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An Android app developer has published what he says is conclusive proof that millions of smartphones are secretly monitoring the key presses, geographic locations, and received messages of its users. In a YouTube video posted on Monday, Trevor Eckhart showed how software from a Silicon Valley company known as Carrier IQ recorded in real time the keys he pressed into a stock EVO handset, which he had reset to factory settings just prior to the demonstration. Using a packet sniffer while his device was in airplane mode, he demonstrated how each numeric tap and every received text message is logged...

An Android app developer has published what he says is conclusive proof that millions of smartphones are secretly monitoring the key presses, geographic locations, and received messages of its users. In a YouTube video posted on Monday, Trevor Eckhart showed how software from a Silicon Valley company known as Carrier IQ recorded in real time the keys he pressed into a stock EVO handset, which he had reset to factory settings just prior to the demonstration. Using a packet sniffer while his device was in airplane mode, he demonstrated how each numeric tap and every received text message is logged...

EA Germany has denied claims made by German gamers and journalists that its Origin service is invading their privacy. Germany's privacy laws are amongst the toughest in the Western world. It should come as no surprise that EA's Origin service - which is mandatory for gamers wishing to play Battlefield 3 on PC, and has been criticized for invasion of privacy before - has come under fire in the country known for challenging Google streetview and banning the Facebook "Like" button. German gamers are taking the situation pretty seriously. The furore began a few days ago, when pictures that appeared...

Link only - Small-business nightmare: 8 million sites hacked to harm customers' computers

Dear Mr. Cain, Many conservatives have been touting your candidacy for president as cause for great hope that they will be able to support someone who understands limited government and freedom. That’s why your answers to Wolf Blitzer’s questions on gun control (see sidebar video player at 3:04 mark) have raised concerns among right to keep and bear arms advocates. Specifically, you affirmed your belief that “states or local government [should] be allowed to control guns.” That's the same "home rule" position advocated by the Brady Campaign. Some in the conservative camp are trying to find excuses for you, telling...

Police say they’ve arrested a 20-year-old computer technician on suspicion of planting spyware on dozens of computers to secretly watch the owners via their webcams. Trevor Timothy Harwell was arrested Wednesday after being charged with a dozen counts of illegal computer access and fraud, Fullerton police Sgt. Andrew Goodrich said. While working for Rezitech Inc., Harwell visited the homes of customers to service their Macintosh computers, Goodrich said. “While he had physical access to the computers, he would install a spyware-type application that allowed him remote access to the user’s computer and webcam,” Goodrich said, adding Harwell also worked on...

A major furniture rental chain has software on its computers that lets it track the keystrokes,screenshots and even webcam images of customers while they use the devices at home, according to a lawsuit filed Tuesday. The lawsuit was filed on behalf of a Wyoming couple who said they learned about the PC Rental Agent "device and/or software" inside the computer they rented last year when an Aaron's Inc. store manager in Casper came to their home on Dec. 22. The manager tried to repossess the computer because he mistakenly believed the couple hadn't finished paying for it, the couple said....

I restarted the computer a while ago and when it booted up about 2/3 of my desktop icons have a blue Facebook symbol on them. Spybot didn't find anything at all, Avast says all is fine.What is going on here? I allowed a flash player update early this morning, could the Facebook icons come in with that?

My computer is infected with malware that hijacks Google. I have swept with Webroot and Avast! No luck. Help? I prefer not to get into the registry - I lack the skills. I will be out for awhile, so thanks to all in advance.

I had a fatal crash a couple of daya ago -- seems a virus corrupted my Windows XP, do had to do a reinstall. I lost a lot of data, but fortunately not everything. In any event, I have reinstalled XP, and want the absolute best virus/spam/spyware, etc. protection I can get. I think I have heard of free software that's available for this purpose as well. I'll appreciate your recommendations, as long as they don't include buying a Mac, which is just not an option for me. Thanks, as always. So is it Norton, McAfee, something else? I

Porn sites are among the top users of a browser bug that reveals all the places people go online, finds research. Carried out by computer science researchers at UC San Diego the study found 485 sites exploiting the bug. The flaw gives sites access to all the other sites that user has visited. Many use it to target ads or see if users are patronising rivals. The researchers said their work showed a need for better defences against history tracking. The bug exploits the way that many browsers handle links people have visited. Many change the colour of the text...

