Note: Symantec warns the risk level is “low,” since it originated in 2006, but this new Facebook email is a new iteration of the same virus.)

You might be inclined to click on this link because it’s from a friend, but they did not intentionally send it to you — and yes, their Facebook photo is attached, too.

[Via Sync-blog]

facebookident2Now I went searching through my friends list and also found this little bit of information.  As you can see this one is asking for people to use there account to scam people out of money.  They could use this to find out even more information of the Other partner and make you believe your talking to the real deal.   Saying they need money because they are stuck over seas or something like that.   I’ve seen this on other blogs where people have sent money to “friends” but are actually people who are the scammers.  Then if you send the money you are out of luck with your money and possibly your friends to.  I am sure there are more but this is prime examples of what you shouldn’t do and why.

So what can you do to prevent Identity Theft and/or being scammed?

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  • Roboform Review — A Password Manager that will help protect your passwords from key loggers and other such phishing sites.    I strongly recommend it to to all who are security minded. (Never use the same password for all your accounts)
  • Are you worried about your identity? — This is good information in checking out sites that might be questionable.  You can find out what type of site it by using your brains.
  • Old Phish Become New again — This is blog post about twitter and what may happen if you did give out your password.   This is a good example of why you never should give out your password to third party websites.
  • Twitter Spammers a getting more smarter — This is also good example of what happens when you see become friends with someone who isn’t real.   You could be the next to be spammed and/or impersonated.

If you follow some common steps you to could prevent from being the victim or getting your Identitiy stolen.   Some things to remember is Never tell anyone your Birthday the whole date like someone did on twitter a few days ago.  It’s nice that they are growing older but that gives people that much more information to use to steal your money or your idenitiy.   Think before you give out any personal information like Age, Married, who your married to and anything that might be used to be able to access your account or your impersonate you.  Remember only you can prevent from being scammed or lossing your identity, you wouldn’t want to have to pay for your mistakes.

Tools for Virus Removal : The ones I like to use!

In this post I want to talk about virus removal tools that I like to use when I need to remove a virus.   Some thing to consider when using these tools are:

Each of these have to be dealt with differently because each requires something different.  Like rootkits if you have one installed and know that it is a rootkit you only options are to download some rootkit removers like:

  • Sopho’s Anti-rootkit remover —  This is good for those more known viruses and can remove several types of rootkits.   This isn’t the only one I use, but it is a part of group that does the rootkit removing for me.
  • Microsoft Rootkit Revealer —  This is good for proving there is a rootkit.  I’ve not seen it not detect a rootkit.  Most of the time when I find a rootkit from the other rootkit revealers this one actually dos better with information.
  • Panda Anti-Rootkit Remover — This one is another one I use when the other ones can’t remove it.  Each one does remove certain rootkit differently and works better than the other.
  • Aries Rootkit Remover from Lavasoft — This is good for those really tough rootkits but have some great benefits for removing some of the really tough rootkits.

These are the ones that work well with me when it comes to removing the rootkits.  I’ve not had one of these to remove a rootkit but that depends on how you deal with the virus in the first place.  Now for Anti-spyware and Anti-Virus software here are some of the tools that I suggest:

  • HijackthisRun it, and when you get the LOG file you will want to go to HijackThis Log Analysis Site 1 and HijackThis Log Analysis Site 2, and see what it says.  This is the best software because it will scan all of the registry and tells you like a wiki what might it be.
  • MSCONFIG — Sometimes it is hidden but if you check through the MSCONFIG for any files that might not need to load. Also check the services tab and see if there is any services that may not be needed.
  • Pctools Antivirus Free Software — This is a free software so what can I say.
  • AVG Anti-Virus Free Edition 7.5.503 — This is another free one that can remove viruses really easily. Download this and you don’t have to worry to much.
  • Avast Home Edition — AVG does better than this one but people seem to like this so I have to add this for people who like this better than the others.
  • Clamwin Free Anti-virus — This is a good one because this is open sourced and easily can help detect so many viruses. This is good for those people who like open sourced.

These are just  the ones that I like to recommend that does pretty good on removing the viruses but there are others that I recommend on my Malware Resources that people have recommend to me but I haven’t tried them out yet.    Some of the Spyware and Adware removal and here are some of my favorites:

  • SuperAntispyware — Easily remove pests such as WinFixer, SpyAxe, SpyFalcon, and thousands more! Repair broken Internet Connections, Desktops, Registry Editing and more with our unique Repair System.
  • Malwarebytes can provide the needed assistance to remove the infection and restore the machine back to optimum performance.
  • Ad-Aware — This is a very good tool to get rid of some of the most annoying little viruses that try to fool you that you have a virus.
  • Windows Security Trojan Scanner — a Free online scanner to let you see if you might have a Trojan.
  • SmitFraudFix — A great little program to get rid of those Desktop hijacks, those programs that take over your browser or other file system.

