The problem of online identity theft is growing, with any computer system open to being targeted and breached by a hacker who knows how to get around a sub-par internet security system. Every day, thousands of people transfer personal information online, making them a target for that hacker.

With so much communication and data transfer taking place online without any thought to extra internet security, identity theft is becoming a very common problem. Victims of identity theft are suffering not only monetary losses, but loss of privacy, as well. Once a hacker has breached your internet security system, the hacker is then free to download malicious applications on your computer’s hard drive, which can be used to provide the hacker with information ranging from your email and bank account passwords to your name, address, and social security number. Recent studies have shown that 70% of malicious software being created and installed by hackers is designed to aid the hacker in identity theft.

One of the leading causes of online identity theft is phishing, a form of identity theft that tricks e-mail recipients into visiting fake Web sites and entering personal data. Identity theft also occurs through spyware and Trojans, usually installed by a hacker or downloaded by an unsuspecting victim. Some of these programs are designed to capture user names and passwords so a hacker can gain access to the victim’s financial or communication information, creating a further internet security problem.

Even with the constant threats to internet security, there are many ways to protect your computer from a hacker and yourself from identity theft.
1.Utilize all aspects of your internet security system to ensure you have a maximum level of protection.
2.Install all software updates, both for Windows and for your anti-virus and security software.
3.Don’t leave yourself open to a hacker by following unfamiliar links to strange websites.
4.Use a safe browser, such as Mozilla Firefox, that is not as big a hacker target as Internet Explorer.
5.Educate yourself about current internet security breaches and the most common methods of identity theft to avoid being tricked by a hacker.
6.Avoid opening suspicious or unfamiliar email attachments, which may have been sent by a hacker to infect your computer.

By following these simple steps, you can work to protect yourself from suffering a hacker attack or being plagued by the many repercussions of identity theft.

In the world of internet security, new versions and variants of malware appear on a daily basis, although relatively few pieces of new malware actually get notable time in the spotlight. Despite all the discussion of worms and backdoors, much of the time, new works of malware these days are designed simply to facilitate browser redirection or the serving of ads to users. Prior to this, false or “rogue” anti-virus programs saw a moment of popularity. If they happened to make their way onto a machine, these rogue anti-virus programs would claim the machine to be infected and offer to kindly cure the non-existent infection for a modest fee. In the end, these programs focused on making a minor nuisance of themselves in the name of ultimately exploiting the user to generate or increase revenue, or direct web traffic to a particular site.

Every now and then, however, something truly worthy of pause surfaces. The big news in the realm of internet security over the past couple of years has been the appearance of “ransomware” software such as Cryptolocker, Cryptowall, and various lesser known variants. Like many other types of malware, ransomware also aims to generate revenue, but its approach takes a critical diversion from nuisance, opting instead to restrict access to the computer in some way and holding the machine hostage under the demands of a ransom. Until recently, the most successful ransomware usually involved hijacking the desktop, generally under the guise of a law enforcement agency such as the FBI, with the machine left in a state where the user is presented with a demand. In these cases, the machine and its contents are left intact, although the user is unable to use the machine until the infection is removed or the ransom paid.

Removal of these particular forms of ransomware were occasionally time consuming, but once fully removed, the machine was left in the same state it was prior to being infected, negating the need to pay the ransom.

Enter Cryptolocker and Cryptowall

Both Cryptolocker and Cryptowall take what seems to many to be the next obvious step, leaving the machine largely accessible to the user but encrypting their documents. Cryptolocker and Cryptowall are most often distributed via email. Upon installing itself onto the machine, Cryptolocker or Cryptowall begin searching through the enumerated drives looking for various documents to encrypt. Meanwhile, it also calls a randomly selected server on the Internet to register itself and acquire an encryption key, which it uses to encrypt the documents it finds on the machine. While Cryptolocker/Cryptowall does not take the time to look for other machines that may happen to be on the local network and thus generally won’t discover and encrypt files on network shares, it does parse files on logical drive letters. The implication of this is that any network shares a user has mapped and assigned a drive letter to is at very real risk. During this process, the user can expect to see a significant decrease in performance coupled with continuous drive activity.

Only once Cryptolocker/Cryptowall has completed its encryption task does it make itself overtly known, displaying a message describing how to pay the ransom to decrypt the now encrypted and unusable documents. Along with this demand comes a deadline, usually somewhere between 48 and 69 hours in the case of Cryptlocker. For Cryptowall, the deadline can be a longer period, followed by a doubling of the ransom amount.