The remote-wipe capability that Google recently invoked to remove a harmless application from some Android phones isn't the only remote control feature that the company built into its mobile OS. It turns out that Android also includes a feature that enables Google to remotely install apps on users' phones as well. Jon Oberheide, the security researcher who developed the application that Google remotely removed from Android phones, noticed during his research that the Android OS includes a feature called INSTALL_ASSET that allows Google to remotely install applications on users' phones. "I don't know what design decision they based that on....

In case you have not heard or have not had this happen to you, a company named LoudMo is promoting a $2.00 pay per install program for its affiliates. This has led to an increase in stealth placement of an advertisment program that give you pop-ups that offer free downloads of FLV Player, Chameleon Tom,BabelFish, or Gateway Content Protection. The adware program is a drive by install that has largly been seen on Facebook and Bit Torrent, but will probably become more widespread. This program can infect all platforms and your anti-virus will not find or get rid of it...

All the big music sellers may have moved to non-DRM MP3 files long ago, but the watermarking of files with your personal information continues. Most users who buy music don’t know about the marking of files, or don’t care. Unless those files are uploaded to BitTorrent or other P2P networks, there isn’t much to worry about.A list of which music services are selling clean MP3 files without embedded personal information, and which aren’t, is here. Apple, LaLa (owned by Apple) and Walmart embed personal information. Amazon, Napster and the rest have resisted label pressure to do so.A music industry...

The IT world has been saying it for years, and now Microsoft itself is chiming in on the topic. Removing admin rights from users will eliminate 90% of the critical and remote execution flaws found in Windows 7, including most spyware threats. most Windows 7 flaws are found when normal users are operating as an admin or privileged user. By removing those extra permissions, and leaving just the administration account active, Windows 7 becomes an operating system nearly on par, security wise, with Mac OS X and Linux. It means that users in the work place will have to accept...

I received the kb971033 update last Month. I made sure it was unchecked, and did not allow it to install. Yesterday I received more updates, so this AM I looked at them. They were OK, but, I noticed that kb971033 had disappeared from the list of updates waiting to be installed. I did not "hide" kb971033, but, just to be sure, I "unhid" updates, and it was not there either. Then, paranoid that it self installed (as MS has been known to do), I checked Programs in the Control Panel, and it wasn't there either. I did a search...

This investigation into the remote spying allegedly being conducted against students at Lower Merion represents an attempt to find proof of spying and a look into the toolchain used to accomplish spying. Taking a look at the LMSD Staff List, Mike Perbix is listed as a Network Tech at LMSD. Mr. Perbix has a large online web forum footprint as well as a personal blog, and a lot of his posts, attributed to his role at Lower Merion, provide insight into the tools, methods, and capabilities deployed against students at LMSD. Of the three network techs employed at LMSD, Mr....

A suburban Philadelphia school district used school-issued laptop webcams to spy on students at home, potentially catching them and their families in compromising situations, a family claims in a federal lawsuit. Lower Merion School District officials can activate the webcams without students' knowledge or permission, the suit said. Plaintiffs Michael and Holly Robbins suspect the cameras captured students and family members as they undressed and in other embarrassing situations, according to the suit. * * * The Robbinses said they learned of the alleged webcam images when Lindy Matsko, an assistant principal at Harriton High School, told their son that...

Greetings. Sometimes a seemingly small software update can usher in a whole new world. When Microsoft shortly pushes out a Windows 7 update with the reportedly innocuous title "Update for Microsoft Windows (KB971033)" -- it will be taking your Windows 7 system where it has never been before. And it may not be a place where you want to go. Imagine that you're sitting quietly in your living-room at your PC, perhaps watching YouTube. Suddenly, a pair of big, burly guys barge into your house and demand that you let them check your computer to make sure that it's "genuine"...

US Government recommends weighing laptop before and after each visit. Senior executives in US IT companies have been advised by the US Government to follow extremely strict policies for visits to China which extend far beyond standard software protection. The policies encourage them to leave their standard IT equipment at home and to buy separate gear only for use in China. Mark Bregman, chief technology officer at security firm Symantec said he left his MacBook Pro behind in the US and took his MacBook Air whenever he flew to China. Bregman said he only ever used the Air in China...

