Cyber criminals have started victimizing Verizon Wireless customers where they send out spam e-mail messages saying that their accounts are over the limit. Then they the customers a “balance checker” program to review their payments. These fake e-mail messages pretend to come from Verizon Wireless. Actually, the balance checker is infected a malicious Trojan horse program.

An antivirus research made at SonicWall shows that if you run the balance checker, your computer will be in danger. SonicWalls catches the infected Trojan with the name Regrun. The scammers were able to quickly flood the Internet with their spam a few hours after they started sending out the e-mail messages. SonicWalls had interrupted the messages of about 16 percent of its customers translating about 200,000 messages per hour on its sensors.

When you download the software, it opens up a back door to their computer allowing more malware to be downloaded from the Zbot botnet. The Zbot botnet is known for quietly stealing your online banking credentials and clearing your account. Of course, the pay-off for the cyber criminals is very huge. According to U.S. Federal Bureau of Investigation, this type of financial fraud has eliminated US$100 million from U.S. bank accounts. These criminals are really are finding new ways just to trick people and convince them to download their malicious software. As of now, this is the latest billing-cycle scam that they have.

How Can Techie Now Help?

Sending spam e-mail messages attached with a balance checker which is infected with a malware is one of the tricks that cyber criminals use victimize unaware computer users and costumers. For now, the best thing to do is keep updated anti-virus software for your PC protection. If you need assistance with any PC support services – like virus and spyware removal, performance optimization, installation and configuration, and general repair – Techie Now is willing to give you a hand in a better price. Contact Techie Now and enjoy your computer experience.

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Don’t think that a Mac operating system is safe from malware. According Kaspersky Lab – Southeast Asia, there was increase in the number of vulnerabilities in the Mac OS since 2005. It can also be used to carry out an attack through the Internet.

Kaspersky Lab, a secure content management solutions developer, announced its latest product which is the Kaspersky Anti-Virus for Mac. It protects the Mac OS against viruses, worms and Trojans and other problems on other operating systems like Windows and Linux. With the usefulness of multi-platform computers, it created a room for Mac to be known in corporate and home networks. Unfortunately, Mac is like any other computers in a network which is also prone to malware attack. Although Mac has not been infected in the past then that does not mean that they are safe now. It can be infected by Trojans or key loggers with the user unaware of the presence of the threat. Kaspersky Anti-Virus is compatible with versions of OS from 10.4.11. A Macintosh with the Intel processor, 512 MB available RAM and 80 MB available hard drive space are the other technical requirements.

Kaspersky Anti-Virus has a global anti-virus database of more than 20 million malicious programs for range of platforms to protect the Mac against viruses. It updates every hour to ensure the users their protection from the latest malicious programs that come out daily. It also allows better use of system resources by increasing the performance of user applications when the priority of the anti-virus scanner decreases, especially during intense user activity. It increases system scanning speed particularly on dual- and quad-core processor platforms. One of the features of Kaspersky Anti-Virus for Mac is the protective response which is added for shared folders on virtual machines. It prevents the transfer of malware from Windows and Unix virtual systems to the work environment. It has animated user-friendly interface for both novices and experienced users. It also offers information about the protection status. Any necessary user actions are presented in a graphic format, which are all easy to understand. If you hate being bothered with unnecessary requests, you will like the Kaspersky Anti-Virus because it carries an automated mode which enables the program to take decision automatically.

Kaspersky Anti-Virus was developed to meet the security requirements of Mac users who definitely give importance to the data stored on their computers and want to keep them running smoothly. It has the latest anti-virus technologies that will keep your Mac protected.

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The British police arrested a couple from Manchester, aged 20, for purportedly using a sophisticated and malicious virus to infect thousands of computers and steal millions of pounds worth of personal information.

The said virus is known to be the notorious ZeuS or Zbot Trojan which bypasses security safeguards to record online bank account details, passwords and credit card numbers. It also copies passwords for social networking sites and let the hackers control the computer by forwarding the data to the servers. The said virus appears in different guises, which includes false Facebook page encouraging users to download a software update. It can steal passwords or sends your personal information hackers. It also hijacks computers pressing them into the services of botnets which can be used to send spam e-mails, distribute more malware and do other malicious things. All the taken information is worth millions of pounds making the criminals sell or use it themselves.

According to Detective Superintendent Charlie McMurdie, the couple was the first in Europe to be arrested in connection with the scam. Zeus or Zbot Trojan is a known malware which can be used for infecting or accessing personal information. It has affected 10,000 computers worldwide. The couple gathered millions of lines of data from infected computers. The scam uses the taken data of users and quickly harms them financially. Cyber criminals use Zeus because it threatens the people from using the Internet globally.

Zeus viruses is the biggest and most sophisticated “banking trojan” in the world. It targets the online banking accounts of millions of people. As it first came out in 2007, Zeus had grown more flexible and complicated after a few months that it was able to adjust and look for more ways to prevent from being detected by anti-virus software. Symantec’s analyst, Orla Cox said that ZeuS spreads fast because there’s an available toolkit online which allowed the cybercriminals to customize and create their own versions. The toolkit makes it easy for people to steal from online accounts. Since it’s easy to find on the web, it’s a useful kit for those who wants to be an Internet crime lord. Ghost is one of the best know open source toolkit. In the past year, more than 90,000 variations of Zeus virus have infected computers.