If your current antimalware software let an infection through, you may want to consider purchasing the PRO version of SUPERAntiSpyware or Malwarebytes License to protect your computer in the future. SUPERAntiSpyware Professional or Malwarebytes License features highly advanced Real-Time Protection to ensure protection from installation or re-installation of potential threats as you surf the Internet (Both are trusted Vendors by CCSS Forums).

These are just a few that I like to use when it comes to fighting those virus programs and the people behind the virus programs.   If you consider how hard it is sometimes to recognize a virus, you can see the problem with some of the programs they can sometimes  say a file is a virus and delete it and the next thing you know it won’t boot into Windows.  This is what needs to be considered whenever you see a warning on your system so you must be careful when you remove files.  You should always have backups that is what I always recommend because the likely hood of something terrible happening to your data.  You should come up with a way to back up your system every week like a sunday back or even a Monday while your at work backup.

Inside understanding of win32.netsky.q

Netsky.Q is a worm that spreads through e-mail. It is distributed as a 28,008 byte Win32 executable, compressed with PEtite, which drops a 23,040 byte DLL file. It also distributes itself inside ZIP archives.

I saw this on on the net and through we should talk about and let people know how you could get that the worm off your computer. It seems to be a self-replicating worm, it will continue to send out fake messages to people with the subject lines Like:
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  • Delivery Error
  • Delivery Failure
  • Delivery
  • Mail Delivery failure
  • Mail Delivery System
  • Mail System
  • Delivery
  • Delivered Message
  • Error
  • Status
  • Failure
  • Failed
  • Unknown Exception
  • Delivery Failed
  • Deliver Mail
  • Server Error
  • Delivery Bot

And with each message there is the reciepts email address at the end.  This worm seems to be spreading like wildfire today.   It is because people have not install

Microsoft Security Bulletin (MS01-020)

[ad#ad2-right]Now how do you get rid of it.  It seems that most of Anti-Virus software would get it done.  All you would need to do is scan for this virus with the latest updated virus databases and will go away.   According E-Trust Anti-Virus they say they can remove it.   This is a really old virus, according to my sources this was first seen in 2004.   In order to prevent this in the future I’d suggest installing a free anti-virus and using it.    This is one smart little worm according to CA IT.

If you have quite a few Desktops in your Office and want to update all of them to the newest patch all in one swoop, I’d suggest downloading Clone of Autopatcher and making an ISO image so you can go around to each computer and install the patches quickly and easily.  Prevent yourself from getting that virus and some others in the future.   This is a friendly tip for all those hard working IT workers.

Internet Explorer still has a Vulnerability after Tuesday Patch!!

I just read this on several blogs and thought I’d share the details with you, it seems that Microsoft didn’t know there was a problem with this Bug/Vulnerability.   Computer world has a great article and  says this:

[ad#ad2-right]“The updates Microsoft released yesterday do not address this possible vulnerability,” a Microsoft spokesman said today in an e-mail reply to questions, “but I can tell you that Microsoft is investigating these new public claims of a possible vulnerability in Internet Explorer.”


[Via ComputerWorld]

I can only hope that Microsoft fixes this Vulnerability soon, I would take a guess that they will try to get this out on the patch cycle if not they will push it out after.   Some things to remember with IE(Internet Explorer) is only use it with Microsoft Updates.   I also Suggest downloading FireFox and checking out my Anti-virus and Anti-Spyrware Page for ways to prevent from getting a virus.

trojan.zlob removal tricks!!

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Aliases:
Trojan-Downloader.Win32.Zlob.qyl (Kaspersky)
Trojan-Downloader.Win32.Zlob.qzs (Kaspersky)
Trojan-Downloader.Win32.Zlob.qzn (Kaspersky)
Trojan.Zlob.CPP (BitDefender)
Puper (McAfee)
SystemDefender (Symantec)

Trojan:Win32/Zlob.G is a component of Win32/Zlob that downloads rogue security programs, adware, and additional Win32/Zlob components.

[Via Windows Live OneCare]

[ad#ad2-left]This one just popped up today on my radar it seems to be a very low threat on everyone’s radar according to my sources say “Trojan.Zlob.G is a Trojan horse that may download and execute remote files and redirect the Internet Explorer home page and search page.”  So to remove this little Trojan you would want to download one an Anti-virus and firewall.   Once you install the software the program should fix the problem for you.   This one seems to be really easy to fix.   So Please read my post on how to better protect your self if you want to prevent this in the future.