Users wrote to us this morning that anti-virus, anti-spyware and anti-malware programs were reporting to them that our site contained malicious code. These security programs protected many of our readers' computers after our advertising server was hacked early this morning. Thanks to your help, we were able to detect and clear the problems from our servers shortly after 10 a.m. This incident reinforces the value of keeping your anti-virus programs and security patches up-to-date. Please e-mail us at journal@abqjournal.com. This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it or call our customer support at...

This appears to be something brand new, and it gets past AVG antivirus. I have antivirus and am pretty careful, and can't remember the last time I picked up anything that messed up my computer like this nasty thing. It takes over when you boot up, and won't let you go into task manager or anything. I got rid of it by going into safe mode (press f8 during boot) and looking at the properties of the shortcut on the desktop. It pointed to the executable file C:\Documents and Settings\All Users\Application Data\24180116\24180116.exe. I deleted this executable file and removed the...

If the new Location-Aware Browsing (a.k.a. Geolocation) feature in Firefox 3.5 makes you worried about your privacy, you can turn the feature off with a simple about:config tweak. A Quick Look at Location-Aware BrowsingFor those who are curious about this new feature, here is a quick look at what happens when you encounter a website that triggers the function in Firefox.  You can also visit a website that has been set up as a Geolocation demo (link at the bottom of the article). Note: The Location-Aware Browsing feature uses Google Location Services to determine your location with the following: your...

Real Networks, makers of the RealPlayer music and media management application, have launched a new version of their software. RealPlayer SP for Windows is available immediately as a beta download, with a Mac version expected by the year end.

Experts Say Chinese Filter Would Make PCs Vulnerable By ANDREW JACOBS BEIJING — Filtering software that the government has mandated for all new computers in China is so technically flawed that outsiders can easily infiltrate a user’s machine to monitor Internet activity, steal personal data or plant destructive viruses, experts who have studied the program say. “It contains serious vulnerabilities, which is especially worrisome given how widely the software will be adopted,” said J. Alex Halderman, a computer science professor at the University of Michigan who examined the program. “What we found was only the tip of the iceberg.” Known...

There comes a time when despite the allure of the market, Western industry should band together and turn its back on China. A time when the computer and Internet industry realizes that the censorship-and-repression tax the government is intent on levying is too high a price to pay.Is this, at long last, that moment? Well, it’s doubtful. But it should be.Starting July 1, computers sold in China must include government-provided spyware that blocks pornography and political dissent from Chinese citizens’ view, The New York Times reports, following up a Wall Street Journal report. Called “Green Dam” — green being a...

he FBI has used a secret form of spyware in a series of investigations designed to apprehend extortionists, database-deleting hackers, child molesters and hitmen, according to documents obtained by ZDNet Asia's sister site CNET News.com. One suspect used Microsoft's Hotmail to send bomb and anthrax threats to an undercover government investigator; another demanded a payment of US$10,000 a month to stop cutting cables; a third was an alleged European hitman who was soliciting for business from a Hushmail.com account. CNET News.com obtained the documents--totalling hundreds of pages, although nearly all of them were heavily redacted--this week through a Freedom of...

Federal agencies are facing emerging cybersecurity threats that are the result of increasingly sophisticated methods of attack and the blending of once distinct types of attack into more complex and damaging forms. Examples of these threats include spam (unsolicited commercial e-mail), phishing (fraudulent messages to obtain personal or sensitive data), and spyware(software that monitors user activity without user knowledge or consent). Click to read more ...

(beginning of article snipped) Obama's team may not be so lucky. It got off to a bad start by breaking loads of existing links, and by using WebTrends tracking code without making this clear to users. Also, while everybody loves YouTube, it may not be the best idea to serve WhiteHouse.gov videos from there. YouTube is owned by Google, which was one of Obama's contributors. (snip)

If there's a poster child for the dangers of spyware, it's Julie Amero. The 41-year-old former substitute teacher was convicted of four felony counts of endangering minors last year, stemming from an Oct. 19, 2004, classroom incident where students were exposed to inappropriate images. Prosecutors had argued that Amero put her students at risk by exposing them to pornography and failing to shield them from the pop-up images after they appeared on her classroom computer. Amero was an unlikely porn surfer. Four months pregnant at the time, she said she had only just learned to use e-mail. She says she...

