New Dangers And Bad News

You may already have heard of ransomware, the newest trick of the bad guys to get at your money.

If you have not here is a VERY SHORT explanation: A ransomware virus encrypts all your data files, that is in effect makes them unusable and unreadable. After the encryption is done you have to pay money to the crooks do get instructions and a "decryption key"; if the instructions and the decryption key work correctly as they should you get your data back but sometimes it does not work. Your data is held for ransom, hence the name.

So far the highest amount reportedly paid by a large California based medical organization was 17 million dollars.

Very recently the web sites of a whole lot of well known and big organizations got abused to show advertisements infected with ransomware. Some of the affected web sites were:

• msn.com
• nytimes.com
• aol.com
• nfl.com
• theweathernetwork.com
• thehill.com
• zerohedge.com 

and many more. These sites have millions of daily visitors! If you are interested you can read more details here.

I can not say it often and loud enough:

If you see advertisements on the Internet your web browser and thus your computer are NOT SAFE at all! Fire your current technician and call me or send me an email!

When I leave a customer's house they ALL have a safely set up web browser that should not show ANY of these commercially distributed advertisements.

Stay safe.

Top 10 Ways PUPs Sneak Onto Your Computer. And How To Avoid Them.

Disclaimer: I copied the title literally from this blog post.

And that is all I want to say here; this article is simply a MUST READ if you ever had PuPs installed or had to call me because everything got so slow or whatever problem you had.

95% or more of all computer problems I encounter nowadays are initially caused by a PuP! The authors of these PuPs have gotten very clever and constantly invent new tricks to dupe the unsuspecting computer user.

Only permanent vigilance, caution and attention to detail can ultimately somewhat protect us and our computers. 

Please note the use of the word "somewhat" in the previous paragraph! 

For the first time ever I will directly recommend a piece of commercial security software. 

If you want the IMHO best automatic protection against all kinds of malicious programs including PuPs then you will have to pay some money, currently just shy of $40 per year for a single computer. You find details about Emsisoft Anti-Malware here.

Another disclaimer: I am in no way at all associated with Emsisoft or any of their distributors or resellers!

If you don't want to pay that is fine, you just have to DIY (do it yourself). MSE or Defender in conjunction with Malwarebytes Free will do it just as well but you have to regularly do more yourself.

Whether you want to pay for Emsisoft Anti-Malware or not doesn't really matter, IMHO you simply HAVE TO READ this article.

 Stay safe.

AVG + Google Chrome = TROUBLE

Happy and healthy New Year to everybody!
... It's the first post in 2016 ...

The title describes the newest formula for disaster.

For years I have advised against using Google Chrome as your primary web browser.

For years I have advised against using AVG's free "security" programs.

Now this combination has become a wide open barn door for malicious software and/or viruses to take over your computer. You can read more about the details here.

If you use AVG I recommend to uninstall it and instead rely on Microsoft's Defender respectively Security Essentials in Windows 7. If you run into problems when you uninstall AVG you find AVG's special removal programs here. Take care to download the correct "bittedness" version for your version of Windows.

I you use Google Chrome I recommend to install Mozilla's Firefox browser; in Firefox you need to install two extensions or add-ons:

1. Adblock Plus and  
2. WOT (Web Of Trust)

After you install Firefox go to the Bookmarks manager (Bookmarks, Show All Bookmarks. Import and Backup, Import Data from Another Browser, select Google Chrome) and import bookmarks ONLY! When you have your bookmarks in Firefox please uninstall Google Chrome.

That plus some applied common sense is all you need to be and stay safe on the Internet.

If you want to do more against eventual advertisement malware and so called PUPs then download THE FREE version from here. Install Malwarebytes only AFTER you read this article about how to install and use it correctly.

Stay safe!

Yahoo! - Helps to Distribute Malware

I have said it to countless customers and I say it again, publicly and absolutely clear:

If you see advertisements while browsing the internet
then your computer is not set up safely!

I have said it to countless customers and I say it again, publicly and absolutely clear:

Stay away from Yahoo!

And I mean Yahoo! everything; email, finance, sports, EVERYTHING that comes from Yahoo! 

Here is a literal quote from NetworkWorld.com (bolding and links added by yours truly):

Malwarebytes Labs recently uncovered a large malvertising attack on the Yahoo! advertising network that started on July 28. Malwarebytes estimates that up to 6.9 billion readers could have been affected, making it one of the largest malvertising attacks Malwarebytes Labs has seen recently.

Malvertising is defined as crafted advertisements that intentionally infect the computers of anyone who visits the site. A tiny piece of code hidden deep in the ad will reroute your computer to criminal servers without your knowledge, which then determines how exposed your computer is and decides which piece of malware to send you.

In the case of the Yahoo ad, victims are infected with ransomware via the Angler Exploit Kit, but it’s possible that anything from banking Trojans to additional advertising fraud is also being used in this attack.

Malwarebytes said that the infection included Yahoo's main site, as well as subgroups like News, Finance, Sports, Celebrity, and Games. The ads route users to a site on Microsoft Azure, which eventually leads to the Angler Exploit Kit.

But, according to a friend at Malwarebytes, when you are running Adblock Plus or any other ad blocker, then the ad never plays, so no payload is delivered to your PC. So the malware doesn't ever get to touch your PC. Even if you don't click on the ad, the fact is it loads and becomes saved in your browser cache, so it does get onto your PC without the blocker.

My customers do not need to worry about malvertising, they all have Adblock Plus installed. All others please listen up:

If you use ANYthing from Yahoo! and/or
if you see advertisements when web surfing
then your computer is UNSAFE!

Do yourself a favor, get your computer cleaned up and secured.

As usual I welcome comments and suggestions right here in the blog. Thank you in advance.

For whatever reason the darned TOC (table of contents) feature that I got from Google does not work any longer, sorry.