One day you get an email from your bank. You usually get emails from them however this particular email asks you to “verify” the email address you registered and if you don’t do it asap, it threatens to close your account. It sounded urgent, but you have your doubts about it. What do you do?

Emails like this are examples of Phishing, a method of online identity theft. What it does is to deceive you to give your credentials by sending bogus emails that redirects you to a fake website set up to be identical to the official site.

This not only steals personal and financial date, but it can also infect your computer with malware and unintentionally participate in money laundering.

Pretty scary isn’t it? A single phishing email can actually cause a lot of trouble. Here are some tips to avoid getting reeled:

• Always remember that a comapany will never ask your login credentials via email. If you do get an email asking you to “verify” your account and provides you a link to login, do not click on the link. If you hover your mouse over the link, you may notice that it directs to some other website, not the official website of the company.
• Watch out for grammar and typographical errors. These are obvious signs that its a fake/phishing message.
• Generic openings like “dear customer” or “dear player” should sound a warning that it might be a phishing email.
• Make sure that your bank’s website (or any other website for payments or financial transactions) is encrypted. Check the website address, it should begin with Https://www rather than Http://www.
• Update your browser frequently. New browsers like Internet Explorer 9 and Google Chrome have an anti-phishing feature. It helps detect fake sites.
• I’d recommend using different passwords for every online account that you have. If you use the same password it can be a pot of gold if a hacker gets your login credentials.
• When in doubt, don’t click. You can ignore or delete the message or better yet, contact the company directly.

How can Techie Now help?

Phishing emails does not only steal information but it can also be a gateway for malicious software to invade your computers. When in doubt and you needed a professional advice, feel free to contact us at TechieNow.com. Our techies are ready to give you sound recommendations and if a malware removal is needed; our techies will take care of that as well. Check out our virus removal services for more information.

Do you know what are the most riskiest domains in the web ?

McAfee, a security agency, released its annual, “Mapping the Mal Web” report naming the riskiest domains in the web worldwide. Disturbingly, most of the riskiest domains come from Asia-Pacific region.

The following are the top 10 riskiest domains in the web:

1. Cameroon (.cm) – Cameroon from Africa got in the top list for 2009 overthrowing Hong Kong (.hk) as the web’s riskiest domain for 2008. With a risk rating of 1.1%, Hong Kong dropped to the 34th place this year. It is a small African country bordering Nigeria. It’s the first time that Cameroon entered the list getting the top spot with the risk rate of 36.7%. Most of the time, users mistype .com to .cm making it as the common typo for domains. Because of this, many cyber criminals decides to come up with fake typo-squatting sites redirecting users to download malicious downloads, spyware, adware and others.

2. Commercial (.com) – .com is considered as the most common domain, also getting more and more dangerous as of 2009. It has been in the ninth place in 2008 and grabbing the second most dangerous domain for 2009. It is also the most risky generic top level domain (TLD).

3. China (.cn) – The third spot belongs to China with the risk rating of 23.4% while having a 11.8% risk rate in 2008. McAfee’s report shows that websites registered with the .cn are more related spam sites.

4. Samoa (.ws) – Samoa is in fourth place with a 17.8% risk percentage compared to its security risk of 3.8% the other year. It has been reported that Samoan-registered domains are known risky for its activities like phishing and malicious downloading. Together with China, Samoa stayed in the top 5 riskiest domains since 2008.

5. Information (.info) – With 15.8% risk rate for 2009 and 11.7% for 2008, .info is considered as the most spammy domain because its sites generates a lot of junk mail. Its activity is largely spam related.

6. Philippines (.ph) – Philippines marked the sixth spot with the overall risk level of 13.1% as compared to its 2008’s risk rate of 7.7%. Its registered sites are getting more into spam and phishing than the malicious downloads.

7. Network (.net) – The seventh riskiest domain is the Network (.net) having the risk rate of 5.8% compared to its higher security risk in 2008.

8. Former Soviet Union (.su) – Former Soviet Union joined the top list for the first time, with the 5.2% security risk. Reports noted that its domains are mainly used linking phishing and malicious download activity.

9. Russia (.ru) – Russia is in the ninth place getting a risk rate of 4.6%. In 2008, it has a security risk of 6%. Domains from Russia are distributed for phishing, spam and malicious downloads.