<p>Thursday, November 20, 2008 The Pentagon has suffered from a cyber attack so alarming that it has taken the unprecedented step of banning the use of external hardware devices, such as flash drives and DVD's, FOX News has learned.</p> <p>The attack came in the form of a global virus or worm that is spreading rapidly throughout a number of military networks.</p>

Army Colonel Gets Spyware From N.Korea Amid lingering controversy over the arrest of a North Korean Mata Hari, a malicious North Korean e-mail has been sent to a colonel at a field army command. Military authorities have reportedly provided the entire army with updated anti-hacking software. A military intelligence source on Monday said the e-mail was sent early last month to the colonel via China. The source added that the e-mail was programmed to automatically steal stored files if the recipient opened it. But whether military secrets were actually stolen by way of this e-mail was not known. Military authorities...

Antivirus XP 2008 By: webmaster | Under: Unwanted Programs 26 Jun Updated: July 30, 2008 Antivirus XP 2008 is a bogus antivirus application for Windows that was promoted and downloaded automatically by redirecting users internet browser to its predefined website. Aliases: Adware.AntivirusXP2008 Risk Level: Medium File Size: Varies Affected System: Windows Common Symptoms: 1. Redirects web broswser and pop-up scan results. It will then prompt the user to buy the licensed software.

A software update for the Windows operating system has left hundreds and thousands of computer users unable to access the internet. The update, known as a "patch", conflicts with another piece of software, the Zone Alarms firewall, that many people use to protect their computers from hackers and viruses. The patch, codenamed MS08-037, was designed to fix a security loophole in the way Windows handles website addresses. It was discovered that there was a weakness with the operating system that could allow hackers to re-route legitimate web pages to malicious websites instead, and leave internet users open to fraud...

In my little house we have an HP desktop and an ARCHOS 605 wifi (amongh other things) and for the longest time they worked perfectly together. Then one day they were no longer on speaking terms. Though each by itself worked out-- and checked out-- AOK. So, after some very careful investigation -- and a $$ an hour computer guy -- the problem almost certainly is a virus, or what have you. So, can anyone recommand a good de-bugging program? We just have the plain-vanilla AOL virus protection (quit snickering) and so...well...any recommandations? Thanks

Is anyone else using Avast Free Virus Scan getting a Trojan alert on Super Anti Syyware.exe command? I'm getting it on the boot up scan and Avast has no way of marking it a false positive. Warning shows Win32: Trogan-Gen with no anme associated except the Spyware program.

Yahoo search to 'battle spyware' SearchScan is a free tool embedded into search Yahoo is introducing new technology to its search engine which will warn users if they are about to click on a website that hosts viruses, spyware and spam. SearchScan uses security firm McAfee's SiteAdvisor technology to warn users about "potentially risky sites". The service, which is switched on by default, produces an on-screen alert. "Our goal is to protect users by allowing them to make a more informed decision about the sites they visit," said Yahoo's Priyank Garg. Rival firm Google introduced similar technology in 2006....

How can I remove system integrity scan wizard from my system? Since yesterday, this keeps popping up. I have run my Professional AVG AV software as well as Adaware and this is the one thing that I am unable to get rid of. Is there a free online program that will remove this? Thanks!!

The sheer volume and complexity of computer viruses being released on the Internet today has the anti-virus industry on the defensive, experts say, underscoring the need for consumers to avoid relying on anti-virus software alone to keep their home computers safe and secure.

From iPods to navigation systems, some of today's hottest gadgets are landing on store shelves with some unwanted extras from the factory -- pre-installed viruses that steal passwords, open doors for hackers and make computers spew spam. ADVERTISEMENT Computer users have been warned for years about virus threats from downloading Internet porn and opening suspicious e-mail attachments. Now they run the risk of picking up a digital infection just by plugging a new gizmo into their PCs. Recent cases reviewed by The Associated Press include some of the most widely used tech devices: Apple iPods, digital picture frames sold by...

