A columnist at the News and Observer recently wrote an article called “How To Safely Clear Your Computer of Spyware” and referred readers to Lavasoft’s Ad-Aware software. However, some users ran into trouble when they tried to download Ad-Aware Free. We’d like to pass on that news so you can see why it’s so important to be careful what you click.
Some call it football. Others call it soccer. No matter what you term the game, the effects of the 2010 FIFA World Cup, the most widely-viewed sporting event across the globe, can be seen all around the world – and around the Web – after the kickoff this past Friday.
Here’s one to watch out for: The U.S. FTC is warning consumers and businesses to be aware of scams stemming from the BP oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico. The scams are likely to come in the form of real world (including phone calls, door-to-door collections, and flyers) as well as online dangers (including e-mail, websites, and social networking sites).
Malware distributors often hijack current events to serve malware and with the FIFA World Cup almost upon us (come on Northern Ireland!! Oh.. wait..) a deluge of booby trapped sites appearing in search engine results is inevitable.
Microsoft has said that it will be releasing two security bulletins today, on Patch Tuesday, to fix vulnerabilities in Windows and Office.
Here’s what we know from Microsoft's advance notification for May: both of the updates are rated critical, and will address remote execution vulnerabilities; the bulletins affect Microsoft Windows 2000, XP, Vista, Windows 7, Server 2003 and Server 2008, Microsoft Office, and Microsoft Visual Basic for Application and Visual Basic for Applications software development kit.
Need help on understanding patches, and updating your system? Learn more in the latest issue of Lavasoft News, where we take a look at why it’s important to keep your system and software updated – and how to do it.
Consumer Reports has unveiled the findings of its annual “State of the Net” report, a survey of 2,000 online U.S. households.
What did this year’s report find? Overall, more people are using social networking sites (almost double the amount from last year’s findings), but are doing so without enough thought to privacy and security (more than half of social network users share private information about themselves online, opening themselves up to a variety of online risks, like identity theft).
Here are a few of the key findings from the State of the Net 2010:
Here’s an important Web warning for our US-based readers: be on the lookout for online tax season scams and census-related fraud.
Here are the details you should know -
Tax Season Scams
Tax season is not a favorite time of year for most of us, but it’s drawing near in many parts of the world.
For those in the U.S., the April 15 income tax filing deadline is quickly approaching. Unfortunately, tax season has its own set of security traps that you’ll need to watch out for, with cyber scammers jumping to take advantage of the swell in online activity and the handover of personal information.
In Lavasoft Malware Labs’ Internet security predictions for 2010, we listed scareware and rogue (fake) security products as a rising threat to watch out for. The money made from this malware model ensures that cyber criminals will not abandon what is a very profitable endeavor for them - meaning that this prediction will, unfortunately for users around the world, continue to ring true this year.
Valentine’s Day is coming up this weekend. While you likely associate it with chocolate, flowers, and romance, those of us in the security world also identify it with something entirely different – malware. As we’ve approached February 14, there has, not surprisingly, been a rise in Valentine’s-related online ploys.
Today, February 9, is Safer Internet Day. Organized by Insafe (the European Safer Internet awareness-raising network co-funded by the European Commission), Safer Internet Day is part of a global awareness-raising campaign to promote a safer Internet, especially for children and young people.
We posted a warning not too long ago on online fraud related to Haiti earthquake relief efforts. Today, there’s new information out on this topic that you should be aware of -
YOU SHOULD KNOW...
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