10. Singapore (.sg) – Next to the Philippines belonging to the Asia-Pacific country, Singapore had the tenth place with the overall risk of 4.6%, compared to 0.3% last year. .sg domains were distributed evenly for spam and download activity.

The riskiest domain for malicious downloads comes from Romania (.ro). 21% of its domains are offering viruses, spyware and adware. The Government (.gov) domain is the safest domain for having 0% risk. Japan (.jp) domains got a rating of 0.1% proving to be the safest country domain in the web.

The “Mapping the Mal Web” report just shows how smart the cyber criminals are they quickly change their strategies to attract more victims without being caught. Attackers prefer to target places where it will be cheap and convenient for them to register their sites.

How Can Techie Now Help?

McAfee has named the world’s riskiest domains. With the cyber criminals roaming the web, any domain from any country can be affected by these phishing, spam and malicious downloads. It just proved that it’s really not that safe when it comes to browsing the web. The right thing to do is to make sure that you have a security software ready in your computer for protection. If you are looking for services that can protect your computer, you can trust Techie Now with that. Contact us now for any PC support services like 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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E-mail is being used for communication by businesses and individuals, and by cybercriminals for online attacks affecting everyone when not used carefully. Proofpoint, a security firm, has enumerated its 2009’s top 10 terrifying e-mail blunders:

• Trojan Horse Steals Bank Accounts – URLZone, a banking Trojan horse, was reported in September. It steals money while users are logged in their accounts displaying a fake balance. Computers get infected when you click a malicious link in an e-mail or visit a website with hidden malware. It also keeps your bank account login credentials, take screenshots, and sneak on your other web accounts like Facebook, Gmail, Paypal and more.

• FBI Forgery- FBI Director Robert Mueller’s wife prohibited him from doing online banking transactions after he had given his personal information to a phishing website. He received an email from what he thought was his bank verifying his information. He even filled out some information but realized in the end that it was not a good idea. So he changed his passwords and told the incident to his wife. That incident did not stop Mr. Mueller’s  from doing his online activities.

• White House Spam – It took place in August when the White House sent thousands of e-mail messages to Americans explaining its stand on the controversial health reform issue. It was spread through an e-mail account to create and dispel rumors. Nevertheless, the White House admitted that it was an unsolicited e-mail and blamed third-party groups for the mass e-mail.

• Hotmail Phishing – In October, thousands of Hotmail accounts were compromised where passwords were posted on some websites where developers normally share programming code. News site Neowin was able to see the list which had been removed and reported to Microsoft about the issue. In this particular phishing scam, the hackers sent out the list of the e-mail accounts with the letterhead of banks, eBay and other institutions, to convince the consumers that they have to reset their online passwords to their websites for security purposes. As soon as Microsoft discovered the scam, they blocked thousands of Hotmail accounts believing the accounts have all been hacked.

• Start-up Suicide – RockYou, a social media advertising and application start-up, sent out a mass e-mail to their customers and associates announcing their new site redesign last September. Instead of using BCC: in sending the e-mails, RockYou displayed the entire mailing list of over 200 e-mail addresses in the CC: field and those e-mail addresses ended up on a spammer’s list. After two months, RockYou sent another mass e-mail using a mailing list asking contractors to provide information for their W9 tax forms. Unfortunately, some people unintentionally send personal information to the entire mailing list.

• Gmail Account Deactivated – Last August, Rocky Mountain Bank in Wyoming sent names, addresses, social security numbers and loan information of more than 1,300 customers to a Gmail address by mistake. Realizing what they did, the bank e-mailed the same address asking the recipient to contact them and destroy the sent file without opening it but they didn’t receive a respond. The bank contacted Google asking for the account holder’s information. So, Google received an order from U. S. District Court Judge James Ware of the northern district of California deactivating the e-mail account and disclosing the identity and contact information of the Gmail account holder. The said Gmail user has not done any wrongdoing. From then on, anyone from the bank is advised to be watchful when sending e-mails and typing in the TO: field an e-mail.

• Payroll Panic – PayChoice, a payroll processor, was the victim of a website breach in September. The customers received targeted e-mails claiming to be from the company. The said e-mail is used to trick people into downloading malware or visit a website that will allow them to access the Onlineemployer.com PayChoice portal. The site was shut down and clients were notified within hours. The e-mails were spread through a Yahoo account with the links hosted from servers in Poland.

