Monday, 21 May 2012

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A Malware Threat Most People Are Unaware Of
Better Ways to Search Google
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A Malware Threat Most People Are Unaware Of

Home > Computers > Guest Posts > Security

There is one malware threat that most people are not aware of and sadly, they get trapped by this threat. As we know, the presence of the Internet and personal computer several decades ago enable some irresponsible people to spread malicious programs. And day after day, people are more aware of those threats. Computer security experts also have been teaching people how to prevent their computer from being infected.

You probably have known these practices: we shouldn’t open email spam and its attachment, only download software and game from trusted websites. You probably even know the most dangerous country domain name and the most dangerous search terms and that you should avoid them. But, sadly most people are still not aware with this malware threat.

computer malware

So, what is the malware threat? It’s a malware that disguises as a video or audio codec. Suppose some people downloaded a video or audio from a website. Or they visited a video streaming website and they wanted to play a video player. But, they got a message that said they didn’t have the required codec or media player and that they needed to download and install them.

Malware examples and how they spread

Some computer and Internet security vendors released their reports, stated that this threat is a trend today. The rapid improvement of Internet that enables people to share multimedia files can be one of the culprits. People today can easily watch video streaming and enjoy TV programs from their computer and mobile devices.

According to GData statistics, from top ten malware threats in April 2012, the first and third places were belonged to malware that disguised as codecs. Both are Trojan.Wimad.Gen.1 and Trojan.Sirefef.BV. Trojan Wimad.Gen 1 pretends to be .wma audio file and it traps you to install a codec. Once you did it, the attacker can install any kinds of malicious codes to your computers.

While Trojan.Sirefef.BV pretends to be a legitimate file AFS2K.sys (Audio File System, Oak Technology Inc.). It infects browsers on the infected computers and manipulates search engine results whenever the users use the browsers to search something. The main purpose to lead users to click the infected search result and generates money for the attacker (by PPC ads).

From where are those codecs distributed? According to PCWorld.com, from 17 dangerous places on the Internet, the fifth and sixth positions belong to adult video streaming websites and peer-to-peer video streaming websites. The report said that the threat on adult video streaming sites is moderately dangerous. While the attack on peer-to-peer video streaming websites is very dangerous.

How to protect our computers:

There are several simple ways to protect our computers from this threat. Actually, these solutions have the same principles that you use for other threats.

1. Install legitimate codec packs on your computer

There are many legitimate codec packs on the Internet available for you. You can download and install programs like K-Lite Codec Pack or Windows Essential Codec Pack. Instead of downloading unknown codecs from unknown website, try to download and install one of these codec packages. If you already have one of those codec packages and you’re still asked to install a codec or media player, do a simple research on the Internet before you follow the request.

2. Avoid visiting dangerous websites

This is the basic and simple way: don’t visit either adult video streaming websites or peer-to-peer video streaming websites. And it’s better to visit legitimate websites such as Hulu.com or TV.com instead of those websites. If you can’t do that, visit them with a secondary computer. So, in other words you probably should have an additional computer that is meant for this purpose.

3. Power your computer with maximum protection

Install security add-ons on Firefox and Chrome. You can try to install WOT, AVG link scanner or McAfee Site Advisor. And of course, you should have an antivirus program that is being updated regularly.

If you download any file from torrent sites or video streaming sites, scan the file with your antivirus. And wait for several days. On the first scan, the file could look clean. But, some new malware are tricky and hard to be detected. Waiting for several days will allow your antivirus to get the signatures if the file is a malware.

I believe these steps are easy to apply. Have you ever experienced the threat above? Please share in the comments below.

This article is written by guest author Timothy Ario, a blogger and the owner of Freeware Catalogue. Visit the blog and get the latest giveaways, helpful tutorials and free software. Picture: ©Chohdra - morguefile.com

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Original Article: A Malware Threat Most People Are Unaware Of

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Better Ways to Search Google

Home > Google > Guest Posts > Tutorials

Want to Search Google in a better way like a pro? So much information is on the web, its mind-boggling. Thankfully we have search engines to sift through them and categorize them for us. Unfortunately, there is still so much info that even with these search engines, it’s often a slow process to find exactly what you’re looking for.