Another difference between Cryptolocker and recent versions of Cryptowall is that the latter program will encrypt the file names of your files in addition to the contents, so that they will appear as 27p9k967z.x1nep or 9242on6c.6la9 or the like.

During this time, if the user chooses to pay the ransom, Cryptolocker/Cryptowall then downloads the private key necessary to decrypt the encrypted files and slowly goes through the list of files it encrypted to restore them to their pre-encryption state.

If the user opts to not pay the ransom, the deadline issued by Cryptolocker is still of particular interest in this situation as Cryptolocker takes the effort to completely uninstall itself upon expiration of that deadline. On the surface, this may sound like an unusual effort as it means the user need only sit and wait several days, at which time their machine will clean itself. Unfortunately, this is part of Cryptolocker’s last revenge upon the user for not paying the ransom. While Cryptolocker does indeed uninstall itself, it does not take the time to decrypt the user’s encrypted documents on its way out the door. Because of the nature of the encryption used by Cryptolocker, brute force decryption of the user’s documents is not particularly feasible as it is very likely the process would take longer than the user’s lifespan. Attempting to reinstall Cryptolocker is also not a feasible option for the user as Cryptolocker generates a new set of encryption keys at that time, invalidating the previous set.

When it comes to ransomware, Cryptolocker/Cryptowall is fairly unique in this respect as it means once a machine is infected, cleaning the infection can be disastrous to the user as it eliminates the possibility of paying the ransom for the key necessary to decrypt the documents. Once Cryptolocker/Cryptowall has been removed from the machine, the only realistic means of recovering data from the encrypted documents is to restore them from a backup. Unfortunately, recent studies have shown that roughly half of all regular computer users not only don’t routinely back up their data but have, in fact, never created a backup of their data. Those users who do back up their data often do not do so frequently and consistently. To complicate matters even further, a quick and dirty means many people use to create a backup involves simply copying documents to an auxiliary drive. While this is certainly a valid means of backing up data and is far superior to not having a backup, it is important to remember that Cryptolocker/Cryptowall won’t hesitate to encrypt those copies as well if the drive containing them is attached to the infected computer at the time.

Although removal of Cryptolocker/Cryptowall is included with a StopSign subscription, concern the user may not have a backup of their documents has prompted the StopSign Research and Development Team to decide to not incorporate an automated removal of Cryptolocker/Cryptowall into the scanner. While we wholeheartedly feel a user should never have to pay a ransom to regain access to their machine or documents, the decision in this case must ultimately fall upon the user whose data is at risk. This was a hard decision, one rarely taken here, but it is a decision we believe most anti-virus and security companies have also settled upon.

It cannot be stressed enough that removing Cryptolocker/Cryptowall effectively eliminates all data recovery options for the user other than restoring data from a backup and should never be done without the user’s consent.

How to Protect Yourself

When it comes to malware, prevention is critical. Users should always be mindful of suspicious or unexpected emails and instant messages. The StopSign Security Suite provides a powerful on-access scanner component designed to monitor the system in real time. Keeping the operating system and associated software properly updated can also be crucial in maintaining a malware-free environment.

Painless Removal

If you should find yourself facing a Cryptolocker or Cryptowall infection, we would be happy to provide personalized assistance to remove it from your machine. Our technicians are available at 1-800-786-7744 to discuss the matter with you and assist in removal.

If you’re looking for great anti-virus software that won’t break the bank, try StopSign. You don’t pay extra for tech support for difficult malware, and our web protection software just works. Download & install StopSign to find out why our members choose us over the other options.

More information:

http://www.bleepingcomputer.com/news/security/cryptowall-4-0-released-with-new-features-such-as-encrypted-file-names/

“Phishing” is a form of Internet fraud. It aims to obtain a users personal information such as credit cards, social security numbers, user IDs and passwords. Such information can be used for identity theft.

How does it happen?
Phishing can be carried out in person, over the phone, through spam e-mail or popup windows. The most common form of Internet phishing is from sending fake emails (Email Spoofing) which can appear to be from a legitimate source and requesting information (such as a bank account number and password), or it could direct the victim to a fake website that will request similar personal information, which could be easily captured by the “phisher.”

What should I do?
To avoid getting caught, never respond to suspicious looking emails that request personal information. Never submit personal information to websites that are not secure. When you are at a legitimate secure site, such as a banking site, when you go to log into your account you will sometimes be alerted that you are entering a secure site, and while on a secure site you will see a lock icon in the address bar.

