Investigators have found that it is likely that the fatal crash of Spanair Flight 5022 in 2008 was caused by a malware infection. It was determined that central computer system that monitors the aircraft systems for malfunctions was infected by a Trojan Horse. This infection evidently interfered with the ability of the computer system to flag an unsafe takeoff configuration, and the aircraft crashed seconds after becoming airborn.

The exact source of the infection has not been determined, but the investigation continues, and hopefully it will be pinpointed.   Investigators believe that the infection may have entered through a USB port or a VPN connection.

Aircraft rely more and more on computers and these critical systems need to be hardened against infection, and procedures need to be established and followed to insure that malware never has a chance to infect any such system.

Source: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/38790670/ns/technology_and_science-security

There is really nothing new about this so called “Google Hack”.   Hacks like this have around for quite some time.  The problem is that the hackers are getting better all the time and way too many web users don’t properly secure their PC’s.  Google is singled out because it has such a large user base, but most any search engine can lead you to an infected web site. 

One common risky practice is using the search engine to get to commonly used web sites instead of typing the URL in that address bar of their browser. 

Also, unfortunately, some popular web sites become infected with malicious code that infects unsuspecting visitors.   How does one stay safe? 

Update all security related software and software with commonly exploited security vulnerabilities.   These include: 1) your firewall/ anti-virus/ anti-malware software 2) your browser 3) JAVA 4) Adobe Flash  5) Quicktime  6) Adobe Reader 7) Microsoft Office your operating system

We suggest using the Secunia PSI tool to scan your computer for these security velnerabilities and more.

This video interview spells it out pretty well.

Yes, it’s true.  With a few relatively simple programming tricks, a web site can effectively discern your browsing history.  Any web site, if they so desire, can figure out quite a lot of information about where you have been on the Internet as well as what you have searched for on well known search engines.

How:  Most people who surf the net have their browsers set to remember several weeks of browsing history, and they could visit a lot of web sites over that period of time. 

Well, unbeknownst to you, you may be letting on a lot more than you realize.

Cookies can also be used to spy on your browsing habits, but this techmique has nothing to do with cookies.  Therefore even if you diligently delete cookies, you may falsely believe your browsing habits will not be passed on to some other site you visit. 

How is this done?  All it takes is a simple bit of CSS and/or JavaScript code, and a database of links to test.  They can test up to a million links per minute.  That is right, I said a million links per minute.  And you won’t have a clue it is going on.

Now, what do you suppose a web site would want to test for?   Huh?  Just use a little imagination and you will answer that question for yourself.

The results can be added to another database that includes your I.P. address and whatever other identifying info can be gleaned from cookies and standard data that all browsers give out.  This standard data includes the brand of browser you are using, screen resolution and enough other information to uniquely identify your computer with a high degree of accuracy.  And that is not all.  Other techniques can test for content in your browsers cache.

 How to combat this?  Some suggestions:

• The most reliable way is to set your browser to not keep a browsing history (or to keep a very minimal history, say a day or two), and delete the history you already have.  
• Set your browser so that new and visited links have the exact same color.
• Keep your cache relatively small and delete it regularly, if not for every session. 
• Surf with a variety of browsers.

For more info, and to test your browser, you may visit the following links:

 http://www.whattheinternetknowsaboutyou.com

 http://startpanic.com/

Remember: Practice Safe Computing!

FaceBook is very popular and there are about 400 million FaceBook users around the world.  Experts believe millions of users will fall for this attack and get infected.  Yes, that’s right – millions of FaceBook users will be infected by this targeted attack.

Unfortunately, 400 million users makes for a big opportunity for delivering malicious software.  Hence, Inboxes all over the world are being flooded with SPAM that is trying to induce FaceBook users to click on an attachment.  This attachment installs Trojans and other malware that is very dangerous to the computer user.   And unless their security software catches it, they will have no idea it is on their computer.

Our advice:

• Never clink on any link or open any attachment in any email that warns of dire consequences – be it about FaceBook or your bank, or anything else.
• Keep your anti-virus software up-to-date.
• Periodical scan your computer with a tool specially made for finding and eliminating malware.  One of the best is MalwareBytes Anti-Malware freeware version, which can be downloaded from http://www.malwarebytes.org/

If you have a google account, you may now log onto the “Google Dashboard” and view all the settings and history for the various google products that you might use.   This would include Gmail, Calendar, Docs, Web History, Orkut, YouTube, Picasa, Talk, Reader, Alerts, and Latitude.

This may well be an eye opening exp0erience. The following video gives you a clue.

Our advice: If you use google anything, do so with a clear understanding of all the data that google saves and knows about you. Our solution: Avoid using google products. Or if you must use google, log into the dashboard and delete everything.

Our favorite search engine, Ixquick, is now also known as Startpage.   Actually, Startpage and Ixquick are really one and the same.  Startpage is simply an easier name to remember.  Why is it our favorite search engine?  Privacy, Accuracy, Speed.  This is the only search engine awarded the European Privacy Seal.  It does not record your searches, and it does not even record your IP address. Give it a try.

http:startpage.com

or

http://ixquick.com

From a security standpoint, it makes a lot of sense to move to Windows 7 ASAP.  Windows 7 will have a small fraction of the security vulnerabilities and requisite update fixes as did Windows XP.  Why? Windows 7 was built from the ground up with security in mind, which was only an afterthought with Windows XP.  No doubt, there will be vulnerabilities to fix.  But in the long run, it should prove to be a very good move for the average user.  We have been running Windows 7 on a test machine since the Beta was first available, and are quite pleased with its performance and functionality.  Not totally pleased, mind you, but pleased enough to be recommending it to all our customers and readers.  Let us know what you think.

We recently ran a test of Anonymizer Anonymous Surfing™

Here is our mini-review:

We found the speed of page loading to be severely deficient. It could take several minutes to load a web pagemaking accessing a web site painfully slow  It is like turning your broadband connection back 20 years to a 1200 baud modem.   

We contacted Anonymizer support to complain about the problem and they were no help at all.  They just admitted that they need much more server capacity and said that they are working on that.  Hey, even if they doubled their server capacity, it still would be useless.  Even ten times the server capacity would only make the program marginally usable.   Too bad, because this should be a usable tool to protect one’s privacy online.  As it is we cannot recommend it and we give it two thumbs down.  Don’t waste your money.

A little off topic, but food for thought, nonetheless.

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Use this handy search box to

search “Google” securely via “Scroogle”

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