Sunday, December 1, 2013

2013 12 02 WTKM Talking Points (Dec 2nd 2013)


An epidemic
of a new kind of malware; see:
       PuPs - No Virus But just as Nasty  and
       How Malware Gets Installed 
       These malwares increasingly embed Bitcoin mining into toolbars, toolbar helpers and
       search agents.

New zero-day hole in IE (all versions).

Many more scam phone calls claiming computer infections.
       Microsoft (and MS affiliates) do not know about us!
Do not let them work on your computer!
Do not give them any credit card information!

I have seen one case where these crooks used a known company name (iWon) to install PuPs (see above); they probably get money for every installation that they do.
The guys who did this one were not even good at it!



Fake Skype voicemail alert: Email comes packed with a variant of notorious ZeuS banking Trojan.
Messages typically come with subject line “You received a new message from Skype voicemail service”; it contains a copyright notice and a disingenuous warning that "Skype staff will NEVER ask you for your password via email".
The purpose of this email is to get you to download and open the attached 'voicemail' file; this then installs the Zeus trojan. 

Crypto Locker virus: Maintain regular backups of data, keep backups separate from computer.
CL encryption is essentially uncrackable (except by the NSA?).
CL infects all current versions of Windows, XP through 8.
If you are somewhat technically adept and/or have someone on your computer you can't fully trust and you want protection from CL then considerCryptoPrevent.
Protecting your computer from CL is easy with best practices (aka common sense).

Windows 8.1 rolled out Oct 17. NOT via Automatic Update, rather you have to go to the MS store!
 This forces you to use a Microsoft account!

Updating from 8 to 8.1
      BIG download (> 311MB)
. More details here (Oct. 2013)
      Too big for comfort on standard DSL connections.


New Windows 8 computer?
Don't use a Microsoft account! (privacy vs. convenience)
More info: What Exactly is a Microsoft Account
Either way MS tracks all searches, local & internet. (NO to Bing)
Turn off Smart Search
Use Classic Shell (free) or Start8 ($5) to start into desktop.
Install VLC media player (MS removed Media Player!)
Win XP? Your risk of virus infection is SIX times higher that with Win 8 - NOW.

Unpatched XP SP3 vulnerability with older versions of Adobe Reader than 11.0.04. XP users with the latest versions of Adobe Reader (11.0.4 and up) are immune. UPGRADE Adobe Reader.

Facebook is reportedly testing to track cursor movement (silently track a user's actions); tracks how individual visitors respond to ads for better targeting advertising!

Adobe's servers hacked. 38 million user names and passwords plus source code stolen.

Please listen to WTKM on 104.9FM, Monday, Dec. 2nd from 10:00AM to 11:00AM.

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