Fake AV Making A Comeback
Posted by Brian Gallutia on Jan 27, 2011
Roel Schouwenberg, a senior anti-virus researcher for Kaspersky, wrote in a blog post that over the past few days Kaspersky has received “numerous reports of computers infected with fake anti-virus (scareware)… The name of this particular culprit is Antivirus 8.”
The scary “item of note” here is that users were getting fake anti-virus browser pop-ups while not actively using the computer (emphasis mine). During Roel’s research, he discovered that these pop-ups would appear right when ICQ was fetching/displaying new online ads.
On first blush, this type of behavior would indicate that the ad servers for certain online stores were hacked and outputting these infected pop-ups, but when Roel dug deeper he discovered that the servers “serving” these ads had no formal relationship to the products being advertised. In Mr Schouwenberg’s words..
This means that somebody went through the trouble of pretending to be this store. This is done to make sure the ad distributor will actually run the campaign, as these distributors frequently get approached by fraudsters.
However, what makes this case particularly interesting is that the bad guys make it seem like their server got hacked. By making it look like their server got compromised, the criminals can claim it isn’t them who’s responsible for distributing the malware. But rather someone else who hacked their server to spread malware. The ad distributor is very likely to simply give them a warning, which gives these criminals at least one more shot at infecting more machines.
It looks like virus writers have stepped up their game in trying to compromise your computers, your data and your identity. To read more about this new threat, please read Roel’s blog post here.
Section 179 Deductions
Posted by Brian Gallutia on Dec 20, 2010
Did you know that Section 179 of the IRS tax code allows businesses to deduct the full purchase price of qualifying equipment purchased or financed during a tax year?
What this means is that if you buy (or lease) a piece of qualifying equpiment, you can deduct the FULL PURCHASE PRICE from your gross income. It’s an incentive created by the US Government to encourage businesses to buy equipment and invest in themselves.
For your business to qualify for this deduction, the below equipment must be purchased and put into use between January 1, 2010 and December 31, 2010:
- Equipment (machines, etc) purchased for business use
- Tangible personal property used in business
- Business Vehicles with a gross vehicle weight in excess of 6,000 lbs (Section 179 vehicle deductions)
- Computers
- Computer Software ( “off-the-shelf” software)
- Office Furniture
- Office Equipment
- Property attached to your building that is not a structural component of the building (i.e.: a printing press, large manufacturing tools and equipment)
- Partial Business Use (equipment that is purchased for business use and personal use – generally, your deduction will be based on the percentage of time you use the equipment for business purposes.)
If your business can benefit from this deduction and there are possible tech purchases that you’ve been putting off, now may be the time to invest in your business. If PCS can assist in any way, please drop us a line – we’re ready to help.
AVG Free 2011 Update Problem
Posted by Brian Gallutia on Dec 3, 2010
This week’s mandatory update of AVG 2011 Free Edition has caused most 64-bit Windows 7 PCs to fail while loading Windows. AVG posted a FAQ with instructions on how to repair the problem using a boot CD or USB device.
If you have been affected by this issue and need assistance, please give us a call at 615.371.9931 option 1 or use our Contact Form. We’re ready to help.
Windows in Living Cows
Posted by Brian Gallutia on Dec 2, 2010
Thanksgiving 2010
Posted by Brian Gallutia on Nov 24, 2010
PCS will be closed from Thursday, November 25th through Sunday, November 28th in observance of the Thanksgiving holiday.
Happy Turkey Day from your friends at PCS!
Java Trojan Attacks OSX
Posted by Brian Gallutia on Nov 1, 2010
From Ars Technica, Thursday October 28th, 2010:
A new trojan horse has cropped up that affects Mac OS X (and Windows as well), primarily disguised as a video flitting around social networking sites. When users click an infected link, a Java applet is launched that downloads multiple files, including an installer that runs automatically without users’ knowledge.