• UK Tax Error – HM Revenue & Customs, Britain’s tax authority, warned the people about scam e-mails using fake government e-mail address to convince recipients into revealing their personal information to receive a tax refund in return. Those e-mail messages are claiming that recipients were entitled to receive a tax refund, so they have to give their bank or credit card details so that their refund could be paid out. HRMC stated that they would never inform tax rebate through e-mail like most of the legitimate business and government organizations do or invite the people to complete an online form just to receive a tax rebate.

• Death, Taxes and Phish – In September, a fake e-mail notice was widely spread attacking against businesses and individuals and was claimed to come from the Internal Revenue Service. According to US-Cert, the attack was hidden in a fake e-mail with a subject line of “Notice of Underreported Income” which contains a link or attachment infected with a Zbot/Zeus Trojan virus. It is a program which steals credentials for banking login information.

• UCSD Message of Acceptance by Mistake – University of California San Diego mistakenly sent the same message of acceptance to all 46,000 students who took the college entrance where there are only 18,000 students who passed and accepted in the said university.

How Techie Now Can Help?

E-mails are being used to communicate for personal and business purposes. Cybercriminals also use them to steal one’s identity and money. So computers’ users must be careful when opening attachments or links in their e-mails because it might infect their PCs or steal their information especially if the computer is not protected. To protect your computer from any online attacks, contact Techie Now: virus and spyware removal, performance optimization, installation and configuration, and general repair. Techie Now assists your PC needs better than what others do.

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Security researchers stated that attackers have hacked the computer network of the Swiss foreign ministry which led to the network’s shutdown for many days. A professional virus attack was launched enabling the attackers to hijack network and collect unspecified data. The scope of the attack is still unknown and the officials have not revealed what data did the hackers targeted.

According to reports, the attack was really planned enough that the attackers involved were able to get away with it without being detected. Microsoft and specialists from the ministry discovered the attack on October 22, 2009. Allvoices reported that the network was shut down after the hack has been discovered last October 27, 2009. The specialists tried to find where and how the attack started, and if there are any data that has been stolen. The staff have been prohibited to use the Internet for security purpose.

Unfortunately, the Swiss Interior Ministry and Finance Ministry also experienced some problems on their systems on the same month. It is not clear if the same incidences are related to the latest attack. Reports imply that maybe a spyware from a foreign country was spying the Swiss systems. Security specialists warn that the virus authors are starting a secret rebel technique to make a massive virus outbreaks happen hoping to be successful in compromising a significant network prior to any response from the anti-virus agencies.

On the contrary, the Swiss external affairs ministry isn’t the only entity that has been victimized by a virus attack. In 2007, hackers has successfully attracted employees at the foreign ministry and at the State Secretariat for Economic Affairs (SECO) to be part of a phishing scheme where there are around 500 workers who received e-mails that contains a link on a photo contest. Employees who clicked the link to vote for the said photo contest have been infected with a Trojan virus. Too bad, the government’s security software was not able to recognize the threat. The said attack was traced to come from Africa. United States had also accused China for using secretly-copied data to hack into the Commerce Department computers. Chinese were also accused for hacking computers that belongs to the computers of the Dalai Lama. In February 2009, a computer virus struck UK and French defense computers. A virus was also discovered hitting German military networks. To prevent the virus from spreading, several websites of German armed forces were disconnected from the country’s military network.

How Can Techie Now Help?

Hackers have been increasing nowadays attacking many organization and government websites in various nations. Anyone can be a victim of these online attacks especially if your computer is not protected. Contact Techie Now for your computer’s protection. Techie Now offers PC support services: virus and spyware removal, performance optimization, installation and configuration, and general repair. With Techie Now, your PC is safe and protected.

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Worm attack

The Internet is very useful to our everyday lives. However, we must know how to protect our PC from any online attacks. Viruses are one of the threats for PC users nowadays. Some send worms in chat message displaying a link to a web site which is also infected with a Trojan horse. Worms spread through programs exposing new vulnerabilities, then report them back to the hackers. The hackers will create the malware that will exploit the vulnerability before the people can download a fix.

Do you know what malware can do to your PC? Malware exposes your PC to online attacks. It also gives hackers direct access to your PC. It enables the hacker to get your personal information or control your PC remotely and be used in a criminal activity. Viruses are commonly found through peer-to-peer (P2P) networking. Spyware, Trojan horses, viruses and worms are being integrated into free downloads. Many users don’t know the danger of using the “browse host” feature of the P2P applications. It is very risky to use because it allows others to directly connect to your computer and browse through file shares.

