Clear Belief Systems Blog

The FBI is saying that anti-virus scammers have made in excess of $150 million by duping Windows users into buying fake anti-virus software.  The scam usually involves a pop-up window on your PC saying it is at risk and gives you a link to buy software which is really a virus.  Frequently these programs are call Windows AntiSpyware 2009 or something similar.   Even users without administrative permissions can install the virus as it uses unpatched security defects in Windows itself to install.

Additional Information:
FBI: Rogue antivirus scammers have made $150M
Remove Antispyware 2009

A massive spam campaign that poses as a message from the Centers for Disease Control asking people to register for H1N1 vaccinations is occurring.  When you click on the link included in the email from a vulnerable computer the Zbot virus in installed.  Like all other emails based attacks, your best bet is current anti-virus and anti-spam software.  And like the real H1N1 virus, don’t touch that link!

Additional information:

Botnet continues massive H1N1 malware campaign

US-CERT government site warning

Clear Belief Systems has a customer who has come to us because their WordPress blog had been hacked into and was being used to distribute viruses and compromise secure information.  We managed to get the blog cleaned up but it is a lesson for all us running WordPress.   WordPress is something that has to be supported and frequently monitored and updated.  The compromised installation was only 1 version behind but in that version was an important security update.

If you currently have a WordPress based blog please be sure to keep up with the latest releases.  There are also several security plug-ins that are worthwhile to install.

Check out the official WordPress security related plugins

As always, if you need support you can contact us through our Web site at ClearBelief.com