Many people have their HJT log analyzed for the fear of nasties lurking. Sometimes their system is as secure as you can get. And it may be what you have installed that can cause issues.

Let us chat about File Sharing applications. There are many good and bad ones out there. The bad ones sometimes come bundled with this or that. And the good ones, well they shouldn’t cause any harm.

But as ever with these types of applications, it’s not which one you install. It is the files you download from these that may cause any issues. Many files available from File Sharing are renamed and pass though to the average user. You open it and, BANG! You have pop-ups galore. Or a keylogger that captures the keystrokes of your system. Or just an all round unsecure system!

So how could we warn you on which are Good? Which ones are a no-no? Or which ones are Unclear? Well, fear no more as I have a very usefull list you can look at:-

Clean/Infected P2P Programs

The list in the new window is from MalwareRemoval. It isn’t the only list offcourse. SpywareInfo have a usefull list. These lists give a good idea on which File Sharing apps are clean and which are not. I would certainly bookmark them both!

Remember, watch what you download. Avoid sizes like 871kb. or 971kb files. Even any .exe files can contain nasties. ALWAYS scan a downloaded file before you open it. Scan it with your Anti-Virus. Or upload it to Jotti and check!

Edit - If the file is a big file you downloaded and want to check. Some scanners may only allow you to scan something like 10-15 mb. Use Kaspersky File Scanner.

After downloading the database, go to scan settings and set it to extended. Also use Internet Explorer rather that FireFox. Because it won’t work in FireFox.

Adware vendors 180 Solutions have had their software found in a botnet bundle, along with a bunch of others in a set of nasty payloads that pop ads in IE and Firefox. Screenshots from inside the botnet and a pic of your desktop post-infection.

read more | digg story

If you are a regular on the forum circuit you tend to pick up silly little things that may mean alot more than silly and little.

What I am on about is the lack of end users registering at forums for help. All things seem calm at the moment on several forums I helpt at. My thoughts were confirmed when a few experts were talking about this in the hidden dungeons!

Several adware companies are also silent. But as less end users register, Phishing is on the rise and HijackThis logs are full of the nastie stuff. Such as Keyloggers, Backdoors and Worms.

I kindly got pointed to Webroot’s Spyware Education Centre. They list the latest spyware threats. As you see, more of the nasty Malware.

So is this the calm before the storm? Or is it that we are finally winning the war? Who knows. I’m sure as the months go on we will find out!

Just been updating all previous posts that had old blogspot links. Meaning when you have a post from the archive, all the links will work now. From this page anyway.

I also updated the permalinks from /%postname%/ to /%postname%.htm. I don’t know if this optimizes us in anyway with the search engines. But it is better than what it was.

I may even change the template, if I feel a bit better later!

A competitor gets released. The name is kind of comical, Scandoo. But all funny-stuff aside. Lets chat about it.
I never liked SiteAdvisor being bought by McAfee. Because I never really was keen on a McAfee product. But hey ho, many people in marketing believe having a competitor is good news.

Rather than having software on your system like SiteAdvisor. This latest product promises to avoid having any software on your system but with the same results. This new feature is a division of ScanSafe.

The big question is, what does it rate as green, questionable and a red site? Well look no futher. The Sunbelt team posted how a search for Kazaa (which is bundled with Direct Revenue) came up as green. And if you have got SiteAdvisor installed, they rate it as red.

But like any new product, it needs months of tweaking and touching up. Offcourse this is still in Beta testing and no product is ever perfect. But still, it will be interesting to see the outcome. What they rate as good or bad.

Stay tuned….

A new IM hijack that installs its own browser called (as you might have guessed) the “Safety Browser” which is anything but! Changes your homepage, loops music on your desktop every time you boot up and spams the infection link via IM and IRC. Oh, and enables popups by default…!

read more | digg story

Edit - Now appearing on the front page of Digg. Rising by the second! About 30 diggs in the last 5 or so minutes.

Accusing it of misusing its technology.

The action, filed in a US federal court in Seattle, alleges that Microsoft improperly used Symantec’s data storage techniques in its own software.

Symantec wants compensation, saying the alleged infringement amounts to misappropriation of its trade secrets.

Microsoft describes the accusation as unfounded and says it has tried unsuccessfully to resolve the issue.

Full source and read: BBC.

Files in question are:-

”C:\WINDOWS\System32\iqzv.dll”
”C:\WINDOWS\system32\oqipt.dll”

For a more detail look at what HKEY is used, visit the BleepingComputer Blog.

As always if you have been affected by this then we are more than happy to help you in our Forum.

Well after drowning my sorrows after last nights defeat in the soccer (the ref was scum!). I just got PaperGhost sending me an IM telling me about this latest news. Afterall, it has been kinda quiet lately. And it had to be good!

And good it is! Have a read at this article over at the washington post blog. Brian Krebs mentions in detail about a direct to myfriendspy.com with zango. Oh and myspace gets mentionedAnd if you are like me and want to see images!!!! Visit the guys over at SpywareGuide.

I am off to get two cushions, hold them against both my ears. Just so that I can’t hear all the news about last night!!!