We all have experienced many online threats last year. And as year changes to 2010, the more online threats are changing too. Cybercriminals will be more eager to spread online threats and attack computers to benefit with any valuable information challenging users for security.

Here are some of the predictions that will challenge computer security this year:

1. Spam, Scams on Social Networking and Real-time Sites – A group of security researchers belonging from Websense, Breach Security, IBM Internet Security Systems‘ X-Force, and Symantec agreed that cybercriminals will focus their attacks on social networking sites such as Facebook, MySpace, and LinkedIn, and on real-time social sites like Twitter. When it comes to real-time features, Google, especially Google Wave, as well as Bing will be their target. The attackers enjoy the fact it will take time for others to discover the existence of a malicious link or file. Users may recognize one but still one way or another, there will still be victims.

2. Crime Cloud – Security vendors specifically AVG, M86, and RSA predicted that criminals will be attacking and using use cloud services directly to control attacks. and using them to direct and control attacks. IBM researchers are anticipating to see attackers exploiting more services. Take Amazon AWS for example which already served as a host for a malware command and control server.

3. Malware Hijacking Trusted Sites – Breach Security observes continuous improvements when it comes to compromising trusted sites and infecting them with malware. Numerous incidents of SQL injection has been proven successful in attacking sites. No doubt, it will happen again. Cybercriminals prefer to have a third-party that will distribute their malware.

4. Macs Will Be Compromised – It’s been years now that security companies have been talking about Mac being targeted by attackers for malware. According to Websense, exploitation will happen affecting Safari under Mac OS X which will invite hackers to target the Mac platform. Symantec is worried that Mac users who are not spending money to buy antivirus software yearly will not be protected with such attack. Zscaler still believe that Apple can somehow oblige the company to strengthen its security to surpassed continuous attacks. Many think Macs will be widely affected because of Adobe Flash vulnerability.

5. Search Engine Poisoning and Malvertising – Cybercriminals will exert more efforts on exploiting trusted sites. For them to infect sites, they will make use of search engines and advertisements. They will continue to threaten and weaken search results and enjoy the attention breaking news and events. Google together with Microsoft will assure its users for a safe search and advertising. Of course, they wouldn’t want their users to not trust them.

6. Increasing Number of Bots – Why would cyber criminals waste their time with cloud-hosted malware when botnets can do the same thing? Botnets are better than cybercriminals. It can also be a source of income generating cash for criminals and hijacking other botnets for money. This will cause conflict preventing botnets to grow and attracting security experts and law enforcement. It’s botnets against other botnets. It’s like what happened to Zeus/Zbot being shut down by Bredolab botnet. Symantec claimed that botnets have become the foundation of cybercrime.

7. Piracy Gets Riskier – Microsoft has started making a move to lessen software piracy since last December. They received many complaints from users who buy the pirated version of Windows. IBM researchers are expecting that the continuous use of the pirated software will infection more users will malware.

8. Mobile Security Issue – Smartphones like iPhone and Android-based handsets are like miniature personal computers. They are being used for business purposes. In 2010, Websense predicted that smartphones will be targeted for attacks just like the computers. Nowadays, security vendors either have or are developing a mobile security product service. IBM thinks that mobile attacks will still be limited.

9. Major Insider Theft Scandal Will – It is expected next year that someone who has been in a large organization accessing company data will be caught to be working for or with a cybercrime group. The Identity Theft Resource expected that the number of insider cases will increase because of failure to follow basic workplace security protocols.

10. Clickjacking is Back – According to Zscaler, clickjacking will strike back. Clickjacking is a malicious technique that tricks users to reveal confidential information or take control of their computer while clicking the sites. Jeremiah Grossman of WhiteHat Security and Robert “RSnake” Hansen of SecTheory reveal about the technique in October 2008. Efforts have made to lessen the risk of clickjacking but it is still effective to use especially with a social engineering component.

How Can Techie Now Help?

The above security threats serves as a reminder for computer users to be careful over the web. You’ll never know what security threat you will be into. For now, the best protection is a reliable and updated antivirus software that will keep you and your computer in trouble. When it comes to your computer’s protection, Techie Now is the name you can trust. Techie Now offers PC support services: virus and spyware removal, performance optimization, installation and configuration and general repair.

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Facebook, a social networking site, has formed a Safety Advisory Board consulting on any issues related to online safety to better protect its 350 million users worldwide. It is consists of five (5) Internet safety organizations: Common Sense Media, ConnectSafely, WiredSafety, Childnet International and The Family Online Safety Institute, from North America and Europe.

Facebook is planning to meet the board members regularly to:

• review existing safety resources it provides its users
• develop new materials
• seek advice on general safety best practices

For the first task, the board needs to oversee an overhaul of safety content in Facebook’s Help Center. The main goal of the overhaul: to create a comprehensive resource with specific educational content for parents, teachers and teens.

According to Facebook’s director of European public policy, Richard Allan, we need group effort to improve safety online. We need to work together. Everyone who’s online or on Facebook should be diligent enough to report abusive behavior or make sure that the passwords for the accounts are kept secured. Safety issues for Facebook users include cyberbullying and phishing.

Facebook and its rival MySpace, owned by News Corp, wanted to increase their efforts for them to protect their youngest members from any kind of abuse.