Through using P2P, hackers can access your logins, user IDs and passwords, personal information such as letters, chat logs, cookies, and emails and other private and accessible folders on your PC. When it comes to email and instant messages, viruses in P2P files can steal your information, give it to cybercriminals to forge your identities and commit fraud.

You must protect your PC, follow these rules:

1. Protect your computer with updated security software. You need a security software that will protect your PC from hackers. Your computer should have an anti-virus, anti-spyware, anti-phishing, anti-spam and firewall to fight online attacks. It should scan any files including disks, email attachments, files downloaded from the web, and documents generated by word processing and spreadsheet programs.
2. Use a secure Internet service provider (ISP). It should have anti-spam and anti-phishing procedures.
3. Always update your Windows automatically or to prevent your PC from any known vulnerabilities. You can install patches from other software manufacturers. A fully patched computer behind a firewall can prevent lessen the risk of being infected with a Trojan and spyware installation.
4. Be careful when opening attachments. Set your anti-virus software to scan all your email and instant message attachments automatically. Don’t open unwanted emails, or attachments even from people you know.
5. Be cautious when using P2P file sharing. Some Trojans are just hiding within the programs and waiting for users to be downloaded. Also be careful in downloading files through email and instant messaging like files with the extensions .bat, .bin, .dll, .cmd, .exe, .lnk, .scr, .com and .vbs.
6. Use security protections for your cell phone, PDA, and Wi-Fi devices. Viruses and Trojans can be attached through email/IM, downloaded from the Internet, or are uploaded along with other data from a desktop. In time, cell phone viruses and mobile phishing attacks will be popular especially now that more people are accessing multimedia services and Internet content using their phones. It is advisable if you always use a PIN code on your cell phone. Don’t ever install or download mobile software from unknown source.
7. Set your instant messaging application correctly. Don’t set your instant messaging to open automatically as your computer opens.
8. Watch out for spam-based phishing schemes. Never click on links in emails or IM.
9. Always back up your files. So if ever you become a victim of a virus attack, you can recover all your important files.

How Can Techie Now Help?

Virus and worms are easily spread over the Internet. With all these threats, you have to protect your PC to prevent online attacks. As soon you become their victim, it will risk your personal and business life. If you need help with anti-virus software installation or virus removal, Techie Now is the best PC support provider that can help you. We do it fast, safe, better and with lower prices than others do. Contact Techie Now and get your PC protected.

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Face Book email with worms

Help Net Security reported that Facebook users should be careful with Facebook spam e-mails claiming to be from Facebook administrators. Aside from being part of a phishing campaign, the said e-mail also transmit a nasty Trojan responsible for stealing the user’s banking information. Incidentally, Red Condor, a Web security company, was able to notice the new phishing e-mail attack.

The spam e-mail contains a web-link that redirects recipients to a hoax login page of Facebook getting account information from them. As soon as all the credentials are typed in, a page will then ask the user to download “updatetool.exe”, which is a kind of Trojan Zbot. Once the virus is installed, it will go through the hard drive of the user and gather stored personal banking information and other login information. It also does key logging and other malicious activities to obtain your information. According to Red Condor, phishers have made the fake Facebook login page for users to log on to Facebook in a refined manner. As a result, some users might believe that the login page is real.

Since million of Internet users are enjoying Facebook every day, users should be aware of these various hoax Facebook e-mails that were arriving in their mailboxes. Additionally, Jamie Tomasello, Cloudmark’s Abuse Operations Manager, stated that the Facebook scam is a result of a social engineering technique. Facebook is very popular in these days making it to be a prime target of cybercriminals and spammers. Malware authors are repeating their techniques to exploit Facebook’s popularity and control e-mail users to open their malicious e-mails. A Trojan malware Bredolab was also discovered disguising as a Facebook Password Reset. Internet security specialists noted that social networks still doesn’t impose using of HTTPS in place of HTTP in the URL because phishing pages imitating Facebook tends to succeed more.

How Can Techie Now Help?

Facebook is widely known for social networking, also being used by malware authors and spammers to victimize other people. If you feel that your PC is infected with malware, don’t worry. Techie Now can give you a hand with your PC needs – be it virus and spyware removal, performance optimization, installation and configuration, and general repair. Contact Techie Now and we will protect your PC before these malware get a chance to infect your system.

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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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