Hackers launch massive IFrame attack Gregg Keizer March 13, 2008 (Computerworld) Hackers using a new scam continue to subvert hundreds of thousands of Web pages with IFrame redirects that send unwary users to malware-spewing sites, researchers said today. The attacks, which began about a week ago, show no signs of slowing, said Dancho Danchev in a posting to his blog yesterday. "The group is continuing to expand the campaign," said the Bulgarian researcher. "These are the high-profile sites targeted by the same group within the past 48 hours, with the number of locally cached and IFrame-injected pages within their search...

My computer is infested with this crap and I can't get rid of it. None of the free services can solve the problem, and I might even pay for such a service, except that all of them seem to be just folks willingly to take advantage of you and charge you more money, and possibly infect you more. Has anyone here seen this? How should I and anyone else deal with this?

A small minority of users - as few as one in 20 - is running fully-patched Windows PCs. Just five per cent of newly-registered users of an online security inspection service Secunia came out with a clean bill of health, while more than 40 per cent have at least 11 insecure applications installed. The data is based on scans of 20,009 computers whose users recently installed Secunia's freely available software inspection tool. Secunia claims a total user base of more than 200,000 users for its free Secunia PSI tool. A survey of a different sample set of Secunia PSI recently...

If you've signed up to receive e-mails from Sears, and then clicked on to join the retailer's "My SHC Community," it's likely you've been providing more information to more people than you thought. Even more troubling, it turns out that you're not just sharing information with Sears, but also with a company called comScore, which tracks and aggregates Internet browsing habits. Installing the software from Sears results in the installation of software called VoiceFive, which provides data to comScore. It's essentially spyware. comScore is the company behind the (disputed) numbers that indicated more people were stealing Radiohead's latest album than...

Sears and Kmart are places you might go when you need a new air conditioner filter or a lawnmower; they're not generally thought of as havens for spyware. But that's what the two stores have become, at least online, where their websites were found to be installing software to track users' every online move—all without their knowledge. Security researchers are now hammering Sears (the owner of both Sears.com and Kmart.com) for the move, despite Sears' claims that users were notified adequately beforehand. The story goes like this: late last year, Sears.com and Kmart.com began asking users if they wanted to...

I am not sure what has happened but I always have my AVG Anti-Virus running and it used to be in the task bar. Yesterday, something strange happened. When I noticed it was not there, and after the kids were finished on the computer, I restarted it and got this message: C\WindowsSystem32\vtsqr.exe Windows cannot access the specified device, path or file. You may not have the appropriate permission to access the item. I got into my AVG program and ran it and some 44 Trojan Horse Dropper, generic THT items were found in many programs such as Acrobat Reader, in...

For the last couple of months my computer has periodically been freezing up when not in use. It locks everything, even the clock. I've not added any new programs. I even have uninstalled Symantic and went with Avast/Spybot/Windows firewall. When it happens I can't even use ctrl/alt/del. (It's a Windows XP OS.) I have to manually shut down the computer and reboot. Any suggestions? Thanx.

Over a year after first coming to light, the cache engines of major search engines are still providing a safe hiding place for malicious code, a security company has revealed. The latest warning comes from security company Aladdin, which logged an attack against a university Web site which was eventually traced back to just such a 'poisoned cache.' The originating site had been taken offline, but the code from it was still able to spread by living on in the caches of a major search engine. To make matters worse, cached malicious code could circumvent URL filtering systems because they...

Hackers have newer methods to hack into your systems. They are smart enough to detect security loop holes in your PC and enter through open ports,unencrypted Wi-Fi connections,malicious websites or internet servers. It is better you check your PC periodically for invasions and protect your system to prevent pilfering and damage of data. Detecting security loopholes. Eliminating malicious programs. Tracking hackers .

Okay, a question for you techies out there. I just renewed my Norton Anti-virus system and the renewal for my SpySweeper is coming up as well. Is it necessary to have SpySweeper also? If Norton Anti-Virus is sufficient then it doesn't make sense to renew SpySweeper. Some have said they might even be interfering with each other. So to renew or not to renew SpySweeper? That is the question.