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U.S. ranks 9th in Global PC Infection Report, according to PandaLabs
Average number of worldwide infections grew 15 percent over last month – Global infection ratio hits all time high this year at nearly 60 percent
PandaLabs, Panda Security’s malware analysis and detection laboratory, announced that it has detected a 15 percent increase in the total number of malware-infected computers in September in comparison to the previous month of August. According to data gathered from users that scanned and disinfected their computers with the free Panda ActiveScan online antivirus, the average infection ratio rose to 59 percent, the highest rate this year.
In comparison to the infection rates of 29 countries, the U.S. ranks ninth with an infection ratio of 58.25 percent, just below the worldwide average. Taiwan has the most infected PCs, with a 69.10 percent corruption, followed by Russia and China at 67.99 percent and 61.97 percent, respectively. The country with the least infections is Norway at 39.60 percent. To view a table that outlines the percentage of infected computers by country, please visit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/panda_security/3963144168/.
According to Luis Corrons, Technical Director of PandaLabs, “There is a false sense of security, as users perceive there to be no real danger at the moment. When their computers get infected, they rarely notice any symptoms.”
Panda’s study revealed that U.S. computers are infected by the most dangerous malware strains: Trojans, followed by adware, worms and viruses. To see the number and types of malware on infected computers in the U.S., please visit: http://www.flickr.com/photos/lithium-/3963437003/sizes/o/.
“This is a clear sign that hackers are becoming more and more sophisticated,” explains Corrons. “Cybercriminals have found news ways to spread their creations, frequently exploiting the latest news stories to launch attacks through social networks, videos, and email. The huge amount of Trojans in circulation is due to the spectacular increase in the number of banker Trojans aimed at stealing user data.”
Five tips to protect your business from online banking fraud
Guardian Analytics CEO, Terry Austin, provides insight on how business owners can safeguard their finances online
Guardian Analytics, a provider of fraud prevention software for the financial services industry, is advising businesses on the risks of Internet banking, and how they can protect their companies from becoming a victim of online banking fraud.
The need for businesses to examine their online business banking practices has never been more important. In August alone, the FDIC, NACHA – The Electronic Payments Association, and the Financial Services Information Sharing and Analysis Center (FS-ISAC) all published alerts warning about rising Internet threats to businesses. Analyst firm Gartner issued a report on the issue in August, and last week the Senate Committee on Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs held a special hearing to discuss cybercriminals targeting small- and medium- sized businesses. Committee Chairman Joe Lieberman, ID-Conn., and Ranking Member Susan Collins, R-Me., have also started drafting legislation to address this as well as other cyber security issues, and is working to bring public and private organizations together to spearhead the initiative.
“In the last several weeks, business banking fraud has become a dominant discussion point in the financial and security industries,” said Avivah Litan, VP and distinguished analyst at Gartner. “With cybercriminals circumventing strong authentication and using sophisticated reconnaissance on accounts during the attacks, increased fraud awareness has never been more important.”
Terry Austin, Guardian Analytics CEO, provides the following advice to entrepreneurs to protect their companies against online banking fraud:
1. Be aware of your financial rights: If your business becomes the victim of online business banking fraud, you have fewer rights than you do as an individual. Regulation E of the Federal Electronic Funds Transfer Act requires banks to reimburse consumer fraud victims within 10 days of a fraud report, but it does not protect businesses the same way it protects individual accounts. Ask your bank what their policies are on protecting business accounts.
2. Ask your bank to increase investment in protection technologies: Your bank’s online account platform is only as secure as the technology behind it. Ask your bank if they have a proactive online banking fraud monitoring system in place to detect suspicious account activity and how they are responding to the recent alerts. Despite increased regulations, many financial institutions still have not implemented the technologies beyond authentication that are necessary to fight today’s sophisticated threats.
3. Update your anti-malware software and firewalls: Not keeping your anti-malware and firewalls updated is a huge risk for anyone, and even more so when it could jeopardize your businesses’ entire financial health. Still, know that your business can fall victim even with updated computer security protection.
4. Monitor for irregularities and missing funds: It is imperative for any business to always be on the lookout for anything abnormal occurring in its account/s. Many banks offer transaction alerts so customers can be notified of important account activity, so ask your bank about this service.
5. Educate your financial managers on the threats: Forward the latest advisories on to whoever manages your online business banking accounts. If anyone needs to know about the threats, it is the person closest to your online banking account/s, whether that is the CEO, CFO, or accountant.
Source: Guardian Analytics
PandaLabs uncovers online Facebook password hacking service
According to its Ukraine-based creators, hacking an account costs $100, payable through Western Union
PandaLabs, Panda Security’s malware analysis and detection laboratory, today announced the discovery of an online service that promises to hack into any Facebook account for $100. The creators claim, “Any Facebook account can be hacked,” promising to provide clients with the login and password credentials to access any account on the popular social networking site.
According to Luis Corrons, Technical Director of PandaLabs, “The service’s real purpose may be hacking Facebook accounts as they say, or profiting from those that want to try the service. In any case, the Web page is very well designed. It is easy to contract the service and become either the victim of an online fraud, or a cyber-criminal and accomplice in identity theft. Once an intruder hacks into a Facebook account, all personal data published on the site can be stolen. Similarly, those accounts can also be used to send malware, spam or other threats to the victim’s contacts. In the case of celebrities of other well-known entities, they can be used to defame the account holder, spread information in their name, etc. In any event, this is criminal activity.”
In addition to extorting money and obtaining access to clients’ bank account information, the service also has characteristics in line with hacker affiliate programs. Common among cybercriminals, hacker affiliate programs offer other cybercriminals money to spread malware. This strategy is now being used with everyday Internet users through this Facebook hacking site, by offering extra dollar-credits to spend on the service when users hack more accounts. They can become affiliates to help hackers reach a broader audience, receiving 20 percent of what they sell in credits for hacking more accounts.