How Can Techie Now Help?

Facebook is one of the biggest social networking sites being used by many today. It’s good to know that Facebook formed this Advisory Board for the safety of its millions of users online. If you also want to ensure online safety in your computer, Techie Now can do that for you. Contact us now and avail our PC support services: virus and spyware removal, performance optimization, installation and configuration, and general repair. Techie Now has everything you need with better services at better prices.

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Twitter is being used by many people worldwide in these days. It’s a free social networking and micro-blogging service enabling its users to read and send messages. Because of its increasing popularity, Twitter has exerted its effort to stop attacks which includes spam, worms such as Mikeyy, and phishing. Twitter confirmed that the site was hacked last May where some individual account information were also leaked.

In regards to this, Kaspersky revealed a new tool named “Krab Krawler”. It will analyze million of tweets posted on Twitter every day and will block any Malware associated with them.

Krab Krawler will:

• looks at every public post as it appears in on Twitter
• extracts any URLs in them and analyzes the web page they go to
• expands any URLs that have been shortened

Twitter scans almost 500,000 new unique URLs every day where there are about 100 to 1,000 Malware attacks happen. Koobface virus has targeted Twitter by posting malicious links from infected users’ accounts. Twenty-six (26) percent of the total Twitter posts contain URLs redirecting to spam sites which are marketing products or services and not considered Malware. Thousands of accounts post spam links created by bots. Most of the URLs redirect to online dating sites.

Kaspersky’s regular antivirus software can detect and block ninety-five (95) percent of the Malware Twitter users are afraid of. Some antivirus companies focus protecting e-mail-borne viruses but also give more attention to social-media sites now. For now, Finjan offers SecureTweets to Twitter users. SecureTweets is a  free browser plug-in that warns the users as they come upon a malicious URL in Twitter, also includes Blogger, Gmail, Google search, MSN, MySpace, Yahoo and more sites.

Attackers are fond of hitting social-media sites because there are many people using them and trusting messages in there with their friends more than they do in e-mails. According to Kaspersky, Trojan-Clicker.HTMLIFrame is the most common piece of Malware associated with Twitter. It is a malicious Javascript that can be transferred to computer when you visit a compromised web site.

How Can Techie Now Help?

If your PC gets infected while using Twitter and you need help, feel free to contact Techie Now. Our virus removal services will be the solution you are looking for. We offer better services at a lower price. With Techie Now, your PC is at good hands.

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Do you know what social engineering is? Social engineering is the act of manipulating people into doing actions or exposing confidential information. It’s trickery or deception to gather information, fraud, or computer system access where in the hacker never comes face-to-face with the victim. Here are some of the social engineering techniques:

The hacker steals passwords through guessing the victim’s password reminder question with the help of gathered information from his or her social networking profile. One incident was when Hacker Roll was able to guess the password and broke into an e-mail account of Twitter’s administrative assistant using the Google’s password reset feature. After this, Hacker Roll was able to forward hundreds of pages of internal Twitter documents to different websites including TechCrunch which has published some and referred to others. Another college student also broke into Gov. Sarah Palin’s Yahoo e-mail account using Yahoo’s password reset questions.

People should be careful in creating passwords for their accounts. They should not disclose personal information on services like Facebook, Twitter and any other social networking sites because it will be easy for hackers to know your passwords. With the information available in your social sites, it’s easy to crack and discover your passwords. It’s like you are giving away your passwords or inviting hackers to have an access on your account.

The hacker befriends an individual or a group to gain their trust. And if the victims already trust him, he will make the victim click on links or attachment infected with Malware which can weaken a corporate system. There’s nothing wrong with meeting new friends in the Internet but it is very dangerous because you don’t really know the people who you are dealing with online. It’s not advisable to receive, accept or open links and attachments to unknown source. The hacker also pretends to be an insider to get information from the employees. If people think that you work for the same company, they will trust you a lot including the information that you need. This will be a big advantage on your part.

The hacker also impersonates you or your friends, even other people. He can message you anytime using the name of your friend. He will ask you a favor like asking for data from your office. Since you are not aware that you are talking to a stranger and not your friend, you’ll give him what he needs. After this, he can manipulate the data that you have given to him and this will really put you into trouble. A hacker can also call any company and claim that he is from technical support. In this situation, he can pretend that he is part of the technical support, help solve the problem and be able to have access from the victim’s computer and launch Malware.

Hackers and social engineering techniques can devastate your business or personal life. Include spoofing or hacking IDs for private e-mails, social networking sites or chat histories, phishing credit card account numbers and their passwords, and hacking websites of companies to destroy reputation. With the growing of numbers of hackers nowadays, it’s important to protect your system and company at the same time. You should be careful enough when dealing with unknown person because they might deceive or manipulate you. Remember, the only purpose of the hackers and social engineering techniques is to exploit human weaknesses to get personal benefits.

How Can Techie Now Help?

Hackers use social engineering to trick people and reveal passwords or information that will weaken the security of an individual, group or company. Social engineering really relies on human weakness than weakness of the computer system (hardware, software, network design, etc.) itself. If you have been victimized by hackers and your computer gets infected, worry no more. Techie Now can give a solution to your problem. Contact us now and we will remove the infections of your computer. Techie Now will work on your PC right away.

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