The couple was suspected of offenses against the Computer Misuse Act 1990 and the 2006 Fraud Act on November 3. Unfortunately, they have been released on bail. Reports showed that many businesses and individuals have experienced the online attack worldwide where money are stolen from their accounts and transferred to the criminals through complex banking networks. The accounts of willing “money mules” receive the money and withdraw it.

How Can Techie Now Help?

With the virus like Zeus, online bank accounts are not safe from the cyber criminals. It can steal your passwords or send your personal information, only to find out that your all your money is being stolen under your nose. It’s good to know that cyber criminals like this couple from Manchester was arrested for committing the crime. To protect your money from being stolen in your bank account online, always use updated anti-virus software. If you need assistance with this and other PC support services (virus and spyware removal, performance optimization, installation and configuration, and general repair), contact Techie Now. Techie Now will keep your computer running and protected all the time!

Do you want to save your PDF documents in your Microsoft Office programs?

Simply download 2007 Microsoft Office Add-in: Microsoft Save as PDF here.

2007 Microsoft Office Add-in: Microsoft Save as PDF allows you:

• to export and save the PDF formats in eight (8) 2007 Microsoft Office programs
• to send as e-mail attachment in the PDF formats in a subset of programs

After installing, you can now save a PDF format as follows:

Access, Excel, PowerPoint, Visio and Word

1. Open the document that you want to publish as PDF.
2. Click the Microsoft Office Button , click Save As, then click PDF or XPS.
3. In the File Name list, type or select a name for the file.
4. In the Save as type list, click PDF.
5. If you want to open the file immediately after saving it, select Open file after publishing check box. This box is available only if you have a PDF reader installed in your computer.
6. Next to Optimize for, do one of the following, depending on whether file size or print quality is more important to you. Click Standard (publishing online and printing) if the table or report requires high print quality. Click Minimum size (publishing online) if the print quality is less important than file size.
7. To specify various options for the file, click Options. Click OK.
8. In the Publish as PDF or XPS dialog box, click Publish.

InfoPath

1. On the File menu, click to Export To, and then click PDF or XPS.
2. In the File Name list, type or select a name for the form.
3. In the Save as type list, click PDF.
4. If you want to open the file immediately after saving it, select Open file after publishing check box. This box is available only if you have a PDF reader installed in your computer.
5. Next to Optimize for, do one of the following, depending on whether file size or print quality is more important to you. Click Standard (publishing online and printing) if the form requires high print quality. Click Minimum size (publishing online) if the print quality is less important than file size.
6. In the Publish.

One Note

1. On the File menu, click Publish as PDF or XPS.
2. In the File Name list, type or select a name for the file.
3. In the Save as type list, click PDF.
4. Next to Page range, click the option that represents the portion of the notebook that you want to save as PDF.
5. Click Publish.

Publisher

If you want to share the publication in a fixed format over the Web or a network, do the following:

1. On the File menu, click Publish as PDF or XPS.
2. In the File name list, type or select a name for the publication.
3. In the Save as type list, click PDF.
4. Next to Optimize for, click Change.
5. In the Publish Options dialog box, click the optimization in the Specify how this publication will be printed or distributed list that matches the needs of the publication. For example, if the publication will be distributed online and print quality is less important than a small file size, click Minimum size. If the quality of the printing is more important than file size, click High quality printing.
6. Click Advanced to display the entire dialog box, and select the settings that you need.
7. Click OK.
8. In the Save As dialog box, if you want to open the file immediately after saving it, select the Open file after publishing check box. This check box is available only if you have a PDF reader installed on your computer, and if the Commercial Press option is not selected in the Publish Options dialog box.
9. Click Save.

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Security researchers reported that SoftBarrier is the latest development of the hackers from Winisoft. Also known as WiniGuard, it appears to be the biggest roguewares in the Internet world. Winisoft is the creator of rogueware family. According to experts, SoftBarrier enters the system through different Trojans like most fake anti-spyware application do. It sneaks quickly into the user’s system configuring Windows Registry. SoftBarrier banks on misleading advertising to sell its claimed “licensed version”.

As soon as SoftBarrier enters the system, it will flood it with fake notifications and pop-ups to inform the user about any infection present in the system. This information is not true, but only a trap asking the users to download SoftBarrier to dispose-off the so-called threats. Unfortunately, SoftBarrier is like any other rogues that perform fake scans emphasizing risk-free files as threats. After completing the scanning process, SoftBarrier will recommend the user to buy its expensive full version for the detected threats to be removed but the truth is, it doesn’t work.

According to security experts, SoftBarrier owns the softbarrier.com website. They advised the users not to click the provided malicious link and also avoid visiting the above mentioned website. The malware originally originated in Sweden. The cyber criminals were able to hide their original IP address and accomplish their malicious activities successfully.

Security experts stated that the creators of this rogueware group will not stop attacking computer users with their rogue anti-virus and anti-spyware applications. So, users should be careful to avoid falling into their traps. In addition, they should not install the SoftBarrier application. It should be removed from your computer even if the virus has entered the system.

How Can Techie Now Help?

Computer users should be careful with any kinds of online attack, like SoftBarrier. Computer users must prevent this to happen to protect their computer from any threats. PC support providers like Techie Now can help you with that. Techie Now provides PC support services: virus and spyware removal, performance optimization, installation and configuration, and general repair. Contact Techie Now and avail our services at your convenience.

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