It is likely that the cybercriminals behind this operation are members of an Eastern European Internet mafia because payments are conducted online through Western Union wire transfers to a payee in Ukraine. The domain that hosts the service is registered in Moscow, providing further evidence of this theory.
The company claims to have been offering this service for four years with only one percent of accounts hack-proof. In these cases, they offer clients a money-back guarantee. However, the domain is just a few days old.
A series of images illustrating the sales flow can be found on the PandaLabs blog: http://www.pandalabs.com/.
Panda Security announces Windows 7 compatibility for all 2010 Consumer Solutions
Users can download free beta version from http://www.pandasecurity.com/windows7
Panda Security, the Cloud Security Company, announced that PandaLabs, the company’s laboratory for detecting and analyzing malware, has launched a beta version of its Panda 2010 security solutions to be compatible with the Windows 7 beta. Users who have installed the beta version of the new Microsoft operating system will benefit from the best protection against malware. The general release version will be available as soon as the new operating system is launched on October 22.
Panda’s 2010 solutions use Collective Intelligence, the company’s exclusive cloud-computing technology, to leverage the knowledge gathered from the community of millions of Panda users around the world. Each new file received is classified automatically within six minutes. The Collective Intelligence servers automatically classify more than 50,000 new malware samples every day. These technologies correlate information on malware received from each computer to continuously improve the protection level for the worldwide community of users. In addition, Panda’s 2010 solutions have perpetual, real-time contact with this vast knowledge base, guaranteeing users the fastest response against new malware that appears every day.
The new Panda 2010 solutions, recently launched on the market, are designed specifically to offer maximum protection with minimum resource consumption. The new 2010 product line has achieved an 80 percent performance improvement compared to previous versions. Panda’s new retail solutions also deliver 60 percent improved browsing speed and 40 percent improved download speed over previous versions, consuming just 8 MB of PC memory.
Microsoft unveils Microsoft Project 2010
Part of the next wave of Office-related products, Microsoft Project 2010 helps customers reduce costs, improve efficiency, and simplify project and portfolio management.
Microsoft Corp. announced that the public beta of Microsoft Project 2010 will become available later this year, and revealed the product’s enhanced project and portfolio management features for the first time. Microsoft also disclosed packaging information that streamlines the number of Microsoft Project editions from four to three. Starting today, customers can pre-register for the Microsoft Project 2010 beta at http://www.microsoft.com/project/2010.
“Microsoft Project 2010 is the most significant release of Microsoft Project in over a decade,” said Chris Capossela, senior vice president of the Information Worker Product Management Group at Microsoft. “The fresh, simple and intuitive features of Microsoft Project 2010 will enable teams and organizations of all sizes to select and deliver the right projects on time and on budget.”
Microsoft Project 2010 builds on the Microsoft Office Project 2007 foundation with flexible work management solutions and the right collaboration tools for occasional and professional project managers, and includes a pathway to more advanced project and portfolio management capabilities as business needs evolve.
The release of Microsoft Project 2010 comes at a time when the industry is gaining steam. According to IDC, the project and portfolio management market will see growth as companies will rely on project and portfolio management tools to analyze their current and future project performance.*
Microsoft Project 2010 helps organizations reduce costs by enabling smarter and more informed decisions about budgeting and resource allocation. Through a dramatically enhanced user experience, Microsoft Project 2010 also drives team productivity with integration across familiar Microsoft technologies including Microsoft SharePoint Server and Microsoft Exchange Server. This integration allows a powerful business collaboration platform and proven project and portfolio management to result in a familiar, connected environment for customers to manage the simplest or the most complex projects.
Microsoft will release three editions of Microsoft Project: Microsoft Project Standard 2010, Microsoft Project Professional 2010 and Microsoft Project Server 2010. Key enhancements designed to appeal to both IT administrators and end users include these:
– Unified project and portfolio management with a common user interface and experience across the project life cycle; improved workflow controls that can be customized; better demand management to capture all types of work requests across an organization; and powerful reporting and business intelligence capabilities
– Improved productivity with effective collaboration built on Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010; enhanced collaboration and reporting; integration with Microsoft Outlook 2007 and 2010; and simplified time reporting
– Enhanced user experience and adoption with the familiar Microsoft Office Fluent user interface and new intuitive design; user-controlled scheduling for greater flexibility when creating simple or detailed project plans; the addition of a new timeline view for sequential overview of project schedules; and new Web-based project editing
– A scalable and connected platform with integration across related Microsoft technologies for connected and familiar work management on the PC, mobile phone and browser; better interoperability with third-party systems from updates to the Project Server Interface; 64-bit compatibility for performance improvement; and removal of ActiveX dependency for improved security and ease of deployment across an organization
Microsoft Project 2010 is part of the next wave of Microsoft Office-related products, which includes Microsoft Office 2010, Microsoft SharePoint Server 2010, Microsoft Exchange 2010 and Microsoft Visio 2010, and is designed to give people a consistent experience across devices, making it easier to create and edit documents and collaborate from any location.
Availability
All Microsoft Project Conference registered attendees will receive a free licensed copy of Microsoft Project Professional 2010 after launch; more information is available at http://www.keystoneondemand.com/tour/content/microsoft_project_2010_training. Microsoft Project 2010 will be available in the first half of 2010. More information about Microsoft Project 2010 can be found at http://www.microsoft.com/project.
* Source: IDC: “Worldwide Project and Portfolio Management (PPM) Applications 2009-2013 Forecast: PPM Remains a Profitability Engine in Recession,” Doc # 219381, August 2009
Source: Microsoft Corp.