Google Search Tips

Lets get right into it. I use google.com as my primary search engine because it presently tops the charts as far as the sites that it indexes, which means more pertinent info per search.

1. Page translation. Just because someone speaks another language doesn’t mean they don’t have anything useful to say. I use translation tools like the ones found at babelfish.altavista.com and translate.google.com to translate a few key words I am searching for. Be specific and creative because these tools aren’t the most accurate things on the planet.

2. Directories.
These days everything is about $$$. We have to deal/w SEO (search engine optimization) which seems like a good idea on paper until you do a search for toys and get 5 adult sites in the first 10 results. Using a sites directory will eliminate that. You can narrow your search down easily by looking for the info in specific categories.

3. Advanced – Here are some tips that google refers to as “advanced”

“xxxx” / will look for the exact phrase. (google isnt case sensitive)
-x / will search for something excluding a certain term
filetype:xxxx / searches for particular file extension (exe, mp3, etc)
-filetype:xxxx / excludes a particular file extension
allinurl:x / term in the url
allintext:x / terms in the text of the page
allintitle:x / terms in the html title of that page
allinanchor:x / terms in the links

4. OR
Self explanatory, one or the other… (ie: binder OR joiner)

5. ~X
Synonyms/similar terms (in case you can’t think of any yourself)

6. Numbers in a range.
Lets say you’re looking for an mp3 player but only want to spend up to $90. Why swim through all the others? MP3 player $0..$90 The 2 periods will set a numeric range to search between. This also works with dates, weights, etc

7. +
Ever type in a search and see something like this:
“The following words are very common and were not included in your search:”
Well, what if those common words are important in your search? You can force google to search through even the common terms by putting a + in front of the denied word.

8. Preferences
It amazes me when I use other people’s PCs that they don’t have their google search preferences saved. When you use google as much as I do, who can afford to not have preferences? They’re located on the right of the search box, and have several options, though I only find 2 applicable for myself…

Open results in new browser
Display 10-100 results per page. (I currently use 50 per page, but that’s a resolution preference, and 5X’s the default)

9. *
Wildcard searches. Great when applied to a previously mentioned method. If you only know the name of a prog, or are looking for ALL of a particular file (ie. you’re DLing tunes) something like *.mp3 would list every mp3.

10. Ever see this?
“In order to show you the most relevant results, we have omitted some entries very similar to the X already displayed. If you like, you can repeat the search with the omitted results included.” The answer is YES. yes yes yes. Did I mention yes? I meant to.

11. Search EVERYWHERE
Use the engine to its fullest. If you don’t find your answer in the web section, try the group section. Try a whole different search engine. Dont limit yourself, because sometimes engines seem to intentionally leave results out. ex. use Google, yahoo, and altavista. search the same terms… pretty close, right? Not exactly.

Power Search Tips

If you’ve read this far into this tutorial without saying, “Great, a guy that copied a few google help pages and thinks its useful info then I will show you WHY (besides accuracy, speed, and consistency finding info on ANYTHING) its nice to know how a search engine works. You combine it/w your knowledge of other protocol.

Example: Want free music? Free games? Free software? Free movies? God bless FTP! Try this search:
intitle:"Index of music" "rolling stones" mp3

Substitute rolling stones/w your favorite band. No? Try the song name, or another file format. Play with it. Assuming SOMEONE made an FTP and uploaded it, you’ll find it.

For example….I wanted to find some Sepultura. If you never heard them before, they’re a popular Brazilian heavy metal band. I started with this:
intitle:"Index of music" "Sepultura" mp3 <– nothing
intitle:"Index of música" "Sepultura" mp3 <– nothing
intitle:"Index of musica" "Sepultura" mp3 <– not good enough
intitle:"Index of music" "Sepultura" * <– found great stuff, but not
enough Sepultura

At this point it occurs to me that I may be missing something, so I try (Also try inurl:ftp):
intitle:"index of *" "sepultura" mp3 <– BANG! (and that’s without searching for spelling errors)

I find that * works better for me than trying to guess other people’s misspellings. The same method applies for e books, games, movies, SW, anything that may be on an FTP site.

This article is written by Guest author Shlok Inani. He is a tech-savvy person and loves to experiment on computers. He runs his own blog at gocompu.wordpress.com. Please give a visit there.

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Original Article: Better Ways to Search Google