A Dying Consumer Brand
Posted by Brian Gallutia on Oct 28, 2010
David Goldman, staff writer for CNN Money.com, posted an interesting article on how Microsoft is slowly losing it’s presence in the consumer markets. David quotes a blog post from former Chief Software Architect Ray Ozzie, who called out Microsoft’s lost ground:
Our early and clear vision notwithstanding, [competitors'] execution has surpassed our own in mobile experiences, in the seamless fusion of hardware & software & services, and in social networking & myriad new forms of internet-centric social interaction
The article is a good read, but I don’t think that it draws a clear enough picture of what Microsoft truly is: a Mergers and Acquisitions company. It is this fact that keeps Microsoft’s brand in the consumer markets dull and uninspiring.
It can be argued that Microsoft has never “innovated” in any field it’s involved itself in: it has always taken queues from industry leaders and either (a) copies the leader’s formula and uses its financial muscle to gain market share or (b) buys the company’s technology and makes it their own.
In the current consumer market, this way of doing business can no longer sustain Microsoft. By being the “great equalizer”, the Internet allows new, cool tech to come to market quickly and gain a large user base faster than Microsoft can react. To put it another way, the cool tech either becomes too well known for Microsoft to effectively brand it as their own and dominate the market or the tech has become too expensive for Microsoft to acquire it.
The way out of this for Microsoft is to become a true innovator, to come up with a product or service that hasn’t been done. They need to create a product that is infinitely usable and becomes a necessary component of a consumer’s day-to-day computing life.
Unfortunately, given Microsoft’s track record as a Mergers and Acquisitions company, this way of thinking may not only be too late, but impossible to pull off.
Drive-By Download Pages
Posted by Brian Gallutia on Oct 28, 2010
We at PCS cannot begin to count the number of times that we’ve worked with a customer who was hit hard with an infection and had no idea how it happened. These types of infections are becoming more and more common as malware creators continue to refine their craft and become more adept at exploiting the weakest link in computer security: the user.
Microsoft has provided a nice write-up on how an unprotected end-user could get blind-sided by a malware infection by visiting a “compromised” web site. The vehicle for the infection is called a “Drive-By Download Page” and the illustration below shows how an infection can end up on an unprotected system:
If you have any questions related to this post or if we can be of assistance to you or your small business, please drop us a line – we’re here to help.
Fake MS Security Essentials
Posted by Brian Gallutia on Oct 28, 2010
There is a new pest on the loose, and it is mimicking Microsoft Security Essentials.
This imposter is known in the technical world as “Win32/FakePAV.” FakePAV is a rogue program that displays messages that imitate Microsoft Security Essentials threat reports in order to entice the user into downloading and paying for a rogue security scanner.
The rogue program persistently terminates numerous processes, such as Windows Registry Editor, Internet Explorer, Windows Restore and other utilities and applications that would normally be used by computer technicians to eliminate and remove the threat.
If you feel your system or network may have fallen prey to this type of infection, please get in touch with us immediately so we can insure that the malware doesn’t result in lost productivity and additional costs. As always, please keep in mind that anything mimicking Microsoft Security Essentials that is asking for payment is not to be trusted.
Good Morning, Dave
Posted by Brian Gallutia on Oct 3, 2010
Would you like to have your computer welcome you on boot-up? It’s an easy thing to set up, and here’s how…
- Open up Notepad and paste in the following lines of code:
Dim speaks, speechspeaks=”Good Morning Dave”Set speech=CreateObject(“sapi.spvoice”)speech.Speak speaks
- Save the document as a .vbs file (eg: “goodmorning.vbs”)
- Place a shortcut to the new .vbs file in your Startup folder to insure that it plays on boot
You can modify what the script says by replacing the content in the quotes speaks=”Good Morning Dave” with anything you wish. You can also test the script by running it prior to creating a shortcut for it in the Startup folder.
Be sure to share your creativity by telling us how you use this script on your PC!