If you think you may have been phished, you will want to change your passwords and alert any company with whom you have a financial account. Watch your statements for any charges that you did not make and report anything you find.

It is VERY easy to get caught by a phisher if you are not careful. Please use caution whenever you are using your personal information. Never give out your personal information when you do not know for sure who you are giving it to. Double check and verify any requests for information. Call the company that is requesting it, and make sure you have the official number from the official site, and don’t call numbers provided in an email as these could be fraudulent as well.

Example
One of my friends was sent an email that was supposedly from Ebay or PayPal saying that they lost their account and needed information from them to help find it. It asked for their email addresses and passwords, bank account numbers, user ID’s and Passwords for Ebay and PayPal, their Social Security Number, as well as a few other things. Unfortunately they did not think to check with PayPal or Ebay to see if they were legitimate emails and they responded providing a lot of personal data.

When they told me of this, I had them contact the companies that they had supposedly received these emails from and they found that the emails were not legitimate but were indeed phishing scams. They quickly notified the companies and forwarded the emails to them and changed their account passwords. So far, they seem to be fine, but getting caught by phishing scams can lead to fraudulent use of accounts, credit cards, bank withdraws, or even stolen identity.

More articles about Phishing:
http://www.microsoft.com/security/online-privacy/phishing-symptoms.aspx
http://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/0003-phishing
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phishing

By now, most of us have heard of the new zero-day exploit for Internet Explorer that was revealed last week. Beyond the realm of the media, which likes to immediately declare security issues a harbinger of doom and are quick to assign blame to everyone from the software developer to secret government agencies, these type of exploits, as well as bugs and security holes, are generally not a huge cause for concern for the end-user so long as the affected software is patched and the affected machines are promptly updated.

While opinions on browsers tend to lead to heated discussions, an objective review will undeniably reveal that various exploits and other security concerns have been discovered and made public for essentially every browser available. It is virtually impossible to design a foolproof system, and even Firefox, frequently lauded by many as superior to Internet Explorer, tends to frequently fall flat on its face.

What makes the recent Internet Explorer zero day exploit of notable concern in the Internet security industry is the fact that it affects versions of Internet Explorer as far back as version 6, first released in 2001.

The Nature of the Beast

The nature of this particularly Internet Explorer zero day exploit potentially allows for a web site to execute data-thieving code, or silently upload a malicious payload to a client or end-user machine. These aptly named drive-by downloads are already a fairly popular meathod of delivering code to a target machine, and this exploit could allow for an easier and more reliable means of accomplishing the drive-by download. The malicious payload of these drive-by downloads could contain a variety of code ranging from adware and rogue / fake security applications to remote access packages allowing a hacker to take control of or download private data from the affected machine.

For those hackers with no other dreams and aspirations in life, the exploit can also be used as a means of executing a denial-of-service attack. All things considered, a denial-of-service attack seems unlikely in all but cases of the most blunt attacks and would likely simply be seen by the end-user as a buggy web site.

The Measure of the Program

Within the Internet security industry, one of the primary measures of a good software package is how quickly and appropriately the software developer responds to exploits, bugs, and other security concerns. In this respect, Microsoft tends to do fairly well these days (although this has not always been the case) and generally addresses security flaws significantly faster than we’ve seen and expect from other developers such as Apple, an organization that has gained an unfortunate reputation for burying or simply denying security flaws.

There has been some speculation that this exploit comes fast on the heels of the recent Windows XP End of Service and may be an indication of a coming storm front, the first of an anticipated onslaught of exploits and security flaws in the new and exciting realm of a vulnerable operating system. I have even myself been cited in the argument by way of my award winning post: See You, Windows XP.

Whatever your stance on the matter, Microsoft has opted to ensure versions of Internet Explorer available to Windows XP are properly patched against this exploit. We view this as a responsible decision on the part of Microsoft, and I personally view it as an exceedingly generous act given the support state of Windows XP.

Taking Action

So you’re using Internet Explorer and are unsure of what to do at this point? Your first task should be to download and install your updates if your machine has not already done so as part of its regularly scheduled maintenance (you DO regularly install updates on your machines, right?). Your best course of action here is to use the Windows Update tool, which will automatically identify the various updates available to Microsoft software including Internet Explorer.

For those not using Internet Explorer, you are certainly not out of the woods by a long shot. This week, we saw an exploit for Internet Explorer. Your browser of choice may see an exploit next week. If you use Flash or Java, these are also popular avenues for hackers. As a point of contention, in its 2014 Annual Security Report, Cisco cited Java as representing 91% of all Indicators of Compromise (IOC).