Avoid using social networking e-mail id for online transactions

If you want to save your financial data from stealing then avoid using social networking email-ids used for Facebook, Twitter etc for carrying out online banking or business transactions. This guideline is issued by security software maker Symantec.

According to Symantec MD Shantanu Ghosh " Internet users should be more cautious while on social networking sites. They should have separate email-id for social networking sites and other one for carrying out transactions and banking.

According to Ghosh, people usually share their details including personal ones with their friends and as well as with those whom they do not know much and here they face the risk of being attacked. Cyber attackers then try to get into your e-mail ids through malware on these sites and try to steal vital information .

Ghosh also cited an example when a malware in the name of bollywood female actress, Katrina Kaif video was received by internet users on their e-mail ids in India and later it was found that the malware was intended to steal credit card information of the user.

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Virus found in Middle East that can spy on finance transactions: Kaspersky

A new cyber surveillance virus has been found in middle east that can spy on financial transactions, email and social networking activities, according to a leading computer security firm, Kaspersky lab.

Dubbed Gauss, the virus may be capable of attacking critical infrastructures and was built in the same laboratories at Stuxnet, the computer worm widely believed to have been used by the United States and Israel to attack Iran's Nuclear Program, Kaspersky lab said on Thursday.

The Moscow based firm said that it found Gauss had infected personal computers in Lebanon, Israel and the Palestinian territories. It declined to speculate on who was behind the virus but said it was related to Stuxnet and two other cyber espionage tools, Flame and Duqu.

Kaspersky Lab said it called the virus Gauss because that is the name of the most important module, which implements its data stealing capabilities.

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Smartphones a new target for cyber criminals

Number of smartphone users in the country has substantially increased over the years. The growth of smartphones mean a large number of people are accessing the internet on the go. Also, the smartphones have pushed the popularity of apps. But then the smartphones come with own set of risks. There are multiple reports on the web about the smartphone apps being fraught with privacy or security risks.

Experts also believe smartphone users now need to be more watchful. According to them, cyber criminals are now setting their sights on smartphone users, especially those using the Android operating system.

Experts further say that the risks posed by mobile malware include sending premium rate SMSes, collecting device data, tracking devices location, sending spams and even monitoring details of banking transactions done through the device.

According to Symantec's Internet Security Threat report, mobile vulnerabilities have increased by 93 percent last year. And majority of these threats are aimed at Google's Android operating system.

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India ahead of US, China and Japan in PC security:McAfee

According to a report by security software maker McAfee, India is ahead of countries like US, China and Japan in PC security and protection. McAfee conducted a global study across 24 nations, analysing data from voluntary scans of an average of 27-27 million PCs per month to determine a global estimate of the number of consumers who have basic security software installed.

Basic security protection is defined as working anti-virus, anti-spyware and firewall technologies.

Finland had the highest number of 90.3% PCs with a basic security software solution in place, followed by Italy (86.2%) and Germany (85.5%). India ranked 14th on the list with 82.67%, while China ranked 17th (82%), followed by Japan and US at the 19th spot (80.65%). The global average stood at 83%.

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Facebook chat window being used to spread new virus

A new virus is reportedly spreading across computers through the chat window of the social networking site Facebook.

The pop-up window, used for person to person chat, pops up with a message from a 'friend' which links to an innocent looking website. Clicking on the link immediately infects users computer with virus, labelled
Steckt.Evl by discoveres Trend Micro.

The virus is so powerful that it instantly disables and removes the anti-virus software, then spreads itself by opening chat windows Facebook friends of the user.

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Wikipedia alerts users if you see Ads it's Malware

If you are seeing Ads on Wikipedia, Your computer is probably infected with malware, said Wikimedia Foundation. The Wikimedia Foundation also reminds that Wikipedia is donor supported and runs no ads. If you see ads on their pages, you either have malware or the ads are being pushed by your service provider.
They reported that Wikipedia is funded by more than a million users, who give an average donation of less than 30 dollars. We run fund raising appeals usually at the end of the year. If you are seeing advertisements for a for-profit industry or anything, then your web browser has likely been affected with malware.

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Microsoft Store hacked in India, passwords stored in plain text

Frequenters of India's online Microsoft Store were briefly greeted with the suspicious visage of a Guy Fawkes mask this morning, following a hack that compromised the site's user database. According to WPSauce, Microsoft Store India's landing page was briefly taken over by a hacker group called Evil Shadow Team, who, in addition to putting a new face on Windows products, revealed that user passwords were saved in plain text. The group's motivations are unknown, though the hacked page warned that an "unsafe system will be baptized." The store is now offline, suggesting that Microsoft may have regained control. Read on for a look at the compromised password database.

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Swedish Government site hit by hackers

A group of hackers named cyber force on saturday claimed their attack on the swedish government's website.Due to this attack the website got down for periods of time.How ever the government spokesman also confirmed that the website experienced some problems while operating.But also he denied to give any information regarding to the losses the hacker group had done to them.

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